Within the earlier instalment of this sequence, we examined the tragic loss of life of Esmeralda Gullan, the founding father of Esmeralda’s Barn, an evening membership positioned in an prosperous a part of London’s West Finish. Nevertheless, Esmeralda was not the one feminine night time membership proprietor or hostess to be discovered useless or dying throughout this era. The truth is, as we’re about to find, she was simply one among a group of inter-connected girls who have been concerned in night time membership administration and whose deaths have been dominated as unintended or as suicides across the similar time.
A Demise on Baker Road
Barbara Knox-Marsh (generally written as Knox-Marshe) was born Winifred Barbara Littler on the 4 February 1928; however by the Nineteen Fifties. she had began utilizing her stage identify for every part. Her mom, Margaret W. Jackson, by no means received the pleasure of seeing her daughter develop up as she died only a 12 months after her start, in 1929. Barbara had been described as an “angel” in a Every day Mirror article in 1951. On that event, on the tender age of 23 years-old, Knox-Marsh had reportedly backed a play known as “My Spouse’s Lodger” which was on account of run at London’s Comedy Theatre. She paid £1000 to grow to be a backer of the play which was deemed by all of the critics as a farce and a certain loser, however quickly Barbara’s image appeared within the newspaper with the subtitle: “Barbara Knox-Marshe – woman who backed a winner.” Certainly, the stage present could have been a veritable flop when within the theatre, with one of many backers pressured to promote his automobile to lift the funds to maintain the challenge afloat, however the gamble ultimately paid off for all of the buyers, as Alan Fairclough reported in his Every day Mirror piece: “This week got here the little little bit of heaven. The movie rights of the play that everyone scoffed at have been offered.”
Barbara Knox Marsh was dwelling the “homosexual life” based on an article from 17 Could 1956, printed within the Every day Herald. “Dancing in Mayfair… music at midnight… drinks at daybreak. The day was not lengthy sufficient for Barbara Knox Marsh,” learn the experiences. The institution in Mayfair’s Berkeley Road, the place Barbara spent nearly all of her time, had initially opened in November 1954 beneath the identify “The Stratton Membership.” By Could 1955, the membership had begun to get a foul fame after it was discovered to be “promoting intoxicating liquor throughout aside from permitted hours, and for promoting with out a licence” because the Westminster & Pimlico Information reported on 27 Could 1955. The homeowners got a summons to “present trigger why the membership shouldn’t be struck off” with the case being adjourned for six months. By December 1955, the homeowners had failed to indicate trigger and the membership was formally struck-off and faraway from the official register of companies.
But, the membership didn’t really shut and, the next April, Chief Inspector Edmund King went to the premises, supposedly to return property, solely to seek out it overtly doing enterprise and being run because the “Blue Angel Membership”. He described folks dancing and consuming on the bar when he arrived and shortly the membership’s supervisor, Cyril Phillips, together with two different males have been hauled in entrance of a choose and fined £10 for his or her offences. Although there was no point out of Barbara Knox-Marsh in relation to the Blue Angel within the April 1956 Sevenoaks Chronicle and Kentish Advertiser article, which reported the courtroom case, she was named because the proprietor of the institution in a number of experiences the next month. Sadly for Barbara Knox-Marsh, these articles reported the information of her loss of life.
Like Esme Gullan, Barbara Knox-Marsh was discovered dying in her flat on Baker Road, solely to be pronounced useless later at St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington. At first, her loss of life was attributed to an overdose of sleeping capsules, however this preliminary principle rapidly modified, and shortly turned a really peculiar story of weird and unlikely happenstance. A Every day Mirror piece printed on Monday 14 Could 1956 reported that the police had found Miss Knox-Marsh’s unconscious physique on the Saturday earlier than the article went to print. That they had been summoned to her residence by what the article calls “a person good friend” of Knox-Marsh. She was discovered sitting in a chair wearing a black night robe and close by was a bottle which contained sleeping tablets which the detectives rapidly bagged-up as proof.
