'Handless Corpse'- Shots documentary looks at one of Lancashire's biggest ever stories

What is the story?

Known widely as ‘The Handless Corpse’ case, the investigation began in 1979 when two amateur divers at Eccleston Delph, a water filled quarry near Chorley, discovered a mangled body in the water.

The body was marked with a chinese mark which led to newspapers at the time calling the case ‘the chinese puzzle’ and it turned out to be that of 'Mr Asia' Marty Johnstone, a man caught up in the drug trade.

The discovery of Mr Asia's handless corpse led to a murder trail which threw open the doors on an international drug smuggling operation, with Marty having been lured over from Singapore by gang members wishing to execute him for double-crossing one of the world's most powerful drugs syndicates.

With narration from former Lancashire Post and Blackpool Gazette editor, Nicola Adam, ‘The Handless Corpse’ documentary delves into the details of the tale, speaks to those involved in its coverage, and explores its’ wider impact.

What do the documentary’s contributors say?

Narrator Nicola said: “As a former crime reporter, the legendary story of the Handless Corpse is one that has always held a fascination for me and is a story that remains resonant and remembered in Lancashire. Although I didn't get to cover it myself I wrote a chapter about it in the book 'Lancashire Most Notorious Murders' and was able to comb through the Lancashire Post archives to bring it to life. It is one of those tales that absolutely lends itself to a documentary and I'm delighted we have been able to make it happen.

“The discovery of the body in Eccleston Delph led to one of the biggest crime investigations in international police history at the time - and the eventual trial at Lancaster Castle was the longest and most expensive with unprecedented levels of security. The discovery by two divers led to the shakeup of one of the biggest drug and crime networks in the world and the impact was felt from New Zealand, to New York - to Chorley.”

Former LEP chief reporter Brian Ellis covered the Handless Corpse case in 1979 and the lengthy murder trial which followed a year later at Lancaster Castle.

He won a national press award for his part in a series of world exclusives, and today, says the story still sends a chill down his spine.

Brian recalled: "At the time it horrified even the most hardened of police officers. The cold-blooded shooting in a lay-by north of Lancaster, the brutal attempts to hide his identity by chopping off his hands and smashing his face with a hammer and the way his weighted body was callously dumped in Eccleston Delph in the hope it would never be found were shocking beyond belief.

"But if the globetrotting drugs barons believed they had committed the perfect crime in a sleepy backwater near Chorley they didn't bank on the tenacity of the local police. While international law enforcement teams had failed for years to bring them to justice, Lancashire's finest set about cracking a gang which had peddled misery and murder across three continents.

"Detectives rounded up around a dozen suspects in Britain, including the syndicate's 'Mr Big' Terry Sinclair, and put such a strong case together that five were found guilty of murder, others were jailed for serious narcotics offences and, while the organisation was not totally dismantled, it was certainly damaged for a significant time.

“Sinclair, who had tried to bribe police at Chorley with £1m for a getaway car, died in Parkhurst Jail on the Isle of Wight in 1983. The official cause of death was a heart attack, although there were those who believed he had been silenced to prevent him squealing to investigators back in Australia in return for a more lenient sentence. And there were even theories that his death was an elaborate escape plot which went horribly wrong. Whatever the truth, one of the world’s biggest crime bosses met his end in a prison cell far from home.

"The Handless Corpse was the biggest story I ever covered in my lifetime in newspapers. At the time it was the most expensive criminal trial in British legal history. And 40-plus years on it remains arguably the most far-reaching case Lancashire Police have ever had to investigate."

Where can you watch the documentary?

The Handless Corpse is available to watch now on Shots!, a new TV channel set up by the company behind the Lancashire Post – National World.