23. Letter from Heath to Messrs Hayman, Godfrey & Sanderson, 1 September 1945: ‘Dear Sir, I am advising you that I have forwarded, signed, to Mrs Rivers, the document which hitherto I have declined to sign. This should enable my wife to obtain what she wants without difficulty . . . Could you obtain consent from Mrs Rivers to renew the bail should the case be remanded for a further period . . .’ NAR, 8038.
24. On 30 August 1945 in the Supreme Court, Heath officially gave up his rights to his son: ‘I furthermore declare that I consent to and have no objection to and Order being made by the above named Honourable Court depriving me of all such rights of guardianship in respect of such minor child, and granting such rights to my wife . . .’ NAR 8041.
25. Flight Lt. Chapman, DSCO 6005-6.
26. Major Donnelly, DSCO 6003-4.
27. Neville Heath, DSCO 5972.
28. Telex to intercept Heath’s letters, 31 August 1945, DSCO 5974.
29. Heath’s defence quoted in Chaplin’s statement, DSCO 5976.
30. Flying Officer James Bainbridge Chaplin RAF, 7 September 1945, DSCO 5975.
31. In his letter of 15 November 1945 to the adjutant general, H. B. Wakefield, the Rivers’ family solicitor Mr Friedman had also looked over the recent charges against Heath and concluded that ‘quite frankly, he was extremely fortunate not to be found guilty, and it seems that he was given the benefit of the doubt in this case’, DSCO 6012.
32. Charles Friedman, 27 July 1946, TNA MEPO 3/2728.
33. The court martial took place on 4 December, DSCO 6023.
34. Document issuing court martial, 13 December 1945, DSCO 6020.
35. See letter from E. E. Crowe at the Office of the High Commissioner for the United Kingdom, Cape Town, 16 February 1946, TNA MEPO 3/2728.
36. New Statesman and Nation, 27 October 1945, pp. 277–8.
Chapter 11
1. Kent (ed.), An Encyclopaedia of London, p. 42.
2. For a detailed inventory of the damaged buildings of London, see Kent, op. cit.
3. Beaton and Pope-Hennessy, History Under Fire, p. 45.
4. See Kent, The Lost Treasures of London, and Richards, The Bombed Buildings of Britain.
5. Chapman, Madame Tussaud’s Chamber of Horrors, p. 215.
6. The Times, quoted in Kent, The Lost Treasures of London, p. 33.
7. See The London County Council Bomb Damage Maps 1939– 1945 edited by Ann Saunders with an introduction by Robin Woolven, London Topographical Society and London Metropolitan Archives, 2005.
8. R. S. R. Fitter, London’s Natural History (1945), quoted in Inwood, A History of London, p. 810.
9. Kent, The Lost Treasures of London, p. 120.
10. See Prologue, p. 1–7.
11. Letter from South African Commission for the United Kingdom to Inspector Riggs, Wimbledon CID, 27 February 1946, MEPO 3/2728.
12. Metropolitan Police Enquiry Officers’ Records, Royal Air Force, Bush House, Kingsway, 25 March 1946, TNA MEPO 3/2728.
13. After his arrest, Spooner had Heath’s two log books examined under an ultraviolet lamp at Scotland Yard. This revealed numerous alterations in the records, claiming many more missions than Heath had, in fact, accomplished. These alterations had been done extremely skilfully, but the fingerprint bureau photographed the alteration on the first page of one of the log books, and this clearly showed the name J. R. C. Armstrong beneath that of N. G. C. Heath. These changes had all been effected by the use of chemicals. The most plausible explanation for the alteration of the log books is that during April and May, he was negotiating with various air-transport firms for employment as a pilot. Clearly his references would need to be in his own name if he was to avoid any enquiry into his SAAF connections, which had resulted in his being deported. See ‘Antecedent History’ compiled by Spooner, MEPO 3/2728. Photocopies of doctored log book entries are in TNA HO 144/22871.
