Legacy and Final Conclusion

. Hello there Welcome to Murder M British. I'm Zach Hi, welcome. I'm Rachel Yeah Let's go after the Craziness with Modley last week It was a good case. Yeah, I really enjoyed that one. too tell his story and Yeah, just to, you know, there's not many people criminals that have been locked up in a glass box for so many years on and off, you know, but most of Pison life he's been in a glass box so If you listened to that case prior Yeah, tellell us what you think Well now we're off to Ireland to Oh man, this one this one was weird Like You know, you're just thinking, o man, these people are successful. everything's going great and everything, but then It just all goes downhill snowballs and it're like whoa. Well, we will get into the case in very soon and tell you all about this one Well, before we begin, a brief message from the archive Well on the first of March, the doors open That's right. We are launching our Patreon placeace for those who want to step further into the darkness. Early access, ad free episodes and bonus stories we won't share on the main path. . come in available If you feel the pull, mark the date March thirty first. If you enjoy the stories that we tell here, please follow the show, leave us a five star rating It genuinely helps others discover what we do. You'll find all our Socials discord and more in the link tree in the description below And your support really keeps the archive open and ensures no story is ever forgotten This episode includes discussion of murder, solicitation to kill, and domestic conflict. Some listeners may find this material distressing Listener disiscretion is strongly advised So now let's get into this story. After midnight, the Wicklow Road empties The last customers drift home, engines fading into the dark while chairs are stacked and glasses cleared from tables Inside Jack White's In, the day reduces to numbers on a page. Tills are counted, totals are written carefully into ledgers Doors are checked and bolted It is familiar work repetitive and reliable A kind of routine that ends the same way every night Upstairs, a bedroom clicks off Downstairs, one fluorescent strip hums above the bar as the final cash is secured Outside The fields sit black and still beside the main road Traffic has thinned to almost nothing Building appears calm contontrolled and settled. By morning That control will be gone And the inn will become the center of one of Ireland's most disputed murder cases Katherine Nevin was born Catherine Scully on the first of october nineteen fifty. and raised near and Nernie County Kilder As a young woman, she moved to Dublin and found employment as a receptionist at the Castle Hotel on Great Denmark Street The role placed her at the front desk of a busy city establishment Dealing with guests and managing bookings It was at this time around nineteen seventy that she met Tom Nevin. Begin a relationship that would center on a licensed trade Tom Niven was born in nineteen forty one in County Galway He had been married once before and had a child from that relationship prior to meeting Catherine After moving to Dublin, he worked in the pub trade and developed experience in bar management and accounts In nineteen seventy six, he and Catherine married in Rome Over the following decade, they operated licensed premises in Dublin and invested in property, including rental flats in the South circular Road area Those dublin flats formed a steady secondary income Some personally manage the properties, collecting rent and overseeing maintenance He traveled to them regularly often combining rent collection with business errands in the city. The discipline of managing both pub takings and rental income reinforced a working routine built on cash handling ledger entries and regular bank deposits His work in life was structured, repetitive and closely tied to financial order By the mid nineteen eighties, the couple were running the Berry House pub in Finglas a busy suburban premises with steady custom During this period, both moved in circles that included local Sin Fin activists and some of the pub's clientele were reported to have Republican associations pub trade. required extended hours and close management of cash flow then in nineteen eighty six, the Nevins purchased Jack White's Inn in Belina Park British bay for approximately two hundred seventy thousand pounds I've quite a lot of money back. That is Yeah, Geez. quQuite a little money. Yeah, they man they were doing really well to have, you know, obviously they possibly got a bank loan or whatever, but And obviously they would have probably made a lot of profits from the in Yeah, from the pub they were having before and then the parential properties and all that. But yeah, that's wow, we Well Jack White's Inn stood along the N eleven between Dublin and Arklow positioned on the main road linkking in Dublin and Rossler It was not a village pub but a roadside premises reliant on passing trade rather than a settled local community The name predated the Nevin's own shhip and is tied to Wicklow Law about an eighteenth century smuggler known as Jack White. Local accounts place him along the British Bay coastline using a cove called Jack's hole a land contraband trade in Irish wool for French goods Tradition holds that he was arrested after a dispute with a landlord and executed around seventeen thirty one A reputed copy of his arrest warrant was displayed inside the inn, linking the building to that enduring coastal legend That's some history right there. There' some interest interesting stuff there. Yeah, named after a smuggler Well after purchasing Jack White's Inn, the Nevins expanded the business A restaurant was developed alongside the bar and the upper floor was adapted to provide bed and breakfast accommodation The property became both a workplace and residence Catherine managed the restaurant and guest rooms, while Tom oversaw the bar and accounts. Business relied heavily on traffic flow. Holidaymakers heading to British Bay commercial drivers and weekend travelers moving between Dublin and Wexford Well the inn operated across two