Mary "Helen" Hoyles (Unsolved Murder)

Late on the evening of February 12th 1945, 55 year old Mary "Helen" Hoyles  finished her shift at the American Red Cross Club on High Street in the centre of Southampton, and began the short walk home. Helen's journey should have taken just a quarter of an hour but she did not make it safely home.

Early the following morning Helen's half-naked body was found in a cul-de-sac near her lodgings on New Road. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled. A clue was found at the scene which made police think the case would be solved within a week, though this confidence proved misplaced.

Over the next couple of years several suspects cropped up in the investigation and the "clue" took detectives to mainland Europe in their search for the killer. In truth the culprit may have been closer to home.

Sources for this episode can be found here

Transcript

Helen Hoyles 

It was February 1945, and after over 5 years of conflict, the war in Europe finally looked like it was coming to an end. The previous June had witnessed the D-day landings and ever since there had been a continuous stream of American soldiers pouring into the UK to be transported across the channel to France. The city of Southampton played a crucial role as a major port for the Allies, and it was a key location for the presence of US troops. Situated along the southern coast of England, Southampton made an ideal staging point for the deployment of American forces to mainland Europe.

Southampton's strategic importance meant it was a key target for German bombing raids. At the end of the first week of February 1945, 55 year old Mary Helen Hoyles, known as Helen, found herself in need of new lodgings after her flat was destroyed by a Luftwaffe raid. The property was situated above a general shop on New Road in the St Mary’s area of the city.  Finding herself homeless, Helen took a room at a different house on New Road, owned by landlady Mrs Adams.

At some point in the past Helen had run a poultry farm, but after the business failed she set up a general shop also situated in New Road. This premises was bombed in 1940, which put Helen out of business. Over the next few years she was forced to get work wherever she could find it. Helen couldn’t afford to be picky and turned her hand to all sorts of things.

Since May 1944 Helen had been working as a kitchen assistant at the American Red Cross Club situated above the gentlemen's outfitters, Burtons on High Street in the centre of Southampton. An American Red Cross Club was a facility or social space established by the American Red Cross during World Wars I and II to support military personnel, particularly soldiers and sailors, by offering a place to relax, socialise, and receive various services. These clubs were often located near military bases, ports, or areas where troops were stationed or passing through. The American Red Cross provided these clubs with amenities like food, snacks, entertainment, reading materials, and even writing supplies to help troops stay connected with loved ones back home. They were also a place where soldiers could receive comfort and support, often from volunteers, who were there to boost morale and offer a sense of home. The clubs became important parts of the military experience for many, serving as a brief respite from the stresses of war.

On the evening of Monday February 12th 1945 Helen went to work as usual. Her chief duties were to make round after round of sandwiches and mugs of warm drinks for the famished servicemen. The assistant manager at the club, Mr Williams, last saw Helen at 10.40pm that night. This was when her time sheet was signed at the end of her shift. It was reported that Helen did not say goodbye to any of her colleagues and simply slipped off quietly into the dark of the blackout.

It was miserable weather that night and Helen would have needed to pull her imitation leopard fur coat right up around her neck to keep out the rain and cold. Under the coat she wore a dark, woollen frock, stockings and low heeled shoes with green uppers and yellow piping. Around her neck was a green scarf and pinned to her coat was a Red Cross badge. She had with her a handbag and her Red Cross overalls, which she had worn during her shift in the kitchen. Helen was not wearing a hat, something which was quite rare for the time and a detail which would later prove significant for police. 

Helen’s lodgings were not far away and the walk home should have taken just a quarter of an hour. 

The rain continued throughout the night and the following morning the sky remained overcast and the air damp. At 8.30am a 16 year old school boy named Peter was running late for his train. He needed to get to school in Winchester 13 miles, 20 km, from Southampton and was dodging the puddles as he made his way to the train station.  

As he hurried along Peter noticed a man standing on the corner of New Road. He was at a spot about 275 metres from the Six Dials crossroads. This location was so named because 6 roads insected here. The man was trying to get Peter's attention. He motioned to Peter to take a look down a small cul-de-sac which lay opposite where the man was loitering. 

