Maisie Gooch is a character appearing in the episode Ring Out Your Dead of the ITV crime drama Midsomer Murders.
Maisie's maiden name is Ebbrell. She's the great-great-great granddaughter of a vicar of St. Catherine's Church in Midsomer Wellow, Jonathan Ebbrell. Jonathan was chased to the top of the church's bell tower by a mob of bellringers in a violent rage. Jonathan was smashed in his skull by the massive weight of the old bells in the tower that hit him as they were ringing. The bellringers then took the unconscious or dead Jonathan to the well on the cemetery grounds of the church, tossing him down into the water, where he was found dead the next day.
The Ebbrell family, for five generations, became the hardest hit family in the village by the lynch murder, with Jonathan's wife being reduced to poverty and their descendants suffering a expansive history of persecution, squalor, depression, and suicide. Maisie was irreparably traumatized from learning her history, but she maintained herself to live as happy and healthy as she could into her elder years, with all her relatives in the family house and with a stable livelihood in their most recent years. She became church archivist at St. Catherine's, where she researched much more of her family history, and her nephew Dennis Ebbrell was due to have a baby with his wife Jen Ebbrell.
For reasons unknown, Maisie was finally pushed over the edge, believing the despair she feared of her family would soon befall her nephew's and that of his unborn child. Overwhelmed with a psychotic obsession to vindicate and restore the family legacy, as she couldn't seek her revenge on the bellringers responsible for Jonathan's murder or even their descendants, she fixated on the Midsomer Wellow bellringer team, especially when a bellringing competition was happening in their village, and team leader Peter Fogden was fervently determined to acquire the trophy for his own family's honor. Knowing Peter stole two Enfield revolvers from Frances Le Bon and her late husband to sell, Maisie broke into his home and snatched one of the guns for herself for later use in the murders.
She started by luring womanizer and former househusband Greg Tutt to the bell tower, using his affairs as art of the lure. Typing a letter signed with Emma Tysoe's name, alleging a "tryst" at the church, she mailed it to him, which he giddily accepted and met Maisie at the tower for that very night. When he got there, Maisie was lying in wait and shot him in the heart just under the bell. She left a typed note under his hand reading "DING DONG BELL", derived from the classic nursery rhyme. Emma was splashed with Greg's blood when the hole through which the bell's rope was poured it down on her. Emma's marriage to Liam Booker was nearly disrupted when the letter was found out.
However, the marriage had proceeded as had gone and been organized. The night before, Maisie smashed through a glass window to leave one small opening for the revolver's nozzle to fit through. When Emma was standing in her dress for photos after the wedding, in clear line of site and fire from inside the church, Maisie shot her in her heart, where she instantly collapsed in her own blood. Another note titled "VICAR'S IN THE WELL" was tacked to the cork board inside. She herself actually assisted Tom Barnaby, who was courteous to her along with his wife Joyce Barnaby during their casual home meetings, by clarifying the rhyme's perversion and bringing Barnaby to the well personally to elaborate the history.
As this was not the assumed motive, leading to the police considering other leads, Maisie proceeded the rest of her hunt to the finish. Marcus Steadman and Frances, who was like another mother to him, both received notes from the post, Marcus' reading "WHO PUT HIM IN" and Frances' reading "LITTLE TOMMY TIN". Marcus was left to take a greenpath route home while Frances investigated the church bell's passing toll, which was being played on an automated recording Maisie installed earlier, before she secured the gates with a padlock and chain. Following Marcus to the lake, she watched him collapse on a bridge walkway due to his asthma. With a walking stick in her hand, she forced Marcus' inhaler and then Marcus into the lake, where he drowned and his note of "WHO PUT HIM IN" floating down the currents.
Maisie waited until after the competition was finished, and the Midsomer Wellow team successfully won and were celebrating at the church up in the bell tower. Maisie made sure she tacked a note to a column reading "LITTLE TOMMY TIN ... WHO PULLED HIM OUT ... LITTLE TOMMY STOUT ...", revealing she was reading to kill all of them at once that very moment. Hiding herself from view briefly, with the Enfield in her purse, she made her way herself up the steps and followed the trio. However, by this point, Dennis revealed the family name, which connected the dots for Barnaby and Gavin Troy especially when her computer showed files with the notes that were printed and meant to be printed, leading to the tow rushing to the church to rescue the remaining bellringers.
Maisie snagged a bell in place with tethers so someone would inspect. Liam came upstairs when Peter sent him, where Maisie was present and waiting. She cocked her revolver and shot Liam in his left shoulder, sending him tumbling under the bell in severe pain. She proceeded to carefully maneuver herself down the stairs and hold Frances and Peter hostage inside the rope room, the gun trained in both their directions. Barnaby addressed Liam and rescued him, while Troy was right behind waiting for the opportune moment. All that time, Maisie was extensively elaborating her motives and family history with wild emotion, despite Frances' and Peter's failed attempts to discourage and sympathize with her, the gun even cocking when they tried further. Barnaby loosed the tethers himself, ringing the bell spontaneously enough to startle Maisie to give the right moment to act during the distraction. Troy successfully jumped her, knocking the revolver to the ground out of her hands while she screamed, as well as taking a nasty bruise in his face from the force of the rope in the process.
Maisie was taken away in a delirious state and in restraints, speaking to her family and saying she thought she saved their baby and them with her actions. She was escorted into the police car with witnesses watching. Extending one last thanks, she asked Barnaby to send to his wife for the coffee she was given. Before the car drove her away, she wore an exhausted smile and a distant stare on her face.
Victims[]
- Greg Tutt - Lured to the bell tower with a supposed letter from Emma Tysoe and shot in the heart with an Enfield revolver. He then had a note put in his hand which said "DING DONG BELL".
- Emma Tysoe - Shot in the heart with an Enfield revolver right after her wedding through a church window that was broken through the night before. Inside the church was left a note which said "VICAR'S IN THE WELL".
- Marcus Steadman - While having an asthma attack his inhaler was thrown into a river and as he was reaching for it, he was pushed inside facedown where he drowned. Earlier that day he received a note which said "WHO PUT HIM IN".
- Frances Le Bon - Held hostage at gunpoint and attempted to shoot with an Enfield revolver, but Maisie was arrested. The day before, she received a note which said "LITTLE TOMMY THIN".
- Liam Booker - Shot in his shoulder with an Enfield revolver, leaving him under a church bell with a tether near snapping so the bell would bludgeon him to death. Tom Barnaby pulled him out from under the bell in time. Would have received a note which said "WHO PULLED HIM OUT".
- Peter Fogden - Held hostage at gunpoint and attempted to shoot with an Enfield revolver, but Maisie was arrested. Would have received a note which said "LITTLE TOMMY STOUT". Previously burgled of the Enfield revovler, which he in turn burgled from Frances Le Bon.