#West Hampstead

[thedirectorscuts]

An area, known as "le Rudyng" (indicating a woodland clearing) in the mid-13th century, had by 1534 come to be called West End. It was then a freehold estate belonging to Kilburn Priory, and was so called because it was at the west end of another, larger estate. Although it is possible that there was a dwelling on the estate prior to 1244, an estate house was certainly extant by 1646. West End Lane (named as such by 1644), the main road through the area, is still bent at a right-angle at the north and south ends where it connects to Finchley Road and Edgware Road respectively. This is because the lane used to form the boundary between a number of different estates.

By the early 17th century several houses were present, and by the middle of that century London merchants were building larger houses in the area. By 1800 West End was a hamlet of two to three dozen houses and cottages located in parkland, mostly on the west side of West End Lane and Fortune Green Lane, and north of the present-day railway lines. West End Lane had been rerouted, making it straighter and lying further to the west than previously. In 1851 residents were mainly agricultural labourers, gardeners, craftsmen and tradespeople, with an innkeeper, two beershop keepers, a schoolmistress and a few gentry. There were three main large houses: West End House, West End Hall and Lauriston Lodge.

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[jimmygneccoofficial]

Jimmy Gnecco Acoustic Performance June 6th at West Hampstead Arts Club in London.

ON SALE NOW https://www.tickettailor.com/events/westhampsteadartsclub/1500637

[niamflopped]

The latest in the fake Londoners saga - letdown imbeciles are claiming that the Men's Pond on Hampstead Heath is no longer a cruising ground for gay men, and nor is Hampstead Heath itself. The level of ignorance on there is terrifying.

Gay West Heath really is, like much of the gay scene, the most mixed of bags: lawyers get it on with barrow boys, multimillionaires with the unemployed - even celebrities with other celebrities. The male only Bathing Pond Hampstead Heath is in summer the hot spot for London boys to swim and cruise around. The Male Only swimming pond (Highgate Bathing Ponds) is to be found east section of the Hampstead Heath.The closest tube and rail way station is Gospel Oak. To access the pond there is a very cruisy changing area. Left from it you will also find a separate nude sunbathing area. In the fenced enclosure nudity is de rigeur amongst the regulars - the serious swimmers, chess players, weight-lifters, readers and sunbathers for whom this is a sort of club. Out on the springboards and in the water, costumes are required.

https://www.nighttours.com/london/gayguide/hampstead-heath-ponds.html

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[darkroomalleycat]

The Beatles at West Hampstead Studios photographed by Robert Whitaker

[theunderestimator-2]

Johnny Rotten in Teddy Boy quiff & attire with a studded leather dog collar around his neck as a splash of punk attitude in 1977 (since he's wearing the same clothes as in the Sex Pistols photo session by Adrian Boot at the Glitterbest offices in Oxford Str. in 1977).

According to Omega Auctions which sold this photograph for £750 in 2023, it originally belonged to Helen of Troy of the Sex Pistols entourage:

"...this photograph originally belonged to Helen Wellington-Lloyd. This was Helen Wellington-Lloyd’s favourite photograph of Johnny Rotten and was the only photograph of the Sex Pistols she had framed in her living room in her flat in West Hampstead where she lived until 1999."

(via)

[thegroovyarchives]

Genesis, West Hampstead, London, 70's. From: Genesis: I Know What I Like by Armando Gallo, 1980.

[zilabee]

Living The Beatles Legend:

After a lifetime of self-doubt over body issues and inveterate shyness, he simply couldn’t control himself. “Big Mal was a demon for sex,” Tony wrote. “[...] Like sacrificial virgins, a lot of the girls willingly accepted that they would have to do it with Mal to get to John, Paul, George, or Ringo, and Mal knew it.”

“A couple of newspaper friends put on a private show involving several prostitutes for our entertainment, one of them being very pregnant.” As Mal recalled, “It was a little unnerving to have these ladies performing before our eyes with each other in one room, with Brian, George Martin and Judy, and the rather more staid members of the press in the adjoining living room.”

“I was being entertained by a young lady late one evening,” Mal wrote, “when George rushes into the darkened room, stoned out of his mind, tearing the bedclothes off, shouting, ‘My turn next—come on, give us a bit!’” Mal gave way to the Beatle, concluding that “apart from that, I was the one that got screwed.”

By this point, [Lily] wasn’t just finding “silly groupie letters” in his suitcase, but also the occasional stray pair of knickers and other telltale signs of infidelity. She recognized that Mal was being seduced—and had been for some time—by overwhelming forces, impulses with which she could hardly begin to compete.

