Lucy Partington: Difference between revisions

 

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== Further reading ==

== Further reading ==

* {{cite book|last==Amis|first=Martin|author-link=Martin Amis|title=Experience|publisher=Vintage|year=2000|isbn=978-0-099285-82-3}}

* {{cite book|last=Amis|first=Martin|author-link=Martin Amis|title=Experience|publisher=Vintage|year=2000|isbn=978-0-099285-82-3}}

* {{cite book|last=Bennett |first=John|title=The Cromwell Street Murders: The Detective’s Story|publisher=Sutton Publishing|year=2005|isbn=978-0-750-94273-7 }}

* {{cite book|last=Bennett |first=John|title=The Cromwell Street Murders: The Detective’s Story|publisher=Sutton Publishing|year=2005|isbn=978-0-750-94273-7 }}

* {{cite book|last=Burn|first=Gordon|author-link=Gordon Burn|title=Happy Like Murderers|publisher=[[Faber and Faber]]|location=London|year=1998|isbn=978-0-571-19546-6|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/happylikemurdere00gord}}

* {{cite book|last=Burn|first=Gordon|author-link=Gordon Burn|title=Happy Like Murderers|publisher=[[Faber and Faber]]|location=London|year=1998|isbn=978-0-571-19546-6|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/happylikemurdere00gord}}

British murder victim (1952–1973)

Lucy Katherine Partington (4 March 1952 – c. 2 January 1974) was a British murder victim from Gretton, Gloucestershire, who was abducted and murdered by serial killers Frederick and Rosemary West on the evening of 27 December 1973. Partington was either lured or forced from a bus stop along the A435 trunk road into the Wests’ vehicle and driven to their home in Cromwell Street, Gloucester. She was restrained in the basement of the property and subjected to various acts of rape and sadomasochism before she was murdered by either asphyxiation or strangulation. Circumstantial evidence indicates she may have been held captive for up to six days before her murder.

Partington’s extensively dismembered body was discovered buried in an alcove of the Wests’ cellar on 6 March 1994. She was later given a dignified burial in the grounds of Hailes Chapelyard in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire.

Lucy Partington was born in St Albans, the third child born to Roger (14 August 1924 – 25 March 2012)^[5] and Margaret (née Bardwell) Partington. Her father was an industrial engineer and her mother an architect.

The Partington family were upper middle class and markedly wealthy, and the parents instilled virtuous values in their children. One of Partington’s uncles was novelist Kingsley Amis; her cousin was also Martin would also become a novelist.^[7]

Partington grew into a studious, religious and chaste girl. Although friendly with her male peers, she is not known to have ever had a boyfriend. By the autumn of 1973, she was in her final year of study of medieval English at Exeter University, and had recently converted to the Roman Catholic faith. On 20 December, she returned from Exeter to Gloucestershire to spend Christmas with her family.^[8]

On the evening of 27 December 1973, during her final year of reading English Literature at Exeter University,^[9] she was abducted by serial killers Fred and Rosemary West while waiting at the Pittville Pump Room bus stop on Evesham Road, Cheltenham, to catch the 10:30 p.m. Marchants Bus service via Bishops Cleeve to Gretton, where her mother lived.^{[10][n 1]}

Partington’s exact date of death will never be known. However, at twenty-five past midnight on 3 January 1974, Fred West admitted himself into the casualty unit at Gloucester Royal hospital with a serious laceration of his right hand that required several stitches, leading to speculation that she was finally murdered sometime during 2 January 1974 and that she had been kept alive and tortured for several days in the cellar of the Wests’ home in Cromwell Street before finally being murdered.^[7]

Partington’s remains were discovered buried in the Wests’ cellar at 9 a.m. on 6 March 1994. A distinctive Richardson Sheffield stainless steel kitchen knife Fred used to dismember her body and had evidently dropped into the cubic grave as he injured himself while dismembering her remains was also discovered alongside her remains. Seventy-two of Partington’s bones—including one of her shoulder blades—were missing, and were never recovered.

On 16 February 1995, Partington’s remains were reburied in Hailes, Gloucestershire.

Partington’s sister, Marian Partington, later wrote about the impact of Lucy’s life, disappearance, and death in her memoir, If You Sit Very Still, in May 2012.^[12] The book builds on Salvaging the Sacred, an essay written by Marian and published in The Guardian Weekend in May 1996.^[13] The essay inspired a play by Bryony Lavery (Frozen), which premiered in 1998, and a feature film by Juliet McKoen, also entitled Frozen (2005).

Martin Amis later dedicated his novel The Information to Partington’s memory; he also wrote about her life and death in his memoir Experience.^[7]

• Amis, Martin (2000). Experience. Vintage. ISBN 978-0-099285-82-3.
• Bennett, John (2005). The Cromwell Street Murders: The Detective’s Story. Sutton Publishing. ISBN 978-0-750-94273-7.
• Burn, Gordon (1998). Happy Like Murderers. London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-19546-6.
• Cresswell, Kim (2015). Garden of Bones: The Story of Fred and Rosemary West. KC Publishing. ISBN 978-0-995-05780-7.
• Fido, Martin (1995). Chronicle of Twentieth Century Murder. London: Bracken Publishing. pp. 124–125. ISBN 978-1-858-91390-2.
• Masters, Brian (1996). She Must Have Known: Trial of Rosemary West. London: Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-385-40650-5.
• Mitchell, Margaret (2011). Remember Me: Constructing Immortality – Beliefs on Immortality, Life, and Death. Oxfordshire: Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-136-92085-1.
• Partington, Marian (2012). If You Sit Very Still. Vala Publishing Co-operative. ISBN 978-1-908-36302-2.
• Sounes, Howard (1995). Fred and Rose: The Full Story of Fred and Rose West and the Gloucester House of Horrors. London: Warner Books. ISBN 978-0-7515-1322-6.
• Wilson, Colin (1998). The Corpse Garden. London: True Crime Library. ISBN 978-1-874358-24-4.