Neville Heath | |
|---|---|
 Heath in a June 1946 publication | |
| Born | (1917-06-06)6 June 1917 Ilford, Essex, England |
| Died | 16 October 1946(1946-10-16) (aged 29) Pentonville Prison, London, England |
| Other names | The Lady Killer |
| Criminal status | Executed by hanging |
| Conviction | Murder |
| Criminal penalty | Death |
| Details | |
| Victims | 2 |
Span of crimes | 20 June 1946 – 3 July 1946[1] |
| Country | England |
Date apprehended | 1946 |
Neville George Clevely Heath (6 June 1917 – 16 October 1946) was an English murderer who killed two young women in the summer of 1946. He wasexecuted inPentonville Prison, London, in October 1946.
Neville Heath was born inIlford, Essex.[2] Although he came from alower middle class background, his father, who was a barber, made considerable financial sacrifices so that his son could attendRutlish School, a prestigiousgrammar school inMerton Park, London.[3]
Heath joined theRoyal Air Force (RAF) in 1937, but wasdismissed for goingabsent without leave.[4] He was later caughtobtaining credit by fraud, and six months later was sent to aborstal forhousebreaking andforgery.[2] Heath used a number ofaliases, including Lord Dudley and Lieutenant-Colonel Armstrong.
At the beginning of theSecond World War, Heath joined theRoyal Army Service Corps (RASC) and was posted to theMiddle East. After less than a year he was shipped home, but escaped the guard during the journey and went toJohannesburg. There he joined theSouth African Air Force (SAAF), eventually rising to the rank of captain. Heath married and had a son, but at the end of the war his wife divorced him on grounds of desertion. He was alsocourt martialled forwearing medals to which he was not entitled.
Heath returned to Britain in February 1946. Several months later, in the midst of his murder spree, he had a dinner date with the South African actressMoira Lister.[5][6] Scottish actressMolly Weir later reported that Heath had tried to chat her up at a department store inBournemouth in July 1946.[7]
On Sunday 16 June 1946, Heath took a room at the Pembridge Court Hotel inNotting Hill Gate in London. He used his real name but added the rank oflieutenant-colonel. He was accompanied by a woman, Yvonne Symonds, whom he said was his wife; in fact they had only just met. Heath had promised to marry Symonds, so she spent the night with him and returned home the next day.
On 20 June 1946, Heath spent the evening with Margery Gardner (32), a trained artist and occasionalfilm extra.Separated from her alcoholic husband, Gardner had a young daughter but was living alone inEarl's Court. Heath and Gardner had been dancing together at the Panama Club inKensington. The following day, the assistant manager at the Pembridge Court Hotel entered Heath's room after thechambermaid had been unable to gain entry. Gardner's body was found naked on the bed but covered to the neck with sheets. Her ankles were bound and marks showed that her wrists had been as well but the restraints had been removed. There were seventeen lash marks on her body, her nipples had been savagely bitten and an instrument had been inserted into her vagina.
The slash marks on Gardner's body showed the distinctive diamond pattern of a woven leatherriding crop, but the weapon was not found at the scene. Forensic pathologistKeith Simpson told police, "Find that whip and you’ve found your man."[8] Simpson estimated Gardner's time of death as between midnight and the early hours of the morning. Police learned that Heath and Gardner had arrived at the hotel around midnight and that nothing had been heard until a door slammed at 1:30am. The cause of death was suffocation, but only after the other injuries had been inflicted.
Heath went toWorthing and spent a few days with Symonds. Her parents were impressed with the supposed lieutenant-colonel, but he left when his name appeared in the newspapers in relation to Gardner's murder. He then went toBournemouth and took a room at the Tollard Royal Hotel under the name "Group Captain Rupert Brook", an alias inspired by the war poetRupert Brooke. A few days after beginning his stay at the hotel, he met Doreen Margaret Marshall, who was staying at theNorfolk Hotel.
Marshall was born inBrentford in 1924,[9] to company director Charles Marshall and his wife Grace Merritt.[10] She had served in theWomen's Royal Naval Service (WRNS) during the war and had been discharged on 27 June 1946. Suffering from a bout ofinfluenza andmeasles, she took a holiday in Bournemouth to convalesce.
