Drug Death for Harringay Girl

4th April 1954: "Scotland Yard were sure last night that a love philtre drug* killed a beauty queen and her girl fellow worker, who fell ill at a London office.

Detectives are also sure that neither girl knew she had taken the drug.

The girls, Miss June Malins (pictured), aged 19, of Wightman Road, Harringay, London, and Cliftonville; and Miss Betty Grant, 27, of Chobham Gardens, Wimbledon, worked in the office of manufacturing chemist.

Police concentrated their inquiries on the theory that someone put the drug in food or drink taken by the girls. It is thought unlikely that the person intended to kill.

The drug may have been given as a form of joke. But a strong dose is fatal. The girls' office manager, Mr. Arthur Ford, of Bath road, Hounslow, is in hospital with symptoms of food poisning.

In 1952 June Malins won the "Physical Excellence Girl of Margate" competition."

*a drink credited with magical power; can make the one who takes it love the one who gave it