Out of curiosity Peter did as the man suggested and walked down the small, sloping lane called Exmouth Street. On one side of the entrance to the lane stood Ox Boroughs Tyre Depot and on the other a pub, the Bay Tree Inn. The road itself was derelict, as the few cottages that had once stood there had been destroyed in German bombing raids. At the end of the short lane was a railway cutting.

There was a lot of surface water to navigate and as Peter walked further down the road his gaze was drawn to what looked like a pile of old rags on one side of the lane. Closer inspection showed the rags to be something far more sinister. It was the half naked body of a woman. His senses in overload, Peter raced from the scene and ran straight to a police station to tell them what he had found. I’m guessing the man who gestured for Peter to look down the cul-de-sac had already come across the body, but for whatever reason did not want to involve himself with the police. 

Detectives quickly arrived on the scene and it was clear that the body had been exposed to the elements for many hours. As the body had been uncovered in the rain for so long it was feared any forensic evidence may have been washed away. A marquee was hastily erected to try and protect the scene and preserve evidence. The whole area was roped off and police officers stood guard.

The body was in the supine position. The faux leopard skin coat the woman wore lay open and her skirt was pulled up above the waist. A report from the Western Morning news February 14th 1945 mentions that Red Cross overalls were found nearby. Though I’m not sure how the process happened, it wasn't long before the body was identified as Mary Helen Hoyles. The location where she was found was just 180m from her front door.

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The body remained in that position for a full 13 hours, untouched by anyone. Electrical cables were run over from the Bay Tree Inn to light the space under the marquee. Eminent home office pathologist John Webster, director of the West Midlands forensic science lab, was sent for but it took several hours for him to make the trip south from Birmingham. Even after arriving in Southampton, newspaper reports claim he was not in a huge hurry to attend the scene and went out for a meal at the Red Lodge restaurant with local dignitaries first. He finally attended the scene at midnight on February 13th.

A postmortem was carried out by senior police surgeon Dr GG Havers. Marks indicating injuries were found on the neck and face and it was concluded that Helen had been manually strangled. Superficial wounds were noted on the right wrist and knee and there were bruises on the legs.  Helens stockings had been torn and, as her state of undress suggested, she had been sexually assaulted. Robbery was ruled out as a motive as Helen's leather handbag was resting against the shoulder. A purse inside still contained 2 shillings. The evidence pointed to the murder having been sexually motivated.

It was very clear that Helen had put up a fierce fight as she tried to fend off her attacker. It was believed the killer may have fingernail marks on his face and hands. Investigators hoped this would help identify the suspect.

It was logical to draw the conclusion that Helen had been killed where she was found but such was the damage done by the heavy rainfall that police said they could not be sure whether this was the case. 

Helen has been described as somewhat of an enigma. Physically she had medium length brown hair and stood at 5ft 4, 162 cm, but not a lot is known about the person she was. Few people called her a friend, though she had no known enemies. Locals who knew Helen universally commented that she was a pleasant person. Helen rarely spoke about herself and was quiet and unassuming. The assistant manager at the Red Cross Club, Mr Williams, said Helen was a tidy woman who kept herself to herself. He added that she did not have anything to do with the American GIs who visited the club and did not mix with anyone other than her colleagues. As we shall see this last point would later be disputed by police.

Even Helen’s exact age was not initially known and it was first given in press reports as 50 or 52. At the opening of the inquest into her death just a few days after the murder, a birth certificate was produced which confirmed Helen was 55. 

Helen originally came from Lynton in Devon and she had family still living there. Helen's father had worked as a labourer and she had three siblings. A married sister was living in Martinhoe, Devon, and she had one brother in the coast guard service at Milford on Sea in Hampshire and another brother serving in the Canadian army. 

I mentioned earlier that Helen’s boss at the Red Cross Club, Mr Williams, had told reporters that she had little to do with the American soldiers who frequented the club. Well detectives working the case did not agree. The investigative team, led by Chief Superintendent Harry Kemble, developed a theory that Helen was offering more than just a friendly face to the American servicemen. The fact that Helen was not wearing a hat first led them to suspect she may be involved sexually with some of the American soldiers who visited the club. Apparently at this time not wearing a hat in public was a sign of promiscuity. 

