Arthur Peach

Arthur Peach murdered Kitty Lyon 18 who he shot in Rushall, near Walsall on 21 September 1941.

Kitty Lyon and a friend were walking when Arthur Peach shot them both with a pistol and then ran off with the other girls handbag. He was later seen to throw the pistol into a ditch.

Kitty Lyon and her friend were out for a walk in the country just outside of Walsall when they past Arthur Peach who was standing in a railway arch. They past him and just after he shot the friend. Kitty Lyon then ran off and Arthur Peach chased her and shot her dead. After he first shot her he walked up to her and shot her at close range. He then went back to where the friend lay and beat her unconscious with the pistol.

He said that he was in the company of another soldier called Jock to whom he had just sold the pistol and the soldier was testing the pistol when the girls were shot and that after he panicked and ran away. He said that he only realised a short while later that he had picked up the girls handbag which he then threw away.