Twenty nine year old Neville George Clevely Heath murdered two women, his girlfriend Margery Aimee Gardner, aged 31, and 21 year old Doreen Marshall, both in the summer of 1946. Heath had previous convictions and had been court-martialled three times while serving in the forces during the war. He had a reputation for telling tall stories of his wartime heroism and his connections with powerful people as he drank in bars in and around Wimbledon.
Margery Gardner enjoyed masochistic sex and Heath was a sadist so there was an obvious bond. They acted out their fantasies at the Pembridge Court Hotel in London's Notting Hill Gate where Heath tied Margery up and whipped her with a diamond weave pattern leather whip. He had also bitten her breasts and inserted an object into her vagina causing heavy bleeding, all before suffocating her, probably to stifle her screams on the evening of Friday, the 21st of June. Her body was discovered in Room 4 of the hotel by staff the following morning. Heath had left the hotel and went to stay with his fiancée, Yvonne Symonds, in Worthing in Sussex. Heath told Yvonne about the murder in the hotel and said that Margery had gone to the hotel with a man named Jack and that he had let them use his room. He also said that he had seen the body, although he did not tell her that he had been in any way involved in the killing. After leaving her, he wrote a letter to Scotland Yard telling them the same story.
Passing himself off as Group Captain Rupert Brooke, he met his second victim, Doreen Marshall, at a dance in Bournemouth at the beginning of July 1946. He invited her to dinner at the Norfolk Hotel which they left at 12.15 a.m. and later murdered her. Again, her breasts were savagely bitten and a sharp object had been thrust into her vagina. He hid her naked body in bushes and covered it over with her clothes. The hotel manager asked him to contact the police who were looking for Yvonne (as a missing person) and he went voluntarily to Bournemouth police station for an interview, where the sharp eyed detective noticed his strong resemblance to the photograph of Neville Heath wanted in connection with Margery Gardner's murder.
He was duly arrested and charged with both murders. His three day trial at the Old Bailey before Mr. Justice Morris commenced on the 24th of September 1946. Heath was only tried for Margery’s murder. Mr. Caswell, defending Heath, put forward a defence of partial insanity, telling the jury “His mind was not behind the hand that did these acts, therefore he cannot be guilty because he was not responsible for these actions”. Mr. Caswell went on to claim that Heath had “a progressive mania during which he had killed and mutilated two women” These arguments were rejected by the jury of ten men and two women in under an hour. The trial got heavy coverage in the press. A Statutory Enquiry by Home Office appointed psychiatrists found Heath to be legally sane.
On Monday the 14th of October it was announced that the Home Secretary, Mr Chuter Ede, could see no reason for a reprieve and that the execution would take place on Wednesday, the 16th of October 1946. Heath had steadfastly declined to appeal.
On that Wednesday, Heath kept his 9.00 a.m. appointment with Albert Pierrepoint and Harry Kirk at Pentonville prison. His last request was for a large whiskey.
He stood 5 feet 11 inches tall and weighed 171 lbs. Albert gave him a drop of 6 feet 6 inches. It was reported that a hundred people had gathered outside the prison to see the notices of execution posted. Among them was anti death penalty campaigner Mrs. Violet van der Elst leading one of her usual protests, who had arrived in her yellow Rolls Royce. She handed out anti-death penalty leaflets and maintained that Heath was mentally ill. She was later fined £2 at Clerkenwell Magistrates Court for obstructing the highway.
The formal inquest was held before the St. Pancras Coroner, Mr. Bentley Purchase at noon. Dr. James Liddell testified that death had been instantaneous and the ten men comprising the jury returned the usual verdict of “Death from judicial hanging according to law”.




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