An article in Daily Echo from October 2024 suggests that Southampton police believed Helen was engaged in casual sex work. Just ten days before her murder she was caught in a compromising position with an American soldier, in the bombed out shell of Holy Trinity Church in the Kingsland area of the city. Police heard anecdotal evidence that Helen would sometimes leave work early in order to meet a serviceman before she went home for the night. Helen had an easygoing demeanor and attracted a lot of admirers. 

On February 27th 1999 at age 92 former Detective Constable Archie Davies gave an interview with the Southern Daily Echo about Helen’s murder. In 1945 he was working in the criminal record office and oversaw all the documentation for Southampton CID. Davies said that at the time investigators concluded that Helen likely went down the small cul-de-sac, Exmouth Street, in order to have sex with the man who ultimately killed her. According to their theory, the encounter started off consensual but the situation turned violent very quickly. 

As a result of discovering this information, lead investigator  Harry Kemble was hopeful the case would be solved quickly and it wouldn't take long for them to find the “Exmouth Street Strangler” as he was being dubbed in the press. The aforementioned article from the Southern Daily Echo in 1999 suggests the police believed the case would be solved within a week, especially as Southampton police didn't have any unsolved murders on their books at the time. In reality the investigation proved far from straightforward. 

Many witnesses came forward to say they had seen Helen after she had left work that night walking between the Red Cross Club and New Road.  What's more, a military police officer who knew Helen saw her arguing with a drunken American soldier at 11.00pm. Another report states that Helen seemed to be resentful of this man's presence. I believe this was at Above Bar, which is not a bar but a street. Helen would have had to walk this route on her way home to New Road. There is some uncertainty whether the American soldier was actually walking with Helen at all as he was seen some way behind her.

The American soldier was described as around 25 years old, standing at 5ft 8, 172 cm, with an average build and light coloured hair. He was wearing a light field jacket and an overseas cap. He reassembled a man seen drinking with Helen in the Robert Burns Pub at the junction of South Front and Cossack Green a fortnight earlier. One report states this incident took place more recently, on the Thursday prior to the murder. This man was said to have piercing blue or staring eyes. The man in the pub went by the name “Denny” and his age was estimated by witnesses in the pub as 35. The Gloucestershire Echo reported on February 22nd 1945 that this man had sergeant chevrons on his sleeves.

Early in the case police announced that they were in possession of a clue found at the crime scene. Initially investigators would not go into any more detail about this. They also mentioned how useful information linked to this clue had been given to them by a young woman and may help narrow down the search for the killer. I'm uncertain how this woman is connected to Helen. Within days however, police decided to go public with the clue. 

An American soldier's cap had been found under the nape of Helen’s neck. This cap was a size 7, American-made, olive, drab garrison cap. The cap had been modified, with the crown pleat having been removed and the edges of the sides of the cap sewn together with khaki thread, in a rough herringbone stitch. This alteration was common for soldiers to do themselves in order to make the cap appear smarter. The cap was not new but it was in good clean condition. It had no distinguishing features though inside the cap three fair or golden coloured human hairs were found. These were sent to forensic experts to be studied.

A lot of importance was placed on the finding of this cap and, as we will see, it did play a key role in the direction of the investigation. However, it was later discovered that Helen herself owned such a cap and would wear it as a joke for her own amusement. The cap may well have been a red herring, belonging to Helen, but this could never be definitively established. 

In what was a relatively rare decision at the time Southampton police decided to employ bloodhounds in an attempt to track down the owner of the cap. One of the officers working the case was from the village of Kings Somborne in Hampshire, a half hour drive north of Southampton, and was friendly with a woman who ran a kennel.  

The services of Mrs Nina Elms and her two dogs Minstrel and Magda were duly sought and they soon arrived to assist the search. Nina and the dogs were taken to the scene of the crime on Exmouth Street. The American cap was removed from a cellophane envelope and Nina presented it to Minstrel and Magda. She held the item to their nose and said “Find him, Find him”. Nina and the dogs were then transported to several military camps and establishments in the vicinity. The troops were brought out in regiments and the dogs moved freely up and down the lines of parading soldiers sniffing for the scent. Even if the cap did belong to the killer because of the amount of time it had been exposed to rain it made detectives fear that the scent had been washed away. Still they thought it was worth a punt.

