Ronald True

True was born in Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester, England on 17 June 1891, the son of an unmarried 16-year-old girl named Annabelle Angus, who doted on her son.[n 1]

As a child, True was markedly disobedient and selfish to his family and peers, and his public school attendance record poor. He was regularly disciplined for acts of truancy and disobedience,[3] and is known to have regularly committed acts of petty theft. He is also known to have frequently exhibited cruelty to animals.[4]

In 1902, True's mother married a wealthy man named Arthur Reginald French, who would later inherit the title Baron de Freyne, enabling both mother and son access to many provisions money could not previously afford. True was subsequently educated at the prestigious Bedford Grammar School, although he also habitually truanted from this school.[1] Three years later, his mother developed a serious illness. When True's aunt informed him of this fact, he simply replied: "Oh well, if she dies all her property will be mine. I'll give you her two best rings straight away."[5]

True joined the Royal Flying Corps as a student pilot in 1915, training at a flying school in Gosport, Hampshire.[9] Contemporary records indicate his performance was substandard. He is known to have crashed his plane on his first solo cross-country trial flight in Farnborough in February 1916, suffering severe concussion and remaining unconscious for two days.[10] The following month, he again crashed his plane—this time in Gosport—suffering only minor cuts and bruises. Shortly after this second accident, he suffered a nervous breakdown. Seven months later, in October 1916, True was discharged from the Royal Flying Corps.[1] Just weeks later, he would be briefly hospitalised following his collapse inside a Southsea theatre. True himself would later ascribe this period of hospitalisation to his having contracted syphilis.[n 2]

Early the following year, True obtained a job as a test pilot at the Government Control Works in Yeovil, although he soon lost this job due to his erratic behaviour, short temper, and poor performance.[12]

In June 1917, True travelled to New York. Falsely claiming to be an English pilot with combat experience, he briefly obtained a job as a flying instructor with the United States War Department. He was soon deployed to Houston, although his poor performance soon saw his dismissal. True then briefly travelled to Mexico before returning to New York in June 1918.[13]

By 1920, True's daily morphine intake had increased to up to thirty grains. His behaviour was also markedly more erratic. At the insistence of his wife and mother, he spent approximately six months in a Southsea nursing home for treatment of his morphia addiction and the resulting mental ailments, which included an incipient split personality. While incarcerated at this facility, True was observed to be prone to sudden mood swings, and to frequently simply sit in silence for long periods of time while staring at either the sea or the sky.[15] He was also convinced he was shadowed by a doppelgänger who shared his name (but spelled Ronald Trew) and who was his mortal enemy.[n 4]

On several occasions, True would absent himself from his nursing home and travel to London, where he would survive via acts of theft and passing forged cheques,[17] although whenever confronted with bills or proof of his fraudulent activities, he would insist the matter he was confronted with did not belong to him, but "the other Ronald True."[18]

Upon discharging himself from this nursing home, True relocated with his wife to Portsmouth. He and his wife lived together in this city for approximately twelve months.[19] At the insistence of his family, True again became an in-patient at a nursing home in an effort to cure him of his morphine addiction. Upon his discharge, he briefly lived with his aunt in Folkestone, to whom he claimed three palmists across the world had informed him he was to be murdered at "the hands of a woman" and that, as he was only destined to life a short life, he intended to maximise his pleasures.[20]

In late 1921, True abandoned his wife and child—removing both as beneficiaries from his will[19]—after learning she had resumed her acting career. Shortly thereafter, he relocated alone to London, falsely informing his family a Mr. Harris had offered him a lucrative job. From thereon, he supported himself via his weekly allowance and by committing various acts of petty theft and fraud.[21]

True had first encountered 25-year-old Gertrude Yates on 18 February. Yates was a prostitute and call girl whose regular clients were frequently—if not exclusively—affluent individuals[26] who could afford to entertain her at venues such as cinemas, restaurants, and dance-halls before spending the evening with her. She had first become acquainted with True in a West End lounge,[27] being informed by True that he was a Major within the British Army.[28][n 6]

