Sidney Fox’s Crime

Male prostitute Sidney Harry Fox was a thief and a forger who was devoted to his elderly mother Rosaline. Together they travelled around the country defrauding hotels, owning little more than the clothes they stood up in, while Sidney tapped his wealthy clients for funds. During the roaring twenties, this odd penniless pair ended up in a Margate hotel room. It was the era of flappers, big jazz bands and the Wall Street Crash. A fire broke out in Room 66 where Rosaline Fox was asleep, and she was found dead. The inquest returned a verdict of death by misadventure and she was quickly buried. Nine days later the famous pathologist Sir Bernard Spilsbury exhumed the body. What he claimed to find remains one of the most controversial pieces of evidence ever put forward in a murder trial.