A Summer of Death

by M.P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories
World War II ended, but violence and destruction visited London in another manner. Women were being slain in horrific ways, and in some instances Scotland Yard was at a loss to identify the perpetrator.

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London police on patrol c.1940s

The victims were pretty women and young girls, all dead by the hand of a killer or killers who were savage and sadistic. Sometimes there were hardly any clues, and the authorities were baffled. In total there were 21 deaths, 14 of them were women and remained unsolved.

The detectives of Scotland Yard were forced to use adjectives such as "horrible" and "gruesome" in their reports because nothing less would apply. English Bobbies were unarmed, and Londoners never expected something of this caliber to happen in their city. Police described the anti-social behavior as something not seen since 1918. No doubt they recognized a correlation with the end of war, and a surge of violence.

It wasn't only murders, but other crimes were being committed at more than double the rate during the 1940s. In London alone, offenses averaged 10,000 in one month. In 1938, it had been 4,000.

There were 20,000 vacancies open on the police force throughout Britain — 7,000 of them in London. Even the offer of pay and housing brought in few recruits. Scotland Yard's homicide department was undermanned, and their personnel worked 16 hours per day. Many of them had gone three months without a day off. 

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Canterbury, U.K. c.1948

On February 16, 1946 Lillian Miller, 20, wife of a Canadian soldier was strangled on a footpath after she went to a dance in Canterbury. Police questioned 1,700 British soldiers that were quartered near the murder scene, but could find no leads. Her death remained unsolved until 1982.

In 1946, William Phipps was 8 years old when he witnessed his drunken father strangle a waitress to death in a lumber yard where he had been playing. His mother swore him to secrecy, she then washed her husband's clothes, which were full of blood from the victim. In 1982, he told The Daily Express, "Now that she is dead, as well as my father, I have to get it off my conscience. I saw my father murder a woman."

Lillian was married to a Canadian Army private named Bill Miller. After the war she worked as a waitress and lived with some relatives. Her husband was in Saskatchewan preparing a new home for her and their son Victor. On the night she was killed, she went to a dance with her brother Frederick Kemp. Examination of her body show how she was covered with bruises from resisting her attacker. He had attempted to rape her before strangling her to death.

Phipps continued with his story. "I heard someone coming and I hid in a secret camp some of us had made. I saw my father come through the entrance of the yard with a woman and I saw him kill her. I knew that she was dead. I went home and did not tell anyone. My father was a drunken violent man and I was afraid of him. My mother knew what he had done as he came home with bloodstains on his clothes, and she helped to clean them up. She made me promise never to say anything to anyone and I never did."

His mother Anna Laura lived in Canterbury and died in 1980, and his father Ernest, a railway porter died in 1963. It's unknown if authorities ever used this information in regards to the case of Lillian Miller. 

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Damage caused by blitz, during WWII, illegitimate births increased and so did venereal disease by 70%

Two weeks Lillian Miller was killed, Francis Mizzi (aka Francis Hanley), 26, well known in Piccadilly Circus bars was strangled with a stocking in her London flat in Soho.

​Three U.S. servicemen were questioned and then released. She was last seen walking towards her flat in the company of a small, dark-haired man wearing a shabby suit. Her next door neighbor said she heard the sound of furniture being moved around and a muffled cry. The police forced their way into her flat after her friend called police.

Another report described where Francis was seen a little after midnight with a short sailor, young with a Scottish accent. He was sturdily built, had a thin, boyish face with a sallow complexion and he wore his dark hair well greased.

Police believed her killer spent at least a couple of hours in Francis' apartment. Her handbag was missing, and robbery would seem to be the motive, but other rumors circulated that she was killed by a gang for being a "squealer", and that she informed on one of her friends who belonged to a black market gang.

The only clue left behind was the button from a man's suit, strands of hair and a partial fingerprint from the bedside table. Francis was married to a 27-year-old Maltese man who was also her pimp. On February 27, 1946, he spent three months in prison after pleading guilty to promoting her for prostitution. He had been convicted of the same in February, 1944. Her murder remains unsolved.

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Muriel Drinkwater

Muriel Drinkwater, 12, was killed on June 27, 1946. She disappeared while walking a one-mile path from where her school bus dropped her off and her home. Her mother saw her coming along the trail that led into the woods, and then she was not seen again.

​The last person to see her was Hubert Hoyles, 13, who passed her on the path. He had gone to her family's farm to buy some eggs. The next day, a police inspector found her body. She'd been shot twice in the chest, beaten around the head and raped.

