John George Haigh - the acid bath murderer

 Haigh murdered people for money, then dissolved the bodies in acid. He was born on 24 July 1909 in Lincolnshire, but his family moved to Yorkshire.

Haigh’s parents belonged to the Plymouth Brethren, a strict religious sect, although it is unknown whether this had anything to do with his later behaviour. Haigh won a scholarship to attend Wakefield Grammar School, which meant he was a choirboy in Wakefield Cathedral. 

After leaving school, Haigh did clerical jobs. He also married in 1934, but the marriage was short-lived. Haigh turned to fraud, but he was not very good at it. He kept getting caught. His first prison sentence was in November 1934. He was released in December 1935. In 1936, he moved to London, hoping for a fresh start. For a time, he worked as a chauffeur for a young man named William McSwan. Haigh was convicted of fraud again in November 1937. He was released in 1940. He then worked as a fire watcher, alerting the fire brigade when necessary. However, in 1941 he was sent to prison again. He was released in 1943.

It has been suggested that Haigh may have been affected by his experiences during the German bombing, and that is what turned him to murder. Or maybe the third time he was sent to prison, he was determined not to get caught again. This time, Haigh obtained acid from the prison workshop. He also obtained dead mice that prisoners caught. He carried out experiments by dissolving dead mice in acid. It had obviously occurred to him that you could destroy a human body that way.

Haigh foolishly believed that he could not be convicted of murder if there was no body. He was wrong. English law does not require a body to prove murder. Haigh often said that murder could not be proved without a corpus delicti. But he misunderstood the Latin phrase. It does not mean a human body; it means a body of evidence.

This time, after being released from prison, Haigh turned to murder. His first victim was William McSwan, who had employed him previously. The two met, apparently by accident, and renewed their friendship. On 6 September 1944, Haigh lured William to a basement and hit him over the head with an iron bar. He finished off McSwan and placed his body in an oil drum. He then filled it with acid. After two days, William's body had dissolved into sludge, which Haigh poured down a drain.

Haigh told William McSwan's parents that their son had disappeared to avoid conscription. Haigh then persuaded them to employ him as a rent collector. On 2 July 1945, he lured William's father to a basement, where he killed him. His wife arrived about an hour later, and Haigh killed her too. He had two oil drums prepared to dissolve the bodies in.

Afterward, Haigh forged their signatures. He sold their property, and he persuaded people that they had emigrated to Australia. However, Haigh spent huge amounts on gambling and by 1948 he was beginning to run short of money. His next two victims were Dr Archibald Henderson and his wife Rosalie.

On 13 February 1948, Haigh persuaded Dr Henderson to come to a workshop he rented in Crawley, Sussex, by telling him he had an invention to show him. Haigh shot Dr Henderson and placed him in an acid bath. Later, he lured Rosalie Henderson to his workshop. He shot her and dissolved her in acid too. Once again, Haigh forged signatures, allowing him to sell their property. He managed to convince people that the Hendersons had gone to live in South Africa. But Haigh continued his lavish spending, and before long he was running short of money again.

His last victim was Olive Durand-Deacon. In 1949, Haigh was living at the Onslow Hotel in London. Mrs Durand-Deacon was a fellow guest. She was a wealthy widow, and befriended Haigh. She had a scheme to manufacture false fingernails, and Haigh feigned interest. He invited her to come to his workshop in Crawley. On 18 February 1949, Haigh gave her a lift there in his car. When she entered the workshop, he shot her in the back of the head. Haigh placed the body in an acid bath. He then sold Olive's jewellery. He took her Persian lamb skin coat to a dry cleaner.

Haigh then drove back to London. Later, he went back to the workshop and poured out the dissolved body on the ground. But Haigh was becoming careless. The body had not been completely destroyed, and traces of it remained on the ground. Meanwhile, the other residents of the hotel noticed Olive was missing and became concerned. A woman named Constance Lane told the police. They spoke to other hotel residents, and a policewoman, Alexandra Lambourne, was immediately suspicious of Haigh. She persuaded her superiors to check if he had a criminal record. They then found that Haigh had convictions for fraud.

