944 THE ADVOCATE
VOL. 79 PART 6 NOVEMBER 2021
Stoner, who soon moved into the spare room. Pakenham was in her 30s, and
Rattenbury was in his 60s and in failing health, brought on by years of abusing
alcohol. When Stoner became infatuated with Pakenham, Rattenbury
basically resigned himself to his wife’s proclivities with the chauffeur and
lost himself each night in alcohol and talk of suicide.
On March 23, 1935, Francis Rattenbury was found with his head smashed
in by a carpenter’s mallet. He never regained consciousness and died four
days later. Pakenham confessed to the murder, but Stoner later told a maid
that he was the one who swung the mallet. They were both charged with
murder. The resulting joint trial at the Old Bailey was voraciously consumed
by the press, with every aspect of the scandal reported. Pakenham’s
infidelities, sexual trysts with Pakenham’s infant son in the room, and
Stoner’s violent rages and addiction to cocaine helped sell a lot of newspapers.
Pakenham even withdrew her confession, which her lawyer, Ewen
Montagu,4 argued had been motivated by her love of Stoner, whom she
hoped to spare from the death penalty.
At the trial, it was found that Stoner, learning of an apparent reconciliation
between Rattenbury and Pakenham, flew into a rage and beat Rattenbury
with a hammer while he was asleep in his chair. Montagu had argued
that Alma was a woman who “by her own acts and folly had erected in the
young man a Frankenstein of jealousy.” In a stunning conclusion to the
trial, Pakenham was acquitted and Stoner was convicted and sentenced to
hang. The Meriden Daily Journal reports on what happened a few days later:
Christchurch England. June 5. (AP) – The body of a woman who stabbed
herself six times in the chest and flung herself into the River Stour last night
was identified today as that of Mrs. Alma Rattenbury acquitted five days ago
of charges of complicity in the mallet murder of her aged husband.
William Mitchell, a herdsman, told authorities he saw the woman sit on
the river’s bank, thrust a dagger into her body and then plunge into the
water.
He said he attempted to seize her as she jumped and barely missed
clutching her heel.
The dagger sheath was found by the river in a handbag which also contained
several notes. Some of the notes mentioned George Stoner, Mrs.
Rattenbury’s 19 years old chauffeur, who was sentenced to hang for beating
Rattenbury to death with a mallet.
Mrs. Rattenbury was 31 sic years old and a native of Victoria, B.C. She
was married twice before becoming the wife of the 67 years old victim of
the Bournemouth slaying. Her first husband was an army officer who
was killed in the World War and her second an American professor from
whom she was divorced.
It was learned that Mrs. Rattenbury who wrote songs under the name of
Lozanne, sent a letter by special messenger yesterday to Stoner in prison.