Casefile True Crime - Case 184: Gay Gibson

Episode Date: August 14, 2021

Early on the morning of October 18 1947, a stewardess working on the ocean liner Durban Castle discovered something strange. The cabin belonging to an actress named Gay Gibson was empty... --- Narration – Anonymous Host Research & writing – Erin Munro Creative direction – Milly Raso Production and music – Mike Migas Music – Andrew D.B. Joslyn For all credits and sources please visit casefilepodcast.com/case-184-gay-gibson

A splash of fresh water will reach the depths of your heart. Those mighty blue waves can propel you forward or they can calm and soothe. Coast to Michigan coast. Simply feel the flow in the moment. And let those vast lakes, rivers and streams create everlasting memories. Jump right in and let fresh wash over you in Pure Michigan. Keep it fresh at Michigan.org. Or on our website.

It was only 7.30 in the morning, but 35-year-old Eileen Field was already hard at work. As a stewardess on an ocean liner, her days were kept busy looking after first class passengers. More specifically, Eileen's job was to see to the needs of women staying on the B-deck of the Durban Castle. Owned by the Union Castle line, the ship was built in Belfast in 1938. When World War II broke out, it was repurposed to carry troops, but after the Allies won, it became a commercial ocean liner again. By 1947, the Durban Castle was sailing regularly from Cape Town in South Africa to the English port of Southampton, ferrying travelers between the two countries. To keep passengers occupied and entertained, there were amenities such as a salon, a shop and swimming pools on board,

as well as specially organized games, movie nights and dinner dances. As Eileen Field started work on the morning of Saturday, October 18, the ship was on the 8th day of its two-week voyage and about 90 miles off the West African coast. Eileen hurried along a corridor on Durban Castle's B-deck towards Cabin 126, which was occupied by a 21-year-old English actress named Eileen Gibson, better known by her stage name of Gay Gibson. It was Eileen's job to wake Gay and bring her some orange juice. Eileen knocked gently on Gay's door. When there was no answer, she knocked again and called out softly,

Miss Gibson. There was no reply. Eileen decided to try the door handle, even though she knew Gay locked it every night when she went to bed. To her surprise, the door opened. Gay's cabin was small, with a metal-framed single bed pushed against a wall and a porthole window four and a half feet above the cabin's floor. There was also a built-in wardrobe, a chest of drawers, a bedside light, and two buttons Gay could use to call for a steward or a stewardess. The first thing that caught Eileen's eye was the bed. It was dishevelled and unmade.

The second was the porthole, which was wide open. Neither of these things were unusual in and of themselves, however, there was no sign of Gay. Her suitcase was open at the foot of the bed. The black silk dress she had worn to dinner the previous evening was hanging from a hook at the end of the bed. But Eileen couldn't see Gay's black silk pajamas or the yellow quilted dressing gown with the zip down the front that she wore over the top of them. Eileen assumed the young woman must have ducked out to the bathroom, still dressed in her nightclothes. Strangely though, Gay's slippers sat by the chest of drawers, along with the rest of her shoes. Eileen left the glass of orange juice on the top of the chest and left to attend to other duties.

When she returned in 20 minutes to collect the empty glass, she was surprised to find it full and exactly where she had left it. There was still no sign of Gay. And there was something else too. Looking over at the bed's rumpled sheets, Eileen noticed several small stains that were the colour of rust. The stains on Gay Gibson's bedding struck Eileen Field as very strange. In all the time she'd spent tidying the young woman's room, she'd never known her to have soiled sheets. After she left Gay's cabin for a second time, Eileen found a colleague who was responsible for the ship's bathrooms and asked if they'd seen Gay that morning. They hadn't.

Eileen was growing increasingly worried. She had gotten to know the young actress relatively well during the first week of the voyage. Gay was travelling alone to England in the hopes of furthering her stage career. She hadn't seemed nervous or uneasy about making such a big journey by herself. Instead, she struck Eileen as happy, upbeat and healthy, someone who was always pleasant to others and never caused any trouble. Early on during the trip, Gay had confided to Eileen that she was in love with a married man who was back in South Africa. But it was her acting career that she seemed most enthusiastic about. Eileen decided to wait a little longer before raising the alarm.

When Gay failed to show in the dining saloon for breakfast, Eileen reported her missing. A search of the ship was undertaken, but Gay wasn't found anywhere. Fearing that she may have fallen overboard, the ship's captain ordered that the vessel be turned around so the waters could be searched. A message was also broadcast over the ship's loudspeakers, asking anyone who knew where Gay might be to immediately report to the Persa. Two passengers were particularly alarmed to hear Gay was missing. Frank Hopwood, who worked as a procurement manager for the Union Castle Line and an RAF squadron leader named William Bray, were both in their mid-40s and travelling solo. The two men shared the same dining table that Gay was assigned to and had befriended her over the past week. Because Gay was a young woman travelling alone, they saw it as their responsibility to look out for her.

