11. ‘Theory of Second Murder – A Defence for the First’, Daily Mirror, 27 September 1946.
Chapter 19
1. Letter from Heath to Bessie Heath, 9 July 1946, TNA MEPO 3/2728.
2. Archives of the Solicitors’ Regulation Centre, Disciplinary Hearing, 18 May 1951.
3. See Reginald Spooner’s letter to Home Office, 18 July 1946, MEPO 3/2728.
4. Letter from Home Office to New Scotland Yard, 16 July 1946, MEPO 3/2728. See also correspondence re. the letter in HO 144/22872.
5. Letter from Heath to Leslie Terry, 11 July 1946, quoted in Byrne, Borstal Boy, p. 80.
6. ‘Character of Witnesses’, TNA MEPO 3/2728. Spooner further states that ‘he is unscrupulous and may even yet endeavour to turn his association with Heath on the day of the murder against us, if given the opportunity’.
7. Heath’s handwritten life story, TNA P COM 9/700.
8. Handwritten by the governor of Brixton Prison, 23 July 1946, TNA HO 144/22871.
9. Terry negotiated the deal with Hugh Cudlipp, the editor of the Sunday Pictorial. As the government had recently lifted the controls on newspaper rationing, Cudlipp felt that the story ‘could be expected to sell unlimited quantities of papers’. Byrne, Borstal Boy, p. 78.
10. As well as friends and family, several women he didn’t know sent him letters in prison and also corresponded with his mother.
11. Sunday Pictorial, 11 August 1946.
12. Letter from Heath to Isaac Near, 8 October 1946, TNA HO 144/22872: ‘I definitely feel that the letter from Pinner requires no answer, unless there is a repetition. Then go for it!’
13. In ‘Character of Witnesses’, TNA MEPO 3/2728, Spooner says ‘[Terry] has been a frequent visitor to Heath in HM Prison, Brixton’.
14. Letter from Heath to Leslie Terry, 19 July 1946, quoted in Sunday Pictorial, 29 September 1946.
15. Brock suggests that Doreen’s mother had the pen engraved for her, DPP 2/1254. Brock, The Life and Death of Neville Heath, pp. 110–111.
16. Daily Mirror, 7 August 1946.
17. Critchley (ed.), The Trial of Neville George Clevely Heath, p. 32.
18. Daily Herald, 25 September 1946.
19. See Casswell, A Lance for Liberty, pp. 197–222.
20. Casswell, op. cit., p. 242.
21. Ibid., p. 248.
22. Dr Young, 17 September 1946, TNA HO 144/22872.
23. Ibid.
24. Dr Grierson’s assessment, 16 September 1946, TNA HO 144/22872.
25. See ‘Antecedents of Neville George Clevely Heath alias James Robert Cadogan Armstrong’, compiled by Spooner, TNA MEPO 3/2728.
26. Letter from Heath to Leslie Terry, 15 July 1946, quoted in Byrne, Borstal Boy, p. 84.
27. News of the World, 6 October 1946.
28. Ibid.
29. Daily Express, Daily Mail, 10 September 1946.
Chapter 20
1. Letter from Heath to Elizabeth Armstrong, 14 September 1946, TNA HO 144/22872.
Chapter 21
1. Daily Mail, 24 September 1946.
2. Daily Herald, 25 September 1946.
3. Ibid.
4. Sunday Dispatch, 22 September 1946.
5. ‘Welsh Judge to Try Heath’, Western Mail, 21 August 1946.
6. Daily Mail, 25 September 1946.
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid.
10. News Chronicle, 25 September 1946.
11. Daily Mirror, 25 September 1946.
12. Critchley (ed.), The Trial of Neville George Clevely Heath, p. 128.
13. Critchley, op. cit., p. 132.
14. Pronounced ‘McNaughten’.
15. Psychological Treatment of Criminals, HMSO, 1938.
16. Critchley, op. cit., pp. 147–8.
17. Ibid.
18. Casswell, op. cit., p. 249.
19. Critchley, op. cit., p. 155.
20. Ibid., p. 150.
21. Questions to the jury, handwritten in pencil, 29 September 1946, TNA CRIM 1/1806.
22. Letter from Isaac Near to the Home Office, 7 October 1946, TNA HO 144/22872: ‘Unfortunately, very shortly before the said trial, the witness in question sustained so severe a heart attack that he had to be removed to a hospital.’