Gertrude Yates

On the first occasion the two spent the night together, True stole approximately £5 from her handbag before leaving her flat the morning after their acquaintance, resulting in Yates initially resolving never to see him again. However, over the following fortnight, True regularly pestered her with both haranguing and pleading telephone calls and by calling at her flat unannounced, although Yates would invariably refuse to speak with him.[31]

By 2 March, True resided at the Grand Hotel on Northumberland Avenue. The same day, he acquired the chauffeuring services of a Knightsbridge-based vehicle hiring firm. His appointed chauffeur was a man named Luigi Mazzola, who frequently drove True to destinations across London as far afield as Richmond to locations such as dance-halls and hotels. Typically, True would spend all his money at these venues and, in the short duration of time Mazzola was employed as his chauffeur, True never paid the chauffeuring firm for his services.[32]

On three consecutive evenings between 2 and 4 March, True instructed Mazzola to drive to Finborough Road, although on each occasion, Yates was either not present in her home or refused to permit him entrance into her flat. On the third occasion, he returned alone to his chauffeur from the direction of Yates's flat and instructed Mazzola to drive him to the Castle Hotel, where he dined with a Mr. and Mrs. Sachs.[33] In the course of their meal, he informed the couple of his knowledge of a woman who lived in a basement flat in Fulham who had money, and that he intended to obtain this money even if via the act of murder.[34]

After leaving Yates's flat, True took a taxi to a nearby post office, where he phoned and acquired the chauffeuring services of Luigi Mazzola, whom he instructed to drive to the address of his friend James Armstrong, then pick himself up at the Strand Corner House later that morning. He was then driven to a menswear shop in Coventry Street where he purchased a new suit and bowler hat with money stolen from his victim, remarking to the salesman he had arrived from France via air that very morning and that he had acquired the blood on his clothes in an "aeroplane accident" shortly after crossing the English Channel.[38] He then pawned two stolen rings at a Wardour Street pawnbrokers for £25 before, via prearrangement, meeting Armstrong at the Strand Corner House at 11 a.m. Mazzola drove the two men to various locations across London before driving the pair to the Hammersmith Palace of Varieties at about 8:40 p.m. His services were then dismissed.[38]

Mazzola then returned to his garage, to find two Scotland Yard investigators—who had learned of True's habitual usage of his chauffeuring services—waiting. Having informed the investigators of True's whereabouts, Mazzola was then ordered by the investigators to drive them to the Hammersmith Palace of Varieties. True was arrested by four senior police officers inside the theatre at 9:45 p.m. that evening. He made no efforts to resist arrest.[38]

True admitted to the arresting officers that he had been in Yates's flat the previous evening, but claimed to have left the premises when a "tall man, aged thirty-one" had begun arguing with Yates. Two days later, he was formally charged with Yates's murder. He was held on remand at a Brixton prison, to await trial.[40] While incarcerated at this facility, he was placed under the observation of two medical officers, who, noting his excitable personality and insomnia, prescribed him sedatives in an effort to placate his temperament.[41][n 8]

True (centre), pictured at his trial for the murder of Gertrude Yates. 1 May 1922.

The trial of Ronald True for the murder of Gertrude Yates began at the Old Bailey on 1 May 1922. He was tried before Mr Justice McCardie.[4] Sir Richard Muir was the chief prosecutor. True was defended by Henry Curtis-Bennett.[40]

Curtis-Bennett argued that his client was insane; he introduced two eminent psychiatrists who had separately examined True while on remand to testify that he suffered from a congenital mental disorder, which had been aggravated by his morphine addiction.[42] Another witnesses to testify on behalf of the defence was a man to whom True had claimed an individual was visiting West End pubs and restaurants, impersonating him and "passing out dud cheques" in his name, which his mother was having to honour.[43]

