It was the summer of 1946 when King George II of Greece rented a house at 45 Chester Square, Belgravia. Requiring a housekeeper for the premises he engaged the services of 41-year-old Elizabeth McLindon and she moved into the house, even though the place was still being decorated.

Elizabeth considered herself engaged to be married. Her fiancé was Arthur Robert Boyce, a man she had met in Brighton. The unfortunate woman was not to know that, not only was Boyce already married, he had served a prison sentence for bigamy. However, Elizabeth hardly had a spotless background. She had been a high-class prostitute and had only obtained the post because Boyce had forged her glowing references.

When the King of Greece, accompanied by his private secretary, M. Papanikolaou, arrived at the Chester Square house on the evening of 9th June, to see how the redecoration work was progressing, they were surprised to find that the housekeeper was not there to greet them. They looked into several rooms but there was no sign of the woman. They did, however, notice that one room on the ground floor was locked. M. Papanikolaou visited the house again on the 12th and again there was no sign of Elizabeth.

On the 14th June the police were alerted. They came to the house and broke down the door of the locked room. Elizabeth was dead. She was seated at a table and had been shot in the back of the head and had been dead for about six days. When officers searched the dead woman's possessions they found letters that were signed, "Your loving and true hubby, Arthur."

Following Boyce's trail to Brighton they searched his lodgings and found a luggage label in the name of John Rowland. Rowland was traced to an address in Caernarvon and he told officers that he had once shared lodgings with Boyce. During their time together Rowland had had a .32 Browning automatic pistol stolen and had suspected Boyce of taking it. Rowland produced a spent cartridge case from the weapon and markings on the case were identical to markings found on a similar one found next to Elizabeth's body.

Boyce was arrested and appeared for trial at the Old Bailey in September 1946. He tried to convince the jury that he had given the gun to Elizabeth as protection against some men who had threatened her. The jury dismissed this notion and duly found him guilty of murder. Boyce was hanged at Pentonville on 1st November 1946

Murder-UK.com