In December 1979, the Hastie home on Selby Street in Hull caught fire in the early hours of the morning. Three of Hastie boys would die of their injuries. It was apparent from the beginning that the fire was arson: there were matches left and a trail of paraffin at the front door, and there was the smell of accelerant in the air. In an attempt to find out who would want to hurt the family, it became apparent that they were strongly disliked, but still there were no real leads. Until, that is, the police picked up 19 year old Bruce George Peter Lee.
He admitted to setting the Hastie fire. And then shockingly admitted to another 10 arsons in the Hull area. No one had suspected these fires were malicious. But should the police believe this young man with a troubled background?
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Theme Music:
Quinn’s Song: First Dance by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Sources:
Ron Sagar MBE, Hull Hell and Fire (London: Highgate of Beverly, 1999)
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3672468/Serial-killer-arsonist-burned-15-people-death-including-six-month-old-baby-pictured-strolling-day-release-prison.html
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3672468/Serial-killer-arsonist-burned-15-people-death-including-six-month-old-baby-pictured-strolling-day-release-prison.html
Paul Sutherland, “The Hull Arsonist Part 1 and 2” in The True Crime Enthusiast Podcast blog, March 2017. https://truecrimeenthusiast.wordpress.com/2017/03/24/the-hull-arsonist-part-1/