Gay had mentioned how she had heart trouble that prevented her from playing the deck games other passengers took part in. Frank also thought she seemed sad and tired at times. The previous night, Frank and William had escorted Gay to one of the ship's dinner dances. With just 250 passengers, the ship was less than a third full, and Gay was the youngest on board. Most of the others in first class were aged in their 40s or above. The 21-year-old Gay attracted a lot of attention in her black evening gown, silver shoes, and urban hair worn in a stylish bob. Lots of men asked to dance with her throughout the evening. After leaving the dance, Gay sat with Frank and William in the first class smoke room until it closed.

It was a warm night as the ship sailed along the West African coast, so Gay decided to have a swim in one of the pools. She went to her cabin to fetch her bathing suit, but couldn't find it. Disappointed, she rejoined Frank and William on the deck and the trio chatted until 12.40am. Then Frank escorted Gay to her cabin, wishing her a good night and sweet dreams before departing. Her failure to appear at breakfast that morning worried both men. When they heard the loudspeaker announcement, their concern only grew. The captain also radioed other ships in the vicinity, notifying them that a woman was believed to have gone overboard on the Durban Castle and asking that they keep a lookout for her. The ship was steered back and crew members spent about an hour searching the waters for any sign of Gay.

They found nothing. Captain Arthur Pady knew that even if Gay had still been alive when she went overboard, she couldn't survive in the North Atlantic Ocean for that long. The water was freezing and home to enormous sharks. The elderly woman who occupied the cabin next door to Gay's was asked if she had heard anything suspicious the night before. She said she'd been woken in the middle of the night by a crashing sound right outside her door, as though a metal tray had fallen to the ground. But she never heard any voices. It occurred to Captain Pady that perhaps Gay hadn't fallen overboard at all. Maybe she had been the victim of a crime.

He ordered her cabin locked and set the ship back on course before beginning a rudimentary investigation. One by one, passengers and crew members were summoned to his office to share what they knew about the situation. Frank Hopwood and William Bray explained how Gay had retired to her cabin at around 12.40am, but a Boson's mate reported seeing her about 20 minutes later. He had been supervising the swabbing of the decks and noticed Gay standing by a rail smoking a cigarette and still wearing her evening gown. He warned her that her feet could get wet if she stayed where she was, so she moved along. That hadn't been the last time Gay was sighted. A 39-year-old night watchman named Fred Steer had been on duty the previous night. At around 3am, he was busy in the first-class pantry when he heard bells ringing for assistance.

Upon investigating, he saw that both the red and green lights were flashing. This indicated that a passenger had pressed two buttons in their cabin. One to summon a steward and another for a stewardess. Fred was baffled. Usually, a passenger called for just one crew member. Requesting two was highly unusual. Fred walked along the portside corridor looking to see which cabin the lights were coming from. He followed them to cabin 126, Gay Gibson's cabin.

It was located at the end of a small alleyway. This section of the ship was sparsely occupied. A woman in her 70s was staying in the cabin next to Gay's, but the other neighbouring rooms were empty. Fred knocked on the door of Gay's cabin. There was no response, so he carefully tried opening it. The door swung inwards, which was strange. Gay always made a point of locking it when she went to bed. It had opened about two inches wide when Fred heard a man's voice say,

It's alright. Then the door slammed closed. But not before Fred caught a glimpse of someone inside. A black haired man had been standing in the darkness facing the door. Fred recognised him right away. 30-year-old Dex Stuart James Cam had a reputation as a ladies man. Some of the other crew members nicknamed him Don Jimmy as a play on the name of the infamous womaniser Don Juan. Although Cam had a wife and young daughter back in England,

that didn't prevent him from taking a keen interest in the women he served as passengers. Described as handsome and charming, Cam had served in the Merchant Navy Reserve during World War II, then joined the Union Castle fleet in 1946. He liked the easy tasks of being a Dex Stuart. His roles included organising games for passengers and serving them food and drinks. Tips were easy to come by, and the manual labour was minimal. Multiple crew members had reported seeing Cam take an interest in Gay Gibson. Now, Fred Steer was reporting that he'd seen Cam in Gay's cabin at 3am the night she vanished.

Dex Stuart's were not permitted to enter passengers' rooms at any time, let alone in the middle of the night. After seeing Cam slam Gay's door shut, Fred hurried back to the pantry and told his superior what had happened. The two men walked over to Gay's cabin together and stood outside for about five minutes, listening quietly. They heard nothing, and there was no sign of Cam. Ultimately, it was decided that it wasn't their place to interfere with the passengers' private life, and the matter was left alone. Upon learning this information, Captain Pady knew that he had to speak with James Cam immediately. When Cam arrived at the captain's office, Pady wasted no time in asking him, Do you know why this first-class passenger is missing Cam?

