Handsome Brute: The True Story of a Ladykiller (60 page)
Read Handsome Brute: The True Story of a Ladykiller Online
Authors: Sean O'Connor
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.
8. The art deco foyer of the Strand Palace Hotel, designed by Oliver P. Bernard.
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.
18. Bomb damage in Kenton Road, the Marshalls’ former home, 28 June 1944.
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.
24. A woman reads the notice of Heath’s execution outside Pentonville, 16 October 1946.
27. A Bournemouth newspaper headline reporting the murder of Doreen Marshall, 9 July 1946.
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.