primary levels, so downstairs housed the public bar, lounge areas, kitchen and service rooms. and upstairs contained the guest bedrooms as well as the Nevin's private living quarters. Deliveries arrived at the rear entrance and staff moved between public and private spaces throughout the day The blending of domestic and commercial life meant that work rarely felt separate from home. ularly during busy weekends when overnight staff were common Yeah, I don't think I could do that likeike live in the place that I work. I think it's a full time, you know, owning a bar or something like this where it's bed and breakfast, bed and boardd you know, it's a twenty four seven really, you know, between the couple. It's going to be a twenty four seven job I am So yeah, I don't think I could do too. When I leave When I would leave work, I wanted to leave work and come home and to be separate, you know, you're not having that stress Be like when you're just still there But just thinking about all the stuff that you need to do and everything When you get home, you can just kind of compartment and shut it off. Yeah Well, by the early nineteen nineties, Jack White's inn had established you know, a rhythm. Mornings began with deliveries and preparation for lunch service. Afternoons drew passing motorists evenings filled with regulars and travelers Bank holiday weekends were especially lucrative offtten generating substantial cash takings Staff sometimes remained overnight after late shifts using spare rooms upstairs. The pattern of operation, Sve, close Lodge. Repeated week after week Tom handled the financial side personally After closing each night, he reconciled the tills printed final readings and entered totals into handwritten ledgers who prepared cash for the bank deposits, sometimes carrying substantial sums to the deposit after busy weekends. It also maintained oversight of the Dublin flats, collecting rent and keeping records separately Those who worked with him described him as disciplined with figures. tentive to routine and precise in his record keeping. Yeah, I remember when my aunt used to own a bar. you know, the little black bag full of money, you know, like here's the deposits. Yeah, you know, But yeah, after after a bank holiday, wh, when everybody's out partartying and having a great time That's a lot. There's probably be a lot. Do you get to ye,'ve obviously I've worked many bars and You know, you can take thousands and thousands of a weekend. so You I It' cz Hm Well, Catherine, she oversaw the staff rotas, suppliers, and the day to day presentation of the business Employees later described her as organized and assertive attttention to standards and conscious of image She cultivated relationships with customers she viewed as influential. professionals Gardi and other local figures, sometimes offering complimentary meals or drinks to selected guests And for anybody that doesn't know the The police in Ireland calledall the guardy Garda for one police officer justust so everybody knows that. Several former staff members described Catherine's management style as demanding and she was quick to criticize in public But within the same walls, their marriage unfolded. Staff later described the couple as sleeping in separate bedrooms for much of their marriage though Katherine would later dispute that characterization Arguments about finances and control of the business were said to surface periodically By the mid nineteen nineties, separation had been discussed. And there were conversations about buying out one partner's share of the pub Work and marriage remained intertwined Even as tensions became more visible That's too bad Well, I kind have a separate room from you sometimes just becausecause you're snoring. Yeah you know? I't blame you. It's hard to be You I Work with your partner. I'm like a chainsaw man. Live with your partner, Sleep with your partner. I'm sawing logs every day, baby. You are so, so snory Well, security and cash handling were central to the Nevins' routine The building was fitted with an alarm system and panic buttons, including controls beside the main entrance and upstairs near the bedrooms The doors were checked at closing time and shutters secured After busy weekends, significant sums would remain on the premises overnight before it could be deposited. Staff described the couple as careful about locking up and maintaining order at the end of each trading day someone coming out and robing you Even after midnight, the inn did not always feel isolated On peak weekends, employees sometimes stayed over beind the guest rooms after late finishes The building functioned simultaneously as pub, restaurant, lodging house and family residence Beneath the steady hum of trade and routine, life at Jack Whiteess followed a predictable structure. Books balanced, alarm set doors locked, and the lights switched off before morning began again. The nineteenth of march of nineteen ninety six fell at the end of the St. Patrick's Bank holiday weeekend. Additionally, one of the busiest periods of the year for roadside pubs along the Wicklow Coast Jack White's inn had traded late serving drivers heading back toward Dublin and locals, stretching out the final hours of the holiday After midnight, the noise began to thin Glasses were cleared, tills counted Tables wiped down Earlier that evening, staff had noticed cururtains in the unused upstairs dining room were drawn closed unusual in a space normally left untouched for effect By closing time Lights were switched off one by one until only the rear service area remained illuminated casting a hard fluorescent glow. across the counter and tilile floor Well Tom to has stayed downstairs as he routinely did to complete the accounts Earlier, he had driven two regular customers home, returning to the premises at around twelve twenty AM. Oh you've done that Yeah afterrove a few drunks home. you're not getting in your own car, you know? Oh yeah. We need to make sure that you get home safe and My main thing was just to make sure that they didn't end upall, you know, falling over in a bush and then staying there for the night Yeah they or getting yelled at because they pissed in someone's head. