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Angelo Zemenides

Age: 35

Sex: male

Date: 2 Jan 1933

Place: 23 Upper Park Road, Hampstead

Angelo Zemenides was shot by someone that had called to see him at his home.

A man was tried for his murder but acquitted.

He was a Cypriot language master and had been boarding at 23 Upper Park Road since 1928 and had been teaching Cypriots English in one of the County Council schools.

A chop assistant who had been living in the same house that Angelo Zemenides was shot in said that he had heard three people, including the loud voice of Angelo Zemenides, and then two bangs.

The landlady at 23 Upper Park Road said that she heard shouting in Greek on the night of 2 January 1933 and then two shots. He was shot around midnight.

The shots were also heard a few hundred yards away by three men.

When he was found he had two bullet wounds to his chest. He was found fully dressed and huddled up against a hat stand just inside the hall door. It was reported that his hands were holding his stomach and his face was contorted as though he had suffered great pain.

During the initial stages of the investigation the police said that they were looking for a man of foreign appearance with a dark complexion and about 5ft 10in tall. The police also said that there was little doubt that the murderer was known to Angelo Zemenides.

At the trial at the Old Bailey it was heard that the man charged with Angelo Zemenides's murder was said to have paid Angelo Zemenides some money to find him a wife. The police later found an automatic pistol in the man's cellar where he lodged. However, the man denied knowing anything about the pistol and at the trial two experts were called for the defence who said that the bullet that had killed Angelo Zemenides had not been fired from the pistol found in the cellar. It was said that the pistol had been planted there to incriminate the man.

In later police reports it was noted that the expert methods used to identify a particular bullet as having been fired from a particular revolver had cast doubt over the certainty of evidence resulting from those methods and had given an unduly unfavourable view of the new science. After the trial was over, the police reports noted that it was only fair to point out that the expert evidence regarding the bullets was by no means regarded as the deciding factor in the cace and that amongst other evidence a great deal had turned on the fact that the firearm was found at the house where the man had resided.

At the trial it was noted that Angelo Zemenides had been previously engaged in many cases for the police as an interpreter for investigations, but the police said that there was no suggestion that he had been a police spy. Angelo Zemenides had been engaged the year before in the murder trial of Alexander Anastassiou at the Old Bailey, who cut his girlfriend's throat Evelyn Holt and who was later executed for it. He was said to have also worked as an interpreter at other Law Courts.

The man that was tried had come to England in November 1931 and obtained employment at a West End restaurant as a pastry cook. He said that his parents had property in Cyprus worth about £4,000 and that he had come to England because he had wanted to help them with their mortgages and said that he sent his people money from time to time.

He said that he had got to know Angelo Zemenides who he said had suggested to him that he could find him a wife with a dowry of £200 which he could then sent to his parents. He said that Angelo Zemenides told him that he would require some money to arrange it and said that he gave him £13, £10 of which he had borrowed. He said that he only saw Angelo Zemenides about the matter twice and said that the second time was about four months before the murder when Angelo Zemenides had returned £4 to him.

The man also denied ever buying a revolver and said, 'I cannot use a revolver'.

When the man was asked if he had shot Angelo Zemenides he said, 'No'. He also said 'I neither shot him, nor know anything about it. If I knew I would have told the police'.


*map pointers are rough estimates based on known location details as per Place field above.

see www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

see "Cypriot Teacher Shot." Times [London, England] 14 Jan. 1933: 7. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 13 July 2013.

see "Shot Cypriot Teacher." Times [London, England] 18 Mar. 1933: 9. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 13 July 2013.

see Coventry Evening Telegraph - Friday 03 February 1933

see Coventry Evening Telegraph - Thursday 05 January 1933

see Belfast News-Letter - Friday 06 January 1933

see Hull Daily Mail - Tuesday 03 January 1933

see Dundee Evening Telegraph - Thursday 16 March 1933

see National Archives - CRIM 1/641, MEPO 3/1678