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The Cameo Conspiracy: The Real Story of the Cameo Cinema Murders
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January 26, 2024
George Skelly, The Cameo Conspiracy, Upstage, (2001).
This is a revised edition of a book first published in 1998. The author, George Skelly, is – even before his later interventions with the CCRC - indirectly involved in the case in that the author’s brother, Jim Skelly was an alibi witness for one of the accused although his evidence was not called by the defence in the trial that secured his conviction.
The subjects of the book are two Liverpudlians, Charles Connolly and George Kelly. On 19 March 1949 in the Wavertree area of Liverpool, the manager of the Cameo Cinema Leonard Thomas and his assistant John Catterall were killed in the course of a bodged robbery. This was a murder that gained a lot of local media attention but there were no arrests in the months following.
Enter Bert Balmer, a senior policeman in CID, a man who on Kelly’s account was a thoroughly corrupt officer effectively running the smuggling operations of criminal gangs into Liverpool’s port. Balmer went on to have a stellar career in the Liverpool police becoming Deputy Chief Constable and, for a short period acting head of the Liverpool police until his retirement in 1967, he died in 1970 with his reputation intact.
What follows in The Cameo Conspiracy, is a sustained expose of the Liverpool Police’s investigation. For the most part this is done by way of a narrative style that, for me, was very frustrating. Anyone wanting to follow the sources upon which Skelly’s narrative is based will be sorely disappointed.
The end result is well known. After a first trial in which Kelly and Conwell were tried together and which was dismissed by the Judge at a point where 10 of the 12 jurors were minded to find the co-accused not guilty they were re-tried but in this case in separate trials. George Kelly was convicted in the first re-trial and went on to be executed on 23 March 1950. After that finding Connolly pleaded guilty to lesser charges on legal advice but went on to protest his innocence of any involvement in murder.
For all my criticism of the lack of source identification that it was evidently the research upon which the book was based that formed the basis of the Criminal Cases Review Commissions referral to the Court of Appeal. In October 2003 the Court issued its decision in R v Kelly & Anor [2003] EWCA Crim 2957 overturning both convictions but not until both of the accused had died. It is noteworthy that the Court stated that there were significant reasons to question Balmer’s integrity.
An interesting read, but one that could have been much better. However, whatever the merits Skelly deserves all the plaudits he receives for uncovering a miscarriage of justice.
This is a revised edition of a book first published in 1998. The author, George Skelly, is – even before his later interventions with the CCRC - indirectly involved in the case in that the author’s brother, Jim Skelly was an alibi witness for one of the accused although his evidence was not called by the defence in the trial that secured his conviction.
The subjects of the book are two Liverpudlians, Charles Connolly and George Kelly. On 19 March 1949 in the Wavertree area of Liverpool, the manager of the Cameo Cinema Leonard Thomas and his assistant John Catterall were killed in the course of a bodged robbery. This was a murder that gained a lot of local media attention but there were no arrests in the months following.
Enter Bert Balmer, a senior policeman in CID, a man who on Kelly’s account was a thoroughly corrupt officer effectively running the smuggling operations of criminal gangs into Liverpool’s port. Balmer went on to have a stellar career in the Liverpool police becoming Deputy Chief Constable and, for a short period acting head of the Liverpool police until his retirement in 1967, he died in 1970 with his reputation intact.
What follows in The Cameo Conspiracy, is a sustained expose of the Liverpool Police’s investigation. For the most part this is done by way of a narrative style that, for me, was very frustrating. Anyone wanting to follow the sources upon which Skelly’s narrative is based will be sorely disappointed.
The end result is well known. After a first trial in which Kelly and Conwell were tried together and which was dismissed by the Judge at a point where 10 of the 12 jurors were minded to find the co-accused not guilty they were re-tried but in this case in separate trials. George Kelly was convicted in the first re-trial and went on to be executed on 23 March 1950. After that finding Connolly pleaded guilty to lesser charges on legal advice but went on to protest his innocence of any involvement in murder.
For all my criticism of the lack of source identification that it was evidently the research upon which the book was based that formed the basis of the Criminal Cases Review Commissions referral to the Court of Appeal. In October 2003 the Court issued its decision in R v Kelly & Anor [2003] EWCA Crim 2957 overturning both convictions but not until both of the accused had died. It is noteworthy that the Court stated that there were significant reasons to question Balmer’s integrity.
An interesting read, but one that could have been much better. However, whatever the merits Skelly deserves all the plaudits he receives for uncovering a miscarriage of justice.
Displaying 1 of 1 review