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, The joys of being a bar person, but no are definitely ye been there t I wouldn't mind someone You know issing on the hedge, but if they're pooping on a hedge, that's different. If you squat down curlled one out, I don't know about all that. But no, it's a good thing. It's responsible, you know to make sure that your customers are safely returned home and Well anyway Tom went directly back to the counter to reconcile the weekend's takings. After a bank holiday, the cash volumes were higher and the paperwork heavier A final till reading was printed shortly before one AM. and he began writing the totals carefully into the ledger Upstairs, Catherine went to bed at around twelve thirty AM No staff members or BnB guests were staying overnight rooms that were often occupied after late finishes stood empty Doors closed corridors quiet Once the main doors were locked and were shuttered down, only the Nevins remain inside the building From the Dublin Wexford Road, the inn appeared closed and dark. and the four courourts still The only visible light came faintly from the rear where Tom worked aong The service room was functional rather than comfortable Fitted with shelving, cleaning supplies and storage boxes, Tom sat on a stool face in the counter His eyegasses resting low on his nose. pen moving steadily across the page Completed sheets were stacked neatly to one side Others lay partially filled It was a routine he had performed countless times, add total check. Cord Scure the cash, close the books, then go upstairs The room was quiet except for the hum of the lights. So sometime within the hour that followed, a twelve bar shotgun was fired at close range Within a few feet That shot struck beneath Tom's right arm and traveled across his chest. cartridge was later identified as a nine pellet load containing heavy SG shot ammunition more commonly used for larger game. than standard bird shots There was no sign of fced entry No shattered glass and no prolonged disturbance in the service area at the moment that the shot was fired Some fell backwards from the stool onto the tiled floor The storeage remained upright His glasses stayed in place and the pen was still in his hand The ledger slid partly beneath his body. the figures stop him mid calculation Six of the nine pellets pass through his chest, crossing his lungs and heart Death would have followed rapidly Apart from the immediate space around him, the room remained largely unchanged, shelves still upright paper still in position Jeez they were they were coming with some Some heavy duty ammo That's great And close close range it is you're not going to survive I mean, just a regular bird like birds shot. Yeahah,'s that's bad enough, but they're using heavy duty game shit That's You know, if you're coming to rob the place, what the fuck are you doing with that Overkill really, in it? Yeah, something, man. Jesus Well, upstairs, Katherine later said she was awakened by a masked man. pressed her face into a pillow and demanded jewelry She said he held a knife in his left hand and tied her wrist and ankles tightly using stockings Drawers were pulled open and items scattered across the bedroom floor She recalled him shouting, quote Fucking jewelry, fucking killa. while searching the room and said she believed she could hear movement elsewhere in the building. After a period of time, she said the intruder or intruders left She managed to free her feet, though her wrists remained bound behind her back She did not go toward the rear service area Instead, she moved downstairs towards the front entrance where a fixed panic alarm was installed Beside the door The building was otherwise silent Shortly after four thirty AM, the alarm signal was activated and transmitted to Bail Cunications, the security monitoring company. Guardi were alerted and dispatched to the premises Outside, vehicles continuue to move intermittently along the Wicklow Road passassing the darkened frontage of the in inside The fluorescent light in the rear service room still burned above the counter More than sixteen thousand pounds from the Stt Patrick's Wekend ts was later reported missing The family's black opal ammiga, normally parked outside the inn, was also gone. Inside the service room, the ledgers lay open on the counter and floor The final line of figures stop him midway down the page Gardee arrived at Jack White's shortly after four thirty AM in response to the panic alarm at the front entrance Catherine was found near the doorway in nightcothed. Her wrists bound tightly behind her back with stockings She said she had gone to bed around twelve thirty and was disturbed by the masked man who had tied her hands and demanded jewelry She told officers she believed a second person may have been somewhere in the building She said that she managed to free her feet as they were tired as well and make her way downstairs to activate the fixed alarm beside the front door Panic alarms were located upstairs including one within reach of the bedroom. Yet neither had been pressed So she decided to go downstairs instead. do that one That's weird. Yeah, the investigators also noted that a mobile phone was present in her bedroom They recorded that she had crossed the building while partially restrained rather than use Ea device upstairs documenting the sequence as officers secured the premises. Well, the exterior was examined first Doors, locks, window frames, and glass were inspected carefully. There were no signs of forced entry, no broken panes of glass, no splintered timber, No mark suggesting prying or tampering The main alarm system described by staff is routinely set each night not been activated With no visible damage and no triggered perimeter alarm, The investigators began considering how entry or exit might have occurred without force Inside officers move room by room, apart from the rear service area The building appeared orderly In the bedroom, Katherine said had been searched, jewelry laid scattered across surfaces and the floor Yet none appeaar