After her brother returned from the States, June recalled that “Malcolm came home knackered, absolutely shattered from that tour.” [...] Her brother and the Beatles were living in a “totally unreal world—an extraordinary, horrendous, wonderful, terrible place that they were all existing in during that period. And they were all damaged by it. They suddenly could have anything they wanted.”

After sharing a convivial dinner with Victoria’s father, who retired early, Mal (31yo) and Victoria (16yo) returned to the hotel and went up to the twenty-seventh floor. [..] “Mal was very sweet,” she recalled, “and we talked and we talked, and we sort of made out.” And while she was unable to meet the Beatles the next morning to do an interview, she exchanged contact information with Mal. And later that year, the letters from her new pen pal began arriving, elegantly adorned with “this beautiful British handwriting.” *

Eventually, Mal would develop a vital relationship of his own with the Scruffs, although he had his detractors—namely, Carol Bedford, a peripheral member of their scrum and a George aficionado who later claimed that Mal tried to put the moves on her. Apparently, Mal had continued to approach women in the Beatles’ universe in the same transactional manner in which he and Neil had “auditioned” willing fans during the band’s touring years. Another Apple Scruff recalled a similar instance when Mal’s attempts to cozy up to the Scruffs went terribly wrong. Apparently, he had crawled under one of the girls’ blankets and “touched something he shouldn’t have.” With that, the offended Scruff came flying out from under the blanket yelling, “Who do you think you are, Paul McCartney?” **

Since leaving the hospital, [Arwen (21yo)] had reared Little Malcolm in her cramped lodgings in West Hampstead. At some point, around the age of six months, he was put up for adoption, leaving her care lock, stock, and barrel, with Mal’s teddy bear as the baby’s only consolation. Mal’s diary would enumerate lunches and telephone calls with the young woman at various points across 1969, but eventually, Arwen chose to move on, putting the whole painful episode behind her. ***

[For his son's birthday] Mal made a cassette recording in which he offered his sincere wishes for the coming year. [...] But any goodwill Mal hoped to deliver was quickly undone that morning as Gary listened to the recording over breakfast with his mother and sister. To his incredible pain and embarrassment, the tape didn’t end with his father’s birthday greeting. Apparently, Mal had recycled the cassette, and as Gary and his sister prepared to go to school, they heard the unmistakable sounds of Fran fellating their dad. The boy’s only solace was the knowledge that his eight-year-old sister didn’t understand the sounds emanating from the tape player.

[..]for the first time, Fran found herself afraid of her boyfriend, whose darkness had never been more acute. It all came to a head one night when Mal, drunk to the gills, began threatening her with his Colt Woodsman pistol, at one point placing the gun against her head before discharging it into the washing machine. When he sobered up, Mal couldn’t have been more apologetic, swearing to mend his ways and be the boyfriend she deserved.

____________________________________

Another quote under the cut, with trigger warning for rape and attempted suicide - and a few notes about some of it.

____________________________________

June 1964 - New Zealand

At the time, the official story involved a twenty-year-old female fan who, having secreted her way into the hotel, chose to slash her wrists in Mal’s room after being unable to talk her way into the Beatles’ suite. Fortunately, police caught sight of the young woman through a window and broke down the locked door with a battering ram. She was subsequently taken to a local hospital and discharged that same day.

[There are then some bits about how Derek tried to ensure it didn't link back to the Beatles in anyway, and the way the press reported it as "Girl Tries To Die For Beatles", and someone else claiming she'd actually had sex with someone and then got 'hysterical' because she realised he wasn't going to get her in to see the Beatles... but eventually it cuts to the quote from Mal's diary below.]

“On arriving back at the hotel at two in the morning,” he wrote, “I was greeted by a crowd of police and detectives as the elevator doors opened at my floor. On verifying that I occupied a particular room number, they very solemnly escorted me there, where to my horror on opening the door, I found the bathroom and bedroom covered in blood. Apparently, what had happened [was] several people had gang-banged her in my bedroom. She was so distraught, she took a razor blade from my razor and slashed her wrists, but was discovered in time and recovered in hospital. Obviously I was a prime suspect, but I had the best alibi in the world—I was drinking tea with her mother.” ****

____________________________________

* Victoria was 16, and Mal was 31. He wrote with her for a few years and met up with her again several times, and there's a quote where she says she "thought she was in love with him", and another where she was surprised to find out he was married. He's a grown man with a family and it's creepy as fuck that he was leading on/grooming a 16 year old girl - although I think according to the book they never had sex.

