JAIL FOR THE "CASANOVA CORPORAL"

Pictured: Booth and widow Dorothy Simpson on a dinner date.



November 1, 1977
After a sensational trial, the "Casanova Corporal," Reginald Booth, was sentenced on October 28 to 12 months in jail for tricking two virgins into having sex with him and conning 310 pounds from a widow bedmate. Booth, a 37-year-old Royal Engineers army corporal, promised all three women he would marry them, though he had already been married for 18 years and had five children. The three were among at least 30 women Booth had corresponded with – and generally seduced – after inserting and replying to lonely hearts advertisements. Police found more than 400 letter from them since 1970 at his Wiltshire home. The judge said that despite increased sexual equality for women, "the law recognizes that women do need protection – or at least some women." He said it was a serious matter when a woman gave her body through trickery "because when a woman gives herself, in a sense she gives everything." Ironically, despite Booth’s constant womanizing, two of his former lovers said he wasn’t very good in bed.