The Cold Case Files (17 page)

Four teenage girls were walking near The Moorings at around 4.30 p.m. The girls were heading home from school, and they stopped at a corner near The Moorings cul-de-sac and continued chatting.
They saw a young man coming up the hill and he turned into The Moorings. The girls were only about ten feet away from him and none of them recognised him. He seemed to be in his late teens or early
twenties and was tall, about six foot. He wore a fawn trenchcoat which went below his knees. His hair was blond and parted in the middle. He was of thin build and average looking. He had what one
of the girls thought was a rich look about him.

At 4.40 p.m. a landscape gardener was finishing work for the evening at a house almost directly across the road from the Livingstone home. He started up his Nissan Vanette to head home. He
thought of driving straight ahead and turning the van at the end of the cul-de-sac but there were two youths playing football at the end of the road so he decided to do a quick turn into the
driveway of a house across the road in order to turn his van the right way around. The gardener turned his van into the driveway of the Livingstone house. As he looked out of his van he could see
straight down to the front door. The house was only a short distance from the public footpath, maybe the length of one car, so the gardener had a clear view ahead of him. It all happened in a
matter of seconds but what this witness was about to see would turn out to be very significant. He saw a young man standing in the glass-fronted porch. Because the headlights of the van were turned
on, the gardener got a clear look at the man. He would later describe him as about 20 years old, or early twenties. He had dark, collar-length hair and was of thin build and average height. The
young man reminded the gardener of a student. His hair was dark, but somewhat long and bushy. The witness saw the man bending down and picking up a pot plant as if he had knocked it over. The man
glanced around into the focus of the headlights. The gardener saw the outer porch door was closed but the inner door was opened. The hall light might have been on. The witness turned his van and
headed out of The Moorings. It would be on that night’s nine o’clock news that he would hear about a murder having occurred in the Malahide cul-de-sac. It would be the next day when he
returned to work that he would realise the killing had happened in the house in which he had seen the young man at the door.

Jimmy and Art headed home from Dublin in the evening traffic. They didn’t pick up Conor because he was working late, and was going to get the train home. The two men chatted about work and
they arrived in Malahide sometime around 5.45 p.m. Jimmy dropped Art at his house and Art would later recall that after he arrived into his house, he put away a step-ladder and some other items into
his garage before looking at the clock in the house and seeing it was ten to six.

Jimmy drove from Chalfont Avenue along by the Estuary towards Malahide village, passing under the railway bridge and travelling along Strand Street, before turning up James’s Terrace and
passing the Garda station. Just over an hour later Jimmy would be back at the Garda station trying to do everything to assist detectives investigating his wife’s murder.

Jimmy turned left to drive along the Coast Road before taking a right turn into the Seapark Estate and then two more right turns bringing him into The Moorings. Jimmy turned his car in the
cul-de-sac so that he and Grace would be ready to drive to Monaghan after dinner. His wife’s car was parked as normal in their driveway, reversed into place as Grace always left it. But very
quickly other things began to appear out of place. Jimmy noticed the porch light was not on, and the dog was not at the front of the house where he would normally be. Both the porch and inner front
door were closed and locked. Jimmy opened the doors with his key. It was now some time around 5.50 p.m.

To this day Jimmy Livingstone relives over and over the discovery of his wife’s body. Having entered the front door Jimmy saw there was no light on in the kitchen. The plan he and Grace
had made that morning was to have dinner as soon as he got home and then head for Monaghan. The curtains in one particular room were closed, and that was very unusual. Grace had previously asked
that those curtains not be closed at all because she had potted plants in the window which needed light. Jimmy saw that the kitchen table was not set. He looked in every room downstairs but Grace
wasn’t there. He checked the back door but it was locked with the key on the inside. The dog would later be found in the back garden.

Jimmy walked from the kitchen to the hallway, turned on the landing light and went upstairs. As he arrived at the top he saw his rifle case containing his rifle lying on its butt against a
bedroom door. As a gun enthusiast Jimmy had a number of guns in the house. As well as his .22 rifle, he had a number of shotguns and other firearms. Jimmy was a member of Fórsa Cosanta
Áitiúil—the reserve Defence Force. He was an
FCA
Commandant, attached to McKee Barracks on Dublin’s northside.