No, sir, Cam replied. Captain Pady kept Fred Steer's sighting to himself, but informed Cam that he was suspected of being near Gay Gibson's cabin. Cam adamantly denied this, stating, I know the rules, and I obey them. He had gone to bed at 12.45 and didn't leave his room until it was time to get up for work in the morning. Cam did acknowledge that he'd gotten to know Gay quite well over the first week of the voyage. The pair had chatted from time to time, and Cam said that Gay seemed to show, quote, a preference for my services by asking him to deliver drinks to her cabin on several occasions. Two nights earlier, he'd sent a tray with a large glass of rum to her room, but he later noticed that she hadn't touched it.

The next day, he ran into her and teased her about not drinking the rum, saying, I have a bone to pick with you, and a big one at that. Somewhat reassured that Cam might be telling the truth, Captain Pady asked if he had any reason to believe that Gay might be depressed beneath her outwardly upbeat exterior. Cam paused, before telling the captain how Gay had mentioned she was in love with a married man back in Johannesburg, quote, she said she was crazy about him and complications had set in. I asked her real free like, I told you she was friendly towards me, what she meant. She said she suspected she might be going to have a baby. This was not the first time Cam had spoken to a colleague about Gay Gibson being pregnant. Stewardess Eileen Field had encountered him in the pantry several days before the young actress disappeared.

As Eileen handed over a tea tray that she had just collected from Gay's cabin, Cam said, Miss Gibson is three months pregnant by a married man. Eileen, who didn't believe this for a second, told Cam off for spreading rumors about a female passenger. He replied that Gay had told him that herself. Eileen had strong suspicions that Cam had taken an interest in Gay. On one occasion, Eileen found Cam on B-deck, the area where Gay's cabin was and where Deck Stewards were not permitted to be. When he commented that Gay hadn't had her tea that day, Eileen responded, If I find you in the vicinity of Miss Gibson's cabin, I will report you to the Chief Steward.

One morning, Eileen collected a tray from Gay's room and saw there were two used tea cups. She had no idea who the second cup belonged to. Based on witness accounts, it was clear something had happened to Gay in the very early morning, between the time her cabin's call buttons were pressed at 3am to when Eileen Field attended her cabin at 7.30am. When Captain Pady spoke to James Cam's cabin mate, he disagreed with a crucial detail in Cam's version of events. Cam had claimed he was in bed by 12.45am, but his fellow crew member had retired at 1am and Cam was nowhere to be seen. When he was told about this discrepancy, Cam changed his story. He'd been working until one o'clock and then he went out to a deck where he sat and smoked for a while.

He dosed off and when he woke, he went to bed properly. By that time, it was about 2am. Despite Cam's firm denials, Captain Pady informed him that he was a suspect in Gay's disappearance and would have to be examined by the ship's doctor as a matter of protocol. Cam agreed. The doctor had Cam remove his clothes. He didn't have any bruises or strange marks, but the doctor did notice some light scratches on his left shoulder and wrist. These looked old as though they'd been there for a few days. Cam explained that he'd scratched himself due to the humid tropical weather.

However, on the back of Cam's neck and on his right forearm were more scratches. The ones on his neck were very thin. They didn't look like the work of human fingernails. They looked more like scratches made by a cat. Cam said they had been left by a particularly rough towel he'd used to dry himself. The wounds on Cam's arm looked the most suspicious. There were about 12 of them, all about half an inch long and very fresh looking. Cam claimed that these two were caused by him scratching himself, but to the doctor they looked, quote, suggestive of violence. Police in England were notified of Gay's disappearance and detectives from Scotland Yard made preparations to board the ship as it approached the UK.

In the meantime, James Cam resumed his duties. Gay Gibson's cabin was deemed a crime scene. Its porthole was closed and the door padlocked to preserve any evidence inside. Exactly one week after Gay went missing, the Durban Castle anchored off the Isle of Wight and two detectives from Scotland Yard boarded. They made their way to cabin 126 to inspect Gay's last known location. Her belongings lay scattered throughout, including her hairbrush and a book she had been reading. Five letters of introduction to British theatres and acting agents were discovered stashed in a small leather bag. In Gay's suitcase, detectives found a tube of spermacidal jelly and a diaphragm which was unused. These two items are used by women as a means to prevent pregnancy.

Once the ship arrived at Southampton, the cabin was dusted for prints. A palm print was discovered on the back of the door. An examination of the porthole revealed tiny wisps of fabric around its edges. Gay's bedding was removed so the stains could be forensically tested. Investigators found urine on the sheets, as well as typo blood. James Cam was immediately escorted to Southampton Police Headquarters for a formal interview. For the past week, he'd been maintaining the same story. He'd become friendly with Gay while serving her on board, but he hadn't been to her cabin since the beginning of the trip. After his crewmates reminded him, he wasn't permitted to attend to passengers in their rooms.

