Devlin and Burns

It is with more than just interest that we note the removal from Walton Gaol, Liverpool (and reburial in consecrated ground) in April this year of the remains of Edward (Teddy) Devlin and Alfred (Alfie) Burns.

In the days of capital punishment, those convicted were often buried within prison walls. As Oscar Wilde noted in his Ballad of Reading Gaol, ‘We knew the work [the officers] had been at by the quicklime on their boots.’ Whether quicklime was still discernible when these graves were opened is unknown because as the Liverpool Echo reported, the remains were ‘quietly’ removed with few observers.

The tragic story of Devlin and Burns is told in George Skelly’s campaigning work Murderers or Martyrs (Waterside Press, 2012). These fresh events represent an important new chapter in a tale of mis-investigation, lack of evidence, bias and alleged police corruption.

The author has compared the case to another from Liverpool during that era involving the execution of an innocent man, as recounted in his other book The Cameo Conspiracy (revised 3^rd edition, Waterside Press, 2012). He hopes that the Criminal Cases Review Commission will now review its 2011 decision not to refer the case of Devlin and Burns to the Court of Appeal and that they too will also be duly exonerated.