When he saw the rifle resting against the door-jamb Jimmy became anxious. The gun was normally stored away; it shouldn’t be out like that. Everything seemed strange in the house. Jimmy
entered the master bedroom. He didn’t put on the light, thinking that perhaps Grace had been feeling unwell and had maybe gone to lie down. With the light from the landing Jimmy saw the
outline of Grace lying on the bed. She was lying on her front. Jimmy walked to the near side of the bed and put his hand on Grace’s forehead. Jimmy’s hand immediately became moist and
he instantly thought Grace had vomited. The bedclothes were moist too. Jimmy withdrew his hand and turned on the bedroom light. It was then he saw that it was blood on his hand.

Jimmy ran from the house to raise the alarm. He didn’t know it at that stage but his wife was already dead. He ran to Anne Watchorne’s house across the road but Anne didn’t
hear the door. He went to the next house, to Margaret Murphy. Margaret was a retired nurse, and the Murphys and Livingstones had known each other for 17 years. Margaret’s son answered the
door to Jimmy and quickly got his mother. Jimmy ran back to his house and by the time Margaret ran after him he was already on the phone to the emergency services. The 999 call was logged at 5.58
p.m. Margaret went upstairs into the bedroom. She immediately saw Grace lying face down on the bed. Margaret saw that Grace’s hands were tied behind her back and her ankles were also tied
with some type of black material. Jimmy was now in the bedroom too. He took a small scissors from his pocket and cut the binds which were holding Grace’s hands and feet together. There was a
substantial amount of blood on Grace’s head and neck and in her hair. Margaret could see the blood had started to congeal and Grace did not appear to be still bleeding. Margaret wrapped a
blanket around Grace in the hope of keeping her warm if she was still alive. Grace was still lying face down and neither Margaret or Jimmy could yet see her face. Margaret moved Grace’s head
to clear her airways and it was then that she saw Grace’s mouth was also taped.

Margaret tried to find Grace’s pulse but there was none. She advised Jimmy to call 999 again. It was a most surreal and horrific situation. Jimmy looked in presses and said that some of
his guns were missing. He also mentioned that he believed he knew who had attacked Grace, he mentioned a person living along the border who was under investigation for tax fraud. But still Jimmy
didn’t know Grace was dead. Fr John Keegan, a family friend, arrived within minutes. By now word was spreading through The Moorings that something awful had happened at the Livingstone home.
An ambulance crew soon arrived too, followed by Dr Barry Moodley, who was Grace’s
GP
. Dr Moodley examined Grace where she lay on the bed and at 6.35 p.m. he pronounced
her dead. Jimmy became very upset and began to shout and Margaret Murphy brought him out of the bedroom and eventually over to her own house across the road. He tried to contact Conor who was
heading home from Dublin city, but he had just left work. Jimmy wanted to go and collect his son from the train station, but he was persuaded not to. Gardaí asked Jimmy to accompany them to
the Garda station and make a full statement to assist their enquiries. Jimmy was still in shock but readily agreed; he wanted to do everything he could to help the investigation. Less than an hour
after he had discovered Grace’s body Jimmy entered Malahide Garda station and he spent the next eight hours being interviewed by two detectives.

When Margaret Murphy and Dr Moodley both attended to Grace in her bedroom they noticed her body was warm to touch. The bedroom itself was warm. Margaret had noticed that the blood from
Grace’s horrific head wound had started to congeal. This would indicate Grace had been shot quite some time before the alarm was raised. When Dr Moodley examined Grace’s body at 6.35
p.m. he formed an opinion that she had died around two hours previously. State Pathologist Dr John Harbison attended the scene at 11.30 p.m. He was told Grace’s body was warm when found. He
took a number of temperatures and formed an initial opinion that death may have occurred closer to 6 p.m. When Dr Harbison’s finding was put to Dr Moodley, the Livingstone
GP
said he was
happy with his original view based on his experience.

Not one person who entered the Livingstone bedroom once the alarm was raised got a smell of cordite. If a shotgun had recently been discharged in the bedroom there should have been a distinct
smell, but there was none. Jimmy Livingstone didn’t get such a smell, neither did Margaret Murphy, Fr Keegan, Dr Moodley, the ambulance crew nor the two Gardaí who were the first
officers at the scene.

