Frederick Alexander Keeling

Frederick Alexander Keeling was convicted of the murder of 46-year-old  Emily Agnes Dewberry.

He battered her to death at 34 St Georges Road, Tottenham, London on 24 November, 1921.

Frederick Keeling had been a plasterer and an army pensioner. He was married, but had separated from his wife and had lived at 34 St George's Road in Tottenham, occupying two back rooms on the ground floor.

About four months before 25 November 1921, the date of the murder, Emily Dewberry, a widow, and her niece, occupied the front room on the ground floor at 34 St Georges Road, and apparently kept house and cleaned up for Frederick Keeling in lieu of paying him rent.

About three weeks before the murder Emily Dewberry had words with Frederick Keeling and she and her niece moved upstairs, where she seemed to have rented a front room from another lodger.

Frederick Keeling then brought in another woman to live and sleep with him.

He was also drawing his wife's allowance in respect of her from the Ministry of Pensions. However, on 19 November 1921 an auditor of the Ministry of Pensions called to make inquiries about Frederick Keeling's 'wife', and whilst the man was interrogating Frederick Keeling they heard a woman's voice, presumably Emily Dewberry, from upstairs say:

The auditor returned two days later, on 21 November 1921, and after again interrogating Frederick Keeling and the woman who was living with him, he went upstairs and took a statement from Emily Dewberry.

When he came down again, Frederick Keeling's partner was lying huddled up on the floor and he could not question her further as she was either drunk or insensible, however, the auditor told Frederick Keeling that it didn't really matter very much as he had got all the information he wanted from the woman upstairs.

Frederick Keeling was then arrested on a charge of fraud on the Ministry of Pensions on 22 November 1922 and remanded until 24 November, and after spending the night of 22 November in a police cell, he was released on bail on 23 November.

On the morning of 24 November 1922, Emily Dewberry's niece went out to work at about 7am, and the lodger from whom they were renting also went out, leaving Frederick Keeling, his new partner and Emily Dewberry alone in the house.

It was the case for the prosecution that about 8pm that Frederick Keeling went upstairs and killed Emily Dewberry.

Emily Dewberry and his new partner then left the house at 8.30am, taking away with them such things as they could carry such as sheets and clothes, which they promptly pawned at three pawnshops, and after depositing the keys of the house with Frederick Keeling's daughter, they spent the next few days wandering about and sleeping in common lodging houses.

About 9am on 24 November 1922, two neighbours tried to knock up Emily Dewberry, shouting and tapping on her window with a pole, but could get no response. They then went to the police, who found Emily Dewberry lying dead on the floor in her room.

She was clad only in her chemise and her head was in the fender. A yard broom, that had belonged to Frederick Keeling, with a heavy wooden head which was broken, was on the bed, and a plasterer's hammer marked, 'F.K', that had belonged to Frederick Keeling, was also in the room. The hammer had had blood and hair adhering to it and a bloodstained table knife belonging to Emily Dewberry was also found.

It was thought that Emily Dewberry had apparently been killed by a severe blow with the broom that had fractured her skull, and that she had then probably been picked at while she lay on the ground with the plasterer's hammer. There were also three cuts upon her neck made with the knife, but none of them would have been fatal.

The doctor who saw her body at 12 midday thought that she had probably been dead four or five hours.

Frederick Keeling was not arrested until 9 December 1922. When the clothes that he had been wearing on the morning of the murder were examined, they were found to have bloodstains on them.

Frederick Keeling claimed that he knew nothing about the murder, stating that he had absconded with his new partner that morning because he had had no intention of appearing at the Polce Court that day to answer the charge of fraud.

He tried to account for the blood on his clothing by saying that he had knocked his knew partner about after the auditor had questioned her as to being his wife and that she had cut her head on the fender and that he had picked her up and put her to bed and might have got some blood on him in that way.

He also said that when he was arrested and taken to the police cell on 22 November that he had been drunk and had fallen on the floor and cut his head.

However, he was quite unable to account the presence in Emily Dewberry's room of his yard broom and plasterer's hammer, except that they were lying about and must have been taken there by the person who murdered Emily Dewberry.

At the trial, the theory of the defence was that apparently some visitor to Emily Dewberry had come after Frederick Keeling and his new partner left the house, and that they had quarrelled and the visitor had murdered her.

However, after deliberating for 38 minutes, the jury returned a verdict of guilty.

Frederick Keeling appealed, but his appeal was dismissed. The appeal had been based mainly on the judge's summing up.

At the appeal, the Chief Justice said:

The Chief Justice then noted that what the Court had to consider was whether the summing up taken as a whole, amounted to a misdirection of the jury, which in the opinion of the Court, it did not.

Frederick Keeling was executed at Pentonville on 11 April 1922.