Cam was left to wait in an interrogation room for almost 12 hours. Detectives hoped that the time alone would make him anxious and more inclined to confess. But when they finally went in to speak with him, he continued to deny knowing anything about what happened to Gay. Finally, after more than an hour of back and forth, a detective remarked, I don't want to go through all your movements again. Based on our inquiries, I have now established you were in Miss Gibson's cabin that night. At that moment, Cam realized that Fred Steer must have recognized him when he opened the cabin door and identified him to investigators. Then, he asked a strange question.

Does this mean I murdered her? Will I be charged with murder? Cam was informed that it would entirely depend on the circumstances involved with his interviewing detective stating, You may be able to give a reasonable explanation of the cause of her death, and we will give great consideration to what you say. There was a long silence. Then, Cam looked directly at the detective and said, I want to tell you something. At 11 on the night of Friday, October 17, Cam decided to ask Gay if she wanted some lemonade with her glass of rum that evening. He found her in her cabin, searching for her bathing suit. He knew he shouldn't be there, but he approached her anyway.

He asked Gay if she'd like some lemonade that night, but she declined. Then, Cam asked, Do you know what? I've got a good mind to get a drink and join you later. Please yourself, said Gay. Then, she went back upstairs to rejoin her friends. As Cam described it, the two had essentially organized the date. Cam left the rum outside Gay's cabin. He returned at around 1am and knocked on the door. There was no answer. He left and went back again an hour later. This time, Gay answered his knock by inviting him to come in. Cam stepped into the cabin, closing the door behind him, but leaving it unlocked.

Gay was lying in bed, wearing her yellow quilted dressing gown. The two began to chat. Then, Cam climbed into the single bed alongside Gay. Cam told the investigators that the two started having sex with Gay's consent. Suddenly, Gay clutched at Cam and froze. Seconds later, her body fell entirely limp. Her eyes glazed over and there was froth dotted with specks of blood in the corners of her mouth. Terrified, Cam leapt out of bed. It looked to him as though Gay had fainted. He began trying to resuscitate her to no avail. Gay remained lifeless.

Then, there was a knock at the door. It was Fred's steer, responding to the call for a steward and stewardess. Cam had no idea how the call buttons came to be switched on. He hadn't pressed them and he didn't think Gay had either, accidentally or otherwise. Cam slammed the door in Fred's face, then bolted it. Now, he was panicking. Somehow, Gay had accidentally died during intercourse and he would be in trouble when she was found. His only thought was that he had to get rid of her body. Cam yanked open the porthole and lifted Gay, who was still wearing her dressing gown, then pushed her out of the 42-centimeter diameter opening. She fell 25 feet into the Atlantic Ocean below. Then, Cam quietly let himself out of the cabin and crept off to his own bed. Detectives didn't believe James Cam's story for a second.

They were certain he had assaulted and strangled Gay Gibson, then callously disposed of her to cover up his crimes. Despite having no body, they made the decision to charge Cam with murder. When informed of the charges against him, he exclaimed, My God, I didn't think it would be as serious as this. Detective Constable Minden Plumlee was later asked to have Cam sign the official type-written version of his statement. He paid a visit to Cam in the cell where he was being held and came back with a shocking story. Apparently, Cam had made a second, more damning confession following some slight prompting. According to Plumlee, Cam told him he often visited the cabins of female passengers and said they welcomed the attention.

He also admitted to strangling Gay, then added that when he pushed her through the porthole, she made a hell of a splash. Detectives began building their case for trial. The palm print recovered from Gay's cavern door was confirmed to belong to James Cam, but this meant little in the way of forensic evidence as he had admitted to entering her room on multiple occasions. The blood found on Gay's sheets was presumed to be hers, as it was a different type to Cam's. The best evidence they had was the statement from Cam himself. Although he was denying murder, he was a proven liar who only admitted to being in Gay's room on the night in question when he realized a witness had identified him. Detectives were confident that a jury would agree with them and convict Cam.

The courts moved quickly. Within a month, Cam's committal hearing had already taken place and he was ordered to stand trial for the murder of Gay Gibson. Cam's defence attorney was Joshua Caswell, a renowned legal mind who had successfully defended dozens of clients. Caswell was horrified by Cam's decision to throw a young woman's body out into the open sea, but was inclined to believe his client was innocent of murder. If Cam had intended to assault and kill Gay, then why hadn't he locked the cavern door behind him? When the night watchman was summoned, he was able to push the door open. Cam had slammed it shut in response and only then did he lock it.

