LOOKING BACK WITH DR JONATHAN OATES
The Chesneys
The police were called and Superintendent Daws arrived . He quickly found , concealed in a spare room , the body of Mary Menzies , who had been hit around the head . It was later found that her daughter had been drowned in the bath .
There was no sign of a forced entry and no one had seen or heard anything suspicious . The family dogs had not barked in the night . However , Daws found that it was possible to enter the house by the footpath behind it and open the back window without any sound being made . People walking dogs had seen a suspicious man hanging about nearby last night and a man was seen walking quickly away after refusing a lift in the early hours . Presumably this was the killer .
Another twist to the tale was that , a few days later , Mrs Chesney ’ s estranged husband , Ronald , was found dead in a wood near Cologne . He had shot himself . He was a reasonably well known , yet still mysterious , figure in Ealing . He served as a Royal Navy officer in the Second World War but had been recently convicted for smuggling . He had also made a settlement on marriage to provide his wife with an income for the rest of her life , to revert to him on her death . In 1927 he had been on trial for shooting his mother in Edinburgh , but was the case was ‘ not proven ’. His suicide note stressed that he had not killed his wife .
However , at the inquest at Ealing Town Hall , the verdict was that Mr Chesney was responsible for the double murder in order to get his hands on the money he had settled on his wife and because she had refused to divorce him . Forensic evidence gave credence to this and witnesses had seen him enter and leave the country on another man ’ s passport . Two books were written in the 1950s about Chesney ’ s criminal career . This November a new book , drawing on hitherto unexplored archives , presents a fresh look at the life and crimes of Ronald Chesney and those whose lives he affected .
This story was the subject of a talk given by Dr Jonathan Oates at Ealing Central Library in November .
TV DRAMA ON ANOTHER MURDERER
John Christie had been killing for years when women ’ s corpses were finally uncovered at his house in 1953 – hidden behind walls and also in the garden . One was of Acton woman Muriel Eady . Another death ascribed to Christie was of a little girl whose family was from Greenford – and whose father was wrongfully hanged for the crime . This macabre and terrible tale is being retold by the BBC in a new television series called 10 Rillington Place – named after the address of Christie ’ s house in Notting Hill . Read the full story at ealingnewsextra . co . uk / history
A 1950s map showing the layout of the district ; no . 22 is at the far right around ealing Winter 2016 / 17 51