to have been removed A fingerprint expert later established that only Katherine's prints were present on the jewelry box Some drills appeared lifted out and placed down rather than violently overturned and two telephones were found off the hook upstairs. Curious Ver suspicious. I would say, you know, if the person's shouting asking for jewelry And yet all the jewelry is still there. Yeah. I mean, why would you You know, if they took a couple of pieces of jewelry, why would you not take them all? if that's what you're there for? Yeah. I mean, I can under W fishy is With only having her fingerprint. He could have been wearing gloves You know, that's that's a perfectly explainable with that but you're like, well, if you's sitting there saying, give me all your jewelry, I'll fucking kill you And then he doesn't take any jewelry or a couple of handful and then leaves the rest Well you just of it. And I would think that like with them, they've, you know, they're well off. you know, they're doing really well that you know, I don't think she's going to have just cheap crap Yeah, you know, and He's gonna be stuff from in basement. he gonna be like sorting through it? Nap, that's cheap Nope, nope, that's cheap. give me that. He's just gonna grab it all and sort it out later. If I was an investigator, I would definitely be this is pretty suspicious. You' be giving her that side I go Okay In the rear service room, officers confirmed that Tom had been shot at close range while engaged in his bookkeeping There was no indication of a prolonged struggle before the discharge of the weapon The scene was photographed and logged before attention shifted toward reconstructing the timeline Investigators focused on when the final till entry had been made and how much time had elapsed before the alarm was eventually activated Catherine said she had heard only a doll sound, quote, like a pot being dropped. Investigators later conducted sound tests within the building A shotgun fired in the rear surface area was clearly audible upstairs Yes, I'm sorry. This sounds like someone who doesn't have never heard a firearm. They tested it E with the door shut up there It was still very clearly audiible. So I mean, shooting it outside is loud enough But you're shooting it inside in a building, it's gonna echo in the room. Yeah Yeah. Yeah, you're like, what the fuck are you talking? It's going to be worse. Yeah exactly, because it's gonna the sound is gonna to bounce off walls and of course you're gonna hear, you will, you will hear it. It's not like a pot hitting the. Well, officers described the sound as sharp and distinct as it travelled through the structure The results were documented and compared against the account that she had provided in her initial statement. Yeah, they compared it alright with this place there's no way that she would have just heard a doll sound Well also, a till record showed the final entry at twelve forty three AM. Staff confirmed that balancing the accounts after a busy holiday weekend could take anywhere between thirty minutes to an hour The panic alarm was not triggered until around four thirty AM Investigators therefore examined the period between the last recorded activity downstairs and the emergency alert. establishing that That window became central to understanding how events inside the Inn had unfolded. Oh yeah. I mean, many a time I've finished working the bar like one AM and you've got to count you two And you know, you're so tired from your shift. you're like sometometimes I've had to count it twice Yeah, you know, because you're just so tired and want to get out of there. So I can imagine it would take a good hour. It Yeah a good hour. But then let's say he wouldould have finished around one thirty. Oh yeah, And some have finished at like four No. So they're saying, well he was shot. between twelve forty three, you know and let's say one forty three. So you got an hour in between. Exactly. And then she didn't flick the alarm until you know, for four thirty AM. So you've got to couple hours there. J There's a big window. Even if you're restrained, like she could have hopped around, she could have grabbed a phone, she could have done panickical alarms upstairs. Yeah. What's stopping you It's really that's really We'll move on with the case a little bit further and we'll see we'll find out routine practices also drew scrutiny Staff described the Nevins as careful about locking doors and setting the alarm system each night But on this occasion, the system had been left on setet Previous busy bank holiday weekends had often resulted in staff sleeping overnight in the spare rooms upstairs At that point None did Liz Hudson later recalled Katherine stating clearly, quote There's no one And I mean no one staying here tonight Saying it in that way sounds like she's got somethings it especially since usually they said it's pretty It's pretty routine for them to just because it's, you know, twelve, one, whatever and just, hey, just stay here tonight You know, no reason to drive home in the dark and being, you know, be safe, be just stay here, whatever And then she's likegh Absolutely no one is staying here tonight And she means no one. I mean nobody. You're like,, okay, that's weird. Like, why? what's the issue? What are you up to? Booking records were reviewed. Weeks earlier, a prospective guest had attempted to reserve bed and breakfast accommodation for the Stt Patrick's weekend and was told there was no availability. evidence later suggested that the rooms were in fact Two staff members also described Catherine moving repeatedly through the rear hallway at around eleven fifteen PM an area she did not usually supervise. She later said she had been checking the washing machine. when The police examined it It was dry. Wh financial patterns formed another strand of inquiry, Tom routinely lodged substantial sums of money after busy weekends. On the Friday before the bank holiday, Katherine had contacted a bank to ask about the latest time cash could be deposited Tom had attempted a lodgement, but had not completed it When investigators compared till readings and expected