Barry Williams (spree killer)

Barry Kenneth Williams (1944 – 24 December 2014), known since 1994 as Harry Street, was a British spree killer. A foundry worker who lived with his parents, he shot eight people in the English Midlands towns of West Bromwich and Nuneaton in little over an hour on 26 October 1978, killing five. Following a high-speed car chase, he was arrested and in 1979 was convicted of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. He was detained in high-security hospitals under mental health legislation.

After being given a conditional release in 1994, he changed his name, moved to Wales, and married. In 2014, following allegations of harassment against his neighbours, he was convicted of further firearms offences. He was again ordered to be detained in a secure hospital, with little likelihood of release, and died in December 2014.

Background

At the time of his first offence, Williams was an unmarried foundry worker. He lived at 14 Andrew Road on the Bustleholme Mill estate in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England with his elderly parents, Hilda and Horrace, who owned and ran a metal polishing business in Birmingham.

He held a valid firearms certificate, allowing him to possess a single semi-automatic weapon. He used this weapon at approved gun clubs for sports shooting at targets. His erratic behaviour, including shooting at dummies dressed in wigs, and modifying his bullets to make them more powerful, led to his being expelled from one club, in Telford, Shropshire. His nickname there had been "The Cowboy". Members of another gun club where Williams was a member had expressed concerns that he was stealing bullets.

During the mid 1970s, he had been involved in a number of disputes with his neighbours, the Burkitt family, of 16 Andrew Road, alleging that the noise of their television and record player disturbed him and his parents. This became an obsession, and he suffered the delusion that his neighbours were mocking him. On one occasion, during a row about noise, he told Philip Burkitt, "I'm going to exterminate you".

1978 incident

On the evening of 26 October 1978, about a week after the extermination threat, George Burkitt and his 20-year-old son Philip were working on Philip's Triumph Spitfire car (bearing the registration ''WHA 370H'') in front of their house. At around 7pm, annoyed by the noise they were making, Williams shot them both with a 9mm Smith & Wesson semi-automatic pistol. George died where he fell and Philip, wounded, ran into the house. Williams followed him, shooting him again and killing him. He then shot and killed George's wife, Iris. The Burkitts' 17-year-old daughter was hit four times in the back and once in the thigh, but survived. Two other neighbours, a married couple who had witnessed the attack on the Burkitts, also survived being shot. The injured were treated at Birmingham General Hospital.

After discharging a total of 23 rounds, Williams fled the scene by car, firing a further six shots from a second, .22-calibre pistol as he did so. In Stanhurst Way he shot at two boys, aged 10 and 11, who were playing football, and at a woman, but missed them all. Passing through Wednesbury, he shot through the windows of a barber's shop and two houses. In one of these, a nine-year-old girl was hurt by flying glass. He stopped for petrol in Walsall and drove off without paying.

At around 8:10pm, Williams shot and killed another married couple, Michel and Lisa Di Maria, after stopping to use the petrol filling station which they ran, Arbury Road Service Station, in Stockingford, Nuneaton, Warwickshire, some from his home. Lisa was killed immediately, and Michel died later in hospital.

Williams slept rough in some woodland, and was arrested the next morning, in Spring Gardens, Buxton

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