This process was repeated at army camps across the area. While the dogs did their work, eagle eye detectives scoured the faces of the troops to see if any bore signs of scratch marks. On one occasion the dogs did jump up and indicate their interest in a particular soldier. The man was black and did not fit the description of the soldier they were looking for and pleaded his innocence. He was able to provide an alibi and was dismissed as a suspect.  

The truth is due to the ongoing and rapid developments in mainland Europe US soldiers were moving around continually. Even if the killer was a GI, due to the transient nature of troop movements, he could be miles away or even in another country. Local ports were searched but it was like looking for a needle in a haystack.

A search of Helen's lodgings in New Road provided investigators with some additional clues. Several letters and notes from various men referring to Helen in affectionate terms were found. Two in particular caught the attention of police. They became known as the “Lovely You” notes and were signed off by an unidentified man who initialised the notes “H”. The notes had been written on paper similar to writing pads issued to American soldiers. 

In one of the notes H made arrangements to meet with Helen after she left work. It wasn't clear from what was written what day they were due to meet. 

Investigators were desperate to find this man and they looked far and wide across the country. Photographs of the letters were even published in full in the Southern Daily Echo in the hope it would help identify the author. The bloodhounds were also given these letters to sniff to see if they caught a scent.

A woman saw the notes in a newspaper and recognised the handwriting. She had letters from the same man and she knew “H” was an American soldier with the first name Hale. As it turned out the writer of the letters came forward of his own volition. 

Hale was indeed an American army private, currently serving at a military hospital in the South Midlands. Investigators traveled to meet with Hale and after interviewing him determined that he had nothing to do with Helen’s murder. He had not seen Helen for several months, I believe that he hadn't been in Southampton since October 1944. When Hale read about the “Lovely you” notes in the newspaper he immediately recognised himself as the writer and told his commanding officer straight away. 

Apparently it was common for American soldiers to give notes to the bar staff for them to pass on to the women working in the kitchen. Hale may have caught a glimpse of Helen through the service hatch and taken a shine to her.

Shortly after this, the attention of the investigators turned to a sailor from the small town of Hedge End, 20 minutes east of Southampton. I can’t find out much about this part of the investigation other than he too was ruled out. 

Eight days after the murder some vital information came into the police which illustrated just how close the murderer came to being thwarted on that night. This story is sad and frustrating in equal parts. 

At around 11.30pm on Monday February 12th an American naval seaman was walking back from the cinema in Bitterne with his date, a 14 year old local school girl. Yes you did hear me correctly, she was 14. I guess times were very different then! As they passed the entrance to Exmouth Street they heard two people arguing in the cul-de-sac. The pair peered into the darkness but couldn't make out the figures of the people. They then heard the muffled voice of a woman say, “Don't kill me, please, please”.

The naval seaman and the young girl did not go down the cul-de-sac to investigate but continued on their way. The naval seaman dismissed it as anything serious and said he thought it was a couple “skylarking” or messing about. After they carried on a few paces the 14 year old school girl said she heard a woman's scream. The naval seaman and the girl did not go back but carried on their way.

The two witnesses had not come forward sooner because the naval seaman had gone to sea the following morning and had not heard about the murder. When he returned to port and heard the news he went to the police. The 14 year old girl had not come forward because her family thought she would get in trouble. 

The naval seaman added that as they passed Exmouth Street he noticed an American soldier on the street corner leaning against a pub wall. This information made investigators wonder if perhaps two people had been involved in the murder and this man had been keeping look out. This is an angle that is not raised a lot in the sources I have read for my research but does seem plausible.

A month after Helen’s murder, in March 1945, Detective Inspector Gordon Baker of Southampton CID traveled to France with an American army officer to speak with a potential person of interest. Both men had been involved with the investigation since the first day and were still trying to track down the American serviceman with staring blue eyes. They returned empty handed but it would not be the only time investigators would travel overseas in pursuit of Helen’s killer.