** I've bolded a lot of the wording which fucks me the fuck off in that passage about apple scruffs, what a fucking weird piece of writing. Apparently apparently apparently - I don't even think he's using it to suggest it might not be true, I think he's just using it to make it sound a bit casual, oh turns out he was just treating them like shit like he used to! Oh he was just 'cozying up' ??????? The last bit also feels like the girl being able to fight her corner and tell him off is being used to suggest it therefore didn't matter - not to suggest that there were probably lots of other girls who didn't want his hands on them but didn't know how to say no. It's also quickly followed by a quote of another apple scruff saying he took care of them like a big brother and they all loved him. Which is fine. But teenage girls feeling as though the creepy guy who is being nice to them in order to take advantage is just being nice to them, doesn't mean much. It's creepy that he was trying to befriend the young vulnerable girls that idolised anyone who worked with Beatles, you've literally just said he was doing it in a 'transactional manner'.

*** The author used a pseudonym for Arwen - a young woman that Mal had an affair and a child with. He wrote in his diary when the child was born, and visited them, "gifting the boy with an oversize teddy bear from Harrods". Personally I think 'chose to move on' covers an awful lot of pain very glibly. Imagine having to give your baby away after six months, imagine what she went through. It is not a small thing that he carelessly got a young woman pregnant and then offered her nothing.

**** I think we all live in Beatles fandom knowing that the people we enjoy did awful terrible things, but sometimes it's good to confront how bad it was, even if we'll never know who was involved in this particular incident. Or how often it happened to other women. Whether Beatles were involved here or not, they were around this, they were inside it. They were influenced by and friends with horrible people. Imagine writing that in your diary like it's a good joke that you were having tea with her mum while she was going through that, and not how awful that would actually feel if you had a heart. The author adds that this incident affected Mal, saying, "His “demon” persona was still alive and well, to be sure, but there would be perceptible shifts in his outlook as the group’s touring days moved forward." I didn't really pick up on these, so I'm not sure how so.

[scotianostra]

The Scottish actor David McCallum was born on 19th September 1933.

Born as David Keith McCallum, Jr in Maryhill, Glasgow, the second of two sons of Dorothy Dorman, a cellist, and orchestral violinist David McCallum Sr. When he was three, his family moved to London for his father to play as concertmaster in the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Early in the Second World War, he was evacuated back to Scotland, where he lived with his mother at Gartocharn by Loch Lomond.

McCallum won a scholarship to University College School, a boys’ independent school in Hampstead, London, where, encouraged by his parents to prepare for a career in music, he played the oboe.In 1946 he began doing boy voices for the BBC radio repertory company. Also involved in local amateur drama, at age 17, he appeared as Oberon in an open-air production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream with the Play and Pageant Union. He left school at age 18 and was conscripted, joining the 3rd Battalion the Middlesex Regiment, which was seconded to the Royal West African Frontier Force.In March 1954 he was promoted to Lieutenant. After leaving the army he attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (also in London), where Joan Collins was a classmate.

David McCallum’s acting career has spanned six decades; however, these days he is best known for his starring role on the police procedural NCIS as medical examiner as Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard. I first really remember McCallum for his role in another US show, The Invisible Man which ran for 13 episodes in the 70’s. McCallum by then was a veteran of many TV and Film roles, starting in the 50’s including Our Mutual Friend and The Eustace Diamonds, in the 60’s he was in several ITV Playhouse shows before moving across the Atlantic to take roles in The Outer Limits and his big break as Illya Kuryakin in several incantations of The Man from Uncle.

His most notable films were The Greatest Story Ever Told as Judas Iscariot and of course Ashley-Pitt ‘Dispersal’ in The Great Escape.

As well as the aforementioned Invisible Man in the 70’s he took time to pop back over to our shores to star in two quality series, as Flt. Lt. Simon Carter in Colditz and Alan Breck Stewart in an adaption of Robert Louis Stevenson’s, Kidnapped.

The 80’s saw him team up with the lovely Joanna Lumley in Sapphire & Steel and several guest roles in the likes of The A Team, Hart to Hart and Murder, She Wrote as well as a one off reprise of Illya in the TV movie The Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E.: The Fifteen Years Later Affair.

The 90’s saw David in Cluedo and Trainer on our TV screens over here and American science-fiction series VR-5 in the states..