They also discovered that Haigh had a workshop in Crawley. They searched it and found a receipt for Olive's lamb skin coat from a dry cleaner. They also found a recently fired revolver. And they found that Haigh had sold the missing woman's jewellery. Haigh realised the game was up and he confessed to the murder of Olive Durand-Deacon. He also told police about the other murders he committed. However, Haigh hoped he could escape execution by pretending to be insane. He claimed to be a vampire and that he drank the blood of his victims.

The police searched the ground around Haigh's workshop in Crawley. Despite his boast that he had destroyed the body of Mrs Durand-Deacon, traces of it were found, including animal fat, which does not dissolve in acid. Olive had been suffering from gallstones, and a layer of fat surrounded them and protected them from the acid. There were also fragments of foot bones (they probably survived because the body was not completely immersed). Most telling, the police found a denture, which a dentist identified as belonging to Olive.

Haigh went on trial on 18 July 1949. Haigh pleaded not guilty due to insanity. But the jury was most unlikely to accept his plea since he obviously killed people for their money. Nevertheless, the defence called Dr Henry Yellowlees, who said that Haigh was a 'paranoaic'. However, the prosecution lawyer asked Dr Yellowlees if Haigh knew he was doing something punishable by law. Yellowlees was forced to admit that he did. The prosecution lawyer then added 'Punishable by law and therefore wrong?'. Yellowlees had to say yes.

The jury found Haigh guilty of murder, and he was sentenced to death. John George Haigh was hanged on 10 August 1949.

Infamous Last Words

 I quite often read that an infamous murderer said something just before they were hanged, only to find out later that it almost certainly isn't true. Before he was hanged the poisoner William Palmer is supposed to have said 'Are you sure this thing is safe?'. But nobody who was present at his execution ever mentioned him saying that. The story that he did first appeared long after he was dead. Another poisoner called Thomas Neill Cream is supposed to have said 'I am Jack the ...' just before someone pulled the lever and he was hanged. Again, the same applies. The story first appeared in a magazine long after he was dead and nobody who was actually there ever mentioned him saying that. (In any case, he was in prison at the time of the Jack the Ripper murders).

A Video about Blossom Alley, 1923

 I also made a video about an unsolved murder in Blossom Alley, Portsmouth, in 1923.

Last Juvenile Hanged

 In Britain, the last person under the age of 18 to be hanged for murder was 17-year-old Charles Dobel on 2 January 1889. In 1933, the minimum age for hanging was raised from 16 to 18.

Jack the Ripper

I wrote about Jack the Ripper

An Unsolved Murder in Portsmouth, 1923

 A gruesome murder happened in Portsea, Portsmouth in 1923. The victim was Mary Frances Pelham, aged 37. According to newspaper reports, she was born in ‘the north of England’. During the First World War, she moved to Brighton and later to Portsmouth. She was separated from her husband. Mary was a kind woman, especially to local children. She was a sex worker, although she also sold flowers. She was known as Brighton Mary.

On 27 January 1923, a neighbour found her dead in bed in her hovel. The unfortunate woman had been strangled with a scarf or handkerchief. She was also stabbed or slashed with a broken bottle. A neighbour had seen Mary with a sailor the previous night. The navy held an identity parade and a woman did pick out one sailor but he had an alibi and was never arrested. The killer was never found.

The public was shocked, not just by the murder but by her living conditions. She lived in Blossom Alley, an alley 300 yards long and only 4 feet wide. Her home was a ‘one-up-one down’. Built in the 18th century it was one room over another joined by a ladder. 

The floors were sagging so the ceiling of the bottom room was 6 feet high at one end and 10 feet high at the other. Five houses shared three outside toilets and one water tap. Following the horrific murder, a great deal of slum clearance took place in Portsea.

Louisa Merrifield

 Louisa Merrifield poisoned a woman with phosphorus. She was born in Wigan, Lancashire, on 3 December 1906. She married her third husband, Alfred Merrifield in 1950. In 1951 they moved to Blackpool.

In March 1953, she was employed as a housekeeper to a 79-year-old woman named Sarah Ann Ricketts, who lived in a house she owned in Blackpool. Both Louisa Merrifield and her husband moved in with Mrs Ricketts.

Mrs Ricketts was so taken with her new companions that she made a will in their favour. They would inherit her house. That proved to be a deadly mistake.

Perhaps Merrifield was impatient to inherit the house. Or maybe she was afraid the old woman would change her will. At any rate, she turned to murder.

