Born in IIford, Essex, in 1917, Heath was of a lower middle-class background, though he would never have admitted to as much. Even so, his father, a barber, worked hard to find the money to send his son to private school. It was not money well spent. He showed little interest in his education, failed miserably at school, and was perpetually in trouble. Preternaturally a liar and incapable of telling the truth, what he did learn held him in good stead. He was well-spoken, had all the airs of a gentleman, and could charm the ladies.

After leaving school with minimal qualifications he worked for a time in a series of menial office jobs. Such jobs did not fit well with his image of himself, however. So in 1936, he enlisted in the Royal Air Force. But his career was short-lived when after just a few months he was cashiered and court-martialled for theft and desertion. With little interest in working for a living in 1938, he was sentenced to three years borstal for stealing jewellery from a friend. Upon his release in 1940, and with war raging in Europe, he again enlisted in the R.A.F and was sent to serve in the middle-east where his private schooling secured for him a commission. His new found rank did not prevent him from being court-martialled for a second time, however. This time for theft and fraud. Returned to England in disgrace, he immediately took a ship bound for South Africa where he enlisted in their airforce under the false name of Neville Armstrong. Though his false identity was soon discovered he had proved himself a good serviceman and was permitted to remain. In 1944, he was seconded to the R.A.F and returned to London where he flew bombing missions over Holland. He did not return to South Africa until December 1945, where he was again court-martialled this time for wearing medals he was not entitled to.

Back in post-war austerity London, Neville was at a loose end. Unwilling to, or incapable of, holding down a job he still managed to live the high life, stealing, cashing fraudulent cheques, and leeching off wealthy women. In all his activities he would invariably use a false name. Always immaculately turned out, rarely sober, and never without a woman he very quickly became a familiar figure in the gentlemen’s clubs of the West End. He had a way with women and a charm they apparently found difficult to resist. But he was a dangerous man to know.

In March, 1946, a woman was discovered bound and naked in a hotel room. She identified Heath as her assailant to police but refused to press charges. This may have been because she was a prostitute. Not long after, in May, Margery Gardner, a 32 year old married woman was similarly found trussed up in a hotel room. She claimed not to know the identity of her attacker.

In the meantime, Heath continued to charm his way around London. In July, he met 19 year old Yvonne Symonds. Together, drinking heavily, they toured the nightclubs of the West End. After spending the night in a hotel together, he proposed to her and she accepted. After his new fiancee returned to her home in Worthing, Heath got back in touch with Margery Gardner. As it turned out they had a shared interest. Margery was well-known locally for enjoying sado-masochistic sex. After yet another nights heavy drinking they retired to the  Pembridge Court Hotel in Notting Hill. The following morning a chambermaid found Margery’s body gagged, bound and naked on the bed. Her nipples had been bitten off, her body mutilated, foreign objects inserted into her private parts, and she had been viciously whipped. Lt. Colonel Heath, as he was calling himself at the time, was nowhere to be found. He had left the hotel earlier that morning to catch a train bound for Worthing to visit his fiancee.

Aware that the police would be on his trail and that this would soon become public knowledge he told Yvonne that he had been staying in the same hotel as Margery and that they were old friends. Indeed, he had even loaned her the use of his keys. He had , however, been away from the hotel at the time of the murder. Yvonne believed him. The following day she phoned Heath to inform him that it had been reported in the local newspaper that the police wanted to interview him about Margery’s murder. She suggested that he should contact the police to explain what had happened. Instead he decided to write a letter to Chief Inspector Barrett, who was leading the investigation into the case, to explain that he had discovered the body in his hotel room after returning from a night out and had fled in panic.

After posting the letter, Heath caught a train to Bournemouth where he booked into the Royal Tollard Hotel under the name of Group Captain Rupert Brooke. Soon after his arrival he met 21 year old, Doreen Marshall. She quickly fell for his inestimable charms and they had tea together. At the end of the evening, Doreen had wanted to hail a taxi to take her back to her hotel, but Heath peruaded her to allow him to walk her the short distance. She was never seen alive again.

The manager of the hotel where Doreen had been staying, The Norfolk, and who had reported her missing, told the police that as far as he was aware she had spent the evening with a certain Group Captain Rupert Brooke. On learning of this, Heath telephoned the police and told Detective Constable Souter that he would come down to the station to clear the matter up. He did indeed turn up at the station some hours later and identified Doreen as the woman he had spent the previous evening with, but insisted that he had left her at the Norfolk Hotel. Souter, however, thought Rupert Brooke bore a startling similarity to Neville Heath, the man wanted by Scotland Yard in the Margery Gardner murder case. When he put this to Heath, he denied it. But he was becoming increasingly agitated the longer he remained at the station. When he insisted that he had to return to the hotel to fetch his coat, the police said they would fetch it for him. On searching it they discovered the key to a locker at the local railway station. In the locker they found a blood-stained riding whip. The blood was later identified to be that of Margery Gardner. Faced with this new evidence Rupert Brooke admitted to being Neville Heath.

At about the same time as Heath was owning up to his true identity the body of Doreen Marshall was found in Woodland. She was bound hand and foot and naked, her right nipple had been bitten off, objects had been thrust into her private parts, and her throat had been slashed.

At his trial for the murder of Margery Gardner, Heath pleaded insanity. With only one woman on the jury it wasn’t thought beneficial for him to testify in his own defence. Even so, he was smug and complacent throughout the trial seemingly confident that he would be cleared of murder. The doctors who had examined him, however, despite describing him as a sexual pervert, a sadist, and a psychopath, stated quite catergorically, that he was sane. He was sentenced to be hanged.

At his execution he asked the public hangman Albert Pierrepoint, if he could have a whisky; then glancing up at the gallows he said, “better make it a large one.”