During the last 20 years or so he has been in the kids TV show, Ben 10: Omniverse as the voice of Professor Paradox and of course Donald Horatio “Ducky” Mallard in a remarkable  436 episodes of the popular NCIS.

David has been married twice. He married his first wife Jill Ireland in 1957. They met on the set of the movie Hell Drivers. Together, they had two sons and a daughter, Paul, Jason and Valentine, with Jason being the only one who was adopted. In 1963, David introduced Jill to his co-star on The Great Escape, Charles Bronson, and she left David and married Charles in 1968. In 1967,

David McCallum passed away aged 90 on September 23rd last year, he is survived by his wife of 56 years, Katherine McCallum, his sons Paul McCallum, Valentine McCallum and Peter McCallum, his daughter Sophie McCallum and his eight grandchildren. NCIS paid tribute to him in an episode called The Stories We Leave Behind when the tagents find comfort in working on one of his unfinished cases. The episode features clips from several old shows.

[ludmilachaibemachado]

The Beggars Banquet photoshoot at Sarum Chase in West Hampstead, 1968🪴🎸🍀

Via @stonessatisfaction on Instagram🎸

[gardenwalrus]

Albert Goldman, The Lives of John Lennon (1988), p.148 

So I read this part of the Goldman bio some days ago and was absolutely baffled and tried to find any other information about this. Which then turned into a bit of a rabbit hole of me trying to find any sort of information about this particular incident Goldman claims had occurred, to then information surrounding David Jacobs himself. 

I couldn’t really come to any real conclusions based on the information available, but what I did decide on was:

Brian Epstein likely was not involved in ordering a crucifixion as he was already nearly a year dead from an overdose. 

Brian’s lawyer David Jacobs did have a connection to a crucifixion case. He was also very likely murdered in 1968. The Krays could have been involved. 

I’m just going to a lot of quotes from the information I found here (with a couple thoughts in-between) even though it’s a bit tangential, as I don’t know what to do with all of it. Also I’m putting it under a cut because it is long + mentions of violence & suicide etc

TIMELINE 

1963 - Brian Epstein hires showbusiness solicitor David Jacobs to represent himself & The Beatles when NEMS moves down to London  

28 Aug 1967 - Brian Epstein is found dead from barbiturate overdose. 

May 1968 - Notorious gangsters Ronnie and Reggie Kray are arrested 

25 July 1968 - Joseph de Havilland is found half-naked, nailed to a cross on Hampstead Heath, London

~September 1968 - David Jacobs represents three men in court, accused of grievous bodily harm in the case of the Hampstead Heath crucifixion 

15 December 1968 - David Jacobs is found hanged by a satin cord in his garage at his seaside home in Hove.  

WHO IS DAVID JACOBS?

John Lennon’s liaison with Brian Epstein was not confined to sexual dalliance. From the start, Brian took pleasure in showing off his famous rude boy to all his gay friends in the West End theatre world. Soon this company included a circle of S/M freaks centred upon a depraved peer who rubbed shoulders with the most dangerous criminals in the kingdom.* Brian’s guide down the queasy slopes of this hellbent underworld was the glamorous David Jacobs, lawyer for many prominent homosexuals in the capital. As Mario Amaya, art journalist, museum director, lifelong S/M queen, observed: “Jacobs was the lawyer you called if you got into trouble for drugs, sex, etc., the rescue lawyer, gay and showbiz, highly popular and successful.” Also very kinky.

- Albert Goldman, The Lives of John Lennon (1988), p.148 

[*Note - when ‘depraved’ or ‘notorious’ peer is mentioned, it is referring to Conservative peer Robert Boothby. In this context the ‘dangerous criminals’ are Ronnie and Reggie Kray. If you need basic detail on the Krays read here, and on the connection between Boothby and Ronnie Kray here].

Within the 1950s and 1960s, David Jacobs was Britain’s top showbiz lawyer. He represented clients such as Diana Dors, Judy Garland, Zsa Zsa Gabor, yet most importantly here the Beatles’ manager, Brian Epstein. 

In 1963, Brian Epstein’s office begins to receive countless offers for merchandise licensing for the Beatles, and although Brian’s office handled these requests at first, he soon decides to look for a solicitor in London who would take care of the merchandising issue for him. 

Brian wanted an attorney who would be a confidant as well as a legal advisor, and he was always referred to the firm of one David Jacobs. Of course, Brian had already heard of David Jacobs, the flamboyant celebrity attorney whose exploits were carefully covered by the Fleet Street press.