There were also significant doubts that Cam's second confession to Detective Constable Minden Plumlee had ever been made. It turned out that the detective had a history of using dubious methods to obtain confessions from suspects. Plumlee was also suspected of leaking information about the case to the media. He quit the police force in January 1948, just a couple of months after working the Gay Gibson case, though he denied his resignation was in any way related to that investigation. In order to defend his client, Joshua Caswell decided he would need to look at Gay Gibson's life more closely. During World War II, Gay Gibson enlisted in the female section of the British Army and performed with an acting troupe that staged shows for soldiers. She continued to pursue her acting ambitions after the war, receiving both major and minor roles in various plays.

When her father relocated to Cape Town for work, Gay and her mother decided to join him. Gay arrived in South Africa in March 1947, but soon left Cape Town for Johannesburg, as there were more acting opportunities there. By July, she had been given the lead female role in a play called Golden Boy. During the weeks and months she spent rehearsing and performing, she came to know some of her fellow cast members very well. James Cam's defence team were eager to find out more about Gay's life in Johannesburg, so they travelled to South Africa to interview people who had known her. Doreen Mantle was a young actress who shared a dressing room with Gay during Golden Boy's run. She told Cam's attorneys that Gay had been friendly and kind, but somewhat sickly. She'd seen Gay faint during rehearsals. The skin around her mouth had turned blue, and saliva had collected in the corners of her lips.

Other witnesses said they had seen similar things. Gay had fainted at a party, in a car, and while out in public. She was perceived as physically weak, and at times those involved in the production had been worried that she wouldn't be able to perform. One actor and the play's producer said she'd told them that she had a chest complaint and suffered from asthma. Cold weather was particularly problematic for her. Some also described Gay as neurotic, highly strong, and prone to emotional outbursts. Sometime in August, Gay spoke with a doctor who was the wife of the play's producer, telling her that her period was two weeks late. The doctor reassured her that this didn't mean she was pregnant, and suggested she started using a diaphragm if she was sexually active. Doreen Mantle claimed that Gay had been romantically involved with a fellow actor named Mike Abel, who was married. She'd seen the two arguing at a cast party, and said Gay had accused Mike of getting her pregnant.

Mike told a different story. He said that he and Gay were just friends. She had confided in him that she was pregnant, and asked for money so she could travel to England for an abortion, but he couldn't afford to help her. When he asked who the father was, Gay just laughed. The truth of their relationship is unknown. By the end of the month, Gay had fallen in love with a 33-year-old man named Charles Shventowski, whose wife was back in England. He doted on Gay, sending her flowers and buying her clothes. After the season of Golden Boy concluded in September, the cast and crew were preparing to take the show to another city when something unexpected happened. Gay wanted to cancel her contract so she could travel back to England and chase her acting dreams on a bigger stage.

Charles paid for Gay's ticket home on the Durban Castle, and she left for Southampton within a matter of weeks. Some have speculated that Gay's abrupt departure wasn't motivated by a career move, but an unplanned pregnancy. It's been suggested that she needed to get back to England to have an abortion. But the letters of introduction found amongst her belongings do point to Gay looking to further her acting dreams upon arriving in the UK. In addition to the South African witnesses, the defence found people who said Gay had been unwell during her time in the armed forces. On one occasion, she was found lying in bed, her back arched as she clutched her chest and gasped for air. Her tongue was caught at the back of her throat. A junior officer assisted Gay by tilting her head forward and an ambulance was called.

Gay later explained to the officer that she'd had another turn. Joshua Caswell was building a theory. Gay Gibson had suffered from some sort of heart condition that had caused her to suddenly die during consensual intercourse with Cam. Doreen Mantle was asked to travel to England so she could be a witness at Cam's trial. Although she was eager to help, her father talked her out of doing so. But Mike Abel agreed to testify, as did a number of others who had seen Gay's bout of illness. The trial began at the Great Hall of Winchester Castle on March 18, 1948, exactly five months after Gay Gibson had disappeared. By now, the case was a media sensation and had been dubbed the Porthole Murder.

A murder trial without a body was a highly unusual turn of events, and the case was made even more notorious by the glamorous status of the victim and the scandalous claims being made by the defendant. Hundreds of spectators queued for hours for seats in the gallery. A model of the cabin was constructed to stand in the castle's Great Hall as a prop, complete with a bed and the porthole. The defence presented their argument that Gay Gibson had died accidentally during a consensual sexual encounter. They portrayed Gay as a promiscuous young woman who had possibly been pregnant to a married man. Their expert witnesses included a doctor who told the court that Cam's story was entirely plausible from a medical point of view. The urine and blood on her sheet could have resulted from a natural death,

and the defendant's description of the way Gay's body stiffened then fell limp, sounded like heart failure, precipitated by lung congestion. A forensic pathologist also agreed with this assessment. He suggested that Gay might have died from an asthma attack, a brain aneurysm, or some kind of heart disease. The fact that people who knew Gay had testified to seeing her faint and turn blue around the mouth suggested she might have had a heart problem. Additionally, the pathologist didn't think the scratches on Cam's body looked like defensive wounds. Cam had no injuries to his hands or thumbs, the locations where a victim would be most likely to scratch someone who was strangling them. The scratches to his forearm looked too high up. James Cam took the stand to share his version of events yet again.

