Neville George Clevely Heath (6 June 1917 – 16 October 1946) was an English murderer who killed two young women in the summer of 1946.
At the beginning of the Second World War, Heath joined the Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) and was posted to the Middle East.
[5][6] Scottish actress Molly Weir later reported that Heath had tried to chat her up at a department store in Bournemouth in July 1946.
[7] On Sunday 16 June 1946, Heath took a room at the Pembridge Court Hotel in Notting Hill Gate in London.
On 20 June 1946, Heath spent the evening with Margery Gardner (32), a trained artist and occasional film extra.
The following day, the assistant manager at the Pembridge Court Hotel entered Heath's room after the chambermaid had been unable to gain entry.
The slash marks on Gardner's body showed the distinctive diamond pattern of a woven leather riding crop, but the weapon was not found at the scene.
[11] Only five minutes from the hotel was the seafront, where 100-foot (30 m) sandy cliffs framed the beach and were held back by a low sea wall with a promenade.
Whilst walking along the promenade on 3 July, Marshall encountered Heath, who again introduced himself as Group Captain Rupert Brook.
[12] Initially impressed with Heath's looks and manner, Marshall accepted his invitation to take afternoon tea at the Tollard Royal Hotel, where he was staying.
Marshall spent the afternoon with Heath and, feeling lonely in Bournemouth, she accepted his further invitation to dine with him that evening.
The following day, Heath duly telephoned Detective Constable Suter at Bournemouth police station and offered to help.
The police fetched it for him and searched it, finding a railway cloakroom ticket, which in turn led them to a suitcase containing a riding whip with a diamond pattern weave.
Marshall's whereabouts remained a mystery until 7 July, when waitress Kathleen Evans, out walking her dog, noticed a swarm of flies by a rhododendron thicket in Branksome Dene Chine.
"[15] In February 1946, a few months before the murders, a woman named Pauline Brees was found naked and tied up in a room at the Strand Palace Hotel in London.
Hotel staff had been alerted by her screaming and forced entry to the room, but she subsequently refused to press charges against Heath in order to avoid publicity.
This identification was reported in the press at the time as fact, suggesting that Gardner had gone to the Pembridge Court Hotel fully aware of Heath's sexual proclivities and that she, therefore, must have had some sort of masochistic tendency.