Within a few days a WWI-era, Colt .45 pistol was located. This was the murder weapon. Police searched up to 150 miles around the home, and interviewed approximately 20,000 men in Swansea and the adjoining area. Despite the intense search, the case remains unsolved.

In 2003, the case was re-opened hoping that answers could be found using DNA evidence. This effort stalled out until 2008 when retired, cold case detectives found Muriel's clothes in storage. On the back of her coat, a semen stain that had faded was circled in yellow. A profile was retrieved and made, but no match was connected to any DNA in the database. Hubert Hoyles, who passed her on the path, was cleared. 

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Ronnie Harries was a suspect in Muriel Drinkwater's murder. He worked for her father.

In 2020, a documentary Dark Land: Hunting the Killers suggested that Ronnie Harries was Muriel's killer. He was hanged for the murder of John and Phoebe Harris, an older couple who were his relatives. They presented evidence at the time of Muriel's death that he was employed by her father. DNA has also been taken from Muriel's family in order to rule them out. One of Muriel's cousins offered insight into what happened to the family after her death. He said: "his grandparents (Muriel's parents) had changed after the murder. They had been regular churchgoers, but stopped going to church and moved away from the farm within two years of the murder."

​In 2010, the National Records and Archives closed the case off to public access at the request of Scotland Yard. The reason given was it could help find the perpetrator (as long as they're six feet above ground that is).

Less than two weeks after Muriel's murder, another girl was killed. Her name was Sheila Martin, 11, who was raped and strangled with her hair ribbon. She was found in a thicket near Falkham Green while 10,000 people watched motorcycles races a few yards away. Like Muriel she was only a half mile from her home.

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Robert Parrington Jackson c.1940s

On May 29, 1946 Robert Parrington Jackson, a theater manager, one time British naval officer and actor was shot to death in his office at the Odeon Cinema in Bristol. He was shot during a scene in the film The Light That Failed by Rudyard Kipling, which was playing at the theater. There is a scene where 5 shots ring out, it was then that Jackson was hit in the head. There was no attempt at robbery, and no clues could be found at the scene.  The key to the safe remained in the manager's pocket and the money in the safe was left untouched.

At the inquest the pathologist confirmed it was not a suicide. His findings were that it was a heavy caliber weapon used in the shooting. The police believed the perpetrator escaped by going over girders beneath the cinema balcony.  

In 1993, a man claimed that his father, a criminal called Billy "The Fish" Fisher, made a deathbed confession in 1989. He said it was a botched robbery and he shot Jackson. There has been no corroboration if this is true. 

The building, later turned into a clothes store has reports of haunting activity, and two exorcisms have been performed there. This case remains unsolved.

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Doreen Marshall (1924-1946)

Doreen Marshall, 21, served in the WRNS during the war. She was discharged in June, 1946 and she took a holiday in Bournemouth to convalesce from a bout of measles and influenza. She stayed at the Norfolk Hotel since it was the only one open to civilians; the rest were used as billets for troops. The hotel was close to 100-foot cliffs that framed a beach, with a sea wall promenade. 

While taking a walk there she met a handsome man who introduced himself as Group Captain Rupert Brook. In reality his name was Neville Heath, and he was already tied to the murder of another woman. She had afternoon tea with him, and spent the rest of the afternoon in his company. She then accepted his dinner invitation. Something happened during the time they spent together, where she started to feel uncomfortable being with him and asked another guest to call a taxi for her. Witnesses said he had been drinking heavily. Heath cancelled the taxi, and offered to walk her back to her room. 

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Neville George Clevely Heath was a sadist and murderer

She disappeared and on Friday, July 5, this was reported to the police by the manager of the Norfolk. The manager also called the Tollard Royal, aware she had dined there the night before. The following day, Heath spoke to a constable offering his help. He went to the station and from a photograph identified her as the woman he dined with the night before, but his story was that he had left her in the gardens in central Bournemouth. 

Doreen Marshall's mutilated, nude body was found hidden in a grove close to the private beach near the hotel.

​Her father and sister came to Bournemouth, and went to the police station where they were introduced to Heath under his alias. He even joked about his similarity to the poster put out for Neville Heath. The police grew suspicious, went to his room and searched it. A bloody scarf was found, as well as a railway cloakroom ticket, which in turn led to a suitcase with a diamond pattern weave riding whip inside. It was stained with blood.

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Tollard Royal Hotel c.1910

​After further questioning he admitted his true name. He was taken to London and charged with the murder of Margery Gardner. This was his first victim who was found bound at the ankles and whipped by a leather crop with metal tips that left 17 gashes on her chest, stomach, back, and face. A foreign object, possibly a branch was shoved into her vagina. She had a gash that ran from the inside of her thigh to her mutilated breast.

