Infamous Scots. Stanislaw Myszka.

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Myszka was a 23-year-old Polish deserter who, on Friday 26th September 1947 murdered Catherine McIntyre. Mrs McIntyre, a 47-year-old mother-of-three, was savagely beaten to death in her own home. Myszka’s haul consisted of £90 and Mrs McIntyre’s wedding ring that he had ripped from her finger.Mrs McIntyre and her family lived in an isolated cottage known as Tower Cottage at Kenmore on the slopes overlooking Loch Tay. Her son, Archie, had found her broken body locked in his bedroom when he returned home from work.Police were quickly out scouring the moors around the cottage. They soon came across a shelter buried deep in the bracken. In it they found the return half of a serviceman’s railway ticket from Perth to Aberfeldy, a sawn-off shotgun that still had fresh blood on it and a used razor blade. The service connection deduced from the ticket pointed to a camp for Polish exiles at Taymouth Castle. The shotgun was recognised by a gardener who had suspected Myszka of stealing it when they had worked together on the farm at Old Meldrum, Aberdeenshire. It also came the attention of the police that Myszka had suddenly found himself in funds, a rare event.Myszka was arrested near Peterhead on 2nd October. When he was searched, Mrs McIntyre’s wedding ring was found hidden in his shoe. At Myszka’s trial he tried to claim that he had no knowledge of the hideout on the moor but Professor Glaister, who had made a special study of hairs, identified the stubble adhering to the used blade as being consistent with Myszka’s. The jury took just twenty minutes to find the Pole guilty and he was hanged at Perth Prison on 6th February 1948.