- Peter Brown, The Love You Make: An Insider's Story of The Beatles (1983) p.121 

Jacobs was a distinct personality, and represented a large clientele who kept their sexual preferences secret. He became close friends with Brian, soon becoming his chief solicitor.

The two men were similar in many coincidental ways. Their families were both in the furniture business, both were born and bred of money, and both had doting Jewish mothers. Both were homosexual. 

- Peter Brown p.122 

“Brian hired David to represent the Beatles when he moved down from Liverpool,” says a showbiz writer who knew both men well. “In return, David introduced Brian to the London gay scene. David was 6ft 2in tall and openly gay - he wore make-up, even in court in front of disapproving judges. He intimidated everybody, not only the other side in court cases but his clients as well, and he was incredibly pompous. The only person who wasn’t a bit frightened of him was John Lennon. John was mercilessly cruel to him; he was always taking the piss.

- ‘Murder mystery of Ronnie Kray and the Beatles' showbiz lawyer’, Mayfair Times (2004)** 

[**The article is now inaccessible, and I struggled to find it on the wayback machine, however it was copied in full on this livejournal post (x)]

Jacobs’ law office soon took on the task of taking care of the merchandising offers.

Jacobs finally advised Brian to set up a completely separate company for the merchandising end, from which Brian and the Beatles would simply take a percentage of the profits, while they did the work.

- Peter Brown p.122 

Jacobs suggests one man for the job - Nicky Byrne, whom he, according to Peter Brown, admired

‘...because he gave wonderful parties, and Jacobs, who loved parties, considered himself an expert. [...] Jacobs gave notorious, elaborate theme parties on weekends at his Brighton mansion […] once a guest expired in the bedroom in the service of a young male courtesan. Jacobs simply locked the bedroom door and didn’t mention it until the party was over.’

- Peter Brown p.122

(This merchandising deal would notably end in disaster in the long run, as Jacobs signs over the merchandising for the Beatles to Byrne at a rate of 90%, leaving just a 10% for the Beatles and NEMS combined.)

Still, Jacobs is the go-to man for any of the problems his clients would face. For example in the case of the Beatles, he dealt with quietening the paternity claims against Paul by Erika Hubers and Anita Cochrane. [See Brown pp.138-140]

BRIAN EPSTEIN'S DEATH

More significantly for what I was looking at here, Jacobs was also present at Brian Epstein's house after his death to deal with the press, and also went with Peter Brown to identify Brian's body.

Another phone call went out to David Jacobs, Brian’s attorney, who was spending the weekend at his country house in Brighton. Jacobs got on the next train for London. By the time David Jacobs, Geoffrey, and I converged on the house at Chapel Street, the press had assembled on the front doorstep. Jacobs most likely had called them himself, as it was he who took over making statements to reporters. Jacobs’ legal officiations at Brian’s death were some of his last duties as NEMS chief solicitor.

- Peter Brown p.259

In August 1967, when Epstein was found by his housekeeper, dead from an overdose of sleeping pills at his London home, Jacobs was quickly on the scene. Peter Brown remembers arriving shortly afterwards. “The street was full of reporters and David was holding court, bossing everyone and generally taking charge of things. David and I then had to go and identify the body in the mortuary. It still horrifies me to think about it.”

- Mick Brown, 'The mystery of David Jacobs, the Liberace lawyer', The Telegraph (June 2013)

So from these statements from Peter Brown, we know Jacobs was at the house. As would make sense - he was Brian’s lawyer and close friend as well as NEMS chief solicitor. Of course he would arrive. However, Goldman takes a real stretch with this information, using it to imply Brian Epstein was in fact murdered.

David Jacobs, Brian’s lawyer, told Wendy Hanson that he was the first man to enter Brian’s bedroom after his death, though no one else reported his presence at the scene. He even boasted of having removed from Brian’s bed a tattletale article by Paul’s ex-housekeeper that had appeared in the Italian press. It’s not likely that Jacobs stopped with such a trivial precaution. Jacobs would have known how to prejudice the coroner’s judgment by removing and planting evidence that would point to a finding of misadventure. The enormous number of pills found on the premises and the brandy bottle near the bed figured prominently in the inquest; yet according to the pathologist’s report absolutely no alcohol was found in the body and no significant amounts of any other drug. According to the buzz of the London gay world, Brian Epstein died of asphyxiation produced by a mask over his face. Such a death would have entailed no violence and left no telltale marks. If the S/M paraphernalia or women’s clothing or other evidence was removed, it would be virtually impossible for the coroner to reconstruct the manner of death.