Sarah Ricketts had the odd habit of eating jam from a jar with a spoon and drinking rum with it. It’s believed that Merrifield added rat poison, which contains phosphorus, to it. Mrs Ricketts died on 14 April 1953, although a doctor visited her shortly before she died and found her to be healthy. 

Louisa Merrifield did not call a doctor until the next day. He was suspicious and he refused to issue a death certificate. Instead, he phoned the police.

An autopsy was conducted and the body was found to contain poison. Several witnesses told the police that they had seen Sarah Ricketts the day before her death and she seemed normal. She certainly did not seem ill. 

The police found that Merrifield had purchased rat poison from a chemist. (At the time, anyone who bought poison was legally obliged to sign a poisons register). The police also found a spoon with traces of poison, although Louisa had carefully disposed of all the jam jars Sarah Ricketts ate from.

Both Alfred and Louisa Merrifield went on trial on 20 July 1953. On 31 July, Louisa was found guilty and she was sentenced to death. Alfred Merrifield was acquitted, and he was released. Louisa Merrifield was not so lucky. She was hanged on 18 September 1953. She was the third-to-last woman to be hanged in Britain. 

Edward Pritchard - the Human Crocodile

 Edward Pritchard was a poisoner. The press dubbed him the Human Crocodile. He was born in Southsea, Portsmouth, on 6 December 1825. His father was a naval officer. At the age of 21, Edward became an assistant surgeon. In 1851, he married Mary Jane Taylor, a woman from a wealthy family. The couple moved to Hunmanby in Yorkshire. They had 5 children. 

However, Pritchard had a reputation for being a liar. He was also a womaniser. In 1858, he moved with his family to Glasgow. Pritchard continued womanising. Then, in 1863, a servant girl named Elizabeth McGirn died in a fire at his home. Strangely, the girl had not attempted to escape; she was found lying on a bed. Nothing was ever proved, but it’s possible Palmer drugged her and then started the fire. Perhaps Pritchard made her pregnant, then decided to kill her to get rid of her. 

In 1865, Pritchard poisoned his mother-in-law, Mrs Taylor, and his wife. Pritchard’s wife, Mary Jane, fell ill, and her mother moved in to nurse her. Mrs Taylor fell ill and died on 28 February 1865. Her daughter died on 18 March 1865. A Dr Paterson, who attended the sick woman, refused to sign a death certificate, so Pritchard signed one himself.

However, someone (probably Dr Paterson) wrote an anonymous letter to the police accusing Pritchard of murder. The bodies of both victims were exhumed and were found to contain antimony. The police also discovered that Pritchard had purchased large amounts of poison shortly before the two women died.

Pritchard was charged with murder, and he went on trial in July 1865. He was found guilty and he was hanged in front of a large crowd in Glasgow on 28 July 1865. 

It was the last public execution in Glasgow. (Public executions were banned in Britain in 1868).

Gordon Cummins - the Blackout Ripper

 Gordon Cummins was a serial killer in Britain in 1942. He was known as the Blackout Ripper because he killed women during blackouts. During the Second World War, all lights had to be hidden to avoid helping enemy bombers. 

Windows were covered to prevent lights in buildings from shining out, and the streets were unlit. That was known as the blackout. Of course, the blackout provided many opportunities for crime, and as a result, it became much worse. 

Gordon Frederick Cummins was born in York in 1914. His parents were middle-class. Cummins went to school till he was 16 and then went to college in Northampton till he was 18. However, Cummins was a lazy student. He was fired from his first job for laziness. He joined the RAF in 1935. However, Cummins was known as a fantasist who told tall tales. He was not popular with his peers. In 1936 he married a young woman named Marjorie Cummins.

In the early morning of 9 February 1942, the body of a woman was found in an air raid shelter in Marylebone, London. She had been strangled with her scarf and then dumped in the air raid shelter. The woman’s handbag was found near the scene, but it did not yield any clues.

The unfortunate woman was identified as Evelyn Margaret Hamilton, aged 41. She was a pharmacist from Newcastle. She worked as a shop manager in Essex. Unfortunately, she had lost her job. Evelyn managed to get another job in Grimsby, and she was staying in London on her way to her new position. She was last seen alive in a cafe, and the police believed she was attacked while she was walking back to her boarding house. At first, they thought it was a robbery that went wrong.

