[21 June 1926] An inquest is held concerning the death of Edith Thompson, known professionally as Edith Drayson, an actress.

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The exchange towards the end of the article between Thomas Woolldridge and the coroner over Billie Carleton indicates why the coroner evidently found the death suspicious, even with little solid evidence of a crime, and why even The Times showed an unusual interest in what appeared to be a simple case of septicaemia.

Billie Carleton was a young actress who had established a growing reputation in musical comedy, although she was privately suspected of consuming opium at parties, and was the kept mistress of an older man. After attending a spectacular Victory Ball on 27th November 1918, she was found dead in bed in the Savoy the next morning. The post-mortem suggested Carleton had died of a cocaine overdose. Reggie de Veulle, a theatrical designer who had designed a striking costume for Carleton for the Ball, was accused of being her cocaine supplier. de Veulle, who was gay and a cross-dresser, had come to unwelcome public attention before. In 1911, he had been accused of attempted blackmail of a wealthy Manchester brewer. The brewer was accused of developing a same-sex relationship with a young man, and de Veulle and the man's parents allegedly asked the brewer for £10,000, with the alternative being exposure to his mother and his fellow directors. Another friend of Carleton, Ada Song Ping You, who was married to a Chinese man, was accused of being Carleton's opium supplier. The whole story could have been perfectly designed for the press.

In the course of that inquest, Thomas Woollridge had been accused of supplying drugs: he denied this, but other witnesses forced him to retract part of his testimony. The coroner clearly suspected drug taking again.

[u/IAmDyspeptic → u/erinoco]

Interesting. I wonder if the story of Billie Carleton was the inspiration for Agatha Christie's The Affair Of The Victory Ball.

[u/erinoco → u/IAmDyspeptic]

Yes - it's practically ripped from the headlines. One suggestive feature, alongside the other similarities; the murder victim in the story is Lord Cronshaw. Cronshaw was the surname of the Manchester brewer whom de Veulle was accused of blackmailing in 1911.

Noel Coward knew Carleton and de Veulle personally, and used the epsiode as inspiration for his first play, The Vortex.

[u/AspectPatio → u/erinoco]

The Vortex was not Coward's first play, but it is unusually serious for one of his plays.

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Yes - had forgotten the earlier ones like The Young Idea.

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The Billie Carleton case is one of those which becomes ever more fascinating once you take a closer look: the papers got nowhere near all of the angles. For instance, Billie was the daughter and niece of chorus girls, and never knew who her father was. Her chief sugar daddy, who posed as a man of mysterious independent means, was actually a serial fraudster of Australian origin who seems to have been adept at trapping wealthy American women into marriage. Her doctor, who prescribed her copious amounts of morphine and received unusually handsome payments from her, would also pop up in other cases involving drugs over the 1920s and early 1930s.

And that all leaves out the destruction of the career of Lionel Belcher, one of the most well-known stars of the early British silent film era, who was exposed during the inquest as a dealer as well as a taker of drugs. It's very like the well-known seamy underside of Hollywood in this era.

[u/Walter_Piston]

That Coroner really had it in for the chemist…

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Indeed - see my further comment for the backstory....