- Goldman pp.277-278

This is an absolute stretch here. All other accounts of Brian’s death do not have Jacobs as being the first into Brian’s room, and if Jacobs had said this he was likely lying or exaggerating his presence in conversation to Hanson. It also doesn’t have to be said that Jacobs allegedly picking up an article from Brian’s bed does not also automatically mean he planted evidence? Also, ‘according to the buzz of the London gay world’ is second-hand gossip, not the most reliable source. There’s the issue of whether Brian’s overdose was accidental or intended, but murder is not a possibility I’m entertaining. 

THE CRUCIFIXION

Moving onto the main matter of the crucifixion.

Goldman claims that a man who had been ‘rescued from crucifixion in Soho’ in the late 60s later named ‘the notorious peer, as well as David Jacobs and Brian Epstein, as the men who ordered his crucifixion.’

Well, as Goldman doesn’t use citations here (I’m guessing the majority of this would just come from his conversation with Mario Amaya), and searching for information on a Soho crucifixion came up blank, it would look like a dead end. HOWEVER, there was a man who was rescued from a crucifixion by three men on Hampstead Heath in 1968 - a case which involved David Jacobs, who represented the three men in court. 

Some basic information to start:

Afternoon, 25 July 1968. During summer on the green space of Hampstead Heath, London, interior decorator Joseph Richard de Havilland*** is found nailed to a cross, wearing only a pair of trousers. Three men are stood around him; one is taking photographs. 

The three men are Desmond Patrick Pollydore (28), unemployed, David Kenneth Conklin (17), unemployed, and Eric Leslie Leach (41), interior decorator. 

All, including de Havilland, reside at the same address of Surrendale Place, Maida Vale, London

The three men are then arrested and put on trial for grievous bodily harm.

[***Different newspaper reports use 'Havilland' or 'Haviland'. I'm using the former. Havilland's age is also reported differently in most reports - usually from ages 25-30]

Jacobs represents these three men in court.

Two of the men were unemployed; the third was another interior decorator: hardly the glamorous showbusiness figures who usually constituted his clientele. Police, it was said, had been questioning Jacobs himself over the case. At around that time, Jacobs was admitted to the Priory clinic, allegedly on the verge of a breakdown. “It was all hushed up,” remembers Peter Maddock, who saw him shortly after he had been discharged, at a dinner party in Knightsbridge. “He was very much a shadow of himself. He’d lost an enormous amount of weight. There was clearly some major issue preying on his mind, a number of things, perhaps. It was obvious he was in trouble.

- The Telegraph article

I couldn’t find a lot of reliable information about the crucifixion (which I thought was a bit odd, considering it was a literal crucifixion in one of London’s popular spaces), so I started looking through newspaper archives that were reporting on the case proceedings at the time.

Interior decorator Joseph de Havilland was crucified for money, a court was told yesterday. […] Three police officers described the scene of the crucifixion, which took place in the middle of the afternoon only 100 yards away from a main road. PC Gilbert Lindsay said he saw Leach standing in front of the crucified de Havilland. Leach said: ‘I nailed him to the cross. I want to see him off.’ […] Inspector Philip Holmes said he saw Leach in front of the cross and saw him drop a hammer. People on the edge of the clearing were watching. Inspector Holmes said: ‘I said to Leach: “What’s all this about?” He replied: “It is the will of God.” ‘Then I asked him: “What’s he doing up there?” He replied: “I did it. It is the will of God.” […] The hearing continues on September 9. Restrictions on reporting were lifted at the request of the defence.

- "Prosecution Alleges: Crucifixion for cash." Daily Mail, (30 Aug. 1968)

Now this is where the case starts to get even stranger. De Havilland is said to have had an interest in black magic, tried to get in touch with the Archbishop of Canterbury to tell him he will be crucified to fulfil ‘the first stage of a prophecy’, said that this was part of twelve prophecies made by things ‘not of this dimension’, and according to the three accused men neither bled nor was harmed by the nails driven into him.

Joseph de Havilland (27), of Surrendale Place, Maida Vale, London, said he left a message at Lambeth Palace: “I would like to inform the Archbishop, head of the English Church, that a testament will take place whereby a young man will be crucified with real nails and on a real cross to the fulfil the first stage of a prophecy to act on the will of God.” […] Earlier, de Havilland, who wore a metal cross on a chain around his neck, told the court of 12 prophecies made by “some things not of this dimension.” The prophecies, over a three-and-a-half year period, all related to the crucifixion. De Havilland said the “things” - neither human nor animal - asked him to be crucified and told him where it should take place. [...] De Havilland said that during the crucifixion, he had directed Leach's mind before he had hammered in the nails. "Then Mr Leach reacted because he was not himself," he said.

