Journalism

Hallworth worked as a crime reporter for the Daily Mail

Daily Mail

The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...

. He reported on many cases but most famously on that of suspected serial killer

Serial killer

A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...

 Dr John Bodkin Adams

John Bodkin Adams

John Bodkin Adams was an Irish-born British general practitioner, convicted fraudster and suspected serial killer. Between the years 1946 and 1956, more than 160 of his patients died in suspicious circumstances. Of these, 132 left him money or items in their will. He was tried and acquitted for...

 in 1956. Hallworth was very close to the main investigating officer, Herbert Hannam

Herbert Hannam

Detective Superintendent Herbert Hannam was a British policeman who worked for Scotland Yard.-Career:Hannam became famous for solving the infamous Teddington Towpath Murders in 1953....

, and twice during the investigation he himself was investigated: once for being discovered with a memorandum alleging a homosexual link between Adams, a local magistrate (Sir Roland Gwynne

Roland Gwynne

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Roland Vaughan Gwynne, DSO, DL, JP was Mayor of Eastbourne, Sussex, from 1928 to 1931. He was also a patient and close friend of the suspected serial killer Dr John Bodkin Adams.-Childhood:...

, and a local policeman; and a second time for leaking information to two Members of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 that the Attorney-General Reginald Manningham-Buller had handed a confidential police report to the British Medical Association

British Medical Association

The British Medical Association is the professional association and registered trade union for doctors in the United Kingdom. The association does not regulate or certify doctors, a responsibility which lies with the General Medical Council. The association’s headquarters are located in BMA House,...

 (who were organising Adams' defence). Both times Hallworth was given a dressing-down but no more. Hallworth later co-wrote a book about the case, published in 1983 after Adams' death. In it he accused the prosecuting counsel of mismanaging the case, saying that Adams, who was acquitted, was in fact a murderer.

Later Hallworth joined the rival Daily Express

Daily Express

The Daily Express switched from broadsheet to tabloid in 1977 and was bought by the construction company Trafalgar House in the same year. Its publishing company, Beaverbrook Newspapers, was renamed Express Newspapers...

, hoping to replace Percy Hoskins

Percy Hoskins

Percy Kellick Hoskins was the chief crime reporter for British newspaper the Daily Express in the 1950s. He also provided stories for radio and television crime shows such as Whitehall 1212....

 as head crime reporter. However, Hoskins carried on in his position and Hallworth was left to "wither on the vine".

Publicity

Hallworth eventually left the Daily Express to become a publicist, representing amongst others, notorious yachtsman Donald Crowhurst

Donald Crowhurst

Donald Crowhurst was a British businessman and amateur sailor who died while competing in the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race, a single-handed, round-the-world yacht race. Crowhurst had entered the race in hopes of winning a cash prize from The Sunday Times to aid his failing business...

 in 1968-69. Crowhurst disappeared in the Caribbean

Caribbean

The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...

 during a round-the-world yacht race

Sunday Times Golden Globe Race

The Sunday Times Golden Globe Race was a non-stop, single-handed, round-the-world yacht race, held in 1968–1969, and was the first round-the-world yacht race...

and Hallworth flew over to collect his boat's logbooks, which he then sold to the Times newspaper for "a small fortune". Hallworth's part in the affair brought him a lot of criticism, leading him to being called "money-grubbing" and "unscrupulous".

According to others who knew him, however, Hallworth was a "genial, rotund chap" who was "larger than life".

Books

• Co-written with Mark Williams; Where there's a will... The sensational life of Dr John Bodkin Adams, Capstan Press, Jersey, 1983. ISBN 0946797005

Articles

Hallworth's article, "The Murdered City", appeared undated in an early "Devon Life" magazine issue. "The heart of Exeter is dead", he wrote, and then proceeded to criticise severely the post-war rebuilding of the city. Hallworth praised the as-yet unfinished Exeter University (founded in 1955), as well as the area around the Cathedral, which "is worthy of the highest praise". But the article is largely a robust condemnation of post-war development, which he saw as unfriendly to residents and visitors: "If the citizens are prepared to remain on their sick bed of complacency then they should do nothing but watch their home town lapse further behind in the fight for progress and ultimate survival". Throughout the article, his writing is impassioned: "The weapon is at hand to cut out the miserable apathy and disease which is eating Exeter's heart. Big business is waiting to spend its money. Regional planners are waiting to use the centre to show Britain what tomorrow can offer. Let's have a gay, bright, throbbing city. It's waiting to be built."

Sources

• Cullen, Pamela V., A Stranger in Blood: The Case Files on Dr John Bodkin Adams, London, Elliott & Thompson, 2006, ISBN 1-904027-19-9