Later it would turn out he savaged another woman in the same manner only a month before.

Neville Heath had a troubled path. He joined the Royal Air Force in 1937, at the age of 20, but was dismissed for going AWOL. He used the alias of Lord Dudley and Lieutenant-Colonel Armstrong, while forging documents and breaking into houses. He was sent to a youth detention center.

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Elizabeth Pitt Rivers married Neville Heath and had a child with him. c.1940s

At the beginning of WWII Heath joined the Royal Army Service Corps, and was shipped off to the Middle East. There he frequented Cairo brothels, where he paid to whip young prostitutes. A year later he was court martialed for fraud offenses, and for being absent without leave.

Enroute to England he escaped the authorities in Durban, South Africa. Once there, he used the name of Bruce Lockhart, and the handsome, wavy-haired, blue eyed charmer romanced Elizabeth Pitt Rivers, age 18. Much to the dismay of her wealthy family, they married and had a son.

Heath changed his surname to Armstrong, joined the South African Air Force, and attained the rank of captain. He was seconded to Bomber Command back in England.

To add to his other vices, he was a gambler who was soon putting out bad checks to cover his losses. By 1945, he was facing another court-martial for wearing military medals without authority. ​At the end of the war his wife divorced him on the grounds of desertion.

He didn't lose his penchant for using aliases and started calling himself Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Heath. He was dismissed from the service, and due to his dismissal from the RAF, he was denied a civil pilot's license.

By 1946 he returned to England. The 29-year-old began to haunt bars, which is where he found his first victim.

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Margery Gardner (1914-1946)

Her name was Margery Gardner (née Wheat), an artist and occasional film-extra. She lived with her young daughter in Earls Court. She was separated from her husband which battled alcoholism.

On June 20, 1946 she met Neville Heath and they went to the Panama Club at Knightsbridge. After midnight, they went to Pembridge Court Hotel in Notting Hill. He suffocated her and mutilated her body. She was found the following afternoon in the room he registered under as Lt. Colonel Neville Heath.

No doubt realizing his mistake by using his real name, he left London and headed to Bournemouth, where he met Doreen Marshall. However it's suspected he killed another woman before leaving to Bournemouth.

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From 1945 to 1947 there were 22 unsolved murders.

A few days later on June 28, 1946 the body of Ivy Griffiths, 33, was found on waste ground next to her Newcastle-Under-Lyme home. She had been separated from her husband for about a year, and lived with her mother.

An edged instrument was used to mutilate her head and face. Later it was ascertained she had been kicked to death. One of her ears was torn off. When Ivy was found she was fully clothed, and her brooch was recovered on a footpath five or six yards from her body, along with her handbag. There was no indication of robbery.

Scotland Yard was looking for a man in his twenties, who had been keeping company with Ivy. A witness interviewed by Scotland Yard saw a tall, slim, athletic man running away from the spot where Ivy's body was found. Was this another of Heath's victims? Her case was never solved.

​Heath's trial for the murder of Margery Gardner started on September 24, 1946. During the proceedings he earned the moniker of the "Gentleman Vampire". Heath originally wanted to plead guilty but his lawyer J.D. Casswell advised him against this, and instead put in a plea of insanity. He called William Henry de Bargue Hubert a criminal psychiatrist to testify as an expert witness. Dr. Hubert said that Heath knew what he was doing but couldn't distinguish that it was morally wrong. The prosecution dismantled this expert, and his testimony since unknown to Casswell, Hubert was an addict who was under the influence of morphine when he stepped into the witness box.

Two prison doctors explained to the courts that Heath was a psychopath and a sexual sadist, but that he was sane. 

The trial ended three days later, and Heath was found guilty and sentenced to hang. He was charged with Doreen's murder, but because of his execution it didn't go to trial. On October 16, 1946 the execution took place at Pentonville Prison. While awaiting execution he asked to receive all the major magazines who were following his trial, and referred to his pending execution as a "one-way op", military parlance for a suicide mission. In a final letter written to his parents prior to his execution, Heath informed his parents: "My only regret at leaving the world, is that I have been damned unworthy of you both." 

A few minutes prior to his execution, as was the custom, he was offered a glass of whisky by the prison governor. A playboy to the last, Heath replied, "While you're about it, sir, you might make that a double".

In September, 1947 newspapers published a story of 22 unsolved murders, including the killing of Ivy Griffiths that had occurred in the span of only the two previous years.

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