14. Ralph Fisher, 26 June 1946, TNA MEPO 3/2728.
15. Muriel Frances Silvester, 5 August 1946, TNA MEPO 3/2728.
16. Jill Rosemary Harris, 23 June 1946, TNA MEPO 3/2728.
17. DS Cains’ interview with the manageress of the Red Lion Hotel and various individuals at the Luton Flying Club, Luton Borough Police, 23 June 1946, TNA MEPO 3/2728.
18. Until 2028.
19. See ‘Antecedents of Neville George Clevely Heath alias James Robert Cadogan Armstrong’, compiled by Spooner, TNA MEPO 3/2728.
20. Lister, The Very Merry Moira, pp. 82–3. Lister claimed to have dated Heath between the murders of Margery Gardner and Doreen Marshall: ‘The only thing that may have saved me is that I am blonde and both girls were brunettes.’ This was repeated in many of Lister’s obituaries when she died in 2007. Though she may well have dated him, it cannot have occurred as she suggests (i.e. in the days between the two murders), as Heath was on the run along the south coast after the murder of Margery Gardner.
21. Ibid.
22. Quoted in Byrne, Borstal Boy, p. 48.
23. Harry Ashbrook, 23 June 1946, TNA DPP 2/1522.
24. Heath had actually been discussing the purchase of some planes with an Arthur Coombes from Reading. Coombes had been convicted of nine air-traffic offences as well as charges for false pretences in 1939. He and Heath had discussed buying planes that cost between £695 and £5,500, even the cheapest of which was well beyond Heath’s means, TNA MEPO 3/2728.
25. Reginald Spooner, 22 June 1946, TNA DPP 2/1522.
26. People, 29 October 1946.
27. Sunday Pictorial, 29 September 1946.
28. This was later quashed on appeal.
29. Leslie Terry, 25 June 1946, TNA DPP 2/1522.
30. ‘Character of Witnesses’, TNA MEPO 3/2728. Terry was known to be identical with Leslie Turkington, CRO No. 4888/25.
31. ‘I Found Blood on My Hands’, Sunday Pictorial, 13 October 1946.
32. Ibid.
33. Sunday Pictorial, 23 October 1946.
Chapter 12
1. Letter to R. Morgan at the Home Office requesting to intercept the post, 3 July 1946, TNA MEPO 3/2728.
2. Chief Inspector G. Carmill, 24 June 1946, TNA MEPO 3/2728.
3. Mr Macro Wilson also identified Margery from the contact sheet of photos that had appeared in the Daily Express on 24 June 1946, TNA MEPO 3/2728 60B.
4. Peter Alan Gardner, 22 June 1946, TNA DPP 2/1522.
5. ‘Character of Witnesses’, 24 July 1946, TNA MEPO 3/2728.
6. See e.g. Ronald Anthony Birch, 22 June 1946, TNA DPP 2/1522: ‘I regarded her as a particularly quiet girl and have never seen her the worse for drink.’
7. Ralph Macro Wilson, 26 June 1946, TNA MEPO 3/2728.
8. Percy Alexander Eagle, 1 July 1946, TNA MEPO 3/2728.
9. Reginald Spooner, 25 June 1946, TNA MEPO 3/2728.
10. Lawrence Kelly, 15 July 1946, TNA DPP 2/1522.
11. Statement of DI Percy Alexander Eagle, items recovered from the Ocean Hotel Annex: ‘3 nails found under the sheet on the right hand side of the bed. 1 bed sheet covering the mattress on the bed, the sheet bearing marks of excrement on the right hand side and what appeared to be bloodstains on the left hand side’ (DPP 2/1522). On 4 July, perhaps due to the evidence of blood and the presence of the nails, Spooner noted that ‘although up to now [Miss Symonds] has not admitted that any incident took place, I feel certain that it did’ (MEPO 3/2728).
12. List of property taken by Detective Inspector Eagle from the Ocean Hotel Annex, Worthing, and Miss Yvonne Symonds, on Monday 26 June 1946, and handed to Sergeant Kelly, Notting Hill Police Station, the same day, TNA MEPO 3/2728.