However, this time he added another detail that he hadn't mentioned before. Gay had been naked beneath her dressing gown. While steadfastly insisting that he had never knowingly harmed Gay, he acknowledged that his snap decision to dispose of her body through the porthole had been beastly conduct. The prosecution presented the court with an entirely different theory. James Cam had killed Gay Gibson after she rejected his advances. During the struggle, she scratched her attacker and pressed the call buttons in her cabin, summoning the night watchman. Terrified his crime would be uncovered, Cam then pushed her either dead or unconscious body through the porthole.

The prosecution pointed to the contraceptive devices that had been recovered from Gay's luggage. If she had agreed to have sex with Cam, then why hadn't she made use of these? The fact that Gay's elderly neighbour in the next cabin had heard a crash in the middle of the night suggested there might have been a struggle. And if Gay had died of natural causes, then why hadn't Cam just left her in bed before sneaking out of her room? There would have been no evidence that pointed to him having harmed her, unless her neck was bruised from where Cam had choked her. Gay's mother, Ellen Gibson, was called to give evidence. She denied that her daughter had relationships with married men, saying that her only love was her career. Ellen described Gay as one of the finest types of English womanhood.

She insisted that Charles Shventofsky was never Gay's lover. He was just a business acquaintance who was happy to lend Gay some money to finance her acting ambitions. When Cam's attorney asked, do you know she was telling everybody she was pregnant, Ellen replied, No, my daughter and I were very close friends. We never had any secrets from each other. Although numerous other individuals had claimed they'd seen Gay faint and struggled to breathe on occasion, Ellen said the only health complaint Gay ever had was an ear infection. A renowned pathologist presented a different opinion to the defense experts. He believed the urine on Gay's sheets indicated she had involuntarily wet the bed as she was being choked.

In his professional experience, loss of bladder control was a symptom typically exhibited by victims of strangulation just before they died. It wasn't seen as often in those who suffered heart failure. When their chance came to cross-examine James Cam, the prosecution wasted no time in challenging each and every one of his claims. They pointed out that he had lied to his fellow crew members and to police for eight days before sharing the story he was now standing by. Instead, fastly denying he had been with Gay on the night in question, Cam couldn't explain why he'd decided to dispose of Gay's body other than to say he had panicked in the moment. He also couldn't answer how the call buttons came to be pushed. Then the prosecution honed in on one key factor in particular, Gay Gibson's missing belongings.

Only two items had vanished from Gay's cabin along with her, a pair of black silk pajamas and the yellow quilted dressing gown she wore over the top of them. Cam had made reference to the gown but never mentioned the pajamas. If Gay had been naked under her gown as Cam had only just revealed during his testimony, then where were her pajamas? The prosecution theorised that Gay had been wearing them as per usual but Cam was unaware of this because she fought him off while wearing her gown fully zipped up. He never removed her gown before pushing her through the porthole so he hadn't realised she was wearing anything underneath. Perhaps he'd made the split second decision to tell the court she was naked because it made his story of a planned romantic rendezvous sound more believable. The trial wrapped up within four days and the jury retired to deliberate. Within 45 minutes they had reached a verdict.

James Cam was found guilty of murder. Shocked gasps were heard from the gallery. When Cam was asked if he had anything to say, he replied, I was asked at the start of my trial if I was guilty and I pleaded not guilty. I plead not guilty now. The judge then sentenced him to death by hanging, Britain's compulsory punishment for murder at the time. But within several weeks of his conviction, Cam's fate was thrown into question when the House of Commons passed a motion suspending the death penalty. A new criminal justice bill had been tabled which would see capital punishment abolished if passed into law.

In the meantime, all death row prisoners would receive a reprieve. Cam's sentence was commuted to life in prison. Although Cam had been convicted, people continued to speculate as to whether he was guilty or innocent. The case was hotly debated in the media and Gay Gibson's pajamas were regarded as the vital clue that could solve it once and for all. In May 1948, three months after the trial concluded, a 34-year-old man entered a police station in the town of Cheltenham and announced that he had crucial information to share. A week earlier, the man had been sitting in a pub when he struck up a conversation with a young researcher for the BBC named John Langham. The two chatted about the government's recent moratorium on the death penalty and soon the subject of Gay Gibson and James Cam arose. John Langham informed the man that he knew Gay hadn't been wearing the pajamas when she died because they were currently in the possession of his dentist.