The Livingstone house was quickly sealed off. Later that evening the murder weapon was found. It was one of Jimmy Livingstone’s legally held guns—a hammerless DBBL shotgun. It was
found abandoned under a hedge in the front garden of the Livingstone home. The outline of a most audacious and brutal crime was emerging. The murderer had entered the house sometime that afternoon,
taken one of the shotguns that was in the house, murdered Grace in her bedroom, and then dropped the weapon in the front garden as he made his escape.

In the hours after his wife’s body was found, Jimmy Livingstone remained at Malahide Garda station, giving a detailed statement, outlining how he had found his wife’s body. He
remained in the station until the early hours of Tuesday morning and gave Gardaí details of a number of revenue investigations he was currently involved in. Jimmy believed the murder was
most likely linked to the work he was doing.

Conor Livingstone got the train home from Dublin to Malahide that night after a long day’s work in the amusement arcade in Dublin city. Conor didn’t have a mobile phone so there was
no way anyone could make contact with him until he got home. He got off the train in Malahide and began walking home through the village, still unaware that his mother had been murdered. He was
walking past Malahide Garda station en route to The Moorings when someone saw him and broke the news to him that his mother had been shot dead in their house. Tara was contacted in Paris and told
the awful news. Just four months earlier Grace had visited her daughter in France and they had spent three weeks together, including going on a wonderful trip to Switzerland. Now Tara was being
contacted by the Irish Embassy in Paris and told the news about her mother’s murder.

Members of the Garda Technical Bureau carried out an extensive examination of the house. The tape which had been across Grace’s mouth and tied to her wrists and ankles was carefully
examined. Every person who had been in the house that evening was fingerprinted. A Garda fingerprint expert examined the tape—he found Jimmy Livingstone’s print where he had cut the
tape from his wife’s body. But there were other unidentified impressions on the tape which were not Jimmy’s. There was a finger mark on the non-sticky side and the impressions of the
tips of fingers on the sticky side. The tape was labelled and put into storage. To this day those fingermarks have not been identified. They were checked against all known fingerprints the
Gardaí have in their system, but no match was found. These prints remain a real clue.

Jimmy Livingstone was doing his utmost to help Gardaí. He outlined all the firearms he had in the house, including two for which he didn’t have the required licences. One was from
the First World War and the other was an air gun. He mentioned a number of suspected criminal or subversive figures who the Revenue Commissioners were investigating. One suspected senior member of
the
IRA
was under investigation in relation to smuggling activities. Jimmy gave all the information he could about all the people who might possibly have a grievance with
him.

Some days after the murder of Grace Livingstone the
IRA
issued a statement denying responsibility. History has shown that such denials cannot always be taken at face
value, but it is the considered view of many experienced investigators that the murder of Grace Livingstone did not fit with an
IRA
operation. It just didn’t
fit—what was the motive? Was it to stop Jimmy Livingstone carrying out a particular investigation? If so, why not claim responsibility, or why not expressly say this was the case? Why not
target Jimmy directly? Or why not simply give a warning of some sort? Although the organisation didn’t always stick to its stated policy of not firing on Gardaí or the Defence Forces
or other servants of the Irish State, the murder of Grace Livingstone does not seem to fit the bill of an
IRA
killing.

Perhaps the murder was the work of an organised criminal gang. There were certainly ruthless gangs which were capable of such an attack. Over ten years previously, in January 1982, Dublin
criminal Martin Cahill had obtained a bomb and placed it under the car of Dr Jim Donovan, head of the Forensic Science Laboratory. Dr Donovan survived the explosion but suffered long-term physical
injuries. On another occasion Cahill shot a Social Welfare official in both legs when his dole was stopped. Such violent actions showed that Dublin-based gangs were prepared to target civil
servants who were simply doing their jobs. It was entirely possible that Jimmy Livingstone’s work had incurred the wrath of some psychopath whose criminal wealth was being examined. But if
this was the case, the basic question remains—why was Jimmy’s wife targeted, why was he not targeted himself?