The suspicious and premature loss of life of Barbara appeared like an open and shut case to the investigators in cost. This was primarily on account of rumours of her obvious earlier suicide try, regardless that her aforementioned aunt, Mrs. Noreen Lewis, who was by then dwelling in Muswell Hill, instructed the coroner at her inquest that: “I don’t assume she would ever try to take her personal life. She cherished life an excessive amount of.” Though she had made that assertion, Mrs Lewis went on to inform the coroner that: “She was a woman inclined to dramatise. I’m certain she did it pondering somebody would come on the final minute to avoid wasting her.” The coroner, Mr. W. Bentley Buy, said clearly: “There is no such thing as a proof earlier than me to justify a verdict of suicide.” He ultimately recorded a verdict of unintended loss of life, however the precise circumstances surrounding Knox-Marsh’s loss of life have been frankly ridiculous.
Simply earlier than Knox-Marsh died, the Blue Angel had reportedly been beneath negotiations for a change in possession. She had been staying with an accountant named James McBurnie throughout the weeks main as much as her tragic loss of life. She had been lodging at his flat, regardless that Barbara additionally had her personal flat in Southwold Mansions in Maida Vale. McBurnie instructed the St. Pancras coroner that he had gone to mattress at round 11pm on the night time of her loss of life and awakened round 5am to find her on the sitting-room flooring with a “normal lamp mendacity close to by”, to cite a Leicester Night Mail article from 16 Could 1956. This latter description of how her physique was discovered additionally contradicts the preliminary experiences of how her physique had been found seated in a chair. Dr. F. E. Camps, a pathologist giving proof to the coroner, said that he had discovered about “10 grains of Seconal” in her physique which he recorded as being a excessive dose, “however not essentially a deadly one on peculiar circumstances.”
A Marylebone Mercury article on 18 Could 1956 additionally famous: “She [Barbara Knox-Marsh] had been pleasant with Esme Noel-Smith [i.e. Esme Gullan], Knightsbridge membership proprietor discovered gassed final 12 months, and in addition Linda Justice, membership hostess who died from too many sleeping tablets on Could 5.” Every week after the latter Marylebone Mercury article, the identical publication produced a fuller account of how Barbara Knox-Marsh had ultimately met her tragic finish.
On Friday 25 Could 1956, the paper reported that: “Pathologist Dr. F. E. Camps mentioned she had had bruises in step with placing one thing. She had marks on her wrist and neck the place she had grow to be entangled with the twine of the fallen lamp normal. These had given her respiratory embarrassment which could have contributed to her loss of life; the principle reason for which had been an overdose of Seconal. She had taken 10 grains which was a excessive dose, however not essentially a deadly one.”
The coroner requested Mr. Camps: “It’s not a big dose?” to which the pathologist said: “No.” He additionally said that there was nothing to counsel violence in any respect, seemingly ignoring his personal proof of “bruises in step with placing one thing,” and “marks on her wrists and neck.” As an alternative, Camps posited that Knox-Marsh had come again to the flat, taken sleeping tablets, fallen down, the place the twine for the usual lamp had grow to be wrapped round her neck. He admitted that the lamp twine had on no account asphyxiated her, and he additionally gave proof stating that the overdose hadn’t been sufficient to kill her. Regardless of that, he concluded that the mix of the 2 had led to Knox-Marsh’s supposedly unintended loss of life. The coroner said his conclusion: “She might need slipped from the chair and received into a clumsy place. There is no such thing as a proof to counsel suicide. Life to date had been one among pleasure and pleasure somewhat than melancholy resulting in suicide.”
One of many males in command of Barbara’s Blue Angel night time membership throughout this era was named Max Setty. He was an especially intriguing character who got here from an much more intriguing household. He was from an Iraqi household of Sephardic Jews who moved to Britain when Max and his siblings have been very younger. He had one sister named Eva Setty and two brothers; Jack and Stanley, with the latter being of nice curiosity. Stanley Setty had been a automobile vendor and cash lender lower than a decade earlier than the loss of life of Barbara Knox-Marsh. He was additionally recognized for smuggling weapons into Palestine through the use of automobiles purchased on the continental European mainland. In 1949, Stanley Setty was decapitated and had his legs chopped off in a grizzly homicide, with three packages containing his head, his legs, and his torso—together with his palms nonetheless tied behind his again—quickly thrown from a airplane into the ocean, however that could be a story for an additional event.
