THE MURDER OF MILTON O. MARTINEZ
Several men were seen in an old bull nosed Morris with white wall tyres driving around the Howard St area of Gt. Yarmouth on the night of Saturday 5th Sept 1953 by a patrolling policeman. One of the men was seen to be waving a white enamel jug around. The car was owned by a man named Van Fitzhugh and distinctive by its age and a thermometer on the radiator. In the early hours of the morning of Sunday 6th Miltons body was found in Freemantle Road behind the horse racing course in Gt. Yarmouth by a local man on his way to go fishing. The murder may have taken place in the area of Howard St. where blood was found. Bits of white enamel were found in the victims skull. The victims shirt was missing. Milton was a young airman who had just processed into Sculthorpe in August.
My father had a red or maroon shirt on that night which matched the one that the victim was seen wearing earlier and so was held for questioning somewhere until my mother accounted for his whereabouts to two British Detectives for the time the murder took place. The detectives came to my mothers home in the night.
Three men were questioned at Gt Yarmouth as far as I know, I know their names and that all of them where from RAF Sculthorpe. With the help of my friend Ron Burrell one of these men was contacted but doesn't recall my father. There were also three men held and questioned by U.S. Authorities at RAF Sculthorpe, their names were never released but I suspect one of them was my father.
The car was found later at RAF Bentwaters and the shirt was found near the base hidden in a hollow of a tree. There was an incident room set up near Bentwaters and some men including those who returned in the bull nosed Morris were questioned by British Police. Shortly after this the case was handed over by law to the U.S. authorities and the British Police stopped their inquiries. I think Christy could have been questioned by British Police but the Police in Gt Yarmouth have no evidence of him niether do the other U.S.Servicemen questioned by them ( all from Sculthorpe ), so it's most likely Christy was among the three men questioned a Sculthorpe whose names were never released.
A man named Colerick, a friend of Fitzhugh, was found guilty it was believed that he had used the car to move the body to Freemantle Road and then used the victims red shirt to wipe the blood from the car, he then drove it back to his base at RAF Bentwaters with some of his friends, stopping on the way to hide the shirt. He was given life, but, I was told that the
sentence was apparently reduced to three years when his parents employed a barrister who had the sentence reduced because Colerick claimed he had hit Martinez over the head with the jug only after Martinez had made sexual advances toward him. An additonal account of events by an officer present, the late MSGT Koller, claim that Colerick was if fact innocent and the victim of being stitched up by his piers as a result of not keeping quiet.
