Donald Merrett

31 Buckingham Terrace, Edinburgh

John Donald Merrett (1908–1954) was a British murderer and conman also known under the name of Ronald John Chesney in later life. His adventurous life left a wide trail of damage with him escaping with minimal punishment. Despite being immensely rich his crimes were mainly driven by greed. In his second guise he was also known as the Amazing Mr Chesney. A highly flamboyant character, his later friends and lovers knew him as "Ches"'^[1]

Early life[]

He was born on North Island in New Zealand on 17 August 1908 the son of John Merrett an engineer and his wife Bertha Milner. Donald was an only child and spoilt by his parents.The family moved to St Petersburg in Russia where the father worked installing an electricity supply in the city, but the cold climate did not suit Bertha. Linked to a growing estrangement with Donald's father Bertha and Donald moved to Switzerland around 1913 and never saw his father again.^[2] Bertha remained in the safety of Switzerland (a neutral country) for the duration of the First World War. Bertha cared for wounded British soldiers released from PoW camps. She told enquirers that her husband was killed in the Russian Revolution.^[3]

In 1924 Bertha returned to England and rented a cottage near Reading. Donald was then educated privately at Malvern College as a boarder. He had a reputation as being clever but badly behaved. He was expelled for being found in bed with a girl.^[4]

In 1925 they moved to Edinburgh, at first renting. They sought that Donald was accepted at Edinburgh University and this was achieved in January 1926 and began studying for a BA degree at Edinburgh University. There is no evidence that he ever attended any lectures. Bertha purchased a house and they lived together in a large Victorian townhouse at 31 Buckingham Terrace in the fashionable and expensive Learmonth district. The aim was that Donald should eventually join the Diplomatic Service.^[5]

The First Murder[]

Donald began an affair with Elizabeth (Betty) Christie, who used to be paid for dances at the Dunedin Palais de Dance at 10 Picardy Place at the top of Leith Walk. To fund this and his desired life-style, in February 1926 he began forging cheques in his mother's name. His mother had a very respectable income of £700 per year but by mid-March he had totalled £450 in forged cheques and the bank wrote to Bertha to say her account was in debit. She was puzzled and queried how Donald had afforded his new motorcycle. She had also queried his need for a Spanish automatic pistol.^[6]

On 17 March 1926 at 9.30am an argument precipitated by a second letter from the bank resulted in Bertha being shot in the head, whilst in the main first floor livingroom, where Bertha had a writing bureau. Donald ran downstairs and told the maid that his mother had shot herself due to her worries over debts. The police were called and constables Middlemass and Izatt attended. An ambulance arrived. Bertha was not dead, and as a suspected suicide was placed in "the custody ward" a controlled area in Edinburgh Royal Infirmary on Lauriston Place. Donald went out dancing with Betty that night. Bertha regained consciousness but was never interviewed by the police as the whole affair was treated as attempted suicide. She told nurses that she remembered arguing with Donald and an explosion. A visitor implied to her that Donald had shot her and she said "Was it Donald? that naughty boy, did he do this?". She died on 1 April 1926 two weeks after being shot.^[7]

After the death Donald persuaded other relatives that he wanted to go to London and lived the high life there. Only when the Clydesdale Bank pointed out to police that Donald was still receiving cheques from Bertha after her death did the police investigate.^[8] He was arrested in December.^[9]

The trial began at the High Court in Parliament Square in central Edinburgh on 1 February 1927. It was a very high profile case and involved many prominent legal figures of the day. Lord Alness sat in judgement. The prosecution was led by Lord Advocate Wiliam Watson. The defence was led by Craigie Aitchison. The coroner's evidence was presented by Henry Littlejohn and John Glaister. The most crucial evidence (on behalf of the defence) was given by Bernard Spilsbury who explained how a lack of powder burns on the head did not rule out suicide. The London gunsmith was also called to testify that suicide was possible. Donald himself did not speak.^[10]

The inactivity on the part of the police was said to stem from not believing that a 17 year old could commit such a crime and they preferred the suicide theory. The evidence of the maid (Rita Sutherland) was inconsistent and also somewhat supported the suicide theory.^[11]

The woefully inadequate police interest played into the hands of the defence and was heavily criticised by Lord Alness. The gun had not been fingerprinted, the bank letters had been destroyed and no copies had been requested. Although there was a wealth of circumstantial evidence the jury of 15 voted in a ratio of 5 as guilty and 10 as not proven (a specific judgement allowed in Scots law) no-one thought him "not guilty" but the evidence had failed to prove guilt. Donald was therefore free of the murder charge. He was found guilty of fraud in relation to the cheques and served 12 months at in west Edinburgh.^[12]

Later life[]

He was released in 1928 and went to live with a friend of his mother, who he called Aunt Mary but was no blood relation, Mary Bonar, in Bexhill-on-Sea. There he fell in love with her daughter, Isobel Veronica ("Vera") Bonnar. They eloped in March 1928 and were married in Glasgow where marriage was easier than in England. Vera became involved in his further criminal plans. They went to live in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. They were charged with obtaining goods to the value of £200 using fraudulent cheques in the name of McCormack.Merrett gave his name as Chesney and served 9 months in prison for this crime.^[13]

