An American wanted over the grisly murders of two Mormon missionaries 28 years ago pleaded to be left in peace when he made a brief appearance in a British court yesterday.

The savage killings of Mark Fischer, 19, and Gary Darley, 20, gained notoriety because the murders bore similarities to the horror film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Wheelchair-bound Robert Kleason, 69, was brought before Bow Street Magistrates in London to be remanded back into custody before an extradition hearing next month.

Kleason spent two years on Death Row in the US for allegedly shooting and butchering the young men with a bandsaw after inviting them for tea at his Texan trailer in 1974.

An appeal court cleared Kleason of the murders on a legal technicality in 1977. He came to the UK in 1990 to live in Barton, South Humberside, with his German wife.

But following recent advances in DNA technology, the FBI asked for Kleason to be arrested and sent back to the US for retrial.

The bearded pensioner told the court yesterday: "I want one thing. I want to go home. My home is in Germany with my wife and children.

"I will be 70 in few months. This has hurt my German wife very much."

He also complained about the constant delays in the hearing of the case.

"It seems ridiculous to bring me back and forth and bang me up in solitary at six weeks a crack to sit there and hear the same thing over and over again.

"I don't want to string this thing out any longer. I want you to set a deadline."

One of the legal arguments in the case centres on a pair of blood-stained trousers, recovered near Kleason's trailer.

Prosecutor James Lewis, for the US Government, has told how the clothing was found to be spattered with one victim's blood.

But Kleason's defence, headed by James Sturman QC, said the discovery was part of an illegal search and should be ruled inadmissible evidence.

Kleason allegedly invited the victims for a meal at his trailer in Austin, Texas, before butchering them with a bandsaw on October 28, 1974.

It is believed he had a grudge against members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints because they had refused to stand by him when he was in trouble with the police.

Kleason, of Whitecross Street, Barton, was remanded into custody until August 6.