- 'Man on cross tells of visions', The Guardian, (1 Oct. 1968)

A man who was nailed to a cross on Hampstead Heath, London, was alleged at the Old Bailey yesterday to have said that his crucifixion would be “the greatest conjuring trick for 2,000 years.” […] Pollydore said Leach used a hammer to drive the nails through de Havilland’s hands, and that he thought it a trick. “I thought I had seen a mystery,” he said.

- 'Accused Thought Cross an 'Illusion'', The Guardian (16 Jan. 1969)

So, all really odd. On first glance it would seem like some drug-fuelled madness. However Jacobs' involvement (as well as the fact the police were questioning him as well) adds a strange element to it. Maybe de Havilland was told to say these statements about visions? Either way I don't have a clue for this.

The case comes to a close in January 1969. 

Desmond Patrick Pollydore […] was found not guilty of unlawfully wounding Joseph de Havilland (27), interior decorator, of the same address. [...] Eric Leach (41), interior decorator, and David Conklin (17), unemployed, also of Surrendale Place, had earlier pleaded guilty to unlawful wounding. Leach was sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment and Conklin was granted a conditional discharge for 12 months. The judge […] told the jury: “You may think any sane person would know if a nail was, in fact, driven through a man’s hand that it would cause some injury, and nobody could be such a mug as to believe it would not.” Referring to de Havilland, the judge said: “He was clearly a willing victim and might have had his own interests to serve. He is an odd man, making some remarkable claims for himself, and saying some extraordinary things, speaking about his visions and saying he was directed by someone who appeared to him in a vision that he was to crucify himself.”

- 'An Acquittal in 'Crucifixion' Case', The Guardian, (17 Jan. 1969)

The crucifixion Goldman mentions is in Soho, not Hampstead Heath. Considering there isn’t a citation, and the only source he mentions in this section is Mario Amaya, the Soho crucifixion mentioned could actually just be the Hampstead Heath incident? In which case, Brian Epstein had been dead for nearly a year, and there is no way he could’ve had a hand in ‘ordering’ the crucifixion.

Obviously here there is then the possibility there is ANOTHER man saved from another crucifixion in London before August 1967. Which therefore implies there’s multiple crucifixions being set up by a sadomasochist group in 60s London. Which Beatles manager Brian Epstein is a part of. Okay.

Also, Goldman states that the ordered crucifixion ‘went well beyond the customary punishment for an informer, which is slashing the snitch’s mouth from ear to ear’, implying this is not a common occurrence, making it far more unlikely that there would be TWO incidents in late 60s London.

I’m not doubting the existence of some underground group involving Boothby and the Krays, of which David Jacobs potentially had some sort of link to. I can believe that. It absolutely seems that Jacobs had some deeper involvement in this case and had various other dubious connections. I’m also not doubting that Brian knew/at least knew OF some of these connections - a lot of these higher society types in 60s London frequented the same places and moved within similar circles. Peter Brown mentions that Brian would spend his nights drinking, taking pills and feeding his gambling addiction at the Cleremont Club [Peter Brown p.171], of whom Lord Lucan was a member, if you want an idea of the types of people in these crowds.

However this doesn’t immediately mean he was part of any secret groups. I just cannot see it whatsoever. Goldman seems to jump to conclusions a lot, and just because Brian was a) gay in 60s London, and b) friends with individuals such as Jacobs, he somehow is now at the centre of some sadomasochist group conspiracy and was actually murdered instead of the very obvious answer of an overdose, accidental or otherwise. And all of this based on one person’s retelling of gossip to Goldman years later? Again, not seeing it.

However, although I’m discounting what the Goldman text says in relation to Brian and further Brian’s death, I’m not when it comes to Jacobs’ death in 1968.

DAVID JACOBS' DEATH

By the time of the acquittal in January 1969, Jacobs had been dead for almost a month. He had been found hanging by a satin cord strung from a beam in his garage at his seaside home in Hove on 15 December 1968. It was ruled suicide. It likely wasn’t. 