On his 21st birthday he inherited £50,000 from his grandfather, the money having been held in trust until that time. He specifically gave Vera £8400 from this sum. He adopted the new name "Ronald Chesney" to distance himself from his criminal past. They moved to the Portsmouth area and bought a large country house to suit his new-found wealth. They adopted two children: a 2 year old and 5 year old.^[14]

He bought a yacht, the Armentares, and grew a beard. Very unusually for the time he had a gold ring in his ear, adopting the look of a pirate. He bought a further yacht, the Gypsy May and learned to fly at Brooklands. His stated career was given as a stockbroker but sent most of his time smuggling cigarettes. He purchased Colleton Hall in Devon.^[15]

Meanwhile, Vera's mother married Thomas Chalmers Menzies, a Scot who styled himself "Baron Menzies" but had no realistic claim to any such title. This did not last long but Mary loved to call herself "Lady Menzies" and continued to do so.^[16]

"Lady Menzies" joined them during a period living in Malta during which period Donald (now Ronald) began gun-running boat trips from North Africa to Spain in the build up to the Spanish Civil War. He also smuggled cigarettes and liquor into Italy. In 1938 he converted the Armentares into a floating casino.^[17]

In the Second World War he quickly left the heavily bombed Malta and returned to London. There he joined the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve, and served on Motor Gun Boat 92 in the Mediterranean, but this seems largely have been to facilitate a smuggling exercise he was undertaking. Nevertheless he reached the rank of Lt. Commander. He was captured in June 1942 at the Fall of Tobruk and spent some time as a PoW in Bengazi before being released as part of a prisoner exchange in 1943 (he liked to say he escaped). Vera went to Ealing where she ran an old folk's home at 22 Montpelier Road. Ronald stayed in Germany based at Wilhelmshaven) at the end of the war and became involved in the black market and racketeering. He was dishonourably discharged from the RNVR in 1946 following their discovery of his various criminal activities. In 1945 he began an affair with a German girl, 22 year old Gerda Schaller who he had "rescued" from the Russian sector.^[18]

Final Murders and Death[]

He was discharged from the RNVR in 1946 for stealing property and served 4 months in Hamburg in a military prison.^[19]

On release he sought divorce from Vera to marry Gerda but Vera was a Catholic and refused. Donald (as Ronald) was jailed for larceny in Hamburg for a further 4 months later in 1946. He was jailed in Paris in 1947 for smuggling again in Paris in 1948 for currency trafficking and then in Berne in Switzerland for dealing in forged currency. In 1949 he was fined 30,000 francs for offences against aliens. Gerda also spent time in prison for her part in his crimes.^[20]

In 1952 he served time in Wandsworth Prison in England for currency smuggling and offered his soon-to-be-released cellmate £1000 to kill Vera. On release he went to Cologne where he met 26 year old Sonia Winnekes in a night club. He forgot Gerda.^[21]

He obtained a passport in the name of Leslie Chown (a real person he had encountered in a pub who bore some similarity) in June 1953 and began travelling in that name. He travelled to England to see Vera using this passport at the beginning of February. He stayed briefly and made sure he was remembered by a policewoman during his exit from England, He stayed four days in a hotel in Amsterdam under the name of Mr and Mrs Milner (his mother's maiden name). He flew back to London on 10 February. ^[22] He went to find Vera in West Ealing intending to get back the £8000 he had given her. He reached her on 11 February. He got her drunk and drowned her in the bathtub. His mother-in-law confronted him as he left and he struck her with a metal coffee pot and strangled her, killing her too. The event was labelled the Ealing Double Murder.^[23]

He immediately went on the run and went back over the Channel to Europe. He returned to Amsterdam by plane and from there took a train to Germany. He spent a final two nights with Sonia in her home town of Duren at 51 Josefstrasse and told her he was going back to England.^[24]

He was found dead on 16 February 1954 in a wood near Cologne with a self-inflicted gunshot to the head from a Colt 45. He left a letter to his latest conquest 28 year old Sonia Winnikes. Only Gerda attended his funeral in Germany 23 February 1954. She paid for the burial but Sonia received all his worldly goods. He is buried in an area reserved for suicides in the churchyard at Duren.^[25]

The German police removed his forearms and sent them to London for confirmation that it was Merrett. They are preserved in the liquid in which they were delivered in the Police Black Museum at Scotland Yard.^[26]

Aftermath[]

Vera and her mother were buried together on 5 March 1954 in Hastings Borough Cemetery.^[27]

His adopted daughter Ann Trull survived all the events.

John Merrett senior had not died in the Russian Revolution as Bertha claimed. He had returned to England and had followed the trial and double murder scandal with dismay. He died in 1966.^[28]

The Dunedin Palais de Dance was converted to garage use and is owned by Hertz Car Rental.^[29]

References[]