In response, his stepfather sent him to various colonial countries such as New Zealand and Argentina to learn various trades such as farming and management, although True was invariably dismissed from each of these employment roles after short periods of time, returning to England.

He is known to have crashed his plane on his first solo cross-country trial flight in Farnborough in February 1916, suffering severe concussion and remaining unconscious for two days.

Falsely claiming to be an English pilot with combat experience, he briefly obtained a job as a flying instructor with the United States War Department.

[13] At a party in New York, True became acquainted with a young actress named Frances Roberts; introducing himself as a Royal Air Force pilot.

[13][n 3] Shortly after relocating to England, True's family secured a job for him as an assistant manager at the Taquah Mining Company, located within the Gold Coast (now Ghana).

This dismissal infuriated his stepfather, who severed all contact with True upon his return to England, but did continue to grant him a financial allowance to support himself and his family.

At the insistence of his wife and mother, he spent approximately six months in a Southsea nursing home for treatment of his morphia addiction and the resulting mental ailments, which included an incipient split personality.

While incarcerated at this facility, True was observed to be prone to sudden mood swings, and to frequently simply sit in silence for long periods of time while staring at either the sea or the sky.

[21] On or about 7 January 1922, True severed all physical contact with his family and relocated to London, where he frequented various West End bars and clubs, living affluently but surviving upon his allowance, via acts of theft, and by paying various hotel and restaurant bills with forged cheques.

On the second occasion, True's wife located him at a Soho restaurant and was sufficiently alarmed by his demeanour to report her concerns to Scotland Yard, who in turn referred her to a private detective.

Yates was a prostitute and call girl whose regular clients were frequently—if not exclusively—affluent individuals[26] who could afford to entertain her at venues such as cinemas, restaurants, and dance-halls before spending the evening with her.

[28][n 6] On the first occasion the two spent the night together, True stole approximately £5 from her handbag before leaving her flat the morning after their acquaintance, resulting in Yates initially resolving never to see him again.

His appointed chauffeur was a man named Luigi Mazzola, who frequently drove True to destinations across London as far afield as Richmond to locations such as dance-halls and hotels.

[32] On three consecutive evenings between 2 and 4 March, True instructed Mazzola to drive to Finborough Road, although on each occasion, Yates was either not present in her home or refused to permit him entrance into her flat.

Approximately 15 minutes later, Steel entered Yates's bedroom, discovering her heavily bloodstained bed with pillows stuffed beneath the quilts in an apparent effort to give the impression of a human form.

[30] Steel immediately contacted police, informing officers she knew the individual whom she had observed leaving her employer's flat as one "Major True".

[39] After leaving Yates's flat, True took a taxi to a nearby post office, where he phoned and acquired the chauffeuring services of Luigi Mazzola, whom he instructed to drive to the address of his friend James Armstrong, then pick himself up at the Strand Corner House later that morning.

He was then driven to a menswear shop in Coventry Street where he purchased a new suit and bowler hat with money stolen from his victim, remarking to the salesman he had arrived from France via air that very morning and that he had acquired the blood on his clothes in an "aeroplane accident" shortly after crossing the English Channel.

[38] He then pawned two stolen rings at a Wardour Street pawnbrokers for £25 before, via prearrangement, meeting Armstrong at the Strand Corner House at 11 a.m. Mazzola drove the two men to various locations across London before driving the pair to the Hammersmith Palace of Varieties at about 8:40 p.m. His services were then dismissed.

[40] While incarcerated at this facility, he was placed under the observation of two medical officers, who, noting his excitable personality and insomnia, prescribed him sedatives in an effort to placate his temperament.

[40] Curtis-Bennett argued that his client was insane; he introduced two eminent psychiatrists who had separately examined True while on remand to testify that he suffered from a congenital mental disorder, which had been aggravated by his morphine addiction.

[42] Another witnesses to testify on behalf of the defence was a man to whom True had claimed an individual was visiting West End pubs and restaurants, impersonating him and "passing out dud cheques" in his name, which his mother was having to honour.

[45] Muir did not call any prosecution witnesses; instead extensively cross-examining several defence witnesses in efforts to prove that, as True had made numerous efforts to avoid detection such as attempting to deter Yates's cleaning lady from entering her bedroom and claiming to a salesman the bloodstains on his clothes had been caused in an aeroplane accident, that he thus appreciated the criminality of his actions and was therefore criminally responsible.

Following the closing arguments of both prosecution and defence, Judge McCardie instructed the jury that to find True insane, they would have to agree that he had no knowledge of what he was doing when he struck his victim not just once, but five times with the rolling pin before strangling her with her own dressing-gown cord, then attempting to dissuade the cleaning lady from discovering Yates's body before fleeing the premises.

[4] True did appeal his conviction, contending that, in reference to the M'Naghten Rules, Judge McCardie had misdirected the jury as to the criminal responsibility of the insane within his final address prior to their deliberations.

On the basis of these experts' reports, Shortt recommended True's sentence be commuted to life imprisonment, to be served in a high-security psychiatric hospital.

[51] This controversy was further heightened due to the concurrent case of an eighteen-year-old working-class pantry boy named Henry Julius Jacoby, who had murdered 65-year-old Lady Alice White in March 1922, and whom Justice McCardie had sentenced to death just days before True's trial.