23. Critchley, op. cit., pp. 187–8.
24. Ibid., p. 213.
25. Ibid., p. 218.
26. Daily Graphic, 27 September 1946.
27. Casswell, op. cit., p. 255.
28. Daily Herald, 27 September 1946.
29. News Chronicle, 27 September 1946.
30. Daily Herald, 27 September 1946.
31. Ibid.
32. Ibid.
33. Quoted in Garfield, Our Hidden Lives, pp. 284–5.
Chapter 22
1. TNA HO 144/22872.
2. Sunday Express, 20 September 1946.
3. Letter from Heath to Isaac Near, 2 October 1946, TNA P COM 9/700.
4. Casswell, A Lance for Liberty, p. 249.
5. Letter from Heath to Bessie Heath, 29 September 1946, TNA HO 144/22872.
6. Ibid.
7. For the investigation into the murder of Vera Page, see TNA MEPO 3/1671.
8. Florrie Porter is discussed in TNA MEPO 3/2728.
9. In a recent discussion of the case, Neil Root claims that ‘the police files on Neville Heath . . . have never been declassified’. In actuality most of the Heath archives have been available for public study for some years. This author successfully had the majority of the material in DPP 1/1522 and DPP 1/1524 released in 2011. Root also claims that the files were withheld because of ‘an unconnected murder that remains unsolved’. The National Archives have restricted some information in the files but this is only in relation to the privacy of third parties. Contrary to Root’s suggestion, there is no evidence that Heath was responsible (or even suspected) of any other murders than those of Margery Gardner and Doreen Marshall.
10. Reginald Spooner’s report, 19 July 1946, TNA HO 144 22872.
11. Peter Tilley Bailey, 25 June 1946, TNA DPP 2/1522.
12. Further statement of Leonard William Luff, 26 June 1946, TNA DPP 2/1522: ‘I have been shewn [sic] six photographs by Detective Sergeant Swarbrick. The woman in the large photograph and the woman on the seat with the child [i.e. the photograph of Margery Gardner and her daughter Melody] certainly appear to me to be identical with the woman I saw in Room 506 as described in my earlier statement [i.e. Pauline Brees].’
13. ‘Hotel Detective Says – Margery Gardner Had One Escape’, News of the World, 29 September 1946.
14. Casswell, op. cit., p. 239: ‘It is almost certain that a month before her death [Margery] had been with Heath to another hotel bedroom and had only been saved then from possible murder by the timely intervention of an hotel detective.’ As has been outlined in the text and notes, this was definitely Pauline Brees and not Margery Gardner.
15. As recently as 2011, Neil Root suggests that Margery had dated Heath previously and that she ‘probably knows it is going to be another wild night out, followed by extreme sex, which both of them enjoy’. There is no evidence for these assumptions (indeed, the contrary if Margery’s friends, lovers and her husband are to be believed). Root is solely reliant on secondary sources with no original research and repeats many of the errors and questionable assumptions which have accumulated around the case over the preceding sixty-five years.
16. Pauline Brees, 27 July 1946, TNA DPP 2/1522.
17. Peggy Waring’s second statement, 13 July 1946, TNA MEPO 3/2728.
18. Confidential report by Mr Scott, Director of the Borstal Association, 23 August 1946, P COM 9/700
19. Though he may have attempted to use the three nails on her – or himself.
20. This may be unlikely, as she knew she was expecting her period, as confirmed by her sister.
21. Reginald Spooner’s report, 2 October 1946, TNA HO 144 22872.
22. Letter from Heath to Near, 2 October 1945, TNA P COM 9/700.
23. D
aily Mirror, 27 September 1946.
24. Daily Express, 27 September 1946.
25. G. F. Nash of St John’s Crescent SW9 wrote to the Home Secretary on 30 July 1946, asking ‘If a description of this man and his mental condition had been widely and emphatically publicised in all probability the second murder would not have been committed. Why was it not? Because you think you know what’s good for us?’ TNA MEPO 3/2728.
26. Daily Mirror, 27 September 1946.
27. Ibid.
28. Quoted from Hansard, TNA HO 144/22872.
29. ‘Heath Appeal Move Likely This Week’, Sunday Dispatch, 29 September 1946.
30. Like Heath, True was educated at a grammar school and in the First World War had joined the Royal Flying Corps. In 1922 he murdered a prostitute, Olive Young. He then pawned her jewellery. At his trial, the prosecution relied on the M’Naghten Rules to prove that True was not insane in the eyes of the law. He was sentenced to death. The case was rejected on appeal, but the Home Secretary intervened and True was re-examined by three psychiatrists who all declared that he was insane. (See Carswell, Donald, The Trial of Ronald True, William Hodge, 1925.)
