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The Fatal Long Weekend: Friday

On Friday 12 April Betty, who had left home about two weeks earlier, returned to Tenterden Avenue and was told by her father that Thelma was not well. Betty and Thelma passed each other once in the corridor but did not speak. At about six o'clock that evening, Betty, Mareo and Graham had a tea of reheated fish and chips. Betty then visited the neighbours. Upon returning she noticed that Thelma had cleaned all the dishes and gone back to bed. Just before she left, Mareo gave Betty a sealed letter with the instructions 'Only to Be Opened in the Event of My Death'. Betty said that '[a]t the time he was writing that letter and when he gave it to me I noticed that he was very worried'.³² In the letter Mareo informed her that she was the 'legal' daughter of another man in England called Mr Gray. He concluded the letter

… if anything happens to me communicate with Carn, solicitor, 13 Thames Street, Kingstone-on-Thames, England. I solemnly swear that what I am telling you now is the absolute truth. Altho' I have made a failure of my life I have tried to do the best I could for you, so think kindly of me if you can, sweetheart. I love you: God bless and protect you always — Your loving Daddy.

P.S. – My advice is to take this letter to a solicitor and get his advice as to how to proceed, as it must be possible thru' a birthmark or records in the doctor's book or the nursing home to prove what I have told you.³³

According to the Crown, this letter was

important, as it showed his frame of mind on that night. On our submission it is a letter of farewell and indicated that the writer intended to do away with himself. It showed that the outlook was bleak enough for him and after straightening out the affairs of Betty nothing mattered.³⁴

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Between half-past-seven and eight o'clock that evening Stark arrived at the house. Thelma was taking a bath. According to Stark, Thelma

sang out to me 'Oh, I won't be a minute'. While I was waiting I had a conversation with Mareo. He told me that Thelma thought she was pregnant, that he had bought some medicine for her, just to show her that he was looking after her. He told me that the chemist wanted to charge him - I'm not sure if it was £2/10 or £3 – for the medicine and he told the chemist that he couldn't afford it, because he was Mareo from the St. James orchestra. Because he was out of work. The chemist had said 'If that is the case I will let you have it for £1. When he was talking of her thinking she was pregnant he said 'She is silly. She is only four days overdue, and in any case it is impossible.'³⁵

While Mareo and Freda were talking, Thelma was still in the bath. After finishing her bath she and Freda went into her bedroom. According to Stark, Thelma did some 'leg exercises', Mareo came into the room, and Thelma took some of the medicine that Mareo had just purchased from the chemist. Thelma asked Stark to come and stay the weekend and Mareo asked her to arrive early because he would later be 'out on business'.³⁶ Having promised to return the next day, Stark left and the Mareos went to bed. According to Mareo, Thelma slept in the double bed and he in the chair next to her 'in case she wanted me'. He justified this unusual sleeping arrangement by claiming that '[a]ll my married life to her, if I came home from the theatre and found her drunk, I let her sleep on the bed while I myself slept on a sofa in the dining room'.³⁷