A magician and a church warden have appeared in court accused of murdering a teacher and attempting to kill his elderly neighbour.
Martyn Smith and Benjamin Field are also accused of fraud and of stealing a number of rifles.
Thames Valley Police launched a double murder inquiry in January, more than two years after the death of Peter Farquhar, 69, a guest lecturer at the University of Buckingham, and seven months after the death of retired headmistress Ann Moore-Martin, 83.
Farquhar died on October 26, 2015, and Moore-Martin, who lived three doors down from him in the village of Maids Moreton, near Buckingham, died on May 12, 2017.
Field, 28, a church warden, and 32-year-old Smith, a magician, appeared at High Wycombe Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday.
Field, of Wellingborough Road, Olney, is charged with two counts of conspiracy to murder Moore-Martin and Farquhar, one count of murder of Farquhar, one count of attempted murder of Moore-Martin, two counts of fraud and three counts of burglary.
Smith, of Penhalvean, Redruth, Cornwall, is charged with two counts of conspiracy to murder Moore-Martin and Farquhar, one count of murder of Farquhar, one count of attempted murder of Moore-Martin, one count of fraud, and two counts of burglary.
Both men are accused of stealing a French carbine rifle, an African long gun and a Martini-Henry rifle in April 2016, the court heard.
They are alleged to have committed fraud in 2016 by falsely claiming another man, Thomas Field, had kidney problems and needed a dialysis machine worth more than £26,000.
And Ben Field, who appeared in court with a cropped beard and a white fleece top, faces a charge of stealing a cardigan and a bottle of Drambuie.
Smith and Field were remanded in custody and are due to face Oxford Crown Court on Thursday morning.
A 22-year-old Olney man, who was also arrested on suspicion of conspiring to commit fraud by false representation and other charges, and has been released under investigation.
An obituary by his former pupil Channel 4 political correspondent Michael Crick described Farquhar as an evangelical Christian, “bird-like in appearance and slight in stature” but equipped with a withering wit.
“Peter’s size was more than compensated for by his intelligence and tenacity. He once punched a man at a bus-stop, it is said, for being rude to an old lady,” it added.
An initial inquest found he had died of “acute alcohol intoxication” and that his death was a “result of an accident.”