Sheila Garvie - Mastermind or Victim

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The first few years the couple seemed happy and, as well as son Lloyd, had two daughters, Angela and Wendy. Max Garvie drank a lot and took drugs to excess, forcing her to indulge in outrageous sexual behaviour and assaulted her. He made Sheila join a nudist colony against her will and developed an obession with photography, pornography where he would snap nude picture of his wife, which he would display to his friends. Nearly five decades ago, it was the home of wealthy Maxwell Garvie, who was murdered by his wife Sheila and her lover Brian Tevendale. It is now owned by the couple’s son Lloyd. He was a wealthy farmer and a dabbler in Nationalist politics and enjoyed the thrills and exotic pleasures. He was known locally as the 'flying farmer' due to owning a two-seater aeroplane who would often fly 'too close to the sun'. Read More

West Cairnbeg – near Fordoun, Kincardineshire – was once the home of millionaire Maxwell Garvie, who was brutally murdered by his wife Sheila and her lover Brian Tevendale, on May 14 1967.She always said the same thing, over and over again. I really really think she thought it was basically him or her and it was her only way out for that to happen. Max had been getting bored for some time. Described as a farmer, he was more of a manager with other people doing the work and him reaping substantial profits. First fast cars filled his time, then a private aeroplane. I do think deep down she felt there was no other way out. He was either going to murder her or she had to do something else. I think as well she was trying to protect her children and felt she was doing the right thing. Max escalated the sex games – and would toss a coin to see if he or Tevendale would sleep with Sheila. Maxwell Garvie was a Scottish farmer and businessman who was murdered in 1968, in "one of the most infamous murders in Scottish criminal history". [1] [2] [3] [4]

I don’t think she was physically involved in the murder. I would love to say she was innocent in the whole thing because she was a lovely, lovely person but obviously knowing the story now, she probably did have a part in the planning. At first only friends were invited. Just some well-to-do folks having a laugh. These were not times for the shy or self-conscious. One night in 1967, Tevendale was staying over at the Garvies' yet again. In the early hours, his bedroom door was suddenly opened and a naked, shivering Sheila shoved into the room by her husband. At last he had broken his wife's will.

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Sordid - was how judges, lawyers and the media described the trial at Aberdeen High Court on November 19, 1968. As the sexual shenanigans unfolded, Sheila Garvie and Brian Tevendale blamed each other. Mr Nicol raises a new theory suggesting that the finger was pointed at the wrong woman and it was one of Max Garvie's former flames - the sister of Brian Tevendale, Trudy - claiming she was the true architect of the murder in revenge of being dumped. A crime of passion. But crimes of passion have no status in Scots law. Henry Burnett was hanged in Aberdeen on August 15, 1963 - the last man to be hanged in Scotland. There is also an image of the secret tunnel where the farmer’s decomposing body was found, wrapped in an undersheet, three months after he disappeared.

Sheila married twice - she was divorced once and then widowed. She led a steady, respectable existence running a B&B in Stonehaven. A big change from her years as mistress of 'Kinky Cottage.' The man who dealt the final blow married and became the landlord of a pub in Perthshire. He died in 2003.

Although, the tale of Sheila Garvie's mental, sexual and physical abuse she suffered in private at the hands of her controlling husband was lost in the sordid details of the tantalising stories of sex parties. Read More Related Articles

Mr Nicol claims she spurned on her brother to kill and details how Trudy lent him her car to execute the plan and helped wash her brother's clothes and dispose of the Garvie's blood soaked mattress. Yet sitting alongside her were Tevendale, 22, and his friend Alan Peters, 20, who was also accused of the killing and the disposal of Maxwell Garvie’s body in a disused tunnel, where he was buried after being shot to death. Sheila Garvie was called a femme fatale Tevendale blamed Sheila but didn’t mention Peters’ involvement. He claimed Sheila called him to the house, where he found her in a state – claiming Max had died accidentally. She said that during a struggle, the gun had gone off. Tevendale said he’d disposed of the body. Tevendale said later he believed she wrote the letter because she was being denied access to her children, Wendy, Angela and Lloyd.Sheila, more than either of her co-accused, stands as an enigma for the detectives working the case, as a wronged innocent for the lawyers hired to help her. She is branded by the media as a scandalous femme fatale, a murderous mastermind, a Lady Macbeth. Tevendale was given a unanimous guilty verdict, the majority convicted Sheila of murder with both receiving life sentence and served ten years in prison before they were released in 1978. Peters was freed on a not proven verdict. The men wrapped Max's corpse in a blanket, dumped him in the boot of Peters' car and took him to his last resting place in the drains of Laurieston Castle.