Charles King is a character appearing in the episode King's Crystal of the ITV crime drama Midsomer Murders.
Charles was defrauding his own company shared with his brother Alan, glass-blown product manufacturer King's Crystal, in the interest of transferring labor to China and keeping the profits to be hidden in offshore accounts. Accountant Peter Baxter was his partner in the scheme, and to guarantee its success, Charles sprinkled finely ground glass into Alan's food and/or drink to poison him. Alan was behind the wheel of a car in Shanghai when he succumbed to the effects and died in a fiery car crash. His belongings and remains were transferred back to China, and Charles and Baxter laid off all the workers without their pensions before closing the factory.
Alan's only child Ian was furious to find out Charles was marrying Ian's mother and Alan's widow Hilary. When the protesting workers, led by Jack Tewson, revealed the daylight robbery to Ian while picketing the wedding, Ian later broke into the abandoned factory for answers. Failing to snap a locked drawer open with Baxter's letter opener in his office, he was caught by Baxter. When Ian tried to leave, they both got into a struggle, and Ian stabbed Baxter to death, implied to be by accident, with the very Masonic dagger Ian was holding. Ian then drove Baxter's car and wore Baxter's cap past David Monroe, Ian's dear friend who wanted a relationship with him, then left Baxter at a stream with the car and weapon and tossed the cap.
As Charles was also a Mason, Ian joined the society to get answers. Charles was also grappling with the workers having documents of the fraud they were ready to take to court. When Ian knew Charles killed Alan, he told Hilary, who told Charles. Charles then sedated Ian with barbiturates and then hanged him with cable term rope from the Freemasons' lodge, which also conveniently left Charles fully in charge of the business' final net worth. Hilary knew full well Charles was guilty, crushed sleeping pills to put in his food, and then drove him back to the factory to kill him with his own dagger with a hood over his head. Tom Barnaby and Ben Jones intervened, arresting them both. Charles refused to confess, so Alan was exhumed, and his poisoning was confirmed, leading to Charles' charges.
Victims[]
- Alan King - Killed in a car accident. It was found that there was a large quantity of finely ground glass in his stomach which acted as a poison and caused him to lose consciousness and lose control of the car he was driving.
- Ian King - Sedated with Barbiturates and hung with cable term rope that is used in Masonic rituals to make it appear as suicide.