Hope you can help.

[apricot]

Hi All,

Have spent a while reading these boards and have enjoyed the info and debates, so am hoping some one on here could give me some pointers in a spot of reseach, when I was a kid, my family and I moved to a house in Ealing, West London, we had barely moved in when the lady next door took gleeful delight in telling my Mum that a murder had taken place in our house, it would have been in the mid 1950's I think, apparently a couple lived there with their child, the wife stabbed the husband to death because he wouldn't buy her a fur coat!
According to her next door she was found insane and was sent to an asylum.
I have googled the address and nothing has come up, would the local press be the best next step? Am thinking, maybe, the old witch was winding my Mum up, still I'd like to know for certain.
Thanks in anticipation,
Angie

[Mayerling]

Hello Apricot,

I know of only one famous murder in Ealing in the 1950s, that was domestic.
But it is not the story you outlined.

In 1954 the police went to a home in Ealing where they found two dead women. One was the mother and one was the daughter (grown daughter)
who both lived there. The daughter was found drowned in her bathtub, and the mother was found battered to death on a stairways. The police noticed that the apparently accidental death of the daughter looked vaguely familiar, especially as if it was a real accident it was odd that her mother was dead
in a situation of real violence outside the room the daughter died in. Gradually it sank into the police heads: the death of the daughter looked like
one of the series of killings done decades earlier by George Joseph Smith!

But Mr. Smith was dead since being hanged in 1915. Who else could have done it, and why was the murder of the wife so careful while the murder of the mother so violent and sudden. Could the killer have been recognized by the mother? Was it someone familiar.

The house was owned by a Mrs. Chesney. She was married but estranged from her husband Ronald. He lived abroad, apparently with a girlfriend. The police began looking at Mr. Chesney, and discovered he had a long history of black market and smuggling activities mostly on the continent and centered in Germany. In fact he was currently under investigation for the death of a business associate by violence. Chesney had to settle a large sum of money on his wife when they were seperated, but the document setting up this fund carried a sinister proviso: that if Mrs. Chesney died Mr. Chesney got the money back.

Where was Chesney? Calls were sent out to Cologne, where he resided, but nobody answered the phone. It was not until several days passed that the
missing man finally was reached. He did not clarify where he had been. By then though events were moving faster than Ronald Chesney wanted them to.

First, several people in Ealing recalled seeing a stocky figure who had glasses and thinning hair, but also had a large nose and ears. Then the customs reported a man of that description had tried to make a flight to the continent, but was very upset about weather conditions deteriorating, requiring his flight being delayed or changed. The man's passport and name were recorded, and it was discovered that the actual man who had that name and passport was living in the U.S. and had reported the theft of his passport on a trip to Germany months earlier.

Also, the biggest break came when the police discovered that the sinister Mr. Chesney was living under a pseudonym. His real name was Donald Merritt. Merritt, in 1927, was tried in Edinburgh for the murder of his mother, after she discovered he had forged her signature to checks to pay for items he purchased, like a motorcycle. Merrit was acquitted (the "not proven" verdict) probably because his attorney was able to use Sir Bernard Spilsbury as an expert witness for the defense for a change (the crime was not in England, where Spilsbury regularly appeared as crown pathologist). Spilsbury did a good job at suggesting that Merritt's mother may have committed suicide. It was sufficient to make the jury question whether the obvious case for murder was proven.

Once the Chesney - Merritt connection was found (and word spread quickly),
he was finished. Chesney tried to call various friends for help, and most told him off or hung up on him. He realized it was over, and that the Germans would return him to England (and probably to be hanged this time). Chesney
wrote a letter to his mistress that he loved her, and a note that he was innocent of the death of his wife and of his mother-in-law, and then went to a nearby forest and shot himself. His funeral was sparse, only his girlfriend attending it. The photo of her following his coffin was published around the world.

It later turned out that while in prison Chesney had found a volume of the Notable British Trial series that dealt with his early trial and partial acquittal as Merritt. Photos in the book looked like a younger version of himself. The volume disappeared after awhile. But the library had another volume of the Notable British Trial series: THE TRIAL OF GEORGE JOSEPH SMITH. It was recalled that Chesney kept reading and re-reading it.

I was told in 1991 that the house that Chesney murdered his wife and mother-in-law was still standing in Ealing.