After 6 months of inquiries and with over 40 police forces from around the UK being involved, the inquest into Helen’s death was concluded. Hundreds of people had been questioned in connection with the murder. Several suspects had even had their head hair plucked to compare it with those retrieved from  the American cap, but the killer had not been found. A verdict of murder by a person or persons unknown was reached. The optimism that had buoyed the  early days of the investigation had well and truly dissipated.

Detectives Harry Kemble and Gordon Baker from Southampton CID continued to work on the case with assistance from the American military. With this in mind it seems the theory that the killer was an American continued to be the dominant investigative thread. 

Things went very quiet for over a year, until in November 1946 the Daily Herald reported that inquiries into Helen’s murder had been reopened. In what was a sensational turn the newspaper stated the new lead was that the killer was not American but an Englishman. The new suspect was currently in prison for an unrelated offence. The paper did confirm the man had been in Southampton at the time of the murder. No further details came out at this time regarding this theory and certainly as far as I can see the man was not charged in relation to Helen’s death. The whole story just disappeared. I will come back to this a little later as it ties in with information that came out after many decades had passed. 

Two and a half years after the murder, in October 1947, Detectives Kemble and Baker were back on their travels. Both men flew from Southampton international airport to Frankfurt in what was then the American-controlled zone in West Germany. They went to interview a prisoner who was being held in Mannheim Prison. The detectives took with them a large file of documents including crime scene photographs and the golden hairs from the American soldier's cap found under Helen's body. 

The person of interest was an American GI who had been arrested for  strangling a German woman to death. The man was originally charged with murder but this was reduced on appeal to manslaughter and he was sentenced to ten years penal servitude. American authorities gave the Southampton detectives permission to question this man and held him in Germany long enough for Kembel and Baker to make the trip, as he was scheduled to be taken back to the States. 

The American GI was not charged in connection with Helen’s murder but the Sunday People newspaper reported that the interview had been a big help to investigators and led to a new line of inquiry. The American GI was transferred back to the United States to serve the rest of his sentence.

It’s not clear where this lead took the investigation. 

Speaking in 1999, former detective constable Archie Davies says around this time the name of another suspect came up in the investigation. I cannot find any reference to this suspect in contemporary reports but he may well be the English man mentioned in November 1946 who had become a suspect and at that time was in prison for an unrelated crime. I can’t be sure of this.

The man Davies refers to in his interview in 1999 was a seaman who lived in a hostel in Oxford Street, Southampton. This is about a 20 minute walk from Helen’s lodgings. Davies couldn't recall exactly how this man's name first came up in the investigation. His name may have been amongst the letters found in Helen's room or it may have been given to police by someone, possibly a German woman. This German woman is referred to in a few reports as having given police some information about the murder. It's not entirely clear but I think this German woman was living in the UK, however it may be that she was in Germany. I have no idea how she came about the information or what connection she had to Helen or Southampton. Unfortunately those details have been lost  to time.

What is certain is that the seaman was known to Helen and it was proven that he had not slept in his bed the night she was murdered. This man was never charged with Helen’s murder and it is believed he drowned in a boating accident in the English Channel, though I’m not 100% sure of this. According to former Detective Constable Archie Davies, when this unnamed man died all hope of ever solving the case was over. Davies certainly seemed to think this man was the prime suspect.

The case file on Helen’s murder was transferred from Southampton police to Hampshire police when they merged in 1967. Since that time the boxes of notes and any clues or forensic evidence have been lost or destroyed. 

One newspaper, the World's News, wrote an article just after the war referring to a violent outbreak of lawlessness that had broken out during the last year or so of the war. There are many different theories that could be put forward to explain this, but now is not the time. Suffice to say by 1955 there were still 305 unsolved murders from the war years. Many remain unsolved today, including Helen Hoyles. Indeed in the past I have covered quite a few similar cases from this period on the podcast.

From researching and reading Helen’s story it is evident she was a resilient woman who had to deal with many setbacks in her life. Her last words, “Don't kill me please, please”, will stay with me for a long time. 

Sources

https://tinyurl.com/465ssvbn