During a dental appointment, the dentist told Langham how he had been on the same voyage as Gay and occupied the cabin next door to her. The two had become friendly and Gay paid him a visit the night before her death. They had sex and she left her black pajamas behind by accident. To prove his story, the dentist showed Langham the pajamas but refused to go public saying that he feared what that would do to his business and personal life. The man told the police he didn't know the dentist's name or address but suggested they obtained them from Langham. A detective took down his statement but thought little of it. This individual was already known to them and although he could carry on a decent conversation, he was believed to have, quote, some slight mental disorder. His story wasn't taken too seriously although John Langham was indeed a researcher at the BBC.

In the years that followed, he became a well-known presenter for the broadcaster. In 1965, he took his own life at the age of 40. More recently, crime writer Anthony Brown began digging into the Gay Gibson case and decided to investigate the man's story. Through examining passenger records, he discovered that there was, in fact, a 43-year-old dental surgeon travelling alone on the Durban Castle at the same time as Gay Gibson. The man's cabin number wasn't available but Brown concluded it was unlikely he occupied the one next door to Gay as her only known neighbour was an elderly woman. Moreover, if Gay had left her pyjamas in another passenger's cabin, then stewardess Eileen Field would have noticed them missing a day earlier. If a dentist that did indeed claim to have slept with Gay and kept her pyjamas, then it seems probable that he made the story up. Not long after his conviction, James Camm filed an appeal and lost. It was only then that some new information came to light.

Camm had always been viewed by his fellow crewmates as a ladies man who saw no problem with cheating on his wife. In reality, he was a sexual predator. In September 1947, Alice, not her real name, set sail on the Durban Castle. Alice was a young nanny who was travelling to South Africa with her employer. During the voyage, she became friendly with dexterity James Camm. One day, the two arranged to meet on the ship's promenade deck. When Alice arrived, Camm directed her towards a storage cabin as he followed behind, carrying two drinks. They stepped inside the cabin and Camm locked the door behind them.

The pair sat side by side on deck chairs and chatted for a little while. Suddenly, Camm was looming over Alice. He said that he wanted to kiss her. Alice refused, then told Camm she had to go. He demanded a kiss before she left, but Alice declined again. The next thing she knew, she was kneeling on the floor. The back of her neck was pressed against the deck chair she'd been sitting in moments earlier, and her head was being pushed down on its seat. Camm was kneeling next to her, one hand clasping the back of her neck, the other gripping her throat. He was strangling her.

Time seemed to rush by as Alice struggled to comprehend what was happening. Eventually, Camm stopped and let her go. Alice was destroyed. Her mouth was bleeding and she could see her own blood smeared on the white collar of Camm's uniform. His face was drenched in sweat. He apologized and said he couldn't understand what came over him, but he hoped she would stay quiet, for her sake, as well as his own. Alice raced back to her cabin. When she looked in the mirror, she saw that her eyes were bloodshot and her face had turned purple.

She confided in a friend about the attack before going to see the ship's doctor several days later. Her eyes remained red and bruised for some time. When she later showed Camm what he had done to her, he remarked, Good God, I did not think your eyes would come up like that. Four days after this attack, Brianna, not her real name, decided to have a nap one afternoon. Like Alice, Brianna was a passenger on the Durban Castle and aged in her late teens. She was travelling with her aunt, but staying in her own private cabin. At about 2.30pm, she went to her room and shut the door without locking it, then fell asleep on her bed.

It wasn't long before something suddenly woke her. James Camm was kneeling beside her. Brianna recognized him. Despite being a crew member, he had always been very forward and overly familiar, referring to her by her first name. Frightened, Brianna quickly moved to get up. Camm pushed her back down onto the bed. Then he lay down on top of her, pressing his weight against her. Brianna struggled, but he was too heavy. Camm grabbed her shoulders and began to kiss her. He grabbed her chest and tried to remove some straps that were keeping her shorts on.

Eventually, Brianna succeeded in pushing him off her. She told him her aunt was in the very next cabin, then knocked on the wall. This appeared to unsettle Camm. He stood and said he would fetch her some tea, then left. Brianna was humiliated by the attack. She told a male friend and the assistant Persa, but decided not to take it further. Approximately two weeks later, another adolescent was assaulted by Camm on board the Durban Castle. On the evening of October 6th, Christine, not her real name, attended a dinner dance. As she was dancing with an officer, Camm approached and told the officer that the band wanted to pack up for the night. Christine and the officer parted ways, with Christine going to her cabin.