On 10 February 1942 another crime was discovered. Evelyn Oatley, aged 35, was found dead in her apartment in Soho. Evelyn was a sex worker. She met Cummins and took him back to her home. Her throat had been cut with a razor, and the body had been slashed. A blood-stained can opener was found on the bed. It had been used to mutilate the body. Fortunately, the police found a fingerprint.

The third victim was Margaret Lowe, aged 42. She was also a sex worker. It is believed she was murdered on 11 February 1942 in her flat in Gosfield Street off Tottenham Court Road. However, her body was not discovered until 13 February. She had been strangled and stabbed multiple times. The pathologist Bernard Spilsbury described the mutilations as ‘quite dreadful’. Once again, the police found fingerprints.

The fourth victim was Doris Jouannet. She was last seen alive on 12 February 1942, and her body was found the next day at her home in Paddington. She had been strangled with a scarf and then mutilated.

On the evening of 13 February, Cummins attacked a woman named Mary Heywood in Picadilly. He met her in a bar and persuaded her to come with him to another pub for a drink. However, in a dark street, Cummins tried to strangle the woman. Fortunately, a young man heard a commotion and went to help. Cummins fled the scene and in his hurry, he left behind his gas mask and haversack, which had his name and air force number.

The RAF confirmed that the gas mask belonged to an airman called Gordon Cummins. The police arrested him for the assault on Mary Heywood, and on searching his living quarters, they found belongings of the murder victims. The police also found that Cummins’ fingerprints matched those found at the crime scenes.

Cummins denied the murders and claimed that another serviceman had stolen his gas mask and committed them. Not surprisingly, the jury did not believe him. Cummins was tried for murder. On 28 April 1942, he was found guilty and sentenced to death.

Gordon Cummins was hanged in Wandsworth prison in London on 25 June 1942, during an air raid. 

Franz Muller

 Franz Muller, a German, was the first person to murder someone on a train in Britain. Muller was born on 31 October 1840. He became a tailor. In 1864, he was living in England but he struggled to make a living.

At that time, trains were divided into carriages, without connecting corridors. On 9 July 1864, a train was travelling between two railway stations in North London, Fenchurch Street and Hackney. It arrived at 10.11 pm. Two men entered a carriage and they immediately spotted blood. They called the guard who also saw blood. He found a stick, a beaver skin hat and a bag. The carriage was sealed and it was sent for examination.

At 10.20 pm a train was travelling in the other direction when the crew spotted the body of a man lying by the track. The man was still alive but he died of head injuries the next day. He was identified as 69-year-old Thomas Briggs, a chief bank clerk. Mr Briggs had been beaten and thrown off the train. Whoever killed him had stolen his gold watch and chain, but failed to take £5 (a large sum of money at that time) from his pocket. 

Thomas Briggs ’ relatives identified the bag and the stick found in the carriage but they did not recognise the hat. 

It seems that in his hurry, the attacker had taken the wrong hat, leaving his behind. He also failed to search the victim’s pockets.

A jeweller named John Death said that a man with a German accent came to his shop on 11 July, two days after the murder and sold him a gold watch chain (but not the watch). The chain was identified as belonging to the victim. A reward of £300 was offered for anyone who gave information leading to the arrest of the murderer.

A cabdriver named Jonathan Matthews didn’t hear about the murder until nine days after it happened. Matthews said he didn’t read newspapers, as they were expensive. He knew Franz Muller, and he became suspicious. Muller had given his youngest daughter a box from Death’s jewellers. Matthews took it to the police. Fortunately, he also had a photo of the suspect. The police took the hat found in the carriage to Muller’s landlady. She confirmed that it was his. He had foolishly left it behind and taken the victims.

Muller had boarded a ship to the USA on 15 July but two policemen boarded a faster ship and they arrived in New York before Muller. When the ship carrying Muller arrived, they boarded and arrested him. Among his luggage they found Thomas Brigg’s watch and his hat (although it had been altered, it was still identifiable). Muller was then extradited to stand trial in Britain.

The trial began on 27 October 1864. Muller denied being on the same train as the victim but the jury did not believe him. Muller was sentenced to death and he was hanged on 14 November 1864.

