Arthur Andrew Clement Goslett

Arthur Andrew Clement Goslett was convicted of the murder of his 43-year-old wife Evelyn Goslett and sentenced to death.

He battered her to death and drowned her in the River Brent at Western Avenue, Golder's Green, London on 1 May 1920.

Her body was found in the River Brent near to Western Avenue at the junction with Brentmead Place.

Arthur Goslett had been a mechanic. He was born in Cape Town, South Africa and was said to have had some black blood in him.

He was thought to have come to England around 1914 and in 1915, when he was Chief Petty Officer in the RNAS stationed at Dover, he was interrogated by the military authorities as he was suspected of espionage, however, that seemed to be cleared up and he continued to be employed in the Air Force both at Dover and Dunkirk.

In 1914 he married Evelyn Goslett, a widow with children and some small means.

However, in 1915 Arthur Goslett bigamously married a woman at Dover and was bound over for that offence at Maidstone Assizes.

He later got his discharge from the Air Force and seemed to have then been employed doing amber work for a pipe maker.

He lived with Evelyn Goslett at her flat at 85 Golders Green Road, but in 1918 he made the acquaintance of a woman and bigamously married her in February 1919.

In August of that year the woman was pregnant by him and Arthur Goslett suggested that she should come to live with him and his wife at Golders Green Road and pass as the widow of his brother who had been killed in the Dardanelles. The woman assented to that plan and took up her residence at the flat.

However, shortly afterwards, she was recognised by a neighbour and her true relations with Arthur Goslett became known to Evelyn Goslett who objected to her continuing to live with them, but for the time being allowed her to remain.

In September the woman went to a lying-in hospital and was delivered of her child, but afterwards she returned to live at the Goslett's flat and the child was put out to nurse.

Then, on 4 January 1920, Arthur Goslett went through a form of marriage with a fourth woman from Hounslow and she also became pregnant by him.

It was thought that there was nothing to show that either Evelyn Goslett or the third wife living with them knew of the existence of the fourth wife, but it was noted that it was obvious that Arthur Goslett's matrimonial relations had become very seriously entangled.

In April 1920 Arthur Goslett was pretending to make arrangements to find a room for his third wife and also to take a house for himself and Evelyn Goslett. However, following Arthur Goslett's confession, it was clear by then that he had in fact formed the intention of murdering Evelyn Goslett.

On the night of Wednesday 28 April 1920 Arthur Goslett said that he met Evelyn Goslett, intending to kill her, but that his heart or nerve failed him.

However, on the night of 1 May 1920, he met her again sometime between 9pm and 10pm by appointment, to go and look at a house that he was thinking of taking. He then led her down to a field near the bank of the Brent River and there hit her four blows on the head with a tyre lever that he had concealed in his pocket. He then stripped her of her ear-rings and jewellery and her bag and purse and threw her body into the river where it was found the following day.

He had killed her at a spot about eight yards from the bank of the river at the bottom of Western Avenue, which at the time was described as an unbuilt thoroughfare in Golders Green.

However, Arthur Goslett was detained on suspicion and after a day or two he made a long voluntary statement to the police in which he fully confessed to his crime. He repeated his confession no less than three times, and his story was amply corroborated by other evidence.

However, he insisted that his third wife had instigated him to murder Evelyn Goslett, something that she stoutly denied. However, it was noted that it was quite immaterial in Arthur Goslett's case, to decide whether she instigated him or not or whether she knew that he intended to kill his wife or not.

In his statement of 4 May 1920 he said:

'I have been cautioned that what I now say will be taken down in writing and may be given in evidence and I desire to say that this murder case is entirely my fault, I was forced to do it. On the first occasion when I didn't do it I was called a coward and was threatened by this girl. The letter she written me threatening me that I had to do it, to kill my wife, to take my wife out and kill her. This wasn't the first occasion, she has been running on for six weeks about. Then the Friday night was the 30th of the month wasn't it April. She wanted me to do it then. My wife was down there but I didn't have the heart to do it. I turned back and I called in at the pub down below, the Swan isn't it?, and had a few whiskies.

I am getting mixed up, leave the statement as it is, the days may not be exactly right, I think it was the Wednesday night as the Thursday night we had a game of cards, I think the best thing to do is to find out from the woman what night we had been there. When the wife was down there, as I told you, waiting for me, not at this spot sir, at the police station up at the 'Bell', that is where she waited for me, when my wife was at the 'Bell', I saw her there but did not speak to her. I couldn't do it and I waited a bit and watched my wife to see if she was going home.