She fell asleep, only to wake up about an hour later at 12.30am. Camm was standing by her bed. He apologized for stopping the dance, explaining that officers were not permitted to dance with passengers. Christine retorted that he wasn't allowed in her cabin either. Camm just laughed and sat on her bed. Then he put his arms around Christine and kissed her, ignoring her protests. She managed to pull away and turned from him, burying her face in a pillow. She was too scared to scream. Camm sat in silence for several minutes before he got up and left. 12 days later, Gay Gibson went missing. After Camm's arrest, all three women filed affidavits with South African police, who passed them on to their counterparts in Southampton.

However, these incidents were not raised during Camm's trial, as they were considered prejudicial. They only became public knowledge when a newspaper published a story about them after Camm's appeal was quashed. During his time behind bars, Camm was considered a model prisoner. He never caused any problems for the prison staff, and after serving just 11 years of his sentence, it was decided he should be released on license. Camm left Wakefield Prison in September 1959. By this time, he was 42 years old and his wife had divorced him. A few weeks later, he shared his story with the Sunday pictorial newspaper. An article written in the first person told his version of events on the night that Gay died. Just as he had for years, Camm described a consensual sexual encounter followed by Gay's sudden and unexpected death.

But this time, he added a few details he'd never mentioned before. He claimed that Gay had scratched his arms during sex and said he had accidentally knocked the cavern's call buttons when turning on the overhead light. Author Anthony Brown has noted that the switch for this light was not located anywhere near the call buttons. Camm also claimed that Gay had arched her back during her apparent heart failure, a detail he never mentioned before, but which echoed testimony provided by an officer who had witnessed a spasm Gay experienced while in the armed forces. The article concluded with Camm's graphic description of how he had squeezed Gay's body through the cavern's small porthole. The Sunday pictorial paid Camm £2,500 for his story, the equivalent of £50,000 or $91,000 in today's money. Camm changed his name to James Clark and got work as a head waiter.

Some time later, he sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl. Despite being convicted of this crime, he was only given two years probation. After this period was up, he relocated to Scotland and began working at a hotel. One night in 1971, he broke into a room where three 11-year-old girls were staying. The trio were travelling as part of a school trip. The incident led to Camm being charged with sexual misbehaviour and he was sent back to prison. He was released yet again in 1978, only to die one year later at the age of 62. Gay Gibson's death at sea has inspired novels and even a radio series.

Over the years, numerous authors and legal experts have debated Camm's guilt or innocence. In 2018, crime writer Anthony Brown examined the story as part of a cold case series he has published. He gained access to the case's full and original police files through the Hampshire Constabulary History Society, which allowed him to write the most detailed account of gay's death to date. His book, titled Death of an Actress, reproduced official documents verbatim and shared new details that had been missed in earlier investigations. Brown doesn't believe that gay was murdered, nor does he believe she consented to sex with Camm and died of natural causes. His theory is that Camm assaulted gay and accidentally killed her.

Camm had been attacking teenage girls regularly in the lead-up to gay's death and choked at least one other victim. Camm always attacked his other victims when they were fully clothed, making it entirely plausible that he didn't remove gay's dressing gown and never realised she was wearing pajamas underneath. During the attack, gay pressed the call buttons, which went unnoticed by Camm. Brown has speculated that the small, cat-like scratches on Camm's neck may have been caused by gay defending herself with her hairbrush and scraping him with the bristles. The lack of defensive wounds on Camm's hands indicates to Brown

that he may have inadvertently killed gay during an assault rather than strangled her. His heavy weight bearing down on gay exacerbated her breathing problems in a cabin that was already humid due to the tropical climate. Brown believes gay was suffering from some kind of heart disease, as suggested by those who had seen her fall ill on multiple occasions. He hoped the question of her health would be answered once and for all by DNA evidence, as some strands of gay's hair remained intact on her hairbrush even decades later. But experts have advised that due to the age and scarcity of the hair samples,

such testing shouldn't be undertaken until there are further advancements in DNA technology. When Camm was arrested, he asked police officers, does this mean I murdered her? And later remarked, my God, I didn't think it would be as serious as this. Brown points to these odd remarks as further evidence that Camm may have unintentionally killed gay. Five days before she died, Eileen Gay Gibson penned a letter to her parents back in South Africa. In it, she detailed her plans for when the ship docked in Southampton. She had already investigated which train to catch in order to reach London

and contacted a hotel to request accommodation. Once settled, she would begin the next exciting chapter of her life by connecting with various theatres and acting agents. Gay noted how few passengers there were on the voyage, describing the Durban Castle as a ghost ship. But overall, she was having a pleasant time. She spent her days dozing, either in a deck chair in the sun or in her private cabin. The fellow passengers she was dining with were kind to her,

and she was very well looked after by the cabin crew. Overall, it was a lovely journey. The only thing she was missing were her parents. Signing off, Eileen Gay Gibson wrote the words, Wish you could share this comfort with me. You're loving, Eileen. you