31. Letter from Heath to Bessie Heath, 30 September 1946, TNA HO 144/22872.
32. Letter from Heath to Isaac Near, 9 October 1946, TNA HO 144 22871.
33. Letter from Drs Norwood East and Hopwood to HM Prison Pentonville, 11 October 1946, TNA HO 144/22872.
34. Letter from Rosemary Tyndale-Biscoe to James Chuter Ede, 9 October 1946, TNA HO 144/22872.
35. 11 October 1946, TNA HO 144/22872.
36. Letter from Rosemary Tyndale-Biscoe to James Chuter Ede, 14 October 1946, TNA HO 144/22872.
37. Sunday Despatch, 13 October 1946.
38. News of the World, 6 October 1946.
39. Handwritten note by Mrs Van der Elst and message taken by a secretary at the Home Office after Mrs Van der Elst’s visit, 15 October 1946, TNA HO 144/22872.
40. Daily Telegraph, 15 October 1946.
41. Daily Mirror, 15 October 1946.
42. Letter from Heath to Isaac Near, 14 October 1946, TNA HO 144/22872.
43. Pierrepoint, Executioner: Pierrepoint, p. 127.
44. Bournemouth Echo, 16 October 1946.
45. See ‘Mrs Van Der Elst Fined’, Star, 16 October 1946, and ‘Heath Hanged: Crowd Mob Mrs Van Der Elst’, Evening News, 16 October 1946.
46. Pentonville Prison directive from the governor, 2 October 1946, TNA P COM 9/700.
47. As well as Heath, Pierrepoint used this special strap on Haigh and Josef Kramer, the ‘Beast of Belsen’.
48. Pierrepoint, op. cit., p. 129.
49. Chapman, Madame Tussaud’s Chamber of Horrors, p. 222.
50. On the day of Heath’s execution, Madame Tussaud’s opened at 9.20 a.m. in order for the public to view the newest addition to the Chamber of Horrors. Though having had several changes of clothes in the interim, in 2013, the wax figure of Heath is still on display at Madame Tussaud’s in London, standing beside George Joseph Smith and Dr Crippen.
51. Prison Medical Report, TNA P COM 9/700.
52. Pierrepoint, op. cit., pp. 129–30. Pierrepoint’s description here is not specifically relating to Heath, but to an anonymous prisoner, but in recording it, Pierrepoint was attempting to describe a ‘typical’ execution as processed by him.
53. Prison Medical Report, TNA P COM 9/700.
54. Declaration of the Sheriff and Heath’s death certificate signed by Dr Liddell, TNA HO 144/22872.
55. Adamson, The Great Detective, p. 179.
56. The fact that Heath had a double whisky just before he died is confirmed in the prison hospital records. There are several variants of Heath’s last words including, ‘Under the circumstances, you might make that a double’, TNA P COM 9/700.
Chapter 23
1. Between his arrest and execution, Heath’s parents received hundreds of letters of sympathy from strangers. These prompted Bessie Heath to give this interview with Barry Halton, a reporter for the People. Mrs Heath did not accept payment for the interview: ‘I could not make money out of my boy,’ she told Gerald Byrne (Byrne, Borstal Boy, p. 79). At her request, a donation was made to the Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund.
Afterword
1. Beevor, The Second World War, p. 1.
2. Peter’s widow, Kathleen, went on to commit suicide on 26 August 1961, taking an overdose of sleeping tablets.
3. Fabian, London After Dark, p. 59.
4. Author interview with Melody Gardner, 24 October 2011.
5. Author interview with Julia Young, 19 October 2011.
6. Adamson, The Great Detective, p. 280.
7. Ibid., p. 282.
8. Ibid., p. 179.
9. News of the World, 29 September 1946.
10. Ibid.
Appendix
1. All in TNA PCOM 9/700.
Sean O’Connor is a writer, director and producer and has worked in theatre, radio, television and film. In 2011, he produced the feature film version of Terence Rattigan’s The Deep Blue Sea, directed by Terence Davies. He is the editor of the BBC’s long-running radio drama, The Archers. His Shakespeare adaptation, Juliet and her Romeo, played to great acclaim at Bristol Old Vic in 2010. He lives in London.
List of Illustrations
1. Neville Heath as a child, with his mother, Bessie, c.1918.
2. Vikings House, Rutlish School, October 1933. Heath is in the second row, seventh from the left.
3. Neville Heath in his mid-teens and already a young man about town, c.1930.
4. Heath aged twenty in his RAF uniform, in the garden at Merton Hall Road, 1936.
5. Heath’s wife, Elizabeth, and their son, Robert, Johannesburg, 1944.
6. 19 Squadron at RAF Duxford, 1936. Heath is fourth from the left in the second row. Johnny Kent is standing second from the right. Squadron Leader J. W. Turton-Jones is seated, centre.
