Chapter 30

Harold Dorian Trevor

1942

Sixty-five-year-old Theodora Jessie Greenhall had lived in her flat at 71a Elsham Road, West Kensington, for some years, but now, in 1941, she was growing rather concerned about the German bombing of the capital. For her own peace of mind, she decided to move out of London and rent out her flat. With that in mind, in the autumn of that year, she contacted a local estate agent, Sladden, Stuart and Powell, of Royal Crescent.

On Monday, 13 October, the agent sent around a well-dressed and very polite gentleman who viewed the flat and said he was very interested in taking it. He arranged to call again, at 11.00am the following morning, for a second viewing.

On Tuesday, 14 October, the tall, distinguished man, with greying hair, did call again as he had promised. He even sported a monocle and, having been shown around the flat for a second time, said that he had fallen in love with it so much, that he would take it on the spot.

A few pounds were handed over as a deposit against the first month’s rent, in order to fasten the deal and Mrs Greenhall then sat down at her bureau, in the drawing room, to write a receipt. She began, ‘Received from Dr HD Trevor, the sum of ….’

The receipt was never finished for, as she wrote, the prospective tenant struck Mrs Greenhall over the head with a beer bottle. The bottle shattered into pieces, one large piece falling into a nearby waste-paper basket. Mrs Greenhall fell to the floor, unconscious, whereupon her ‘tenant’ fell upon her and strangled her to death with a ligature. He then ransacked the house, taking jewellery, money from a cash-box and some other items of value. As a final gesture, he placed a handkerchief over his victim’s face.

Mrs Greenhall’s body was discovered later that same day when her daughter from her first marriage, Miss Tattersall, paid her a visit. She called in the police and the case was put into the capable hands of Detective Chief Inspector Salisbury. He immediately called in the assistance of Scotland Yard and Detective Chief Superintendent Frederick Cherrell was sent to Kensington to assist.

Within a very short time indeed, Cherrell had all but solved the case, though he could not believe that the killer could have been so stupid. The partly completed receipt still lay upon the writing bureau and Cherrell read the name HD Trevor with interest. He knew of a petty criminal named Harold Dorian Trevor, who had spent most of the last forty years inside various prisons. In fact, sixty-two-year-old Trevor had only been free for a total of about eleven months, in the last forty years.

Trevor’s prison career had started back in 1899. On 21 October of that year he had been sentenced to eighteen months in prison for stealing a dressing case. Eight other prison sentences followed, including one of five years in May 1905, one of seven years in July 1914 and one of ten years in August 1925. All had been for theft, larceny, stealing or false pretences. His last period of incarceration had started on 27 April 1936 when he received five years for larceny and receiving stolen goods.

Cherrell found it hard to believe that a killer would use his real name and then leave such incriminating evidence at the scene, so it was important that he check things out. He sent an officer to fetch Trevor’s file and check up on his present whereabouts. As he waited, other officers found fingerprints on some of the broken glass, on a table top, and on the cash box.

Trevor’s file duly arrived and, with the aid of a magnifying glass, Cherrell compared the fingerprints found at the murder scene, to those held on file. They were a perfect match, proving that the man who had leaned against that table, wielded the bottle and rifled the cash-box, was Harold Dorian Trevor. Further checks showed that Trevor had only finished his latest jail sentence a few days previously. In fact, he had been released from Parkhurst prison on 3 October, just eleven days before Mrs Greenhall had been killed. Finally, when the estate agent was spoken to, he confirmed that an appointment to view had been made in the name of Dr HD Trevor, of Devon. The hunt was on for the wanted man.

In fact, it soon became clear that Trevor had started on yet another of his crime sprees. The police soon discovered that on 9 October, Trevor had visited another estate agents, Harrods, of 62 Brompton Road. They had given him details of a flat at 8 Sloane Street and he had called there to see the owner, Beatrice Mary Haydock, that same day. At one stage she had left Trevor alone in one of the rooms and he had repaid her trust by stealing her handbag.

A check with the other estate agents in Royal Crescent, showed that Trevor had been given four addresses. In addition to the one at 71a Elsham Road, they had also given him details of properties at 42 Holland Road, 6 Norland Square and 9 St James Gardens. The owners of those properties were interviewed and all confirmed that Trevor had called on them on 13 October. His first visit, at 4.00pm, had been to St James Gardens, where he had agreed to take the flat but had not paid any deposit. At 5.15pm, he had visited Norland Square and less than an hour later, at approximately 6.00pm, he had visited Holland Road.

Back at Elsham Road, Mrs Tattersall was able to give the police details of the jewellery stolen from the house and the descriptions of the various pieces were circulated throughout the country. This tactic led police in Birmingham to report that two rings on the stolen list had been sold to a jeweller in that city. Trevor, it seemed, was moving north. Other pieces were traced to other shops, with the final piece being sold in Rhyl. Police in that town were told to be on the look-out for Trevor and this led to his arrest, on Saturday, 18 October, as he left a public telephone box.

Charged with murder, Trevor replied, ‘It wasn’t murder. There was never any intent to murder. I have never used violence on anyone in my life before. What came over me I do not know. After I hit her, my mind went completely blank and it is still like that now. Something seemed to crack in my head.’

Trevor’s trial for murder opened at the Old Bailey, before Mr Justice Asquith, on 28 January 1942. During the two days of the hearing, Trevor was defended by Mr John Flowers and Mr Derek Curtis Bennett. The case for the Crown lay in the hands of Mr L A Byrne.

With the cast-iron evidence found at the murder scene, the defence did not try to deny that Trevor had claimed the life of Mrs Greenhall, but tried to persuade the jury that he must have been insane at the time of the attack. It was true that Trevor had an incredibly long criminal record, but all his previous offences had involved simple fraud and theft. He had never used violence before and its use in this case was completely out of character. The jury, however, chose to believe that Trevor was perfectly sane and, therefore, guilty of murder.

Asked if he had anything to say before the sentence of death was passed, Trevor made a long, rather flowery speech which, in part, said:

I would like, once and for all, to say this: that I, as a man who stands, so to speak, at death’s door, would like to confirm all I have already said, regarding this lady’s death. I have no knowledge of it.

Even as I am speaking, the moving finger is writing on the wall, and the words, once written, can never be recalled. I sincerely hope that each of you, gentlemen of the jury, and the judge too, in passing sentence, will remember these words. That when each of you, as you surely must some day, yourself stand before a higher tribunal, you will receive a greater measure of mercy than had been meted out to me in this world. No fear touches my heart. My heart is dead. It died when my mother left me.

Having finished his diatribe, Trevor was then sentenced to death by hanging.

An appeal was heard on 23 February, before Justices Humphreys, Singleton and Cassells, but they saw no reason to interfere with either the verdict or the death sentence. There was to be no reprieve and, on Wednesday, 11 March 1942, Harold Dorian Trevor was hanged at Wandsworth by Albert Pierrepoint, who was assisted by Herbert Morris. The forty-year crime spree was finally over.