Best wishes,

Jeff

[George Hutchinson]

Further to the above, the house NEXT DOOR to the Chesney address is the place where the famous paranormal author, Andrew Green, had his first paranormal experience. He had been there with his father in the 1940s doing some work when he heard a voice calling him up to the roof. When he arrived he was drawn to walk off the edge, being somehow reassured that he was at ground level. Apparently he was not the only person it had happened to. Later research established there had been a suicide in the building (happy Ealing!) and Green took a famous photograph of the back of the house shortly afterwards, in which a young girl can be seen looking out from a window.

In regards to YOUR story, I would like to think it's perfectly possible. Domestic murders ending in incarceration in asylums are not as newsworthy and never pass into the popular literary canon as a rule. I know of murders that happened in my home town of Fleet in Hampshire that I would never have known about had it not been for the fact that my parents knew people living nearby - they just never hit the headlines because they were self-contained and involved little scandal.

PHILIP

[apricot]

Hi Guys,

Thanks so much for your replies, I have read about Ronald Chesney/ Donald Merrett, in The Black Museum book, coincidently, my Nan was in service in one of the big houses in Montpelier Road, think they are mainly converted into flats now.
I think that makes perfect sense about not all murders being "news worthy" there must be hundreds of houses with their own horror stories only recounted locally, so I shall start trawling the Middlesex Gazette, just wish I had a name and definite year!
Thanks again for taking the time to reply.
Angie

[Bob Hinton]

How to trace a murder.

Dear Angie,

You are going to have a lot of trouble if the murder wasn't newsworthy for one reason or the other.

I would suggest that you canvas the local area as being a good starting point. Visit retirement homes in the area to find people who lived nearby at the time. Old people's long term memories seem to improve with age - but they can't remember who they saw that morning. Try and see who the local police were at the time and see if any of them are still around. In my last book, South Wales Murders, one of the cases involved a woman who vanished in 1919, but whose remains were found in in 1961. The police officer who recovered the remains in '61 was still alive ( aged 92) and quite happily gave me an interview. He also had the official police photographs of the crime scene!

What you are after are names, anything concrete. Once you have that you are on your way.

I would urgently suggest that you write to the local paper asking for help, I have received priceless information from that source.

Good luck.

PS Since various posters have the idea that any newcomers to these boards are treated badly I now have to bully you. Yah sucks boo. And let that be a lesson!!

[Dark Ali]

Hi Angie,
You could try Ealing Library as a starting point, I am linking you to the local history section below.
http://www.ealing.gov.uk/services/le...istory_centre/
Hope this helps, you can at least look at who owned the house before your family.
Ali

[George Hutchinson]

Hey, Angie, aren't we all great?

PHILIP

[Chris Scott]

Hi Angie
I found this interesting as I lived in Ealing from 1969 to 1977 - went to College there (St Marys Road) and so would be interested if you track down this case
I did a search of The Times from 1950 to 1960 for articles relating to Ealing and although there were various murder cases (including the one outlined in previous posts) I could find nothing even remotely like the story you recounted
Regards
Chris

[Robert]

Apricot, Dr Oates is an expert on Ealing crimes, so give him a bash (I mean, email him).

Robert

[apricot]

Hey, Angie, aren't we all great?

PHILIP

Hello Everybody,

Yes, you certainly are, lots of food for thought and ideas for reseach I hadn't even thought of, thanks so much for taking the time to advise, I will let you know how my little piece of detective work progresses.

Cheers Angie x

[apricot]

Evenin' All,

Taking on board Bob's suggestion about talking to people in the locale and 'cos I don't live in the area anymore,I logged on to good old "Friends Reunited" and amazingly the boy next door(other side) who was born there in 1955 is there, surely if there was anything to know he would have been told by his parents, so sent an email to him and am eagerly awaiting a reply.
Im sorry if this post is a bit rambling, but I'm so-oo excited!!

Regards Angie x

[plang]

apricot, how cute are you? you seem so cute!
Forget about the murder. In the bigger picture it is not important.
Move on and forget about it. All you will get is mostly lies anyway.

[apricot]

Well, thank you Plang, you're too kind!
Have not heard back from ex next door neighbour, huh! So am carrying on trawling local press, wish I had a more methodical mind, very easily distracted! Oh well, onwards and upwards!
Kind Regards,
Angie x

[plang]

Hi apricot, glad to help. This is fun, isn't it?

[apricot]

Hello again everyone,

Well, I finally got a reply to my email from "the boy next door" who had said he would speak to his mum to see what she remembered about my supposed murder and that's exactly what it was! In the mid 1950s an elderly lady lived in our house with her son, apparently he did stab a woman, possibly his girlfriend, but not fatally, so 'twould appear my suspicions were right and the old witch next door was winding my mum up!!
Anyway, thanks for all your help chaps,

Cheers Angie x