Frank McKenzie: ‘Who killed my dear brother?’
‘Cold case’ cops to probe 1982 death
Published: 19th May, 2011
by DAVID ST GEORGE
THE brutal murder of a popular part-time actor who was battered to death by muggers in Holloway Road 29 years ago is to be investigated by specialist Scotland Yard detectives.
Joe McKenzie’s tragic death in Holloway Road shocked the community and left his family to grieve with unanswered questions ever since.
His identical twin brother, Frank, now hopes that a new probe by “cold case” detectives will loosen tongues which have been silent for so long and unlock consciences of those who know what happened to 37-year-old Joe on a Friday night in February 1982.
“It will be the answer I have been searching for ever since, if the police find out what happened, why, and the identities of those responsible,” said retired Camden Council electrician Frank, of Primrose Hill.
An “unlawful killing” verdict was recorded at St Pancras Coroner’s Court where a jury heard that Joe, a former Smithfield meat market worker who was also a bit-part actor, was found on wasteland near Whittington Park by a woman walking her dog.
A lump of concrete had been used to batter him after he left the Mulberry Tree pub. All he had on him when he was found was a Valentine’s card.
His wages from his job as a porter at the nearby Royal Northern Hospital had been stolen. Joe was a gay man with a wide circle of friends who lived with his widowed mother Emily in Canonbury Court, on Sebbon Street, in Islington. He had been drinking in the Norfolk, Cock and Mulberry Tree on the night he was attacked.
A “gentle giant” who stood over six feet tall, and powerfully built, his case led to TV, radio and newspaper appeals by police.
But despite a four-month inquiry no clue to the identity of the killer or killers came to light.
Frank, who took part in a reconstruction of his twin’s last known movements, added: “We all know that advances in science and detection work in recent years have often solved cases 30 or 40 years old and led to convictions.
“What I am hoping for is closure so that I can put the ghost of a dear and good brother to rest at long last.”