Henri Landru - Bluebeard

 Henri Landru persuaded rich women to marry him. He took their money then killed them and disposed of the bodies. He was called Bluebeard because he was like a character in a French fairy tale. 

Henri Landru was born in Paris on 12 April 1869. Like other murderers he had a history of crime before he turned to murder in 1915. He was sentenced to two years in prison for fraud in 1900. It was the first of many sentences.

Landru placed adverts in the ‘Lonely Hearts’ pages of a Paris newspaper using a false identity. Landru was completely dishonest and callous but he could also be charming. 

After meeting a suitable rich woman Landru promised to marry her and persuaded her to give him her life savings and valuables. He then invited her to come to his villa in a village near Paris. 

It’s not known how Landru killed his victims. He may have strangled them. It’s believed he dismembered the bodies and burned them in a stove. When women disappeared their families were naturally suspicious but they did not know Landru’s real name. 

Landru’s first victims were a woman named Jeanne-Marie Cuchet in 1915 and her teenage son Andre in 1915. They were followed by nine others. 

Landru’s downfall began when on or about 1 September 1917 Landru murdered a woman named Celestine Buisson having pocketed her savings. Landru went on to murder three more women. However in 1919 Madame Buisson’s sister saw Landru in Paris and recognised him. She followed him into a shop and heard him order a china dinner service to be delivered to his home. The sister informed the police. 

From the shop they obtained the address where Landru was living (under a false name). When he was arrested Landru was found to be carrying a notebook which contained details about missing women.

The police searched Landru’s villa and found many fragments of bone and teeth among ashes. Witnesses said they had sometimes seen black smoke coming from his chimney. The police also found clothes and papers belonging to his victims. Landru went on trial on 21 November 1921. He was accused of the murder of 10 women and one teenage boy. On 30 November he was found guilty of 11 murders and he was sentenced to death.

Henri Landru was guillotined on 25 February 1922.

In 1947 Charlie Chaplin starred in a film called Monsieur Verdoux. It was inspired by the case of Henri Landru. 

Fritz Haarmann - the Butcher of Hanover

 Fritz Haarmann was a German serial killer. He was born in Hanover on 25 October 1875. At school, he was a low-ability student. At the age of 15, Fritz was sent to a military academy but he was soon discharged after showing symptoms of epilepsy. Fritz then worked in his father’s cigar factory. 

Haarmann began luring boys to secluded places then sexually abused them. He was soon arrested but he was diagnosed as ‘incurably deranged’. He was detained in a mental asylum but in 1897, he escaped to Switzerland. He returned to Hanover in 1899. 

He was conscripted into the army in 1900. He later claimed that he enjoyed his time in the army but he was discharged from the army on medical grounds as he had mental health problems.

He was awarded a pension but it was not enough to live on. So Haarmann turned to stealing. 

In 1914 he was sentenced to 5 years in prison but he was released in 1918. Despite his criminal record, he became a police informer. 

He also became a murderer. His first victim was a 17 year old boy named Friedel Rothe who was killed in October 1918. Later Haarmann the police caught Haarmann in bed with a 13 year old boy. He was sentenced to 9 months in prison. 

On his release in 1919 he met a man named Hans Grans. The two began a relationship and Grans later became an accomplice. 

The pair met boys at the railway station and lured them into Haarmann’s home, where they were killed, dismembered and thrown into the River Leine. Haarmann sold the boys' clothes. 

The second murder was in February 1923 and many more followed. Haarmann claimed he strangled boys by biting their throats. However, inevitably people began to find human remains in the river. In May 1924 children found a human skull on the banks of the river. A pathologist said it was the skull of a young man and it had been cut from the body.

Meanwhile people had, of course noticed the large number of teenage boys who were disappearing in Hanover. In the following weeks three more skulls were found. Children also found a sack of bones near the river. Eventually the police dredged the river and they found hundreds of human bones. Haarman was a suspect because of his previous offences against boys and he was placed under surveillance. Two undercover policemen saw him arguing with a 15 year old boy. 

Foolishly, Haarmann himself went to two other officers and demanded they arrest the boy for travelling with forged documents. The boy told the police he had been staying with Haarmann for several days and that the adult had sexually assaulted him several times. 

