Two liverpool murders

[Captain Kong]

Friday, 19, March is the 72nd Anniversary of the Murder of two Managers in the Cameo Cinema in Liverpool in 1949. and our family`s involvement in it.

Cameo Cinema Murders , Liverpool, 19, March, 1949
My brother, Jim, who died in August, 2017, was once suspected of killing two men in the Cameo Cinema in Liverpool on 19 March 1949
I was battered by the Police Inspector Balmer when he smashed his way through our front door in Bolton 40 miles away to search the house.
Two other men were later charged with the Murders, One George Kelly was Hanged and the other, Charles Connolly, was given Ten Years in Wakefield for conspiracy to Murder and robbery,
I became a good friend of Charles over the years, and eventually with a Liverpool business man, Lou Santangeli and Author George Skelly and I also wrote my statements, as I met a man in Melbourne Australia who claimed to have done the Murders and “Got away with it “, I battered him at the time.
The appeal went to the Criminal Cases Revue Court in London and Both men, Kelly and Connolly were cleared of the Murder charges. Unfortunately too late for George Kelly who had been hanged 50 years previously and Charles Connolly who sadly died whilst shopping in Norris Green ASDA store in Liverpool two years previously, They had been set up by Inspector Balmer,
George Skelly and I went to the Liverpool Cathedral for George Kelly`s Funeral, they had bouncers on the door and us who had campaigned to clear the name of Kelly and then had his body exhumed from under the car park in Walton Gaol were refused admission, we had to stand outside in the cold and rain.
In 1997 two years before Charles Died I got my brother Jim to meet Charles Connolly and the three of us had a pint on Queens Drive in Liverpool.
George Skelly the Author, wrote an excellent story with all the possible research into all the facts. , The book is called, "THE CAMEO CONSPIRACY", By George Skelly. Our side of the story is in the Book.
When The Police accuses an Innocent person of a Crime, the effects are Devastating.
Put yourself in this position.... ``` What the.... ???? the house is wrecked with drawers and wardrobes and cupboards wide open and clothing scattered around.
Daughter blurts out, "Our Jim is a murderer,". Mother nearly faints, Dad in total disbelief,..
Jim sailed last Saturday for Japan. how...???
On the previous Saturday evening, 19 March 1949, a man entered the Cameo Cinema in Liverpool with a gun and went upstairs into the Managers Office to rob the evenings takings of £50. The Manager was shot dead in a struggle then the Assistant Manager runs in and he too is shot and dies. the killer runs out leaving the cash on the desk.
The Liverpool Police lead by Inspector Balmer are called and as a ship was sailing that night a check on the crew was made and one, Jim Aspinall was not on board.
Meanwhile Jim had come home to Bolton to see his girl friend, Edna, later his wife, and also called home to say Good Bye, The ship, VANCOUVER CITY was sailing to Japan via Sardinia for a cargo of salt. and those ships usually go out for up to two years.
So on Saturday, 26 March, I was home alone looking after my younger brother John who was five years old at the time while my parents went to the cinema.
Suddenly a big crash and the front door was smashed, in and around a dozen men, no uniforms , all plain clothes, charged through the house, some upstairs and around the down stairs, The leader, who was Inspector Balmer, grabbed me by the throat and slapped me across the face, "Where is he" he shouted, "Where's who " I said, I was terrified.
“ Jim Aspinall, we want him for Murder," I said, "He has gone to Japan on his ship," He slapped me across the face again with his leather gloves on. "No he has not, he is missing off his ship, where are your parents,?" I said "They have gone to the Cinema", " When they come back tell them I want them in the Central Police Station or else".
The men went through the house searching everywhere, making a terrible. mess. They then left. Little brother John was screaming as all these strange men were searching his bedroom/
My sister, Joan, comes in and says "What's happened??" I said, “Our Jim is a murderer and is missing off his ship." she burst into tears.
At 11pm my parents arrived home, I told them what had happened, Mother nearly collapsed, Her son was a Murderer and is also Missing" she was devastated,
"You have to go to the Police Station now. I told them.
They had to walk two miles to town, the last bus had gone and no car in those days.
The Police kept them in all through the night, questioning. Where is he, over and over. They arrived home next morning,
Mother was really ill by now and weeping, her 18-year-old son is accused of killing two men and is missing, where is he?
On the previous Saturday when Jim came home for the evening to say goodbye and to see his girl friend, Edna, he caught the last train back to Liverpool, His ship was over in Birkenhead and so he had to walk down to the Pier Head to get the Ferry across and then walk to the docks, the ship had just let go and so he ran down to the Lock Gates and leapt aboard there and then sailed outward bound. Meanwhile before the ship sailed from the Dock the Police had been on board to see if anyone was missing, and he was.
