Why Did Librarian Susan Edwards Kill Her Own Mother To Obtain Frank Sinatra Memorabilia?

Unassuming librarian Susan Edwards and her bookkeeper husband Christopher were obsessed with the movies. So obsessed they killed for Hollywood memorabilia.  

The strange case is the inspiration for “Landscapers,” a new four-episode series streaming on HBO and HBO Max on Dec. 6. HBO says the series, “tells a unique love story involving Chris and Susan Edwards, a seemingly ordinary British couple who become the focus of an extraordinary investigation when two dead bodies are discovered in the back garden of a house in Nottingham."

The bodies in question found in the British backyard were none other than Susan’s parents, Patricia and William Wycherly, and they had been there for 15 years by the time investigators uncovered the remains in 2013, according to the Nottingham Post.

While nobody had seen the couple since 1998, neighbors weren't particularly alarmed. The Edwards couple, played by Emmy-winner Olivia Colman and Emmy nominee David Thewlis, concealed the murders for years: they sent fake Christmas cards to family members on the Wycherly's behalf and wrote fake accounts of visits with them. Meanwhile, they profited off deaths, and used the money live lavishly and fuel their obsession with old Hollywood collectibles. 

Most of the £285,286 they funneled from the couple’s murder went to overpriced movie memorabilia purchased by collectible dealers, The Guardian reported in 2014. Amongst the items they accumulated was a bank form with Gary Cooper’s signature purchased for £3,000. They also bought a two-sentence typed letter from him, an apparent thank you letter to a fan, for close to £2,000, according to The Guardian, and a table card from a 1940s dinner dance, signed by Frank Sinatra.

When they were arrested in 2013 at St Pancras Eurostar terminal, a train station in London, their suitcase was stuffed full of such memorabilia. They had been on the run for about a year. The Guardian reported that the couple became spooked after the Department for Work and Pensions sent William a letter in 2012, asking for a face-to-face meeting to assess his benefits as he was seemingly turning 100. 

The couple admitted to manslaughter but denied murder. They claimed it was Patricia who shot William and told them she was having an affair with Christopher, supposedly provoking her own daughter to shoot her in a jealous rage. 

However, a jury of their peers believed otherwise. It took the jurors six hours to unanimously convict the couple of murder in 2014. Both were sentenced to 25 years to life in 2014.