I married a murderer… I thought he had turned over a new leaf – then police discovered a bomb in our attic
Beverley Stephens was volunteering at a day centre for the down at heel in the Saltley area of Birminghamwhen she first met Barry Williams.
She thought he was kind with a friendly personality, a ‘regular’ man who had simply fallen on hard times.
Despite a 17-year age gap they started dating, but while Beverley, 34, was falling for her new beau, he was hiding a dark secret that would make most potential suitors run for the hills.
Williams, 51, was a convicted spree killer who had just spent 15 years in Broadmoor Hospital for executing five people in a gun rampage across the West Midlands.
He was incarcerated at Broadmoor for a horrifying rampage that saw him shoot dead three of his neighbours in West Bromwich before driving 20 miles to Nuneaton where he executed an innocent couple at random, in October 1978.
Williams was back on the streets after doctors deemed he no longer posed a danger to the public and was freed on the orders of Secretary of State Michael Howard.
He came clean to Beverley about his horrifying crimes and incredibly their romance blossomed. When the five-times killer proposed a year into their relationship, she said yes.
It begs the question, how could any woman ever marry a man capable of such evil?
In an exclusive interview with The Crime Desk, Beverley said: ‘He told me everything [about his past] from the start. Everything. He was truthful with me so I thought I would give him a chance.
‘I think the fact he was honest put me at ease. I never felt scared around him in the beginning.’
Within a year the couple were married in a shotgun wedding at the city’s registry office in early 1996, with their daughter Amy being born months later.
Speaking about their early life together, Beverley told the Mail: ‘That term shotgun wedding is somewhat ironic really, given his crimes.
‘But [when they met] he was kind and just seemed like a pleasant, regular man.
