Twenty-two-year-old Muriel Fawden had spent a pleasant evening at the cinema in Marlborough and, as she left, she bumped into a friend, Cynthia June Lay, usually known as June. The two girls both worked at Savernake Hospital, near Marlborough, June as an assistant cook and Muriel as a secretary. At around eight o’clock on 28 September 1943, the women set off to walk back to the hospital together. It was still daylight as they strolled along talking. Suddenly a black American soldier appeared behind them, seemingly out of nowhere, and asked where they were going.
Although the man had startled the girls, Muriel politely replied that they were heading for the hospital and that it wasn’t too far away. However, she had no intention of stopping and chatting with the man, so continued on towards the hospital, walking more quickly than before in the hope of leaving the soldier behind.
They had not gone much further when they heard a shout; ‘Stand still or I’ll shoot.’ Muriel and June stopped in their tracks, turning to see the soldier aiming his rifle at them. The terrified girls froze as the soldier rushed up to them, still covering them with his rifle.
He ordered them to get through the hedge into a field at the side of the road. Muriel pointed out that they would be unable to do so, as the hedge was interwoven with barbed wire. The soldier gestured with his rifle, indicating that they should walk back in the direction from which they had come.
As they were marched along at gunpoint, walking backwards to face their attacker, eighteen-year-old June Lay suddenly decided to try and escape. Shouting to Muriel to make a run for it, she made her break for freedom. The soldier raised his rifle and fired twice and June immediately dropped to the ground, mortally wounded. The soldier then aimed his gun at Muriel, firing several times and, as the bullets whistled past her, she realised that her best hope of survival lay in acquiescing to the soldier’s demands, whatever they might be. She stopped running and waited for the man to catch up with her.
Marlborough High Street in the 1920s. (Author’s collection)
She was then forced into a field at the side of the road. The soldier stood over her, pointing his gun at her and told her, ‘Either you do what I want you to do or you die.’ Muriel hesitated for a moment and the soldier said menacingly, ‘I am going to count to ten.’ Muriel was ordered to remove her white mackintosh coat, which she could not do without first taking off her gloves. Having handed the gloves to the soldier, she dropped her coat on the ground. The soldier then laid down his own greatcoat and subjected the frightened girl to a prolonged rape and sexual assault, which lasted for several hours.
At one point, Muriel could see torchlights and realised that people must be out searching for her. The soldier hurriedly pushed her into some bushes out of sight, ordering her to keep still and quiet and threatening to shoot anyone who came near. Eventually the people with torches went away and Muriel was subjected to a further sexual assault.
Realising that it was now up to her to try and save her own life, Muriel began talking to her captor. She told him that she was a nurse and that she would get into trouble for being out late. She then asked the soldier if he was a Christian, promising to pray for him and to forgive him if he would only let her go. Much to her surprise, the soldier agreed to do just that. Ironically, he asked her if she would be afraid walking by herself and insisted on walking with her to a wicket gate, where Muriel politely bade him ‘Goodbye’ and set off towards the hospital, all the while expecting a shot in the back. When it didn’t come, she broke into a run, but soon found herself helplessly lost among the trees of Savernake Forest.
Meanwhile, two tanker drivers, employed by Bulwark Transport Co., had been returning from their regular run, transporting milk from Wiltshire to London. Driving up Savernake Hill on the main London road, Robert Freeman had seen the body of a young woman lying in the road in a pool of blood. Assuming that there had been a road accident, he stopped his vehicle and sent his colleague, Mr Beasley, to fetch the police while he attended to the girl, who was still alive despite having serious head injuries. Within a few moments, two girls from the Savernake Hospital arrived, quickly followed by an Army cadet who had heard two shots minutes before and had come to investigate.
Savernake Hospital, Marlborough. (Author’s collection)
By the time the police and a doctor reached the scene ten minutes later, the young woman, identified by the two girls from the hospital as June Lay, had died from her injuries. At a later post-mortem examination, conducted by Dr Maurice and Dr Bashall, it was determined that she had been shot twice, once in the head and once in the back and had died as a result of damage caused by the bullet passing through her brain. Her death was the latest in a series of tragedies that had recently befallen her family – her stepmother had died less than a month earlier and, shortly afterwards, her brother was seriously injured at work and, at the time of his sister’s death, was still being treated in hospital for a badly crushed foot.
