The Cameo Conspiracy by George Skelly
The key actors range from the enigmatic and long discredited Detective Chief Inspector Herbert Balmer (whose nickname was the 'King of the Verbals') to the much criticised Lord Chief Justice of the times, Lord Goddard, to a relative of the author whose knowledge of a travesty of justice echoes throughout the book's pages. George Kelly was hanged in 1949 for shooting dead two men: the manager of the Cameo Cinema, Wavertree and his assistant. Undeniably from the wrong side of the tracks and involved in the black markets, rackets and illegal drinking dens of the post-Second-World-War era, Kelly and his co-accused Charles Connolly (who went to prison for ten years) found themselves expertly 'fitted-up' because they were deemed to be riff-raff in what for them both became a Kafkaesque nightmare. In this, the definitive book on the Cameo case, the author recounts these events with the eye of someone who has undertaken prodigious research and has a passion against injustice. The result is not simply a superbly worked account of how due process and justice faltered but a snapshot of social and legal history in which the parallel worlds of the Underworld and Establishment collide in the courtroom and official decision-making. The Cameo murder case can also be seen as one of the most important of the 20th century. Although it took 50 years for the injustice to be admitted, along with the case of Timothy Evans and others incomprehensible to the modern-day eye, it ranks as a turning point in understanding the depths of wickedness or wilful blindness to which certain people or their organizations can descend to in the absence of decency, integrity and adequate safeguards. After more than half a century, the book's two subjects were posthumously cleared by the Court of Appeal in 2003, following the release of the original version of this book.
'George Skelly writes from the heart': Award- winning director, John Schlesinger 'One man's hunt for the truth': Liverpool Echo 'Skelly is a good writer': Norman Mailer 'A truly brilliant book': John Howey
George Skelly is also the author of the forthcoming Waterside Press Publication, Murderers or Martyrs, about an equally disturbing case and in which he argues that the Cameo case was no isolated blip.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781904380726 |
| ISBN 10 | 1904380727 |
| Title | The Cameo Conspiracy |
| Author | George Skelly |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Waterside Press |
| Year published | 2011-08-11 |
| Number of pages | 368 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |