Susan Goldenberg - Deadly Triangle: The Famous Architect, His Wife, Their Chauffeur, and Murder Most Foul

The Famous Architect, His Wife, Their Chauffeur, and Murder Most Foul

SUSAN GOLDENBERG

Copyright Susan Goldenberg, 2022

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise (except for brief passages for purpose of review) without the prior permission of Dundurn Press. Permission to photocopy should be requested from Access Copyright.

Publisher: Kwame Scott Fraser | Acquiring editor: Kathryn Lane | Editor: Michael Carroll

Cover and interior designer: Karen Alexiou

Cover image: Background: Annie Spratt on Unsplash; mallet: Erik McLean on Unsplash; blood spatter: shutterstock.com/akepong srichaichana; Image of Francis Rattenbury: City of Victoria Archives, M10334; Image of Alma Rattenbury: City of Victoria Archives, M00846

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Title: Deadly triangle : the famous architect, his wife, their chauffeur, and murder most foul / Susan Goldenberg.

Names: Goldenberg, Susan, author.

Description: Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20220252580 | Canadiana (ebook) 20220252947 | ISBN 9781459750302 (softcover) | ISBN 9781459750319 (PDF) | ISBN 9781459750326 (EPUB)

Subjects: LCSH: Rattenbury, Francis Mawson, 1867-1935Death and burial. | LCSH: MurderEnglandBournemouth. | LCSH: Trials (Murder)England.

Classification: LCC HV6535.G6 B68 2022 | DDC 364.152/30942338dc23

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To my parents

Be careful what you wish for, lest it come true.

Aesops Fables, circa 260 BCE

The Rattenburys

Francis Mawson Rattenbury, architect

Florence (Florrie) Eleanor Nunn Rattenbury, Franciss first wife

Frank Rattenbury, Francis and Florences son

Mary Rattenbury, Francis and Florences daughter

Alma Victoria Clarke Dolling Pakenham Rattenbury, Franciss second wife

Christopher Pakenham Rattenbury, Almas son with her second husband

John Rattenbury, Almas son with Francis

Almas Previous Husbands

Caledon Robert Radclyffe Dolling, Almas first husband

Thomas Compton Pakenham, Almas second husband

Almas Parents and Other Relatives

Frances Wolff Clarke, Almas mother

Walter Clarke, Almas father

Ernest Wolff, Almas uncle

People in Victoria

Margaret Catherine (Daisy) Maclure, society and cultural leader

Samuel Maclure, Margarets husband, an architect

Miss S.F. Smith, Almas childhood music teacher

Frederick Adams, contractor, British Columbia Parliament Buildings

Ellen Howard, Florences childhood guardian

People in Toronto

F.H. Torrington, director, Toronto College of Music

People in Bournemouth and Vicinity

Irene Riggs, Almas companion-maid

Louise Maud Price, landlady

Dr. William ODonnell, Almas doctor

George Percy Stoner, the Rattenburys chauffeur-handyman

George Reuben Russell Stoner, George Percys father

Olive Stoner, George Percys mother

Richard Stevens, Olives brother and George Percys uncle

Samuel and Elizabeth Stevens, George Percys grandparents

D.A. Wood, Franciss friend

Shirley Hatton Jenks, Franciss friend and legal adviser

Alfred Rooke, a surgeon

Frederick Clements, a retired police officer

People in London

John Hall Morton, governor and chief medical officer of Holloway Prison

Keith Miller-Jones, Francis Rattenburys nephew and John Rattenburys godfather

Katherine Miller-Jones, Keiths sister

Daphne (Pinkie) Kingham, Christopher Pakenham Rattenburys aunt

Dr. Bathurst, a Harley Street doctor

Reginald Tabuteau, governor of Pentonville Prison

People in Christchurch

William Mitchell, a cowman

Almas London Music Acquaintances

Simon Van Lier, head of Keith Prowse Company talent agency

Edward Frederick Lockton, a lyricist

Frank Titterton, a singer

Beatrice Esmond, Franks accompanist/secretary

Bournemouth Police

Constable Arthur Ernest Bagwell

Inspector William James Mills

Detective Inspector William Goldsworthy Carter

Detective Constable Sidney George Bright

Lawyers/Judge

Robert Lewis-Manning, Almas solicitor

E.W. Marshall Harvey, George Percy Stoners solicitor

Terence James (T.J.) OConnor, Almas lead counsel

Joshua Casswell, George Percy Stoners counsel

Reginald Croom-Johnson, Crown prosecutor

Edward Anthony (Tony) Hawke, junior Crown prosecutor

Justice Richard Somers Travers Humphreys, trial judge

Bournemouth, England, March 24, 1935, Near Midnight

A n elderly man slumps in his armchair, blood pouring from his head. His false teeth have flown out of his mouth. A heavy wood mallet dripping with blood is on the floor nearby. His young wife runs about barefoot, gulping whisky and crying out, Look at him! Look at the blood! Someone has finished him!

One of the most dramatic triangle cases, the Canadian Press news wire service wrote about the three main deadly triangle characters: victim Francis Mawson Rattenbury, a very famous architect, and the two people charged with his murder his second wife, Alma, and her lover, the family chauffeur.

Franciss 1935 killing is in Wikipedias list of notable murders in the U.K. since 1800, one of five singled out for the period 193140. Google calls his and Almas premarital affair British Columbias all-time most famous sex scandal.

Love, hate, abuse, squandered talent and wealth, lust, adultery, lies, deception, cocktails, whisky, cocaine, conventional versus uninhibited, class divisions, massive press coverage, riveted public, false confessions, hypocrisy, misogyny, biased trial, disputed verdict, shocking aftermath. This murder, this deadly triangle, had it all!

It sparked widespread debate over social mores and social strata distinctions, issues that remain today, making it of current significance, too.

No wonder it continues to fascinate.