18. Bomb damage in Kenton Road, the Marshalls’ former home, 28 June 1944.
19. Doreen Margaret Marshall.
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.
23. Violet Van Der Elst is arrested among the crowds gathered outside Pentonville Prison on the morning of Heath’s execution, 16 October 1946.
24. A woman reads the notice of Heath’s execution outside Pentonville, 16 October 1946.
25. Heath’s waxwork at Madame Tussaud’s in London, wearing a copy of the tweed jacket he wore to the pre-trial hearings at West London Magistrates’ court.
26. Heath’s effigy is groomed in the Chamber of Horrors at Madame Tussaud’s, at some point in the 1960s. Here he wears a copy of the pinstripe suit he wore at his trial.
27. A Bournemouth newspaper headline reporting the murder of Doreen Marshall, 9 July 1946.
28. The cover of Sydney Brock’s book,
The Life and Death of Neville Heath
, published in 1947. It promised a ‘Sensational-Sadistic-Romantic-True Story’.
29. Heath returning from West London Magistrates’ Court, August 1946.
Table of Contents
Half-title page
Title page
Copyright page
Epigraph page
Dedication page
Contents
FOREWORD
CHARACTERS
PROLOGUE: Mrs Brees
PART ONE: London
1 Summer 1946
2 Miss Symonds
3 Mrs Gardner
4 Thursday 20 June 1946
5 Detective Inspector Spooner
6 The Pembridge Court Hotel
PART TWO: Neville George Clevely Heath
7 Rake’s Progress
8 Borstal Boy
9 Lt. James Robert Cadogan Armstrong
10 Out of South Africa
11 Thursday 20 June 1946
12 Rogue Male
PART THREE: Group Captain Rupert Robert Brook
13 Bournemouth
14 Miss Waring
15 Miss Marshall
16 The Tollard Royal Hotel
17 Detective Constable Suter
18 Branksome Dene Chine
PART FOUR: The Twisting of Another Rope
19 3923
20 Mrs Armstrong
21 The Old Bailey
22 Wednesday 16 October 1946
23 Mrs Heath
AFTERWORD
APPENDIX
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
FURTHER READING
ENDNOTES
Author biography
List of Illustrations