EXCLUSIVE: Truth of murdered woman's missing body may lay in shop linked to Kray twins
Police documents uncovered by the Daily Mirror reveal the brothers who abducted and murdered Muriel 54-years-ago visited an East End shop that her family now want to search
Muriel McKay's killers visited an East End tailor's shop linked to the Kray twins where her family suspect she is buried, police documents reveal.
Muriel, 55, was abducted from her home on December 29, 1969, after two brothers mistook her for the then-wife of media tycoon Rupert Murdoch. Nizamodeen and Arthur Hosein demanded £1million for her safe return but she was never seen again. The brothers were caught and sentenced for life in 1970, but refused to say where her body was.
In recent years Nizamodeen, who was deported to his native Trinidad after serving his sentence, said they buried Muriel at a farm in Stocking Pelham, Hertfordshire, belonging to Arthur, who died in prison. Despite two police searches the body was never found.
Now, the family of Percy Chaplin, a tailor who made suits for Ronnie and Regie Kray, have said they believe Muriel was hidden in the garden of his shop in Bethnal Green, around the corner from the notorious gangsters' Vallance Road home. Percy's daughter, Hayley Frais told the Daily Mirror: "I don't know if my father realised what was happening at the time, but I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't say anything because it would have implicated him."
Muriel's family wanted to probe the site, now flats and a bookies, with radar, but were refused permission by the current owners. They are currently taking legal action at the High Court in an effort to scan the area. The Daily Mirror has now uncovered evidence that supports the theory that Muriel could be buried at the site.
A police statement held at the National Archives records the lead officer in the case, Det Ch Supt Bill Smith, grilling Nizamodeen about his movements after he was arrested in 1970. The killer said the brothers left Rooks Farm in Hertfordshire and visited five tailors in London on February 6 that year.
Asked if he went anywhere else, Hosein replied: "Yes to Percy Chaplin, he's a tailor in Bethnal Green Road." He said his brother spent half an hour in the shop before leaving. Hayley said: "My dad could have written a book about his life. The Kray brothers were his customers and they would come into the shop. He would make them suits."
Percy, who died in 2022 aged 98, left notes about his relationship with Arthur, saying the killer told him before Muriel was killed: "I will have to kidnap someone very rich and ask for a million pounds ransom."
Hayley said her father suspected a Polish criminal and associate of Arthur was involved in helping to hide Muriel's body. She said: "My father was very naive and he gave the man the key to the shop which was not a wise thing to do.
"My father said that around Christmas 1969 [the man] offered him some very expensive jewellery but my father didn't have any money and realised it was probably stolen.
"Around the same time, my father told me he came into the shop and there was a terrible stench but he couldn't figure out what it was. The next time he came to the shop the odour was gone. He later suspected that the man brought the remains of Mrs McKay into the shop and stored it under the stairwell overnight and came back to bury her in the yard the next day under a cherry tree."
The Bethnal Green shop is opposite a telephone box that the brothers had told the police to use to receive a phone call during a bungled ransom handover. The Hosein brothers were caught six weeks after Muriel was taken when detectives launched two stings using a suitcase packed with dummy notes. The first failed when the Hoseins spotted some of the 140 undercover surveillance officers.
But during a second rendezvous officers traced a Volvo spotted in the area to Rook's Farm where they arrested the Hoseins. Puffing on a cheroot, Mr Smith told the BBC at the time: "It's the most hideous crime you can perpetrate. It's worse than straight murder."
Speaking from her home in Israel this month, Hayley called on the police to take action. She said: "My father was very convincing and the information was credible. The way he told me, this was for sure. That yard should now be thoroughly searched. Fifty-four years have gone by but I don't think they should give up looking for her."
Muriel's grandson, Mark Dyer, said: "We are so desperate for some closure. If someone believed a body was buried in your garden, surely you would let them in to scan? This is our last hope."