Max Setty was additionally as soon as a automobile vendor, working alongside his unlucky brother Stanley in numerous garages in London; nonetheless, in 1956 Max was formally working because the catering supervisor at Barbara Knox-Marsh’s Blue Angel. He continued to work as a supervisor on the membership into the Nineteen Sixties. When Barbara died, Max Setty mentioned of her: “She was at all times glad. She needed to remain up all night time, play the gramophone, speak to folks and drink.”
Why Barbara determined to surrender her curiosity within the Blue Angel simply earlier than her loss of life is unclear. Regardless of her resolution to divest, she hadn’t fallen out of favour with the London night-spot. A Every day Mirror article from Thursday 17 Could 1956 reported on her final hours, stating: “Final night time on the Blue Angel, the place Barbara went as a member after giving up her curiosity, they recalled that Friday night time she sat in a softly-lit alcove consuming lime and ginger ale.” It actually didn’t appear, from eyewitness accounts of that fateful night, that Barbara was in any approach suicidal. The latter article, entitled: “Blue Angel Lady’s Final Hours” additionally states: “The band was enjoying ‘Reminiscences Are Made Of This.’ When the music switched to ‘Are You Glad?’ she received as much as dance. Afterwards she threw a coin within the fountain pool over which a grey-blue plaster angel stands guard, and left, with a wave and a ‘See you tomorrow’ to her buddies.”
Ruth Ellis, Linda Justice, Pamela Gale and Janet Curtis-Bennett
Esme Gullan and Barbara Knox Marsh weren’t the one girls who had tragically misplaced their lives whereas working elite London night time golf equipment throughout this era. The notorious Ruth Ellis was managing the Little Membership when she shot and killed her lover David Blakely, a criminal offense for which she acquired the loss of life penalty. A colleague of hers, Linda Justice, had been made a hostess at solely seventeen years previous, after Ruth Ellis launched her to the London night time membership scene by using her at The Little Membership. Ellis had been managing the membership for its proprietor Morris Conley. By 13 Could 1956, Linda, who additionally glided by the identify Gladys Linda Justice, was the registered proprietor of two firms; Justice Buying and selling Co. and Justice Toffees, firms which she had fashioned with the assistance of a tv actor named Alfred “Man Mountain” Dean. These companies had been registered to an handle at 395 Oxford Road in London, which was a block of flats the place Ruth Ellis had additionally lived. On the age of twenty 5, Linda Justice’s obvious suicide was reported in The Folks newspaper, with the uncredited report stating that Justice had killed herself with an overdose of sleeping capsules. She was discovered surrounded by empty bottles, absolutely clothed, in her darkened bed room.
Linda had reportedly been a “mousey-haired elementary schoolgirl” when she had left her Peckham residence to work for Ruth Ellis in an effort to “pep-up life” on the Little Membership in Knightsbridge. But, by the point she died, her childhood hopes and goals had come to an finish in some ways. Justice had taken on Ruth Ellis’ job on the Little Membership after her good friend and mentor had grow to be the final girl to be hanged in Britain round ten months earlier than. Then, Justice had received herself into debt with collectors who have been hounding her for the cash she owed. She was additionally mentioned to have been trapped into an abusive relationship. In an article dated 6 Could 1956, a good friend of Justice is quoted as saying: “She had been very depressed and consuming closely. She had a violent row with a person she cherished. For a time she talked about ‘Doing a Ruth Ellis.’ Then she quietened down and located her consolation in a glass. Maybe that introduced the tip.” Linda Justice was recognized for being desperate to excite and anticipating pleasure herself, at the least when she was on the golf equipment she ran. However in actuality, she was secretive and saved her private handle and cellphone quantity out of the official directories.
When Justice was approaching the tip of her life, she was notably much less glad and had developed a heavy consuming downside. Three months earlier than her loss of life, Justice stopped working and ultimately discovered a spot to stick with her good friend, Mrs. Kathleen Rhodes, at a flat in Kensington. Close to the tip of her life, a man who lived reverse Justice, Mr. Harold Flavell, mentioned: “She appeared very lonely. In case you handed the place at any hour of the day you’d hear gramophone data being performed.”
