Aban Court Hotel Kensington, London England March 9thr-old, 1954. Porter George Smart was working the night shift when he confronted two young men stealing from the hotel bar in the early hours of the morning.
The men (24-yea Ian Grant and 22-year-old Kenneth Gilbert) panicked and in the heat of the moment when discovered, attacked and overpowered the porter, tied him up, and gagged him. George Smart was beaten but alive when the pair left the scene.
The head waiter at the hotel found the body of er55-year-old George at 7.45 am the same morning as he arrived for his shift.
It was later determined that George had not died from injuries due to the beating but had died from asphyxia caused by the clumsy gag in his mouth.
Grant and Gilbert got
…show more content…
Mister Chapman also gave evidence at the court of the conversation he had with Grant and told him that he (Grant) and Gilbert had killed a man and this was a day or so after the news of the murder of George Smart had been in the newspapers. The court hearing was held at the Old Baily before Mister Justice Glyn-Jones on the 10th May 1954 just 63 days after the crime was committed;
The jury retired and a guilty verdict was reached after 20 minutes of deliberation in the jury room. Lord Goddard Chief Justice of England, dismissed their subsequent appeal where again it was submitted by the council that there was no intention of murder in his client's mind at the time of the crime and the charge should be reduced to manslaughter. The conviction of murder was upheld and they were sentenced to death by hanging; the date set as 17th June 1954. 100 days after the crime had taken place, just 3 months and 1 week.
On that fateful day, Ian Grant and Kenneth Gilbert's names would be forever in the criminal history books of England being the last pair of criminal felons to be executed simul.
At ously9.00 am on 17th June 1954, 22-year-old Kenneth Gilbert and Ian Grant were jointly hanged on the gallows at Pentonville, North