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Kill Total: |
3 ? |
Kill place: |
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Kill date: |
1946 |
Victim(s): |
Margery Gardner
Doreen Marshall
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Date of Birth: |
1917 |
Marital Status: |
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AKA: |
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Occupation: |
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Born Neville George
Clevely Heath, in Illrord Essex 1917, although in later
years he would use the alias of Group Captain Rupert
Brooke, as well as many others.
In 1934 Heath joined the Rifle Battalion and enjoyed the
service life. In 1936 Heath joined the RAF but was
court-marshalled for being AWOL (absent without leave). He
was dismissed in September 1937 and, two months later, was
put on probation for fraud.
In July 1938 he received
three years in a borstal for stealing £50 worth of
jewellery. Once released Heath joined the Royal Army
Service Corps, as a private, and was in the Middle East in
1941 when he was granted a commission. It was not long
before he got into trouble again, it was fraud again. He
again went AWOL, and was court-marshalled. He escaped
during his return to England and went to South Africa.
Using the name Armstrong, he joined the South African Air
Force. The South African authorities found out about his
past but, because of his present good conduct, he was
allowed to stay on. He was seconded to the RAF in May
1944. Heath returned to South Africa in 1945 where, in
December, he underwent his third court-marshal, this time
for undisciplined behaviour and for wearing unauthorised
decorations. Once again he was dismissed and returned to
England.
On a Spring evening in
May 1946 Heath met Margery Gardner a 42 year old actress,
after consuming a large amount of alcohol they booked into
the Pemberidge Court Hotel in London. Mrs. Gardner was
stripped naked, tied up and whipped, they were enjoying
themselves !
On 15th June, 19-year-old Yvonne Symonds went to a dance
in Chelsea. There she met a good-looking, charming man who
called himself Lt. Colonel Heath. Though he was ten years
older than she was, she quickly became taken by him. They
went back to the Panama Club in South Kensington, followed
by a visit to the Overseas Club. They agreed to meet the
next day. They spent the whole day together and, after she
had accepted his proposal of marriage, agreed to spend the
night with him at the Pembridge Court Hotel. They spent
the night in room 4 and, next day, Yvonne returned to her
parents’ home in Worthing,
On Thursday, 20th June he again met Margery Gardner. After
an evening in the Panama Club they turned up drunk at the
Pembridge Court Hotel. When the chambermaid went to clean
the room the next day she let herself into the room and
found that there was a body in one of the beds. The police
were called.
Margery Gardner was lying, on her back. She was naked and
had her ankles tied with a handkerchief. Her face was
badly bruised and both of her nipples had been almost
bitten off. Something had been inserted into her vagina
and sharply rotated. Her back was marked with seventeen
cross weave lash marks. She had been suffocated, but only
after the terrible injuries had been inflicted.
Earlier that day Heath had caught the train to Worthing to
see his fiancée, Miss. Symonds. He booked into a Hotel and
they had lunch together. The following day, the 22nd, they
met again. Heath told Yvonne about a murder that had
happened in London and that he would tell her more about
it later. That evening the pair went for dinner, where
Heath told the girl that he had been staying at the
Pembridge Court Hotel and had seen the body. He went on to
say that he had lent Margery Gardner his room keys,
because she had a man that she wanted to entertain, and
that he, Heath, had spent the night elsewhere. The next
day Sunday, 23rd, the papers announced that the police
wanted to interview Heath. Yvonne telephoned Heath and
told him of the story in the press and he agreed that he
ought to contact the police to clear up the matter. Before
Heath left Worthing that afternoon he wrote to Inspector
Barrett recounting the tale he had told his fiancée,
adding that the name of the man that Margery Gardner was
supposed to have met was ‘Jack’. He went on to say that he
had returned to his hotel room after 2am and found her
dead, packed his things and left, worried about being
wrongly suspected of the crime.
After leaving Worthing he went to Bournemouth. Here he
called himself Group Captain Rupert Brooke. He moved into
room 71 but was transferred to room 81 after he requested
a room with a gas-fire. Ten days later, on Wednesday, 3rd
July, he met Miss Doreen Marshall. She was 21 years old
and in Bournemouth to recover from flu. She agreed to have
tea with Heath that afternoon. They parted after tea but
agreed to meet that evening for dinner. They dined
together at the Tollard Royal and, about 11.30pm, Doreen
left to walk the short distance to her hotel, accompanied
by Heath.
On the Friday, the manager of the Norfolk Hotel, where
Doreen was staying, told the police of a guest who had
been missing for two days. He also telephoned the manager
at the Tollard Royal because he had heard that Doreen had
dined there the night that she had vanished. The manager
at the Royal Tollard, Mr Relf, approached Group Captain
Brooke on Saturday morning and asked him if his dinner
guest had been Miss Marshall. This he denied, saying that
he had known the lady for a long time. The manager
suggested that the Group Captain contact the police to
clarify the matter.
Heath rang the police and spoke to DC Souter. Heath was
asked to come to the station to look at a photograph of
the missing girl. Heath turned up at the police station at
5.30pm. While he was talking to DC Souter, the detective
noticed the resemblance between the man sitting opposite
him and the photograph of Heath circulated by Scotland
Yard, and told his superiors of his suspicions. When
challenged Heath asserted that his name was Brooke. He
asked if he might have his jacket from the hotel and DI
George Gates went to fetch it. When Gates returned the
jacket was searched and a cloakroom ticket was found,
along with a single pearl which came from a necklace
belonging to the missing girl and her return half of her
railway ticket from Bournemouth to London. When the
officers presented the cloakroom ticket at Bournemouth
West station they were rewarded with a suitcase. In it was
clothing marked with the name ‘Heath’, a hat and scarf,
stained with Margery Gardner’s blood, and a leather-bound
riding crop covered with a cross-weave pattern. At 9.45pm
Heath admitted his real identity. The next day he was
transferred to London where he was charged with the murder
of Margery Gardner.
The body of Doreen Marshall was found by a lady walking
her dog, the body had been dumped in bushes. Naked apart
from the left shoe, she had been battered about the head,
there were signs that she had been bound. She had died
from two deep knife wounds to the throat. A nipple had
been bitten off completely and her torso had been
mutilated by a Y-shaped cut running from her midriff to
each nipple. Something had been inserted into, and torn
her vagina, just like the Gardner case.
Heath’s trial was on
24th September 1946 at the Old Bailey. He pleaded
insanity, but two prison doctors testified that, although
Heath was a psychopath, he was not insane. The jury took
one hour before returning with a guilty verdict.
Heath was hanged by Albert Pierrepoint on 16th October
1946 at Pentonville Prison.
Heath is further credited with a third murder, although
details are sketchy, he was never actually charged with a
third murder.
