DOUBLE MURDER IN LONDON

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27279, 20 February 1954, Page 7

DOUBLE MURDER IN LONDON

TELEPHONE CALL FROM CHESNEY

(Rec. 9 p.m.) LONDON, Feb. 18. The ‘ 'Evening Standard” says that Ronald John Chesney, the New Zealand born international smuggler, telephoned his solicitor in England from the Continent on Monday, February 15, with this message: “I am innocent of any connexion with the deaths of my wife and mother-in-law and am returning to England immediately. I will let you have the time of arrival of the boat and the trainband will be prepared, in your company, to answer any questions the police may ask.” On Tuesday Chesney was found shot dead in a wood near Cologne, in Germany.

The solicitor, Mr S. L. Clarke, of Hastings, sent this message to the Chief Constable of Hastings, who in turn notified Scotland Yard.. The message was released at a police conference today. Chesney’s 42-year-old wife, Isobel and her mother, “Lady” Mary Menzies, were murdered in an aged persons’ home at Ealing a week ago Mr Clarke’s account of his telephone talk with Chesney added another riddle to the case. Why should Chesney be determined one night to defend his innocence and a few hours later shoot himself in a wood near Cologne?

Until the police establish that Chesney was in this country on the night of the murders, they will be unable to dismiss the possibility that someone else committed the crimes.

Chesney is known to have left England for the Hook of Holland on February 4, several days before the murders. Inquiries at ports have failed to show that he returned after that date and there have been no reports of any motor-boats or launches slipping in past the coastal authorities;