Kidnapping and murder of Lesley Whittle

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The kidnapping and murder of Lesley Whittle occurred on 14 January 1975. Whittle, a teenage heiress, was kidnapped at gunpoint from her home in Highley, Shropshire, by Donald Neilson, a notorious burglar and murderer known as the Black Panther. Whittle was driven 65 miles (105 km) from her home to an underground drainage shaft of a reservoir at Bathpool Park in Kidsgrove, Staffordshire, where she was tethered, naked, upon a narrow platform 54 feet (16 m) below ground by a wire noose affixed around her neck and with a hood placed over her head as Neilson made several unsuccessful attempts to collect a £50,000 ransom from her family over the following days. She is believed to have either fallen to her death from this shaft, or been pushed to her death by Neilson, on or about 17 January, causing her to die of vagal inhibition. Her emaciated body was discovered hanging from this shaft on 7 March 1975. The kidnapping and murder of Lesley Whittle dominated national headlines for eleven months...

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