deposits They calculated a shortfall estimated at more than sixteen thousand pounds. is not a small amount of money God. you know, for for a, you know, a bank holiday weekend, that is a that is a good amount of money Yeah Yeah're like well, it's all gone Well, the family car, a black Opal Omega As you say, omiga. Omeiga It's oregano H Oregano Well their car was normally parked outside the inn and was missing in the early hours It was later found abandoned in the Ranaleg In Dublin, it was like a little suburb of Dublin Its movement indicated that someone had driven away from the property. before the alarm was activated Officers examined the vehicle and logged its recovery location as part of the expanding inquiry beyond Wicklow Oh yeah, if the owners of the car were still at the pub well how the hell is this car got over it. And they stole the money and stole the car. It's definitely part of the inquiry Well, in the days following the killing Catherine's behaviouror was noted by officers. She refused suggestions that she stay elsewhere while the premises. was treated as a crime scene stating that no one was going to put her out of her own house She expressed distrust of the local guarder. station and was initially reluctant to provide a false statement Officers later described her as agitated during fingerprint examinations which is a bit daft because You know, she lives there, she works there. herer fingerprints are going to be everywhere Yeah. So you know, if you're getting a bit agitated over having your fingerprints taken U that would suggest another bit of suspicion because if you have nothing to hide. Yeah, youd just be like, yeah, sure. anything to Yeah to help anythingything to help find my husband's killer. Yeah. I don't want to do that Get off out of my house Get out of my pub. You know, like what are you k arere you kidding me? Exactly. You're just casting way more suspicion on yourself. Y by being difficult, but at Tom's funeral. She told a senior guard officer that the smell of incense reminded her of the guns smoke she had detected in the kitchen on the morning of the murder In earlier accounts, she had said that she had not entered that part of the building before the guardie arrived Investigators recorded that remark alongside other inconsistencies in her statements Um as they continued assessing the reliability of her account But if I was an officer, I'd definitely, you know would not say that her accounts are very reliable. No, no, not not at all because If you're like, well, these incense smell like the gun, the gun smoke, the, you know, the cordite But you weren't even in there Yeah doesn't you're not going the smell's not going to travel up up the stairs or ye, you know, down into the entrance of the It's kind of going to be localized Yeah Well, inquiryies widened beyond the immediate scene Staff and acquaintances spoke of tension within the marriage and arguments about the business A relative told investigators that Tom had once confided Katherine. threated to have him blown away if he refused to sell his share of the pub Detectives began examining whether earlier expressions of hostility formed part of a longer pattern preceding the killing Okay, well Now we're starting to get a clearer picture all was not well with the marriage. No. and and when you have other accounts of people saying things like this. Yeah Because in Fin Glass, Gardi interviewed John Jones who said that in nineteen eighty nine Catherine had asked him to approach the IRA about arranging a shooting staged to resemble a robbery Come on Jerry Hapes describes similar conversations around nineteen ninety. including proposals to ambush Tom while he carried weekend takings. Well, that's two here's another one William McLean said she mentioned twenty thousand pounds. and insurance money during a hospital visit and ask whether he get someone to quote. do a job Yeahes, see listening to these, you know, as say an officer, listening to these three accounts from these three people. It's not just one guy either. What they're saying does fit a little bit, you know, what with the amount that was taken You know, give or take She was pretty much bang on. ye you know, with the twenty thousand U Yes it is u It's all sounding a bit too. It's a bit fishy Fy for me Well anyway, in july nineteen ninety six, Katherine was arrested on suspicion of withholding information. During questioning, she exercised her right to silence and was released without charge while inquiries continued On the fourteenth of april of nineteen ninety seven, she was arrested again This time charged with murder and with soliciting others to kill her husband The investigation had moved from reconstructing events inside Jack White's inn to building a case in court So those three witness testimonies. Yeah and the end to Billy. I think it was his step aunt. Y Y She's like, Yep, she said this, he confided me. And then the other three guys were like, Yeah, she was like, Hey can you kill my husband for me? Police were basasically Well, we need to If it was if it was just one guy then you can be like, well You know, lets he could be discredited in some way or whatever. It's just one guy saying it, but it's multiple people saying Y, she wanted this done. Yeah Catherine Nevin's trial opened on the fourteenth of january of two thousand at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin before Miss Justice Mella Carll She pleaded not guilty to the murder of her husband and not guilty to three separate counts of soliciting others to kill him in early years What followed became widely described at the time one of the longest criminal trials in the history of the state Over the course of proceedings, one hundred and seventy witnesses would give evidence The trial would span sixty one days of testimony and argument By its conclusion, three juries would have been sworn in The case They went through ye Th years. We do explain that later, but The prosecution made clear there would be no eyewitnesses, no confession, and no recovered weapon The case, they said, would depend entirely on circumstantial evidence behavior preparation