It was reported that following his death, police had found “almost indecipherable notes” in Jacobs’s hand in his red smoking jacket, leading them to question a number of young men and “several well-known and titled people” about parties in West End flats and country houses. Jacobs, it was further reported, had been helping a peer of the realm who had paid £30,000 to silence a blackmailer, following an incident in which a naked man had been found crawling through Soho; Jacobs was possibly being blackmailed himself. John Merry, a private investigator who had been employed by Jacobs, told newspapers that there were “certain things” going on in Jacobs’s life.’ [...] It is said that shortly before his death, Jacobs was approached by an emissary of the gangster Ronnie Kray – himself well known in London’s gay world – seeking his help. Ronnie and his brother Reg were due to stand trial at the Old Bailey, charged with the murders of George Cornell and Jack “The Hat” McVitie. Jacobs, it is said, refused to help, and had asked for police protection. Peter Maddock doubts the story, or that Jacobs and Kray were acquainted. “Bob [Lord] Boothby was famous for courting the criminal, and Francis Bacon. It was very fashionable in the 1960s - that East meets West thing. But David was not involved with gangsters. It wasn’t his style.” But Maddock has another story to tell. Shortly after Jacobs’s death, Maddock visited the playwright Robin Maugham, a close friend of Jacobs, at his home in Hove. Maugham had something to show him. It was a Christmas card from Jacobs. “All love and best wishes for the New Year. David.” It had been posted two days before his death, Maddock says. “Does a man planning to take his own life write Christmas cards?”

- The Telegraph article

[Jacobs] was a leading member of the London gay scene and he certainly knew Ronnie Kray.” […] Suzanna [Leigh] was heartbroken to read in the newspapers of Jacobs’ death on 15 December 1968. A few minutes after she had read the news, a postcard dropped through the letterbox; it was from Jacobs, inviting her to lunch at La Caprice the following week. “I was holding the newspaper telling me he was dead in one hand and the postcard inviting me to lunch in the other,” she said. “It didn’t seem right.” […] Suzanna was so disturbed by the incongruity that she rang Scotland Yard and told them of her suspicions. Two detectives visited her. Her boyfriend at the time, a society hairdresser, witnessed the conversation. The policemen told Suzanna that Jacobs had been murdered and that the murder had been carried out because the lawyer had refused to represent the Krays. The police then said the Krays were facing other murder charges that would put them behind bars for life; it would not be necessary to charge them over Jacobs’ death. […] It has since been learned that Jacobs had asked for police protection shortly before his death and it is probable that he told the police about turning down Ronnie Kray's plea for legal help. […] A private detective who worked for Jacobs at his Pall Mall practice says: “I last heard from David two days before his death. He telephoned my secretary and told her it was urgent that I contact him. When I rang back, he burst out, ‘It’s no good, I’m in terrible trouble. They’re all after me.’” The private eye asked who he was frightened of and Jacobs reeled off a list of six famous people in show business.’

- Mayfair Times article

- Goldman p.278

So there is most of the information I found (that would fit into this post). Not very satisfying or conclusive. But overall as I said at the start at of the post, I don't believe that Brian could have been involved in the 'ordering' of the mentioned incident and neither was his death suspicious. Jacobs’ was. However that's just my own feelings, you can make your own conclusions.

[ourshadowstallerthanoursoul]

On this day... - April 1st

On this day Led Zeppelin performed:

+ 1969 : Klooks Kleek in West Hampstead, UK

+ 1971 : Paris Cinema Theatre in London, UK

This performance was part of John Peel’s In Concert show on BBC Radio One. It was released on BBC Sessions in 1997.

+ 1973 : Centre Sportif in Saint-Ouen, Paris, France

“Led Zeppelin conquered again last night. They turned an audience that resembled dumb figures at the start into a terrifying mass of hysteria. The roar of approval from ten thousand kids was enough to pump the adrenalin through a nun, let alone a rock ‘n’ roller. Solid slogging work that has now brought about total live perfection. […] Their ability to reach an impeccable high and sustain it for three hours is an astonishing feat.” – ‘Vive le Zeppelin!’ by Roy Hollingworth, Melody Maker

+ 1977 : Memorial Auditorium in Dallas, Texas, USA

“This was an event – Zep’s first show since 1975 and it was happening right here in Dallas. […] Led Zeppelin did not disappoint. The band played for three hours – way over the norm for a rock concert. And for a first show, it was amazingly professional – loose, easy going but never sloppy. […] The concert also attracted one of the most well-behaved audiences for a show of this type. These were people who came to see and hear their idols, not to cause trouble. Their calls for an encore seemed to be an honest tribute more than an excuse to set things on fire.” – ‘Led Zeppelin rises to a night of firsts’, Times