In September 1947, a young man waited near the Soho flat of Violet Doris Driver, known as Black Rita, a 33-year-old dominatrix who ran a sadomasochistic practice at 42 Rupert Street. Concealed in his leather Gladstone bag was a high-calibre handgun. When Rita turned to hang up her coat, he shot her in the spine, then fired two more shots into her torso at point-blank range. She died on the stretcher as medics carried her downstairs.
A Motive in the Vice Trade
Scotland Yard quickly ruled out robbery, as thousands of pounds in cash and jewellery were untouched. A theory emerged that Black Rita had been killed by a gangland hitman, possibly as part of a turf war over Soho's vice trade. The tabloid Reveille claimed she was suspected of being an informer against gangs running women into the country from France, and that a French hitman had been offered £200 to kill her.
Black Rita operated independently in the centre of territory claimed by the Messina brothers, five Maltese siblings who reportedly controlled nearly 200 sex workers across the West End. As an independent contractor on their doorstep, she represented a challenge to their authority.
The Murder of Ginger Rae
Almost exactly a year later, the body of Rachel Annie Fennick, known as Ginger Rae, was found in a Broadwick Street flat. The 41-year-old had been stabbed in the stomach and slashed across the throat with a Mediterranean stiletto. She had allegedly spurned the Messinas' protection. Detectives believed it was a gang killing, and some friends received threats warning them to keep quiet.
The Downfall of the Messinas
Investigative journalist Duncan Webb exposed the brothers in the Sunday People in 1950, publishing photographs of four of them under the headline "Arrest These Four Men". Webb later wrote that a vice gang leader told him: "The trouble was that Rita wouldn't do as she was told. She talked too much."
All four named brothers fled Britain. Alfredo was sentenced to two years' imprisonment in 1951, Eugenio was arrested in Brussels and barred from the UK, and Attilio was deported to Italy after a secret return in 1959. The fall of the Messina empire triggered another violent war of succession, and it is still not known for certain whether Black Rita and Ginger Rae were murdered on the orders of the brothers or a rival gang.
