John Heron

John Heron was stabbed in the back in the British Rail Travel Centre at Waterloo Station in London on the night of Friday 9 December 1988 at about 8.45pm.

He was stabbed by a man that wrongly accused him of jumping the queue.

After being stabbed he was taken to St Thomas's Hospital in London but suffered from a heart attack as a result of being stabbed and died. John Heron had suffered stab injuries to his lungs and arms.

John Heron had been waiting in line at the time to get information about trains from London to Glasgow.

His attacker was described as being white, aged between 30 and 40, between 5ft 6in and 5ft 9in tall, of a medium proportionate build, with a long, thin face, and dark straggly greasy brown collar length hair. He was said to have been wearing a light grey jacket and to have been scruffy. Two photofits of the man was released. The police later said that they thought that his attacker was Scottish and that he was back in Scotland and probably being shielded.

The police said that they were also anxious to speak to a man that had been standing in front of the attacker in the queue who had been making lengthy inquiries at the centre shortly before John Heron was stabbed. The police said, 'This man was in front of the attacker and may have seen him close up. He may have vital information as to his capture. It is possible the attacker had a Scottish accent, a casual worker like Mr Heron who had come down south to work'.

In March 1989 the police said that they were trying to trace two men who they thought could help to track down John Heron's murderer.

The first was thought to have been a road manager with a rock group. He was described as being about 30 to 40 years old, about 5ft 8in tall, and to have come from Kilbirnie near Glasgow. The police said that they thought that he might have 'important information' about John Heron's murder and said that they thought that he had been working in the London area for about two years.

The second man, who was named, was aged about 40 and had been drinking in the Skinners Arms pub in Southwark on the night of the murder. It was said that he was thought to have been with a group of people that had been drinking there and had been talking to the other man thought to have been a road manager from Kilbirnie. The police noted that he was not a suspect.

John Heron was from Barrhead in Glasgow but had left his wife in Glasgow to go to Bracknell to get work as a heating engineer and it was thought that he was on his way back home when he was murdered. He had been living in Tebbit Close in Bracknell at the time.

John Heron was an ex-paratrooper and was married with three children.