As World War II waged on, England was hit with blitz drills, blackouts, and the constant, terrorizing threat of air raids. During this time, police presence, even in large city centres, was spread incredibly thin. Many opportunists took advantage of this, and chose to chase their own fun.
Similar to The Blackout Ripper before them, the duo who went on a six-day crime spree made headlines, and took advantage of the circumstances that surrounded them. Through general mayhem and chaos, the pair instilled fear in those they came across, especially when that fear turned deadly.
Elizabeth Baker was born in Neath, Wales in 1926. As a girl, she adored her father, and followed him around everywhere. When he was called to the war efforts, Elizabeth went so far as to attempt to hitchhike her way to him. While many found this charming and endearing, Elizabeth’s mother was less than impressed.
Upon her return home, her mother took her to court, where Elizabeth was deemed “beyond parental control”. As such, she was sent to an approved school at the age of 13, where she would be placed under strict supervision.
At the age of 16, Elizabeth left the school. Soon after, she married an older soldier named Stanley Jones. Elizabeth believed this to be her salvation, as she did not wish to return home to the mother who abandoned her.
According to Elizabeth, Stanley turned extremely violent on the wedding day, and she left him.
Elizabeth had big dreams – she wanted to be a dancer, and often had fantasies of becoming an exotic dancer. While Stanley had been a temporary solution, Elizabeth realized she needed to chase her dreams on her own terms.
Karl Hultén was born in Sweden in 1922, but left at a young age with his mother, who raised him in Massachusetts. Not much is known about his childhood, though it is known that he enlisted in the U.S. Army following the attack on Pearl Harbour.
After being sent to England in order to take part in the D-Day invasion, Hultén decided he’d had enough of his life as a soldier, and deserted his unit. Upon his exit, he took it upon himself to steal a large military truck. Somehow, he was never caught for this theft.
Hultén fancied himself a storyteller, and waxed rhapsodic about being an officer, and a Chicago gangster to anyone and everyone he encountered. While most didn’t believe him, one young woman hung on his every word.
On October 3rd, 1944, Hultén and Jones met one another at a tea shop. Jones was absolutely smitten with Hultén, who introduced himself as Lieutenant Ricky Allen. To prove himself, he was wearing the requisite uniform, which had been stolen, and showed her his firearm.
Jones, in turn, introduced herself to “Ricky” as Georgina Greyson. She told him she was an exotic dancer, and loved a man in uniform.
Their whirlwind romance lasted six days of chaos, mayhem, violence, and murder.
The day following their meeting, Hultén picked Jones up for a date. As she got into his (stolen) truck, she exclaimed: “Let’s do something exciting!”
Hultén intended on driving the pair out towards Reading during a blackout. He wanted to show off for this beautiful, fascinating young woman. He told her that they were to hold up a hotel near Maidenhead.
On their way there, they encountered a young woman carrying a suitcase. They picked her up, asking if she needed a ride. Hultén then knocked the woman unconscious, robbed her, and then threw her down into the river with the intention of leaving her for dead, or to drown. The woman, thankfully, survived her ordeal.
The following day, Hultén and Jones decided they wanted to rob a taxi for the ready cash. They chose one, and then followed it to its destination. They watched as the taxi dropped a passenger off, and then used their large truck to block the taxi’s path.
Hultén got out of his truck, and brandished a gun at the taxi driver. He was sure the robbery would go smoothly. However, what he and Jones had failed to notice was that the taxi still had a passenger in the backseat. An American soldier had been riding in the taxi, and, upon seeing Hultén with his gun, he brandished his own weapon.
Hultén was startled by this, and decided to leave well enough alone. He got back into his truck, and he and Jones drove away.
Not long after the botched taxi robbery, they saw a young woman cycling along a country lane. The pair then knocked her over, and robbed her.
As Hultén and Jones were enjoying themselves immensely, their crime spree would soon come to an abrupt, violent end.
On October 6th, 1944, Hultén and Jones hailed a taxi on Hammersmith Broadway. Having ditched the stolen truck, the pair needed a way to travel. The taxi was driven by George Edward Heath.
George had been a soldier in the early days of the war. He was wounded in Dunkirk, and was then honourably discharged. George worked primarily as a lorry drive, though he drove a taxi in the evenings, a fact he kept secret from his wife, and two children.
Once he’d driven the gruesome twosome to a deserted stretch of road, they asked George to stop the taxi. Hultén then shot George in the back of the head, got into the driver’s seat of the taxi, and drove a distance away. He and Jones then dumped George’s body in a ditch, and carried on.
They robbed George of £8, which they then spent the following day at the dog races.
They had yet to realize that George’s body had been discovered.
As the press caught wind of the murder, they began referring to it as the murder of “the man with the ink-stained fingers”, as he carried no identification on his person. Later, when he was positively identified as George Edward Heath, the case became known as “the cleft chin murder”, referencing his prominent facial feature.
Initially, police believed his murder to have been gang related, as he’d had dubious ties to a few less than reputable establishments. George also had a reputation for race betting, and had a court hearing pending for assault.
One by one, these leads began to run dry.
As Hultén and Jones continued to live the high life, it never occurred to either of them to ditch the stolen taxi. The money they’d stolen was also long gone, when Jones decided she wanted a fur coat. Hultén attacked, and attempted to steal the coat off a woman he saw walking down the street. The woman put up a fight, and screamed for help. As police were rounding the corner, Hultén and Jones managed to make their escape in the taxi.
A few days later, Hultén was caught due to the fact that the stolen taxi was still in his possession. For her part, Jones felt her conscience get the better of her. She turned herself in to the police, and confessed to her crimes.
The public grew intensely interested in the crime spree of the American soldier and his striptease dancer. Up to that point, neither of them had even known each others’ real names.
In the early days of January 1945, Karl Hultén and Elizabeth Jones were tried at the Old Bailey for the murder of George Edward Heath.
They implicated each other during the trial, neither wanting to take the fall for the actual shooting which cost a man his life. Both were found guilty of murder, and sentenced to hang.
Karl Hultén was hanged on March 8th, 1945.
Elizabeth Jones was granted a reprieve, and released from prison in May of 1954. Her fate is generally unknown, though some speculate that she passed away in 1980.
An American GI, and a beautiful young girl meet in a tea shop. Over the course of a few days in October of 1944, they wreck havoc which results in the death of an innocent man.
Had it not been a true story, I would think it was the plot of a gangster movie the pair were both so fond of.
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Sources:
Karl Hulten – John Simkin – Spartacus Educational
The Cleft Chin Murder – Linda Jackson – Epsom & Ewell History Explorer
The Historical Crimes and Criminal podcast – Karl Hulten
Cleft Chin Murder Wikipedia page