Till Death Do Us Part: The True Story Of Misguide Love, Marriage, Death And Deception.: The True Story of Misguided Love, Marriage, Death and Deception - Softcover

Gaffney, Siobhan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0954870786 ISBN 13: 9780954870782

Publisher: Maverick House, 2005

Synopsis

Young, handsome Colin Whelan was a magnet for women, who always fell for his seductive charms. Little did they know that underneath his cool exterior lay a twisted desire to kill.

About this title

Review

'...could become a classic of the true crime genre.' -- Fingal Independent

'Sensational..' -- The Star on Sunday

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Colin Whelan was a methodical killer. He
had spent months planning his crime and
rehearsing the murder and his alibi. There
would be no unforeseen problems on the chosen
night of the killing. More than anything else, he
knew his victim wouldn’t scream with fright or
summons help when he walked into her bedroom
to kill her because the victim was his wife of just
six months.
Whelan decided to go through with his plan on
the night of Wednesday, 28 February 2001.
His motive was money. A year earlier, he had
taken out a £400,000 (€500,000 approximately)
insurance policy on his wife’s life. He also wanted
to begin a new relationship with a Welsh woman
he had met over the internet.
He maintained his composure throughout the
day in question and gave away no clues as to what
he planned. He left his office at Irish Permanent on
St Stephens Green at 5pm to catch a train home.
He was so casual he even read the Evening Herald as
he travelled to his home in Balbriggan.
He had spent the previous seven months trawling
the internet for information on how to commit
the perfect murder. He had typed in the word
‘asphyxiation’ followed by ‘loss of consciousness’
and ‘how to asphyxiate’ to learn about death.
During the course of the day, Whelan slipped out
of work to purchase a gift for his wife. He bought a
cast-bronze figurine of a man casting a fishing line
from a boat, entitled ‘A Day’s Fishing’ in Brown
Thomas. It matched a similar piece they had
received as a wedding present.
When he returned to his desk that afternoon,
he spent 30 minutes on the phone to his online
girlfriend, Helen Sheppard, arranging to travel to
Wales later that weekend. When he finished the
conversation, he next rang his wife at her place of
work while at the same time searching the internet
for information on ‘loss of consciousness’.
When he arrived home at 6pm, he changed
clothes and left for the Body Lab gym, leaving his
wife to prepare his dinner.
His wife, Mary Gough, was in good spirits. She
had told friends at work that she was going into
Drogheda town that evening to collect the results
of a blood test from a homeopath in an attempt
to lead a healthier lifestyle. She wanted to attend
a detox programme to lose weight and she was
looking forward to it.
Whelan spent an hour in the gym before
returning home. After they had both eaten, he drove
her to Drogheda where she had an appointment at
9.15pm with her homeopath, Michael Hughes, who
noticed that she was in good humour that night.
Whelan gave away no indication of what he had
in mind. When the couple arrived home, he told
his wife that he was going to take a shower and he
walked upstairs.
Oblivious to her husband’s psychosis, Mary
Gough spent some time attempting to work out
her new detox programme before going upstairs to
prepare for bed.
She was attacked moments after she had changed
into a pair of white, teddy bear patterned pyjamas
in the master bedroom of the couple’s new home.
There was nothing to suggest that anything was
wrong. Her husband simply walked into the room,
took his wife by surprise and started choking her
to death.
Mary hadn’t a chance. She stood just 5ft 4 inches
in her bare feet while Whelan towered over her.
A mixture of sheer strength and surprise gave
him the advantage. As he entered the bedroom,
he gripped the cord of a dressing gown in his
right hand. Standing a few inches behind his wife,
Whelan grabbed her from behind without warning
and grappled with her neck.
Attempting to fight her husband off , Mary
summoned all her energy and turned around to
face her husband, probably staring at him with
terror stricken eyes.
In stunned disbelief, she tried to break free from
her husband’s forceful grip but as she flayed her
arms in the air, Whelan’s hold on her neck became
stronger and stronger. She could barely breathe.
In an effort to pull his hands free from around
her neck, Mary scraped her nails down her
husband’s bare chest. This caused him to relax his
grip temporarily. For a moment she was able to
breathe and took a huge lungful of air. She then
made an effort to run but Whelan grabbed her
left arm while she tried to get free, ripping the left
sleeve of the pyjama top just above the cuff . The
tear extended almost all the way around the sleeve,
such was the force he used.
Maddened, Whelan grabbed his wife’s long,
brown hair and dragged her onto their king-size bed.
Mary kicked to fend him off and screamed at him
to stop but he wouldn’t. Whelan was not listening,
but was transfixed by his sickened mission.
Pulling the cord from his dressing gown free,
Whelan took his wife’s head in his hands and first
wrapped a towel around her neck, followed by the
cord. The towel, Whelan had researched on the
internet, would disguise ligature marks left by a
manual strangulation. He hoped this would make
it difficult for detectives to identify the cause of
death. As she continued to scream, he pulled the
cord tighter and tighter. Mary’s face soon began to
turn blue and the first trickle of blood oozed from
her nose.
In a desperate effort to save herself, she scraped
Whelan down his chest once more. This gave her a
few moments grace from the relentless stranglehold
he had around her neck.
Wiping the blood from her face with her right
hand, she tried to escape but was unable because
she was too weak. Her face had now turned from
blue to purple and her breathing had become
laboured.
Sensing that her death was imminent, an enraged
Whelan pulled the cord with such force that Mary
bit her own tongue. Unable to scream anymore,
Mary resigned herself to her fate.
She was going to die at the hands of her husband.

Edition details

• Publisher: Maverick House
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0954870786
• ISBN 13: 9780954870782
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 206