Although Linda Justice’s loss of life was in all probability a suicide, plenty of girls linked to the night time golf equipment of London’s excessive society have been dying in comparatively fast succession. Esmeralda Noel-Smith had died in March 1955, Ruth Ellis had been hanged on 13 July 1955, Linda’s good friend—an ex-show woman, Janet Curtis-Bennett—was discovered useless on the residence she shared together with her Q.C. husband 4 days earlier than Justice’s physique was discovered. A few days later, Barbara Knox Marsh was additionally discovered useless. There was one thing very peculiar taking place on the upper-class London night time membership scene.
The aforementioned good friend of Linda Justice, Janet Curtis-Bennett, had additionally reportedly died of an overdose of sleeping medicine. She was discovered cuddled as much as her pet kitten, Tiddly-winks, and, the earlier August, she had simply grow to be the second spouse of a well-known homicide trial Q.C. [Queens Council], Derek Curtis-Bennett. Janet had previously been a singer who had passed by the stage identify Christine Lane.
The Residence Workplace pathologist who examined Curtis-Bennett’s physique was Dr. Donald Teare, whose identify will come up once more shortly. On Monday 14 Could 1956, the Belfast Telegraph reported on the inquest verdict which examined the proof surrounding the premature loss of life of Janet Curtis-Bennett, stating: “A verdict that she ‘died from barbituric poisoning, self-administered, and that she so killed herself,’ was recorded on the inquest at the moment of Mrs. Janet Farquhar Curtis-Bennett.” The coroner, Mr. G. L. B. Thruston, mentioned: “We now have heard proof which has been conflicting to counsel that she could not have been totally glad, however I want to make it fairly empathic that aside from indicating the way of thinking, it isn’t the perform of this courtroom to inquire into issues of that nature.” A couple of months later, her husband was additionally discovered useless with one other inquest verdict stating that: “Mr. Frederick Henry (Derek) Curtis-Bennett, Q.C., died of alcoholism was recorded on the Hammersmith, London, inquest at the moment.” Once more, Mr. G. L. B. Thruston was the coroner and Dr. Donald Teare acted because the pathologist.
The Night time Membership Lure
It is actually odd that Barbara Knox-Marsh, Ruth Ellis, Esmeralda Gullan, Linda Justice and Janet Curtis-Bennett all died throughout this similar, transient interval. Nevertheless, the physique rely in London’s night time membership scene throughout this time was greater nonetheless, as different night time membership ladies died beneath tragic circumstances. On 18 September 1956, it was reported that one other night time membership hostess had been discovered useless in a gas-filled flat. Pamela Gale’s useless physique was present in her Pimlico flat in St. George’s Sq. and, on this case, two letters have been discovered by her corpse, one among which was addressed to her father who was described in a Every day Herald article as an “Admiralty messenger.”
Police have been at odds when it got here to fixing the loss of life of Pamela Gale as she was once more described in information experiences as being a “homosexual, glad woman” with a good friend of hers being quoted as saying: “Her solely curiosity was to get as a lot out of life as doable. She lived for the pleasure that type of life might give. She was very glad.” Pamela was described within the aforementioned article as: “Dancing until daybreak as a hostess in West Finish consuming golf equipment,” with one unnamed good friend being quoted as saying: “She was the gayest of us all.”
An inquest heard that Pamela had apparently made certain that her two pet budgies had not died together with her, with the birds being discovered within the kitchen by the person who had reportedly tried to avoid wasting her. Hiroyoshi Matsuda, described as an American citizen, had instructed the inquest that he had recognized the 23 year-old night time membership hostess for about two months and had being staying together with her in her flat. Intriguingly, Matsuda means that one other unnamed particular person was with them and said: “Three of us spent Sunday afternoon consuming,” happening to say: “I assumed the gin was getting maintain of me and went to mattress. It was about 6pm. Spherical about 11pm I awakened and thought I smelled fuel. The living-room door was locked so I climbed by the window, alongside a drainpipe, and broke into the living-room by the window.” Matsuda went on to inform the inquest: “Miss Gale was laying on the ground.”