This was about 10 o’clock when she got into a bus and she went home then sir, I didn't see her get off the bus because I wasn't there. I followed in the second bus, her's was a 13a bus, mine was an 83 to Golder's Green. I sat on the top of the bus and changed my mind to have some whisky and got off, I think at the Prince Albert. I did get off at the Prince Albert because the Prince Albert doesn't sell spirits, only beer, and I thought of it after I got off the bus. I walked over to the Swan. It was very quiet at the time, 5 or 10 minutes to 10 and called for a couple of double whiskies. Well I took that whisky sir, simply to ease my mind, thinking if I got home this girl (third wife) approached me I would have knocked her down with a tyre lever, which I carried and had in my possession at that time, because I love my wife, I thought the world of my wife and this girl tantalised me to kill her, yes, sir, that's true.

When I brought her home and told my wife everything, paid for the child's cot, paid for the child's pram, paid for everything. I paid 35 for the cot and pram. That's right it came to £5. I was asked by my third wife to meet her at Camden Town Tube Station at 8 o'clock and to come round to the sergeant’s house to see baby. When I got there I saw the baby asleep in a new cot. She persuaded me to wake the baby and kiss it, I knew I was the father of that child and carried out her order. The sergeant didn't know I was the father of that child. Well, then, he shewed me that cot which baby slept in and a folded pram, an American pram, which cost £5. She told me then that my wife told the sergeant to get a cot and pram for the baby. I turned round and said 'I haven’t got £5 on me'. I only had £3 or £3-10-0d on me at the time, and discovered I hadn't my cheque book on me at the time, as my cheque book was in my writing case at home.

Going home, sir, on the way home, I said to my third wife, 'If I gave the sergeant a crossed cheque, he would have trouble to cash it, unless he had a banking account'. When she turned round and said to me, 'Well, Arthur, how much cash have you got?'. I said, 'When we get home, I shall make it up to £4'. Very well. She told me that she could make the rest up. Then she told me that she had a bill of 20 or 25/- to pay a doctor, I believe the panel doctor, for Golders Green and I knew the doctor because he paid one or two visits to my child, to my own child. That is the reason why I didn't like my third wife to owe any money to the doctor. Well, she went and paid, sir, I didn't see the bill, but she told me, 'I have paid the doctor', you have got the sum either 20/- or 25/-. I didn't see the receipt. I thanked her for doing right for paying the doctor.

The next morning I gave her, two or three mornings, I was in the bathroom, when I was shaving. She went out then, sir, after I gave her the money. Whether she thought I was going to give her the other 20 or 25/- extra, on the 22. It seemed to me in her face that she wanted the extra 25/-. She walked away and left me in the bathroom shaving, before I finished shaving, she came back to my room at 7.30 in the morning. She said to me, 'Yes, when I get the opportunity'. I was putting her off always like that because I hadn't the heart to do it, till at last she called me a coward and dared me till I did it.

Now, sir, I said I didn't know where to go or how to do it. She said, 'There is plenty of places down below the river. As we have to leave the flat this year'. She said, 'Suggest that you go to see a house and take her down there and stun her and throw her in the river', which I did do.

Well, when my wife was down there at the Prince Albert she was waiting there for me. It must have been about 20 minutes to 10. I walked her down the road and I struck her on the head when I got to that spot with that tyre lever. I don't know whether I struck her three or four times as I had too much whisky down my neck.

I did not feel myself drunk or anything like that but I felt funny, very funny. My limbs gave way, I felt sorry, awfully sorry.

I took the body and I threw it down in the river, sir, now, sir, I want these five gentlemen to hear this part of the story. You were at my house on Sunday and while you four were there up in my bedroom I asked for my third wife to come up, didn't I? The sergeant of police fetched her up from downstairs and I took about £5 in notes from my pocket, 12/- in silver, 1/3d in coppers and an American coin which I gave her and locked in the case. You know what happened then sir don't you? I went to the big box and I took out a pair of opera glasses which you have seen in the bag, I also picked up a little jewel case with a pendant and pin in it. A diamond and pearl pendant. You remember sir, when I handed it to her, you looked at it didn’t you? Do you remember the word that you told her at the time. When I handed that pin to her, you said, 'What's this?' and she said, 'That pendant belonged to Mrs Goslett'. At the time sir, that pendant I took off my wife's neck after I killed her.

I want you to take notice now, this is my strong point, I don't care what happens to me, I am speaking the truth, that pendant, at the present time, if you get hold of it, must be full of blood. Secondly, she knew that I had that in the box, thirdly, when I handed it to her, she said she would give it to the old lady, give it to grandma. She took that and she went away, when she went away, you told me to dress myself and come with you, and I asked you if you had a warrant for my arrest. I thought it was my own house and I would not run away. I knew I was guilty, I am guilty, I took that pendent from my wife's neck, also that chain, and the ear-rings.

