True Crime Collection

Gay Gibson

Eileen Isabella Ronnie 'Gay' Gibson was a 21 year old actress who was travelling back to England on the Union-Castle Line ship, MV Durban Castle, in October 1947. 'Gay Gibson' was her stage name. She had been on a theatre tour in South Africa with Doreen Mantle, and was returning to London to perform in theatre at the West End. Gay's presence on board came to the attention of James Camp, a 30 year old steward on the liner. Gay had been accommodated in cabin 126, B deck, which was in first class. James was seen associating with Gay, which was against company regulations, and he had been reprimanded over this by a senior officer. 

Durban Castle had set sail on 10th October. On the night of 17th October, after spending the evening dancing, Gay was escorted to her cabin by 2 friends at 11:30pm. Sometime around 3:00am the following morning, the duty watchman, a man named Frederick Steer, was awakened by a summons which had been activated from cabin 126. When he arrived at Gay's cabin, Frederick noted that 2 lights were lit outside the cabin, 1 red and 1 green. 1 light indicated that the duty steward had been called, whilst the other meant that the duty stewardess had been requested also. Frederick thought this was strange as usually only 1 person would be summoned. Frederick knock at the door was answered by James, who only half-opened the door and informed him that everything was alright. Frederick left as he assumed that as a deck steward, James had arrived before him to help the passenger. 

In the morning, the female steward for Gay's deck, Eileen Field, came to clean Gay's cabin. She noticed that the bunk was empty, there were stains on the sheets and the porthole was open. Later, the officer in command of the ship, Captain Patey, interviewed James, who initially denied any involvement in Gay's disappearance. When told that Frederick saw him inside Gay's cabin, James relented and told a story that neither the captains or the ship's doctor could believe: James stated that Gay had suddenly died while the 2 of them were having sex, and as he stood to lose his job and family, James panicked and pushed Gay's body through the porthole. At the time, Durban Castle was 90 miles off the west coast of Africa, heading north. Captain Patey ordered the ship to turn around and to scour the water for Gay's body. He also contacted the Union-Castle Line offices in London asking for the ship to be met by police when it arrived in Southampton due to "complications". A return cable was sent to Captain Patey instructing him to "padlock and seal off the room; disturb nothing."

When Durban Castle docked at Cowes Roads officers from the Southampton City Police were waiting to question James, who had been confined to his cabin by the ship's crew. Southampton Police were assisted by the Metropolitan Police on the case and forensic evidence was examined at the Met's laboratory at Hendon. This was not uncommon at the time; Southampton Police was quite small and so often asked for help from Scotland Yard. British police forces were involved as even though the murder took place off the coast of West Africa it was a British ship under British authority, so the prosecution was brought by the British authorities. 

On 27th October 1947, the Southern Daily Echo reported that James, a deck steward from Durban Castle, had been remanded in custody and charged with "murder on the high seas".

James trial in Winchester was an unusual one, since it was labelled by some as the first case in English law whereby a prosecution was sought without a victim's body. This has been pointed out to be untrue, as there was a case 13 years earlier where a father (Thomas Davidson) was convicted of murdering his son (John) and even further back to the Campden Wonder case in 1660. The case also gained some interest due to it mirroring a plot of a crime novel; Richard Latto described the story as having all the hallmarks of an Agatha Christie piece: "a young actress, a dashing steward, romance and a suspicious death on the high seas."

During the trial, it was revealed that pathologist Denis Hockling had discovered a urine stain on the sheets from cabin 126. It was stated by the Crown Pathologist that involuntary urination is something that occurs during strangulation. Denis argued that it could have been a result of natural causes. The contents, walls and porthole section from cabin 126 were removed by the police and used as exhibits in the court case.

When James took the stand, the prosecution barrister asked him if he considered himself an honest man. James replied, "I think so, sir." It was then proven in court that James had changed his story 6 times in what he defended as self-preservation. When asked about pushing Gay's body through the pothole, James acknowledged that it was "beastly conduct." 

After a 4 day hearing, the jury deliberated for 45 minutes and returned with a guilty verdict. James was sentenced to death by Justice Hilbery on 22nd March 1948. However, the execution was not carried out because Parliament was considering the abolition of the death penalty at the time and the Home Secretary had elected to commute all pending death sentences while the matter was discussed. This prompted British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to comment that, "The House of Commons has, by its vote, saved the life of the brutal lascivious murdered who thrust the poor girl he had raped and assaulted through a porthole of the ship to the sharks."

James lodged an appeal in April 1948, but was denied. He was released from prison in 1959, but was recalled to prison after being convicted of a number of indecent assaults of young girls. He was released again in 1978. He died in July 1979 from heart failure. Eileen Gibson's body was never found.