# The Maltese gang who terrified UK city and murdered women in cold blood

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/the-maltese-gang-who-terrified-uk-city-and-murdered-women-in-cold-blood/
- Published: 2026-11-14T10:00:00+00:00
- Updated: 2026-11-14T10:24:36+00:00
- Original publisher: Daily Express (publisher lean: Right)
- Original article: https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/2266050/horrifying-maltese-gang-who-terrified
- Topics: UK, World

## Key points

- Black Rita was shot dead in her Soho flat in 1947.
- Police suspected a gangland motive, but it was not proven.
- A tabloid claimed the hitman was paid £200.

## Summary

Violet Doris Driver, known as “Black Rita”, was shot dead in her Soho flat in September 1947 by a man who escaped calmly into the crowds. Her killing mattered because police suspected it was a gangland murder linked to control of Soho’s vice trade, though the article presents the motive as a theory rather than an established fact.

Rita, 33, also known as Rita Green or Rita Bennett, was shot three times with a .45 handgun; cash and jewellery were left untouched. A contemporary tabloid claimed she had been killed for passing information to French visitors and that the gunman was paid £200, but this account is unverified. The article also says the same assassin was suspected of killing singer and dancer Margaret Cook, 26, outside a Carnaby Street club in November 1946.

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