This pin was lying in the bedroom, I trod on it. Why I took that pendant and chain and ear-rings from my wife, was simply to prove that if she, my third wife, gave me away, I would give her away. I am sure she gave me away by saying I married her, she told others in Golders Green. My wife told me this, but mentioned no names, my wife also told her mother, and told her not to tell my third wife, or mention it to me that she had told her. But it strikes me that the wife's mother told the detective in the brown suit, the pepper and salt with trilby hat, who was taking the statement from her in the dining room.

When I came home on Saturday night, it was 10 minutes to 10, and I told my third wife I had done the job. My wife had a black handbag at the time, in which she carried her cards, her money, and letters, I brought this home sir, with this very tyre lever, which belonged to my own car. I washed that thing in the bathroom, when I came home. I had my white cap cover on also. My third wife washed the blood out of the white cap cover, ironed it and put it back on the cap, and I believe the maid in the house can prove that.

After that I asked her to press out my trousers which the maid can prove, the trousers which you found hanging on the chair, they were not the trousers I wore that night at the murder. The trousers I wore were the ones dyed myself, they are now produced. I used to press my own trousers every week, every Sunday. The maids all know, there was no mud on my trousers when I came away. The grass was a bit wet, secondly the shirt and collar I wore, there was one spot of blood on my collar, I put it in the wardrobe. I would have burned them or thrown them away but I didn't wish to do it.

I hung the spare slacks over the chair, there were spots on the shirt. I didn't wish to shift the shirt when I saw it was there. That is the shirt, you pointed me out there. I gave you no answer. You asked me how to account for that, the two blood stains, but I gave you no answer at the time, that is the collar, there was a bloodstain there. That is the cap I wore, I think the blood stain was about there (pointing to the crown of white cover near to the edge). She saw this after she got out of bed with me and she said, 'What shall we do with this', when I say she I mean my third wife. She slept with me all night until 4 o’clock in the morning on the night of Sat and Sun last. I had connection with her that night.

I told her when in bed that the best plan would be for both of us to poison ourselves and she said at the time did I care more for my wife than her. I said, 'Yes, I feel it now'. I felt like getting up and handing myself over to the police, but she prevents me doing so, and told me there was no clue and why should I. I know my shirt and all that was there, I could have burned it but I didn't wish to do it. I told her at the time I got into trouble once and I did not trust her.

I did not have an overcoat on. My wife asked me to put her coat into my box as there was not much room in the wardrobe and the opera glasses someone had them put and she asked me to lock them in my box and I did so.

I put the parcel of amber beads and bracelets down on the roadside, and after the murder I picked them up in my left hand, I had the tyre lever in my right hand, I picked up my wife's bag at the same time, a black bag, that's right, that's the bag (produced). When I got home there was some sweets and coppers and cards in the bag. I did not open the bag, my wife's handkerchief was in the bag, my third wife wiped the edges, there was blood on them, she spat on the handkerchief to rub it off, I mean the blood stains. She said to me, referring to the bag, 'Why did you bring it along?'. I replied, It is quite all right, because I felt sorry for what I did', and I brought it along to prove, in case anything happened, I should prove what I am proving tonight.

She, my third wife, wanted me to burn it, the bag, I told her that I am an engineer and knew better, and that if I burnt the bag the frame would remain. She said, 'There will be no clue, everything would be alright, and I will stick to you through thick and thin and she kissed me. I told her I should never be able to love her, she asked me why, and I told her she had led me astray, that was about the same time she got up on Sunday morning last and left my room, my bed room, and went to her own room, it was about 4 o'clock.

I got up between a quarter past six and half past six, thinking out what I should do as best. Well, I walked down stairs and lit the gas stove in the kitchen and put a kettle of boiling water on, my head was very bad at the time, I thought of making a cup of tea. Instead of that, I walked upstairs and took four aspirins, with a drop of hot water, sat down in the armchair about five minutes.

Seeing the trousers hanging over the maderia chair, I took hot water from the kettle and washed the ends of the trousers out, because they were very dirty, through a fire and a man's place, a factory. I took them downstairs and then to the bath room, washed the bottoms and brought them up to my bedroom, and hung them over this shirt (produced). The collar (produced) was on the same chair. I opened the window, so that the trousers could dry, till about quarter to eight, I did not know what I was doing. I went down to the kitchen and put the kettle on the gas stove again, I put some tea into a tea pot and made a cup of tea.