financial context and prior alleged approaches to others Well, in opening, the state rejected the suggestion of a robbery gone wrong. Prosecutors describbeed Tom's death as a killing arranged in advance and disguised as a burglary with missing cash forming part of that staging rather than the underlying motive They did not allege that Katherine fired the fatal shot herself. Instead, they contended that she organized the circumstances Ensuring the building was empty, the alarm unset and access possible for another person. Well, from the outset, public attention was intense Media coverage focused not only on the evidence but on Catherine's appearance and demeanor in court. Miss Justice Carol intervened early, imposing formal restrictions on reporting Newspapers were prohibited from commenting on her clothing, hairstyle, jewelry, nail varnish, reading material, or courtroom demeanor Photographs of her arriving at or leaving Ct were also restricted The judge stated that the accused was entitled to wear what she wished without it becoming part of the narrative Rather than rehearse forensic detail already established, the prosecution concentrated on pattern and conduct Staff described a marriage that had grown distant with separate bedrooms and frequent arguments Several employees testified that Catherine had instructed them not to stay overnight on that bank holiday Monday despite that being common practice after busy weekends The state argued that this departure from routine was deliberate The jurors also heard evidence about Catherine's language toward Tom over the years Witnesses recalled her saying, she would quote, Have him done or that she would quote sort him out The prosecution framed these remarks as consistent and repeated The defense countered that angry worirds in the pub trade were common and should not be elevated into proof or intent The most significant evidence came from three men who said Katherine had directly asked them to arrange Tom's death years before the killing. John Jones testified that in nineteen eighty nine, she asked him approached the IRA about staging a shooting during the robbery Jerry Hebes described repeated approaches in nineteen ninety, including proposals to ambush Tom after the bank lodgement outside a pub William McLan, she said William McLlean said she mentioned twenty thousand pounds in life insurance money during a hospital visit and asked whether he could get someone to quote do a job on her husband Each account concerned different occasions but shed a similar outline proves that It was planned, you know, that's it it's pretty obvious when you're When you got G saying, she approached me in eighty nine. She approached me in ninety, she you know, multiple times It really shows that it wasn't just a one off thing or What he was trying to take out U somebody. Yeah hundred percent The defense challenged those witnesses, though, very vigorously All three men had criminal records. eachach had delayed reporting the alleged conversations for years Counsel suggested they were unreliable motivated by self interest, or influenced by hindsight once the murder had occurred The judge made the legal stakes explicit Miss Justice Carroll directed the jury that the prosecution case for murder depended upon The acceptance of at least one of those solicitation accounts If they rejected all three allegations of prior solicitation The murder charge could not succeed In practical terms, the credibility of those three men became central to the entire case unless you can unless they agree That's it. You got to throw it out Well when Katherine took the stand, she denied ever asking anyone to harm Tom She rejected the portrayal of a hostile or calculated marriage and denied allegations of affairs with a retired Garda inspector and a district judge Both of whom also denied such relationships in evidence She also sought to reframe her husband's character. In court she claimed that Tom had been a member of the IRA claim that she had long kept secret. Yeah, so there's allegations that she was being unfaithful as well But the, you know, the guys that she was supposed to have been unfaithful with denied that this was thing. so I mean here you know come on. there of course they are. You know, I'm not saying that they did or not, but Yeah In this situation, the hell no, I don't know that lady You know, and and the the standing of them You know, one being a judge and one who they're not going to want to sit there and say, yeah, we had an affair with this woman. Yeah. it's not going We're not saying that career wise career wise it's not going to be helpful and you know, especially at this time Um And Yeah, maybe they were also married And maybe they were running around behind their own partnerers's backs and they didn't want to caught up in that as well But like we say, we don't know. you know, we're not a hundred percent whether They were telling the truth that there was no such relationships I don't bet yeah Well, the prosecution described this as an invention introduced only at trial. Garda Special Branch, which monitored paramilitary activity confirmed there was no file linking Tom Nevin to the organization Catherine further described him as a quote disciplined alcoholic. who would remain downstairs after closing time drinking alone sometime mixing spirits into guuinness The prosecution pointed to postmortem toxicology suggesting an intake consistent two to three pints of beer on the night of his death H mixing spirits into Guinness We used to call it a snake bite. It was like weren't really spirits but really like so too in Guinness and C, well, that was u Is it G getting us some black? call it. Yeah. But yeah, the snake bite obviously. I think they banned that because that was quite Yeah Anyway, don't make snpe white Midway through proceedings, the first trial collapsed after nine days When it emerged that jury deliberations could be overheard from the public gallery below That's not good. No. Oh Miss Justice Carroll discharged the jury And then a second panel was sworn in but later discharged before the retrial properly commensced ultimately A third jury was