13. Daily Mirror, 29 June 1946.
14. The letter was posted on 22 June 1946 and received at Scotland Yard on 24 June 1946, TNA DPP 2/1522.
15. Evening News, 3 July 1946.
16. News Chronicle, 26 June 1946.
17. Anonymous typed letter to the superintendent, Criminal Investigation Department, New Scotland Yard, 1 July 1946. The letter began: ‘Why does not Scotland Yard publish a
good photograph of the man (“Lt-Col”) HEATH in the daily newspapers? If the public knew what he looked like it might save you chasing up false clues. On the other hand it might help to trace him’ (TNA MEPO 3/2728).
18. Percy Alexander Eagle, 1 July 1946, TNA MEPO 3/2728.
19. Daily Mirror, 27 June 1946.
20. Trevethan Frampton, 22 June 1946, TNA DPP 2/1522.
21. Reginald Spooner’s report, 19 July 1946 TNA HO 144 22872.
22. Re. the police petrol coupons, DS Frampton, 8 July 1946, TNA MEPO 3/2728.
Chapter 13
1. Closing speech for the prosecution in Critchley (ed.), The Trial of Neville George Clevely Heath, p. 210.
2. Ward Lock Red Guide, Bournemouth, p. 34.
3. Ibid.
4. Hardy, Tess of the D’Urbervilles, p. 491.
5. Ibid., p. 498.
6. Ward Lock Red Guide, Bournemouth, p. 41.
7. See Edington, Bournemouth and the Second World War, p. 105
8. Ibid.
9. The Americans dubbed Bournemouth without (apparently) irony, ‘the Miami of Britain’.
10. Bournemouth Echo, 29 March 1944.
11. Bournemouth Echo, 10 June 1946.
12. Bournemouth Times, 8 December 1944.
13. Sphere, 7 September 1948.
14. Tollard Royal advertisement in Bournemouth, Britain’s All Season Resort: The Official Guide, published by Bournemouth Corporation, 1946.
15. Violet Ruth Lay, 14 July 1946, MEPO 3/2728.
16. Jones, Rupert Brooke, pp. 110, 304.
Chapter 14
1. Ivor Arthur Relf, 23 July 1946, TNA MEPO 3/2728.
2. Ivor Arthur Relf, 10 July 1946, TNA DPP 2/1524.
3. Arthur James White, 10 July 1946, TNA DPP 2/1524.
4. Frederick Charles Wilkinson, 10 July 1946, TNA DPP 2/1524.
5. Charles Peter Rylatt, 15 July 1946, TNA DPP 2/1524.
6. Bernard Harold Tutt, 12 July 1946, TNA DPP 2/1524.
7. In her autobiography, Stepping into the Spotlight: The ITMA Years (Arrow, 1976), the Scots actress Molly Weir claimed that Heath tried to pick her up one afternoon in the restaurant at Bobby’s Department Store in Bournemouth. ‘The most noticeable thing about him were his eyes – blue and shining and full of a curious excitement’ (p. 70). He asked her not to return to London that night but to stay with him in Bournemouth. Weir claims that this meeting took place just after 5 p.m. on Wednesday 3 July and that she, therefore, had had a narrow escape. If this is true (though it may be that Weir met Heath on another day) Heath must have met her between having tea with Doreen Marshall at the Tollard Royal and having dinner with her there.
8. The two statements from Peggy (Margaret Clare) Waring are held in TNA MEPO 3/2728.
9. Peggy Waring’s first statement, 7 July 1946, TNA MEPO 3/2728.
10. Ibid.
11. Ivor Arthur Relf, 23 July 1946, TNA DPP 2/1522.
12. Though Frederick Wilkinson the night porter had noted that Brook ‘did not appear to have a lot of money. The only thing he paid for in cash was for after dinner drinks in the lounge. The rest of his expenses would be embodied in his bill.’ Frederick Charles Wilkinson, 10 July 1946, TNA DPP 2 /1524.
