Neville Heath
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Neville George Clevely Heath (6 June 1917-16 October 1946) was a sadistic psychopath, born in Essex, England, who was responsible for the murders of at least two young women. He was executed in London in 1946.
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[edit] Early Career
He joined the Royal Air Force in 1937, but was dismissed for going absent without leave. He was caught obtaining credit by fraud, and six months later was sent to Borstal for housebreaking and forgery. He used a number of aliases, including "Lord Dudley" and "Lieutenant-Colonel Armstrong".
When war broke out, Heath joined the Royal Army Service Corps, and was posted to the Middle East. He lasted less than a year. He was shipped home, but on his way he escaped the guard and headed for Johannesburg where he joined the South African Air Force, eventually rising to the rank of Captain. He married, and the couple had a son, but at the end of the war his wife divorced him on grounds of desertion. He was also court martialled, for wearing medals to which he was not entitled. He returned to England in 1946.
[edit] The Murders
On Sunday 16th June, Heath took a room at the Pembridge Court Hotel in Notting Hill Gate. He used his real name, but added the title Lieutenant-Colonel. He was with a woman, Yvonne Symonds, who he said was his wife - in fact they had only just met. Heath had promised to marry her, so she spent the night with him and returned to her home the next day.
[edit] Margery Gardner
The following Thursday Heath spent the evening with Margery Gardner. She was older than Heath, a part-time actress who had left her husband and daughter to seek her fortune. Heath and Margery had been dancing together at the Panama Club in Kensington. The following day the assistant manager entered Heath's room as the chambermaid had been unable to gain entry. Margery Gardner’s body was found naked on the bed, her wrists and ankles bound. There were 17 slash marks on her body, her nipples had been savagely bitten, and an instrument had been viciously inserted into her vagina.
In the fireplace there was a short poker, which Home Office pathologist Professor Keith Simpson said was responsible for her internal injuries. The whip that had inflicted the slash marks on her body was nowhere to be seen. These marks showed the distinctive diamond pattern of a woven leather riding crop. Professor Simpson told the police "Find that whip and you’ve found your man[citation needed]." Professor Simpson estimated Margery’s time of death as between midnight and the early hours of the morning. The police learned that Heath and Margery 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.
[edit] Doreen Marshall
Heath headed to Worthing to see Yvonne, the girl he had proposed to, and spent a few days with her. Her parents were impressed with the "Lieutenant-Colonel", but he left when his name appeared in the newspapers in relation to Margery's murder. He then went to Bournemouth and took a room at the Tollard Royal Hotel, under the alias "Group Captain Rupert Brook". A few days later he met Doreen Marshall, who was staying at the Norfolk Hotel. They spent the day together, had dinner at Heath's hotel, and talked until midnight. Doreen ordered a taxi back to her hotel but Heath persuaded her to cancel it and offered to walk Doreen back. She was not seen alive again.
The Police were informed of her disappearance, and the manager at The Norfolk remembered that she had taken a taxi to the Tollard Royal. There, the manager said she may have been the woman with Group Captain Rupert Brook. Although Heath/Captain Brook denied this, he telephoned Detective Constable Souter and said he might be able to help. He went to the Police Station, and identified Doreen's picture as the girl he had been with, but said he had left her at the Norfolk. The detective recognised Heath as the man wanted by Scotland Yard, and asked "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. They found a railway cloakroom ticket, which led them to an attaché case containing a riding whip with a diamond pattern weave. Professor Simpson identified it as the object used on Margery Gardner. Heath was questioned again, and he admitted his real identity. The next day he was transferred to London where he was charged with the murder of Margery Gardner.
While Heath was denying the murder of Margery Gardner the body of Doreen Marshall was discovered. Her clothes had been removed, apparently without a struggle, but 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 Margery Gardner, an instrument had been inserted into her vagina.
[edit] The Trial
The trial of Neville Heath for the murder of Margery Gardner began on 24th September 1946. J.D. Casswell KC, who defended Heath, chose not to call him to give evidence. Casswell relied on the defence of insanity, and called Dr W.H de Bargue Hubert, an experienced criminal psychiatrist, to testify as an expert witness. Dr Hubert testified that Heath knew what he was doing but not that it was wrong, but the prosecution easily destroyed Hubert's argument. Two prison doctors testified that although Heath was a sexual pervert and a psychopath, he was not insane. Heath was found guilty and sentenced to death. He was hanged by Albert Pierrepoint on 16th October 1946 at Pentonville Prison. Heath asked Pierrepoint for a whisky, and added "better make it a double".
Heath is also said to have been the assailant when, in 1946, a few months before the murders, a woman was found in a hotel bedroom in the Strand, London. She was naked and had been tied up. She had alerted the staff of the hotel by screaming. She refused to press charges, possibly to avoid the publicity.
It is not clear when Heath met Margery Gardner or how he could have attacked her without her screaming. In a statement Heath admitted that he had gagged her, and a saliva soaked scarf was found with the whip. It emerged after the trial that Margery had been a masochist who liked to be bound and lashed[citation needed]. She had probably gone back with Heath for pleasure, and so had probably allowed herself to be bound and gagged. Years after the trial JD Caswell KC wrote: "it is almost certain that a month before her death she had been with Heath to another hotel room, and had only been saved by a hotel detective."
[edit] Trivia
The novelist Patrick Hamilton is thought to have used Heath as a model for his character Gorse in his trilogy of novels.
The Heath case was dramatized on the BBC radio series The Black Museum in 1952 under the title of "The Powder Puff".
[edit] References
- http://www.historybytheyard.co.uk/neville_heath.htm
- http://www.murderuk.com/serial_neville_heath.html
- http://www.stephen-stratford.co.uk/neville_heath.htm
- http://www.real-crime.co.uk/Murder1/doch.htm#Heath,%20Neville%20George%20Clevely
[edit] Sources
- Forty Years of Murder: Professor Keith Simpson, published 1980
