Jo Cox’s killer nicknamed Marigold by neighbours amused by his love of coloured gloves and unaware of Nazi double life
NEO-NAZI nut Thomas Mair hid his secret obsession with the Third Reich behind a cleverly crafted double life – cutting neighbours’ lawns while he plotted Jo Cox’s murder.
Families on the run-down Birstall estate where he lived alone for years after the death of his grandparents regarded him as harmless - perhaps even vulnerable.
They playfully nicknamed him Marigold for his love of gardening in the brightly coloured rubber gloves and told how he taught disabled kids and volunteered.
He studied at a local college as a mature student, regularly delivered his mum's food shopping and spent the day there before the murder tuning her telly.
The killer never let anyone inside his house but his community work merely masked a monster who lived a lie for nearly two decades.
He had withdrawn from society - only speaking to grunt “computer” at library staff - where he masterminded his evil plot and fed himself a diet of far-right hate.
Not even his closest relatives - his mum or two brothers - knew of his twisted Neo-Nazi views or his online ties to networks of white supremacists.
For 17 years - since his grandparents died and left him alone inside the two-up two-down at 86 Lowood Lane - he silently prepared for murder.
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Inside the immaculately kept property he created a vile Nazi shrine, complete with Swastika emblazoned golden eagle.
He amassed step-by-step guides, including how to make a "Pipe Pistol For .38 Caliber Ammunition"; using parts from any average hardware store.
They included "The Chemistry of Powder and Explosives", "Improvised Munitions Handbook", "Incendaries" - and the official Nazi Party testament 'Ich Kampfe'.
Mair had also been a loyal subscriber to S. A. Patriot, a South African magazine published by White Rhino Club, a pro-apartheid group.
In one letter to the group in 1991 he wrote: "The nationalist movement in the UK also continues to fight on against the odds…
"Despite everything I still have faith that the White Race will prevail, both in Britain and in South Africa, but I fear that it’s going to be a very long and very bloody struggle."
He apparently even attended a meeting of far-right sympathisers in London in 2000.
His family had no idea.
Mair's shocked half-brother Duane St Louis, 41, said he became a loner and vowed to remain single after a girlfriend cheated on him with a pal.
He told how Mair turned to reading for comfort and later struggled with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder - using Brillo pads to clean himself and refusing to touch door handles.
Duane said: "We don't understand what drove him to do something like this. It's like a nightmare that I want to wake up from.
"I couldn't believe it when I saw a picture of him on the news in handcuffs on the floor after the murder.
"There was nothing to suggest that he had these views or even worse that he would act upon them in the way he did.
"He taught disabled children on a voluntary basis and did loads of community work. He even cut the grass for his neighbours.
"He never expressed any views about Britain, or politics or racist tendencies. I'm mixed race and I'm his half-brother, we got on well.
"He was never violent and not that political. I don't even know who he votes for. How on earth did he get hold of a gun?"
Duane and his mum, Mary Goodall, 70, along with millions on telly, watched the moment he was pinned to the ground by cops just moments after killing Jo.
Frail Mary was sat with a friend at her home in nearby Birstall, West Yorks., when she saw the footage suddenly flash up and shrieked: "It’s my Tommy!"
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Aerial fitter Kris Jarrett, 33, said: "I asked her if she had seen the news about the MP to make a bit of small chat and that's when she saw it.
"She was in tears and kept repeating that her son was a quiet man and this was so out of character.
"She said that although he was very political and had his views, he had never been in trouble, didn’t smoke or drink and was an ex-teacher.
"He spent every day going to Birstall library because he loved reading.
"Mary contacted police and when they confirmed he was being held, she collapsed into my arms, saying 'I can't believe he's done this, I can't believe he's done this.'
Mair went to her home, like he always did, for Sunday dinner. Even then there was no suggestion, no worrying sign, of what was to come just days later.
But undiscovered clues to his state of mind lay at the libraries his mum wrongly thought he visited to read.
In fact staff at Birstall told his trial they had never seen him borrow a book there, instead acting oddly around people he saw every week.
Customer Services officer Berverly Fletcher recalled: “He was a regular visitor to the library, possible once a week. As far as I know he only accessed the IT services, I can’t remember him getting out a book.
“Thomas Mair doesn’t engage in conversation, he doesn’t make eye contact.
He would just come in and say ‘computer’. I know Thomas Mair likes his privacy. He likes his privacy because he doesn’t talk much.”
Neighbour and close friend Diana Peters, 65, said she was more likely to believe he was "Santa Claus" rather than a Neo-Nazi.
The retired nurse, who has known him since he was a a teenager, said: "He was a mild-mannered and meek man.
"I just would never have dreamt he was capable of anything like that. I would have believed it more if you had told me he was Santa Claus.
"He never gave any impression he had this type of violence in him. We have never spoken about politics and what was happening in the world.
"We just spoke about our little world on the corner.
"I am totally devastated that I may have been living next door to somebody who had these views.
"You just don't know who is living next door."
There were, however, moments when Mair's mask slipped. He had been blacklisted by taxi drivers after racially abusing them.
Zain Ali, 21, who works at the Oakwell & Rex taxi firm, said: "Drivers have said they picked him up and he would give them racist abuse.
"They asked us to blacklist him, said they would rather not bother with his fare."
Mair was born in Kilmarnock when his mum was just 17 but moved to Yorkshire two years later with his baby brother Scott after she split from his dad, James.
That was the last time either of them saw or had any contact with their dad. He died in August 2006 aged 63.
Mary gave birth to her third child - Duane - in 1973 and later married his father Reginald St Louis in 1979.
Three years later Mair moved in with his grandparents and remained there alone after their deaths.
Mair's aunt revealed she watched the aftermath of Jo’s death unfold on TV unaware she was related to the man accused of killing the MP.
Sarah Leckie, 70, from Newmilns, said: "When I saw it all on the news I never even clicked it was my brother’s boy.
"He was two-years-old when his mum Mary left to go down south with him and his baby brother Scott.
"I haven’t clapped eyes on him since then.
"I was never really privy to the reason why James and Mary broke up but when she moved away that was it, end of story.
"My brother never saw Tommy again after that. I think that was the way it was to be when they split."
Mum-of-two Sarah said her brother never got to see Tommy again after Mary left.
The only communication he received was from the child support agency.