impaneled jury composed of six men and six women heard weeks of evidence During the retrial, proceedings were interrupted again when Catherine was taken ill and hospitalized before completing her testimony. The case was delayed before resuming once again Mhm L lot going on In the closing speeches, the prosecution argued that the case rested on accumulation the emptied rooms, the alarm left unset, the financial background, missing cash and the prior alleged solicitations formed a consistent narrative They said They pointed to evidence that Tom held life insurance policies and substantial property and cash assets The defense responded that suspicion was not proof There was no gunman in the dock No weapon recovered No forensic link tying Catherine to the shooting They urged the jury not to convict on the basis of disputed recollections of conversations said to have occurred a decade earlier Yeah, I do get that in some way because, you know, yes, three people have come out and said they've had these conversations with her That's It's pretty much like a hearsay sort of situation. you know, they can't prove that she had these conversations with them. Yeah. But the jury retired to consider its verdicts Their deliberations lasted approximately twenty nine and a half hours spread across five days widely described at the time as the longest in the history of the state On the eleventh of april, two thousand, they returned their decision Katherine Nevin was found guilty of murder and guilty on all three solicitation accounts. The murder verdict was unanimous One solicitation verdict was unanimous and the other two were returned by majority of eleven to one Pre Pretty clean cut, I'd say. goodoodness, gracious. Miss Justice Carroll imposed the mandatory life sentence of imprisonment for murder. In june two thousand, the court imposed concurrent seven year sentences for the three solicitation offenses Addressing her directly, the judge said,e You had your husband assassinated and you tried to assassinate his character as well. Nearly four years after Tom's death The criminal proceedings concluded with that life sentence G her After her conviction on the eleventh of april two thousand Catherine Nevin began serving the mandatory life sentence for murder She remained in custody while her legal team pursued appeals In March of two thousand three, the Court of Criminal Appeal reviewed arguments concerning the circumstantial nature of the evidence and the judge's directions to the jury dismissed the appeal and upheld all convictions. I think that judge was really She was really like wanted to make sure everything was fair, like the reporting restrictions patling new juries because it was in herermi contaminated people could overhear one, you know, like above and beyond to to make everything that was was squared squared up So I wonder know what the fuck they're talking about and the judge Her directions were bad or something Hmm while, further challenges followed In two thousand four, an application was lodged with the European Court of Human Rights. though We need to leave that though it did not alter the outcome of the case In twenty ten, the Court of Criminal Appeal considered an application under seection two of the Criminal Procedure Act of nineteen ninety three alleging newly discovered evidence and nond disclosure by the prosecution After examining GAarda material, the court rejected the application and declined to reopen the verdict They pretty much say get fucked. in the in his judgment The court found no evidence that the three key solicitation witnesses had been state informers and no newly discovered facts capable of rendering the conviction unsafe Judges concluded that there was nothing in the material presented that gave, quote, the slightest credence. to the allegation that the witnesses had been paid informants A further attempt to challenge the conviction reached the Supreme Court in twenty fourteen. where leave to appeal was refused. By the mid twenty ten s, every substantive avenue within the Irish Cts had been exhausted The conviction for murder, together with the free solicitation conviction, stood in full The life sentence remained in force Separate from the criminal case, proceedings in the civil courts addressed Tom Nevin's estate At the time of his death the combined value of the pub Associated properties and other assets were reported to be in the region of around one million pounds. They did they were doing really well In addition to his life insurance policies referenced during trial The estate included rental interests and the licensed premises themselves Well Tom's family moved to ensure that Catherine could not benefit financially from his debt The High Court ruled that her murder conviction could be relied upon in determining inheritance rights effectively preventing her from profiting under succession law. The civil court's ruling ensured that the estate followed the criminal verdict keep her greedy hands off that money Hell yeah So following the verdict in april two thousand, Tom Nevin's siblings issued a statement expressing relief that, quote, person primarily responsible They said that while nothing could diminish their grief They were particularly relieved that attempts during the trial to damage Tom's character had been rejected by the jury Hell yeah The prosecution case had been that Catherine arranged the killing rather than carried it out herself Courts never established the identity of the person who fired the shotgun. and no individual has ever been charged as the cut That's such a shame never been found she's going re, you know, keep saying that she's innocent, didn't arranged this She's hardly going to give a name over, so you know, what we've no new evidence come into light of a possible gunment. you know, this person so far has got away with But I would think that after all your legal stuff, you know You've been shut out of the money. You've been shut out of everything. You have no appeals left You're just going to rot there. Why not just be like? Yeah Some of these people just don't have a moral compass at all She certainly doesn't. you