Muriel Fawden was eventually found by PC Bowyer, in a distressed and hysterical state, cowering in undergrowth about 300yds from the place where June had fallen. She was immediately taken to Savernake Hospital, where she was medically examined and put to bed. As a result of her statement to the police, they went directly to a nearby American Army camp where an immediate bed check showed that two men were missing. One was legitimately absent on guard duty, the other – Private Lee A. Davis – was nowhere to be found and his bunk had not been slept in that night.
By now, an American Army cap had been found in undergrowth, a few yards from where June Lay had fallen. It was marked inside ‘W 8470’ and was found to belong to Private Wheeler from the American camp, who, on the night before the murder, had lent it to Private Davis. As Davis closely matched the description given by Muriel Fawden, he was promptly arrested and charged with rape and murder.
Marlborough Town Hall. (Author’s collection)
The investigation was jointly handled by the civilian police from Marlborough and by American Army officers. Having been fully advised of his rights by Major Hugh Foster, Davis agreed to answer questions, the answers to which were subsequently typed. When asked to sign the transcript, Davis then said that he wished to make his own statement, rather than simply answer questions about what had happened. In this statement, Davis admitted attacking the women, but insisted that he had been very drunk at the time, having spent the evening in Marlborough consuming a mixture of beer, wine, Scotch and aspirins. He stated that he had genuinely believed that he was aiming his rifle into the air when he fired at June Lay and that her death had been a tragic accident.
As a serving member of the American forces, Davis faced a court martial rather than a normal murder trial. The proceedings opened on 8 October 1943, but were adjourned indefinitely, until Muriel Fawden had recovered sufficiently from her ordeal to give evidence.
By 26 October, doctors judged her well enough to testify, although it was stressed that she should not be subjected to an intense cross-examination. Described as a ‘slim, attractive brunette’, Muriel Fawden only faltered briefly in her testimony, when she recounted the events leading to the death of her friend, June Lay.
Lee Davis pleaded ‘Not Guilty’ to the charges against him and continued to maintain that he thought his rifle had been pointing into the air when he fired towards June. In his statement he admitted to committing a crime, saying that he knew he should be punished for it. Professing to be very sorry for June’s death he said, ‘All I ask of you all, will you spare my life?’ [sic]. However, the evidence against him was overwhelming.
Positively identified by Muriel Fawden as the man who had raped her and shot her friend, Davis had been missing from camp without permission at the crucial time and, at a later inspection, had appeared dishevelled and agitated and had mislaid his carbine. Private Wheeler, who shared a bunkbed with Davis, was carrying the carbine that had been officially issued to Davis, but as the rifles normally hung at the end of the beds it was possible for Wheeler and Davis to have accidentally picked up each other’s guns. Wheeler’s assigned gun was found hidden behind their hut, with a clip of ammunition. Tests showed that it had been recently fired and striations on the bullets fired from it were identical to those on bullets recovered from the body of June Lay. Wheeler’s cap, known to have been in Davis’s possession and Davis’s khaki trousers and his handkerchief were bloodstained. Furthermore, an empty cartridge case was found in his trouser pocket and Muriel Fawden’s gloves were discovered in the pocket of his greatcoat.
The outcome of the court martial was that Private Lee A. Davis was sentenced to death by hanging for the wilful murder of Cynthia June Lay. In addition, he was found guilty of the rape of Muriel Fawden, also an offence punishable by death under American military law. His execution took place on 14 December 1943 at Shepton Mallet prison, part of which had been taken over by the American forces for use as a military prison. Escorted into the execution chamber by hangman Albert Pierrepoint, Davis caught sight of the noose and the grim reality of his situation suddenly hit him. ‘Oh God, I’m going to die,’ he moaned and, within minutes, he became one of the eighteen American soldiers to be executed at Shepton Mallet.
In his autobiography, Albert Pierrepoint condemned the ‘American traditions’ surrounding such military executions, at which the prisoner’s charges were read out to him while he stood on the gallows, after which he was then allowed to make a final statement. Pierrepoint, who prided himself on conducting executions swiftly and humanely, deplored these refinements to the tried and tested British system, as they could extend the time taken to execute a man by up to twenty minutes.
[Note: There is considerable discrepancy in contemporary newspaper accounts of the murder as to the ages of the victims. June Lay is variously described as being seventeen, eighteen and nineteen years old at the time of her death, while Muriel Fawden is said to be either twenty, twenty-one or twenty-two years old.]