In those days there was no contact with the ship. For another three weeks Mother didn't go to bed, lights on all night and just sat there waiting for Jim to turn up. She was really ill with all the worry and shock. Then one day a letter came from Jim, just saying," Hi, we are now in Cagliari loading and then going through Suez to Japan". Just an ordinary letter that lads send home.
She got the letter and ran all the way to the Police Station with it. She showed them, and the Police just said, "We know that, we have arrested a man for the Murders,"
They didn't have the decency to tell us.
Mother and Dad were so relieved but the effects of that shock lasted a long time. All they had to do was send the local PC to the house to tell them. instead of three weeks of worry.
A man, had confessed to the Murders, there was a Trial at Liverpool Crown Court and he was found Not Guilty. Unbelievable.
Six months later, Charles Connolly and George Kelly were picked up by the Police in Liverpool and charged. They didn't even know each other.
The night of the Murders Charles was a couple of miles away in a Dancing Competition and won the Rumba. It made no difference he was charged and George Kelly was on the ale with Jimmy Skelly, the Author of the book "Cameo Conspiracy", s brother, George.
They were set up by Inspector Balmer, who was having an affair with George Kelly's girlfriend and so that was one way of getting George out of the way.
Two “witness`s” Stutty Northam just released from prison that day, and a prostitute,, Jackie Dickson, were paid by Balmer to give evidence that they saw Kelly and Connolly planning the Cameo Cinema Robbery in the Beehive pub. I searched all over Liverpool and Manchester for these two for Charles Connolly to get evidence to clear their names. George Kelly was found guilty of Murder and Sentenced to Death by Hanging in Walton Prison, Liverpool. Charles was told if he did not plead guilty he too would be sentenced to Death, he pleaded guilty and was given ten years in Wakefield Prison for conspiracy to murder and robbery. Two Innocent men who`s lives had been destroyed by the Police Inspector. Charles Connolly`s wife, turned alcoholic and committed suicide, his daughter, Tina, was taken away and put into Care , Charles got her back when he was released from Prison after ten years. She later became a Theatre Nurse at Liverpool Royal Hospital and worked with my Doctor son there. She later committed Suicide.
In 1956 I was in Melbourne on the Dunedin Star, and a Liverpool Bum came on board, He was dossing down in our messroom…Pubs shut at 6pm in those days, so we bought bottles of beer from the pub to drink in the messroom. The Bum took one of my bottles and I got a grip pf his arm “Put it down or I will break your arm” He pulled his arm away, “I will kill you if you try, I have killed before and got away with it.” I said “Who was that?”, He says “Two men in the Cameo in Liverpool”., I dived over the table and battered him, all hands were shouting Whats going on,?
I said, “He is the Cameo Killer” No one had heard of it as they were a mix of Scots, Welsh , Cockneys and so on and this was seven years later. Of all the people to say it to was me, who had been involved. I grabbed him and dragged him up on deck and flung him head first down the gangway.
With hind sight I should have hung on to him. I was only 21 and didn’t realise how important that would have been .
Many years later around 2003, after the case to clear their Names at the Courts in London, I got a letter from a lady in London who said the Murderer who I had met in Melbourne was her Brother who had since died many years before in Australia.
Charles told me later that Inspector Balmer was the only man he knew, who had committed the Perfect Murder, he got the State to kill George Kelly. Inspector Balmer went on, a year later, to charge two young Manchester lads in who were in custody in Manchester for robbing a warehouse, with Killing a widow in Cranborne Road, Wavertree, Liverpool, they were both Hanged in Walton Gaol. and Both were innocent. George Skelly, the Author of the "Cameo Conspiracy" book also investigated this crime and wrote the book, "MURDERERS OR MARTYRS" about the two lads, Burns and Devlin, and this is another Miscarriage of Justice of the Police fitting innocent people up just to clear a crime. and so the devastation of a murder charge to an innocent person and their families is never recorded, Lives are destroyed.
Hope you found that Interesting.
Brian
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[thomas michael]

hi capt kong#1
good afternoon, i have the book and have read it numerous times i note your particular connection to the story from page 98/101 and all you write as being absolute truth.
as i stated in the past my only real connection was meeting charles connelly,through a friend, but balmer was a despicable low life whom happened to be in uniform as a policeman,
tom

[Captain Kong]

Today is the 72nd anniversary of the Cameo Cinema Murders,

Below.....
My brother Jim on the right meeting Charles Connolly who served Ten Years

the SECOND FUNERAL of George Kelly at the Catholic Cathedral, 52 years after the first one in 1950 under the car park at Walton Gaol, Liverpool.
George Skelly the Author and I were Refused admission to the Funeral in the Cathedral
so we had to wait outside, us who had got permission to exhume his body for this funeral. None of the people there had ever met or knew George Kelly just a crowd from the Bull Ring Flats.
Brian