know So yeah and then probably still live in hope that there might be some one day that some miracle they'll be able to get out, but you know, all hope is gone, I think, in this case. Yeah. Well, in the years after the trial, speculation persisted about who might have carried out the shooting Gardi were reported to have suspected a criminal figure associated with Dublin's underworld. Eugene Ch, Holland They always have to a nickname, donn't they? Yeah, that's his nickname. Eugene Holland is nickname Duchchie, who was later killed in an unrelated chewing. No charge was ever brought in relation to Tom Nevin's murder, and no court made any finding against him. Officially, the identity of the person who fired the weapon remains undetermined Public attention remained intense for years, the press label Black Widow. became shorthand in anniversary features and retrospective reporting The case was remembered for its scale. All the witnesses, how long it lasted and for the extraordinary restrictions placed on the media commentary during the trial During her imprisonment, Catherine's health deteriorated She was diagnosed with a brain tumor and underwent treatment while in custody By then, more than two decades had passed since Tom's death in March of nineteen ninety six But that's a shame that she, you know, she was diagnosed with brain tumor, obviously It's not a nice thing to experience and go throughory I know obviously Listen Parma Sometimes I get that I'm a bit under the What you what you get what you put out I'm so it's hard. It's hard because I I I you know do feel for people. whether they have committed crimes or not, you know, I do have a It's weird. like I can't really fully explain. Like I see that they've done super bad things but I still have empathy for Is it empathy? Yeah Yeah. I do have empathy for you know, if they're going through it, I mean, obviously with brain tumor, my aunt died of a brain tumor. so I can I know what this person would have go through, but I think the way she conducted herself over them M Yeah. Kind of just Maybe I'm just a row soft person I just to harden up Am I sorry lady, sorry about your luck Yeah In late twenty seventeen, She was granted temporary compassionate release on humanitarian grounds. Katherryine Nevin died on the nineteenth of february of twenty eighteen at the age of sixty seven. She was quite young still. Yeah Tom Nevin is buried in Barnurig Cemetery in County Weeklow notot far from the roadside inn where he worked for years why it's in remains open Traffic continues along the Wicklow Road between Dublin and Rossler And as it did on the night that the books were being balanced and the lights were still on in the back room The final figures in that ledger remain unfinished. That was the sad story of Tom, Nevin and widow of Jack White's Inn. old Katherine. Katherryine Nevin retty wild story For me, I was thinking about it, I was like All the people that they plan these out And they think they're so smart Yeah. They think they've got everything covered and they're just going to have some bullshit story And the police are going gonna be. Yeah. Okay. And this is the thing. I think a lot of people, you know, the criminals that murdering or ranging murders and things They really think, oh, as long as there's no evidence They can't tie it to me Oh Substantial evidence No it's substantial evidence, sorry is In a lot of cases, accumulation. just just as Um what's the word Just as a matter of fact, than actual physical evidence Yeah but then trying behaviors but trying to keep your story straight as well things. Yeah, exactly. Like she would say something and then contradict herself or talk about the incense. Oh, that smells like the guns smoke. Whereas if you're telling the truth on something, anything Your story will always be the same It will never fer Be The truth is the truth. So if you're flitting from, you know, adding in oh this happened and then this happened and you're missing, you know, it's like Hang on a minute. But then also she she gets tied up There's a panic button nearby. There's a phone nearby. Exactly. And she waits hour to go downstairs. Right because, you know, if that was me, I would have pushed the upstairs once. I would have phoned the police from, you know, my phone that was in the room that I was in.. More than likely, what happened was she let them in. They went back there Shot Tom. Yeah This's okay. We've we got some time here. Let's, you know, Let's tie you up, move some stuff around. stage stage in allatever. And then Anden it's like, okay, you guys leave D't he's the keys to the car. and then waits there for a while until they can get away And then goes down. It would have it wouldn't have been as suspicious if she just would have the alarm upstairs. Yeah But this is the thing. A lot of, you know, these criminals and murderers and You know, they think they're smart, but they really, really aren't You know, they they A human cannot think of every single thing in a scenario, You know, and plan every single detail without fault. M You know, we're humans. We're not like programmed robots, you know? But also trying to remember your lies. Exactly in this way I said, you know, if you're telling the truth, your story is going to be the same every single time. Yeah Yeah I Well, thank you so very much for Joining us for this story We hopefully listening to us Babble We're just rambling But we really, really do appreciate it. Thank you so much And if you value our work that we do here in the archive Please follow us and leave a five star rating. That would be absolutely excellent It helps these stories reach further and keeps the archive growing. It really does. Everything you need socials, discord Patreon, which we will be doing u Yeah. rom the thirty first there. Yeah I' so excited about Starting Patreon and so ext. Yeah extra bonus episodes, ad free. I mean, we don't really have ads No matter what Patreon, it will always be ad free forever You'll get extra content.'s extra content loads on there. You just have to check it out. Yeah thirty first. Yeah. 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