17. The Cameo Cinema robbery and murder in 1949
On March 19, 1949, the manager of Liverpool’s Cameo Cinema and another employee were counting the cash from the evening’s attendance when they were robbed, with both being fatally shot. Liverpool police began an investigation which soon received an offer of assistance from a local prostitute and her pimp, who were willing to provide the names of the murderer and his accomplice in exchange for immunity for their own transgressions. The names provided to the police were Charles Connolly and George Kelly, both of Liverpool, both in their twenties, and both well-known to the police for minor crimes. Both men had alibis for the time of the crime in the Cameo, but that did not dissuade the police from charging them with the double murder.
Kelly was first to be tried and he was convicted, despite minimal evidence and a strong alibi. Connolly then entered a plea of guilty in order to avoid the death penalty imposed upon Kelly. Kelly was executed in Liverpool’s Walton Prison in March 1950; Connolly was released from prison in 1957. After decades of subsequent investigations by various entities dedicated to justice, both Connolly’s and Kelly’s convictions were set aside, and both men were cleared, despite Connolly’s entry of a guilty plea (which he made only to avoid the death penalty after Kelly had been convicted). Who actually committed the attempted robbery and double murder at the Cameo Cinema has never been determined.