The police have been known as and the officer who arrived on the scene, Police Inspector Adams, discovered Gale’s physique subsequent to an virtually empty pint bottle of gin, alongside two notes, one among which was addressed to “My expensive father” whereas the opposite was addressed to “Penny”. An additional article, which was printed within the Westminster & Pimlico Information on 21 September 1956, described Gale as somebody who suffered from mood-swings and melancholy. The coroner recorded a verdict that Gale had died from carbon monoxide poisoning and that the 2 notes had proven that Gale had meant to finish her personal life.
A few days after the inquest into Pamela Gale had dominated her loss of life to be a suicide, an article in The Folks newspaper, entitled: “The Night time Membership Lure”, painted an evening membership hostess’s job as an image of debauchery and desperation. The piece, written by Charles Manifold, claimed that 4 out of 5 night time golf equipment in London paid their hostesses nothing in any respect and that the women have been presupposed to earn their livings on suggestions from clients alone. Manifold claims on this supposed expose that: “There are from 10 to twenty of those ladies, chosen by administration for his or her attractiveness and their simple approach with males,” with the creator happening to state that they’re: “chosen as a result of in dialog they’ve disclosed that they’ve a light-hearted view on advantage.”
Alongside the article have been photos of three ladies with an accompanying narrative which said: “All three of those night-club hostesses met sordid ends. Pamela Gale, Helen Carlin and Esme Noel Smith. Now examine their lives.” However there was no prior suggestion that Esmeralda Gullan (who additionally glided by her married identify Noel-Smith) was dwelling a sordid life, or that she was a easy night time membership hostess, a truth which didn’t appear vital to Mr. Manifold’s agenda.
The beforehand talked about Helen Carlin, who was additionally known as “Crimson Helen” Carlin, appears to have been included by Manifold to boost his articles narrative of debauchery. Nevertheless, Helen Carlin was a recognized prostitute who had been murdered in 1954 by strangulation together with her personal stockings. It was believed that Carlin was murdered by a serial killer named Peter Manuel who admitted killing Carlin simply earlier than he was hanged for seven different murders to which he’d already confessed his guilt. Helen Carlin is just not famous anyplace as having been an evening membership hostess.
Prelude to a Gangland Takeover
This string of suspicious tragedies have been all to be categorised as unintended deaths or suicides and lots of required vital proof to be neglected or misinterpreted for such verdicts to be reached. However what was about to occur throughout the related night time golf equipment recommended that some very sinister folks have been aggressively taking management of those institutions.
Esme Gullan had apparently died by unintended gassing on account of blowback placing out the flame of her fuel fireplace, however in actuality there had been a “leak” within the tube which led from the fuel tank to the hearth and the flame had nonetheless been lit when her physique was found. She had additionally moved bedrooms with none obvious clarification as to how or why. Barbara Knox-Marsh had fallen after taking a non-lethal overdose and gently strangled herself, regardless that neither of these occasions might have killed her. As famous above, Knox-Marsh had supposedly grow to be awkwardly wrapped up in a typical lamp twine after falling, but the inquest proof repeatedly said that her useless physique had been discovered seated in a chair. Ruth Ellis, Pamela Gale, Linda Justice, and Janet Curtis-Bennett had all died in tragic circumstances and every of these circumstances had left a slew of unanswered questions. With a litany of suspicious deaths as a backdrop, issues within the London night time membership scene would solely get stranger.
Within the subsequent article on this sequence, we are going to meet a number of the most peculiar characters up to now, two of these being Horace “Hod” Dibben and his teenage ward, Patsy Morgan-Dibben. Whereas Esmeralda Gullan, Barbara Knox-Marsh, Linda Justice, Pamela Gale, Janet Curtis-Bennett and Ruth Ellis have been all dying in fast succession, Patsy and Horace have been taking cost of Esmeralda’s Barn and opening Esme’s previous night time membership to the London underworld. Horace Dibben, a self-proclaimed Satanist who recurrently organised elite intercourse events for the wealthy and well-known, was about to lose every part, as his ward, Patsy Morgan-Dibben, was reportedly taken by “the satan himself.” Was she simply one other woman misplaced to the lethal night time membership entice?