13. Bernard Harold Tutt, 12 July 1946, TNA DPP2/1524.
14. The events of Saturday are all from Peggy Waring’s second statement, 13 July 1946, TNA MEPO 3/2728.
15. Ibid.
16. Ibid.
Chapter 15
1. Alexander John Brough, 11 July 1946, TNA DPP 2/1524. Brough suggests that tickets No. 1012 and 1013 were purchased together by the same person, implying that at this point Joan was going to accompany her sister to Bournemouth.
2. Daily Mirror, 27 September 1946.
3. Email to the author from Julia Young concerning her maternal grandfather, Charles Marshall, 11 March 2012.
4. Bigland, The Story of the WRNS, p. 20.
5. Drummond, Blue for a Girl, p. 45. As Doreen had learned, even office routine and correspondence was different from civil practice. ‘W.R.N.S officers must know that “Dear Sir” is not the mode of address in the Navy, neither is the personal pronoun permissible. Instead, “It is requested that . . .”’ Scott, British Women in War, p. 23.
6. See The People’s War BBC website, www.bbc.co.uk/history/ ww2peopleswar/stories/48/a1153748.shtml
7. Charles Marshall, 13 August 1946, TNA DPP 2/1524.
8. Joan Cruickshanks, 10 July 1946, TNA DPP 2/1524.
9. Charles Marshall, 13 August 1946, TNA DPP 2/1524.
10. Elsie Isobel Jones, 10 July 1946, TNA DPP 2/1524.
11. George Wisecarver, 13 July 1946, TNA MEPO 3/2728.
12. Charles Marshall, 9 July 1946, TNA DPP 2/1524.
13. Bournemouth Echo, 3 July 1946.
14. Heath’s statement, 2.45 a.m., 7 July 1946, witnessed by Detective Inspector George Gates. This statement was commenced at 11.50 p.m. on 6 July 1946, MEPO 3/2728.
15. Ibid.
16. Heinz Abisch, 13 July 1946, TNA DPP 2/1524.
17. James William Newland, 7 July 1946, TNA DPP 2/1524.
18. Sydney Walter Bush, 7 July 1946, TNA DPP 2/1524.
19. She actually arrived by taxi.
20. Heath’s statement, exhibit 14, TNA DPP 2/1524.
21. Ivor Arthur Relf , 10 July 1946, TNA DPP 2/1524.
22. Heinz Abisch, 13 July 1946, TNA DPP 2/1524.
23. Detective Superintendent Lovell’s report to the chief constable of Dorset, Major L. W. Peel Yates, 18 July 1946, TNA DPP 2/1524.