During the war, Bournemouth had become a garrison town, with most of the hotels taken over asbillets for British troops.The Norfolk Hotel, located onRichmond Hill near thetown centre, remained open to civilian guests.[11] Only five minutes from the hotel was the seafront, where 100-foot (30 m) sandy cliffs framed the beach and were held back by a low sea wall with apromenade. Whilst walking along the promenade on 3 July, Marshall encountered Heath, who again introduced himself as Group Captain Rupert Brook.[12]
Initially impressed with Heath's looks and manner, Marshall accepted his invitation to take afternoon tea at the Tollard Royal Hotel, where he was staying. Marshall spent the afternoon with Heath and, feeling lonely in Bournemouth, she accepted his further invitation to dine with him that evening. After dinner, Heath took Marshall to the hotel lounge to listen to dance music on thewireless. By now, Marshall was clearly uncomfortable with Heath and asked another guest to call a taxi for her, claiming she was tired. Heath cancelled the taxi and offered to walk her home. On leaving the hotel, Heath told theporter that he would be half an hour; Marshall corrected him: "He will only be a quarter of an hour." This was the last time Marshall was seen alive.
Marshall's disappearance was reported to police by the manager of the Norfolk Hotel on 5 July. He also contacted the manager of the Tollard Royal, knowing that she had dined there on the night she disappeared. The manager of the Tollard Royal advised Heath to contact police in case he had any information which might help them. The following day, Heath duly telephonedDetective Constable Suter at Bournemouth police station and offered to help. He went to the police station and from a photograph identified Marshall as the woman he had been with, but claimed he had left her in the gardens in central Bournemouth.
Later that day, Marshall's father and sister, Charles Marshall and Joan Cruickshanks, arrived at Bournemouth police station and by chance met Heath under his assumed name, who was introduced by Suter. "Brook" joked to them about his similarity to the wanted poster of the murderer Neville Heath. Suter felt sure that he was the man wanted byScotland Yard, asking, "Isn't your name Heath?" Heath denied it and said he wanted to return to the hotel for his coat. The police fetched it for him and searched it, finding a railway cloakroom ticket, which in turn led them to a suitcase containing a riding whip with a diamond pattern weave. Under questioning, Heath admitted his real identity. The next day he was transferred to London, where he was charged with the murder of Margery Gardner.
Marshall's whereabouts remained a mystery until 7 July, when waitress Kathleen Evans, out walking her dog, noticed a swarm of flies by arhododendron thicket inBranksome Dene Chine. Further investigation revealed Marshall's naked body, badly mutilated. Wounds found on her hands suggested she had grasped defensively at a knife. She had received blows to her head, her wrists and ankles had been tied, one nipple had been bitten off, and her throat had been slashed. As with Gardner an instrument, possibly a branch, had been inserted into her vagina. She also had a large gash that ran from the inside of her thigh up to her mutilated breast. Some of her possessions were found at the beach huts atAlum Chine.
Although Heath was charged with Doreen's murder, his subsequent trial and execution related only to his earlier murder of Gardner. Marshall's body was returned to her parents and buried inPinner Cemetery.
Heath's trial began on 24 September 1946. Heath originally told his counsel,J. D. CasswellKC, to plead guilty, but when Casswell questioned this, he said, "All right, put me down as not guilty, old boy".[13] Casswell chose not to call Heath to give evidence and relied on thedefence of insanity, calling William Henry de Bargue Hubert, an experienced criminal psychiatrist, to testify as anexpert witness. Hubert testified that he believed Heath knew what he was doing but not that it was morally wrong, but theprosecution easily destroyed Hubert's argument; unknown to Casswell, Hubert was a drug addict and was under the influence ofmorphine as he testified in the witness box.[13]
Two prison doctors testified that although Heath was apsychopath and asexual sadist, he was not insane. He was found guilty and sentenced to death byhanging byMr Justice Morris. Heath was executed byAlbert Pierrepoint on 16 October 1946 atPentonville Prison. A few minutes prior to his execution, as was the custom, he was offered a glass of whisky by the prison governor. Heath replied, "While you're about it, sir, you might make that a double".[14]
In a final letter written to his parents prior to his execution, Heath informed his parents: "My only regret at leaving the world, is that I have been damned unworthy of you both."[15]
In February 1946, a few months before the murders, a woman named Pauline Brees was found naked and tied up in a room at theStrand Palace Hotel in London. Heath stood over the woman, ready to thrash her. Hotel staff had been alerted by her screaming and forced entry to the room, but she subsequently refused to press charges against Heath in order to avoid publicity. When Gardner's body was found in June, Gardner was mistakenly identified by the staff at the Strand Palace as having been involved in this incident in February.
This identification was reported in the press at the time as fact, suggesting that Gardner had gone to the Pembridge Court Hotel fully aware of Heath's sexual proclivities and that she, therefore, must have had some sort ofmasochistic tendency. Despite the assumptions of many studies of the case to date, there is little actual evidence for this. ProducerSean O'Connor suggests that Heath barely knew Margery Gardner, and that they had never spent the night together before the night he killed her.[16]
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