7. American Mitchell Mark II Bombers of 180 Squadron prepare for take-off from Melsbroek, Belgium, for a daylight attack on the bridges at Venlo in Holland, October 1944.
8. The art deco foyer of the Strand Palace Hotel, designed by Oliver P. Bernard.
9. Celebrations in Trafalgar Square on ‘V’ Day, 8 June 1946. ‘This beats everything – the Coronation, the Jubilee and any of the cup finals.’
10. Yvonne Symonds hurries to avoid press photographers, summer 1946.
11. Exterior of the former Pembridge Court Hotel, 34 Pembridge Gardens, 2012.
12. Police plan of Room 4 at the Pembridge Court Hotel.
13. The young Margery Wheat, mid-1930s.
14. Margery Gardner’s identity card photograph, c.1940.
15. The Tollard Royal Hotel, West Cliff, Bournemouth.
16. Advertisement for the Tollard Royal Hotel, for its first season since the end of the war, summer 1946.
17. Doreen Marshall, her father, mother and sister, Joan Cruickshanks, in the garden at Woodhall Drive, summer 1946.
18. Bomb damage in Kenton Road, the Marshalls’ former home, 28 June 1944.
19. Doreen Margaret Marshall.
20. Detective Constable George Suter.
21. Divisional Detective Inspector Reginald Spooner (right) with an unnamed assistant.
22. Police photographers take pictures of the scene of the crime, Branksome Dene Chine, July 1946.
23. Violet Van Der Elst is arrested among the crowds gathered outside Pentonville Prison on the morning of Heath’s execution, 16 October 1946.
24. A woman reads the notice of Heath’s execution outside Pentonville, 16 October 1946.
25. Heath’s waxwork at Madame Tussaud’s in London, wearing a copy of the tweed jacket he wore to the pre-trial hearings at West London Magistrates’ court.
26. Heath’s effigy is groomed in the Chamber of Horrors at Madame Tussaud’s, at some point in the 1960s. Here he wears a copy of the pinstripe suit he wore at his trial.
27. A Bournemouth newspaper headline reporting the murder of Doreen Marshall, 9
July 1946.
28. The cover of Sydney Brock’s book, The Life and Death of Neville Heath, published in 1947. It promised a ‘Sensational-Sadistic-Romantic-True Story’.
29. Heath returning from West London Magistrates’ Court, August 1946.
1. Neville Heath as a child, with his mother, Bessie, c.1918.
2. Vikings House, Rutlish School, October 1933. Heath is in the second row, seventh from the left.
3. Neville Heath in his mid-teens and already a young man about town, c.1930.
4. Heath aged twenty in his RAF uniform, in the garden at Merton Hall Road, 1936.
5. Heath’s wife, Elizabeth, and their son, Robert, Johannesburg, 1944.
6. 19 Squadron at RAF Duxford, 1936. Heath is fourth from the left in the second row. Johnny Kent is standing second from the right. Squadron Leader J. W. Turton-Jones is seated, centre.
7. American Mitchell Mark II Bombers of 180 Squadron prepare for take-off from Melsbroek, Belgium, for a daylight attack on the bridges at Venlo in Holland, October 1944.
8. The art deco foyer of the Strand Palace Hotel, designed by Oliver P. Bernard.
9. Celebrations in Trafalgar Square on ‘V’ Day, 8 June 1946. ‘This beats everything – the Coronation, the Jubilee and any of the cup finals.’
10. Yvonne Symonds hurries to avoid press photographers, summer 1946.
11. Exterior of the former Pembridge Court Hotel, 34 Pembridge Gardens, 2012.
12. Police plan of Room 4 at the Pembridge Court Hotel.
13. The young Margery Wheat, mid-1930s.
14. Margery Gardner’s identity card photograph, c.1940.
15. The Tollard Royal Hotel, West Cliff, Bournemouth.
16. Advertisement for the Tollard Royal Hotel, for its first season since the end of the war, summer 1946.
17. Doreen Marshall, her father, mother and sister, Joan Cruickshanks, in the garden at Woodhall Drive, summer 1946.
18. Bomb damage in Kenton Road, the Marshalls’ former home, 28 June 1944.
19. Doreen Margaret Marshall.
Handsome Brute: The True Story of a Ladykiller Page 42