With that the maid came in at the front door, the first thing she asked me was, 'Who left the key hanging on the outside'. I replied, 'It must have been the man as he came in last'. Then I was feeling very queer, and I was thinking of what I did. She told me to go to bed. When I went to bed, about ten minutes afterwards my third wife entered the bedroom and she spotted my cap, the blood on it, and she said, 'What about it, better to take it off'. I said, 'Please yourself, never mind about the cap, press my trousers'. She left the trousers and took the cap cover off the cap, washed the cap cover out, came back to the bedroom, took the trousers off the chair, proceeded to the kitchen, half pressed them out and took them back and placed them in the same position as she found them.

About ten minutes after, she brought the white cap cover and put it on my cap and she saw the wife's bag (produced) and that is the time she wiped it, spat on the handkerchief and wiped it, I mean wiped the blood off it. I said, 'By the by, how much money is in the bag'. She said, 'I'll have a look'. She did look, and said, 'There is 2½ or 3½ in coppers'. I could not believe that as I gave my wife £8 in treasury notes in the kitchen on the Saturday (1st May) before I left at ten minutes past four. I said to her, my third wife, 'This is funny, is that all the change out of £8'. My third wife replied, 'Look for yourself'. I know my third wife didn't take anything out of the bag.

As I have already said I made a previous appointment to kill my wife, but I had not the heart to do it, and my third wife knew all about it, and when I returned home that night, My third wife handed me a note on which was written to the effect that if I didn't kill my wife someone was going to kill me. I burnt the note. About 7am on Saturday 1st May I told my wife to meet me at the Prince Albert Public House, Golder's Green Road, at 9.30pm that night, to look at a house that I was intending to buy.

When I left home at ten minutes to four pm that day to go to Richmond, I put the tyre lever (produced) into my trousers pocket and under my waistcoat. I took it with me for the purpose of killing my wife that night. I met a man at Richmond and after leaving the North London Hotel at Brondesbury about twenty-five past nine, I went by bus and tram to Golders Green. I walked down from the tram as far as Lloyd's Bank and then crossed the road, and ran as far as the hospital (Highfield) and drank the whisky which I had previously taken from home, it was in a flask, which I threw into the roadway.

I spotted my wife waiting for me, before I drank the whisky. I then walked up to her and said to her, 'come along', she took my right arm, she was then standing near to the hedge, before you get to the Prince Albert public house. We then turned into one of the roads which leads to the place where she was found, I said to her, ‘I don't exactly know where it is', referring to the house I was pretending to purchase, 'but I believe we are on the right road'. As we were walking on, she remarked, 'It is rather a long way out'. I said, 'We will walk down this way and find it'.

As we were approaching the river, I dropped the parcel of beads etc on the new road, but she did not notice me do that, I left her and walked forward to see if we could cross the river, I did not, however, know there was a river there until I came up to it, although I was told by my third wife about the river being at that spot, it was my third wife who suggested that I take my wife down to that place, and stun her and throw her into the river.

I then turned back to my wife and, as she was looking in the other way, I thought it was time to do it, and I struck her three or four blows on the head before she fell, she was clean out of mess when she fell, I did not strike her after she fell.

After she fell I took the jewellery from her neck, namely the pendant and chain, I also took her ear-rings from her ears, I looked for the long diamond broach but could not find it. I threw her hat and left-hand glove into the river, I kissed her hand with the wedding ring on and said I was sorry, and then slung her overboard.

I picked her bag up, also the parcel, and ran home. I met no one on the way until I got into the High Road, and then I ran up on the left hand side, as far as Robert's Furniture shop, and returned home by the back entrance. I unlocked the front door, went straight up to my bedroom, I put the parcel of beads on top of the wardrobe, and the bag at the bottom of the bed, also the tyre lever and covered them up, and just then the boy came upstairs.

I put my slippers on and went downstairs, they told me my wife was missing, I waited up till twenty five minutes to twelve, I knew all about it, and so did my third wife, she knew it, that was why she came to my room and slept with me that night.

The girl, my third wife, I found after I was married to her, that she had another child at Lincoln, which I have seen with my own eyes, with her sister, a school teacher down there.

This statement has been read over to me and it is correct in every detail. This is King's Evidence I am giving here'.

His only defence at his trial was insanity partially induced by alcohol excess, but there was  no evidence of any importance to support it, and the medical officer thought that he was quite sane.

He was convicted at the Old Bailey on 25 May 1920 with no recommendation to mercy and his appeal was dismissed.

Arthur Goslett was executed at Pentonville on 27 July 1920.

The River Brent has since been channelled and housing built on the fields through which it had flowed.