Richard Muir argued the motive behind Yates's murder was quite simple and driven by a sane motive: robbery. Muir contended that True needed money; that he had known Gertrude Yates had ample cash and valuables; and he had thus murdered her for her possessions. Having stolen everything of portable value he could carry, True had lost no time in turning the jewellery into cash.[44] Muir contended these facts negated the defence's contention that Yates's murder was the act of a madman.[45]

Muir did not call any prosecution witnesses; instead extensively cross-examining several defence witnesses in efforts to prove that, as True had made numerous efforts to avoid detection such as attempting to deter Yates's cleaning lady from entering her bedroom and claiming to a salesman the bloodstains on his clothes had been caused in an aeroplane accident, that he thus appreciated the criminality of his actions and was therefore criminally responsible. Muir also extensively discussed the M'Naghten Rules; emphasising that True knew the nature of his act, and since he had used every means that suggested itself to his mind to escape detection, he knew that what he had done was wrong. This made him legally culpable even if he was deranged.[42]

On 8 June 1922, True was reprieved by Home Secretary Edward Shortt, who had appointed three medical experts to assess True's sanity—all of whom concluded he was legally insane. On the basis of these experts' reports, Shortt recommended True's sentence be commuted to life imprisonment, to be served in a high-security psychiatric hospital.[49][50]

The Home Secretary's decision to reprieve True caused considerable political and public controversy. Many believed, incorrectly, that True was being leniently treated for the crime of murder solely on account of his hailing from an influential family.[51] This controversy was further heightened due to the concurrent case of an eighteen-year-old working-class pantry boy named Henry Julius Jacoby, who had murdered 65-year-old Lady Alice White in March 1922, and whom Justice McCardie had sentenced to death just days before True's trial.[52] Although the jury that convicted Jacoby had strongly recommended mercy, he had been executed at Pentonville Prison on 7 June.[1][n 9]

Shortt was obliged to explain to the House of Commons that True's reprieve was not left to his personal discretion; the law gave him no option. At trial, True was found guilty by the stringent standards of the M'Naghten Rules, but the Home Secretary was legally held to different standards. Having information from the trial, which could not be ignored, that True's sanity was seriously in doubt, the Criminal Lunatics Act of 1884 compelled him to order an enquiry. As True had been declared certifiably insane, the Common Law of England did not permit an insane person to be executed, mandating a reprieve.[53]

• Carswell, Donald (1950). Trial of Ronald True. William Hodge and Co. ISBN 0-85279-016-3.
• Fido, Martin (1995). Twentieth-century Murder: A Year by Year Account of the World's Most Pitiless Crimes. Bracken. ISBN 978-1-858-91390-2.
• Gaute, J.H.H.; Odell, Robin (1996). The New Murderer's Who's Who. Harrap Books. ISBN 978-0-245-54639-6.
• Hall, Angus (1976). Crimes of Horror. London: Hamlyn Publishing. ISBN 1-85051-170-5.
• Hodge, Harry (1954). Famous Trials 2: Herbert Rowse Armstrong, Field and Gray, George Joseph Smith, Ronald True. Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-140-00634-6.
• Honeycombe, Gordon (1982). The Murders of the Black Museum: 1870-1970. Hutchinson Publishing. pp. 234–241. ISBN 978-0-863-79040-9.
• Lane, Brian (1995). Chronicle of 20th Century Murder. Wiltshire: Select Editions. ISBN 978-0-425-14649-1.
• Lane, Brian (1991). The Murder Guide to Great Britain. London: Robinson Publishing Ltd. ISBN 1-854-87083-1.
• Morris, Jim (2015). The Who's Who of British Crime: In the Twentieth Century. Stroud: Amberley Publishing. ISBN 978-1-445-63924-6.

• Contemporary news article pertaining to the trial of Ronald True
• 8 May 1922 edition of The Recorder, detailing True's conviction for the murder of Gertrude Yates
• Condemned to Live Always in the Shadow of the Gallows: A Washington Times periodical focusing upon psychiatrists' post-trial conclusions of True's insanity
• Transcript of 1931 legal discussions regarding True's continued confinement within Broadmoor psychiatric hospital
• Full text of Trial of Ronald True, first published in 1950