24. Arthur Charles Marsh, 12 July 1946, TNA DPP 2/1524.
25. Winifred Marjorie Parfitt, 11 July 1946, TNA DPP 2/1524.
26. Radio Times Vol. 91, No. 1187, 28 June 1946.
27. Gladys Davy Phillips, 13 August 1946, TNA DPP 2/1524.
28. Arthur White, 6 August 1946, TNA DPP 2/1524.
29. Frederick Charles Wilkinson, 10 July 1946, TNA DPP 2/1524.
30. Ibid.
Chapter 16
1. Frederick Charles Wilkinson, 6 August 1946, DPP 2/1524.
2. Frederick Charles Wilkinson, 10 July 1946, DPP 2/1524.
3. Alice Hemmingway, 10 July 1946, DPP 2/1524.
4. Frederick Charles Wilkinson, 6 August 1946, DPP 2/1524.
5. Karl John Hambitzer, 12 July 1946, TNA DPP 2/1524.
6. Alice Hemmingway, 10 July 1946, TNA DPP 2/1524.
7. Harry Taylor, 11 July 1946, TNA DPP 2/1524.
8. Ellen Janie Bayliss, 10 July 1946, TNA DPP 2/1524.
9. Alfred Jesse Phillips, 12 July 1946, TNA DPP 2/1524.
10. Heinz Abisch, 13 July 1946, TNA DPP 2/1524.
11. Robert Donald Cook, 10 July 1946, TNA MEPO 3/2728.
12. Arthur White, 10 July 1946, TNA DPP 2/1524.
13. Ibid.
14. The address of Heath’s former fiancée, Peggy Dixon.
15. Henry Walter Burles, 6 August 1946, TNA DPP 2/1524.
16. Gladys Davy Phillips, 13 August 1946, TNA DPP 2/1524.
17. Ivor Arthur Relf, 6 August 1946, TNA DPP 2/1524.
18. Stanley Lionel Pack, 13 July 1946, TNA DPP 2/1524.
19. Ibid.
20. Harry Berkoff, 6 Aug 1946, TNA DPP 2/1524.
21. Clive Eugene Miles, TNA CRIM 1/1806.
Chapter 17
1. George Robert Suter, 13 July 1946, TNA DPP 2/1524.
2. Email to the author from Michael Suter, 30 May 2012.
3. George Robert Suter, 3 July 1946, TNA MEPO 3/2728.
4. Bournemouth Echo, 5 November 1980.
5. This conversation is taken from Suter’s witness statement.
6. Heath later said he was mistaken and that they had met in the morning.
7. Daily Express, 9 July 1946.
8. Ibid.
9. Leslie Ewart Johnson, undated, TNA DPP 2/1522, DPP 2/1524.
10. Leslie Ewart Johnson, undated, TNA MEPO 3/2728.
11. Initially he spoke to DI Wilfred Daws.
12. Email to the author from Michael Suter, 30 May 2012.
14. George Henry Gates, TNA MEPO 3/2728.
15. List of Exhibits Sheet 9 On Person – Heath. Removed by Bournemouth Police on 6 July 1946, TNA DPP 2/1522.
16. List of Exhibits Sheet 10, in jacket found hanging on clothes peg in Lounge, Tollard Royal Hotel, Bournemouth. Taken possession of by Divisional Detective Inspector Spooner on 7 July 1946, TNA DPP 2/1522.
17. Leslie Ewart Johnson, TNA DPP 2/1524.
18. George Henry Gates, TNA DPP 2/1524.
19. TNA DPP 2/1522.
20. The forensic laboratory in Hendon later confirmed that hairs on the scarf were from Margery Gardner’s head and that this scarf had been used to gag her, possibly contributing to her suffocation.
21. Particulars of handkerchiefs traced to Heath’s possession, 31 August 1946, TNA HO 144/22781.
22. Metropolitan Police Laboratory, Hendon, 11 July 1946, TNA MEPO 3/2728.
23. See Reginald Spooner’s statement, 17 July 1946, TNA MEPO 3/2728.
24. Further statement of Harold Harter, 8 July 1946, TNA DPP 2/1522.
25. Reginald Spooner, 29 July 1946, TNA DPP 2/1522.
26. Daily Mail, 9 July 1946.
27. Adamson, The Great Detective, p. 177.
28. Newsprint clipping translated from Swedish: ‘Record Bloodhound at Fault in Hunt for Lust Murderer’, MEPO 3/2728.
Chapter 18
1. Kathleen Evans, 9 July 1946, TNA DPP 2/1524.
2. Francis George Bishop, 13 August 1946, TNA DPP 2/1524.
3. News Chronicle, 10 July 1946.
4. Daily Mail, 12 July 1946.
5. The description of the crime scene is in Detective Sergeant Bishop’s and Crichton McGaffey’s statements. McGaffey also includes his post-mortem report, TNA CRIM 1/1806. He first examined the body at the scene at 11 a.m. and the post-mortem was conducted at Poole at 2.30 p.m.
6. This seems unlikely as she would have been self-conscious of the sanitary towel she was wearing in anticipation of her period.
7. Bishop found this handkerchief that had probably been used to gag Doreen 15 feet to the west of the body. Bishop’s statement, TNA P COM 9/700.
8. Clive Eugene Miles’ statement, TNA CRIM 1/1806.
9. Sunday Pictorial, 13 October 1946.
10. Critchley (ed.), The Trial of Neville George Clevely Heath, p. 132.
Handsome Brute: The True Story of a Ladykiller Page 41