If you had seen somebody do what I have seen done, you wouldnt be able to sleep at night, Elizabeth Marina Jones told a friend. He happened to be a War Reserve constable, and her remark returned to haunt her when she was charged with murder.
One fatal mistake snared her and her boyfriend Ricky Carl Gustav Hulten: they failed to part with their victims car. Hulten, 22, was an American GI deserter on the run in wartime London. Elizabethstage name Georgina Graysonwas an 18-year-old striptease dancer. Their victim was George Edward Heath, a 34-year-old cab driver found shot dead at Knowle Green, near Staines, Middlesex, on OCTOBER 7th, 1944.
His Ford V8 private hire taxi was found two days later, parked in Londons Fulham Palace Road. Watching it, police saw Hulten leave a house nearby and open the cars door. He was arrested and found to be carrying a stolen pistol.
Denying shooting the cabbie, he said he had spent the night of the murder with Elizabeth. She confirmed this, but detectives later learned of her remark to the War Reserve constable.
Interviewed again, Elizabeth said Hulten had told her he was a Chicago gangster. After he shot the taxi-driver, she said, he told her to empty the mans pockets as he lay dying. She claimed she had acted under duress, fearing Hultens threats and violence.
Hulten said she wanted to be a gangsters moll and to do something exciting…if it hadnt been for her, I wouldnt have shot Heath.
On January 22nd, 1945, both were sentenced to death for the murder. Elizabeths sentence, however, was followed by a reprieve and she was released on parole in 1954. Hulten went to the gallows at Pentonville Prison on March 8th, 1945.