The police arrested Haarmann and searched his apartment. They found the walls and floors were bloodstained. Haarmann claimed the bloodstains were from animals he had butchered and sold. But the police also found large numbers of clothes and other personal effects. 

The police placed the clothes on display in the police station and the relatives of the missing boys were invited to look at them to see if they could identify them. Many of the clothes were indeed identified as belonging to missing youths. Eventually Haarmann confessed to the murders, although he claimed he couldn’t remember how many boys he had killed. In the end the police were able to identify 27 victims. 

The trial began on 4 December 1924. Haarmann was convicted of 24 murders, he was acquitted of 3 of them. He was sentenced to death. 

His lover Hans Grans was also put on trial. He was also found guilty of being an accomplice and he was sentenced to 12 years in prison.  

Fritz Haarmann was executed by guillotine on 15 April 1925. Haarman’s head was preserved for research. It was finally cremated in 2014. 

Marcel Petiot - the deadly doctor

 Dr Marcel Petiot was a French doctor who killed 27 people. Petiot was born on 17 January 1897. Like many murderers, Petiot had a history of petty crime before he started killing people. At the age of 17 he robbed a post box. In 1916 he was conscripted into the French army. However, Petiot showed many signs of mental illness. In July 1919 he was discharged from the army with a disability pension. 

Despite that, he was able to study medicine under an accelerated education programme for war veterans, and he qualified as a doctor in 1921. Petiot practiced medicine in Villeneuve.

Marcel Petiot became mayor of Villeneuve in 1926. In 1927 he married and they had a son the next year. Following many accusations of stealing he was suspended as mayor in 1931. He later resigned and in 1933 he moved to Paris. He purchased a building in Rue Lesueur. 

In 1940 the Germans conquered France. The German army occupied northern France, including Paris. From November 1942 they occupied the whole country. Dr Petiot thought of an ingenious way to make money. Many rich people were desperate to escape from occupied France. Dr Petiot offered to arrange to smuggle them out of France to South America in return for a large sum of money. 

He told them they would need a vaccination against malaria or some other infectious disease. He told them that, as a doctor, he could give them the vaccination himself.

When the victim arrived at his surgery, Petiot told them he would give them the required vaccination. Instead, he injected them with cyanide. When the victim was dead, Petiot would dispose of the body with quicklime or he burned them in a stove. 

Dr Petiot killed people during 1942 and the early months of 1943. In May 1943, Petiot was arrested by the Gestapo and held on suspicion of helping people to escape from France. However, he was released in December 1943. Why they released him is not certain but Dr Petiot soon returned to killing people. 

His crimes came to light on 11 March 1944. Black smoke was pouring from a chimney of a house in Rue Lesuer. A neighbour called the police. The police phoned Dr Petiot, who promised to come to the building. Thinking a chimney must be on fire the police called the fire brigade. Firemen who entered the building discovered human remains burning in a stove. When Dr Petiot arrived, he informed the police that the dead bodies were those of traitors. The police allowed him to go. Petiot promptly disappeared. 

Dr Petiot was arrested on 31 October 1944. He claimed he was a member of the resistance and that all the people he killed were collaborators. 

However, the police could find no evidence that he had ever been part of the resistance. Dr Petiot went on trial on 19 March 1946. On 4 April he was convicted of 26 murders. 

(He was acquitted of one of the murders he was charged with though it is very likely he was guilty). Marcel Petiot was guillotined on 26 May 1946. 

Jack the Ripper in Havant?

 Havant has a connection with Jack the Ripper. For a time people were afraid he might have struck in the town. 

Peter Kurten

  Peter Kurten was a German serial killer. He was born on 26 May 1883. He was one of 13 children. His father was an alcoholic and physically abused Peter. 

Kurten later claimed he committed his first murders when he was 9. He said he pushed a friend, who could not swim, off a raft. Another boy jumped in to save him but Kurten held the would-be rescuer underwater. The other boy, unable to swim, drowned. The authorities ascribed the two deaths to accidental drowning. Whether Kurten killed them or whether the deaths were accidental is not known.

Kurten claimed that he began abusing animals when he was 13. As an adult, Kurten had a record of petty crimes such as stealing and fraud and he spent much of his life in prison.

Kurten committed his first definite murder on 25 May 1913. He broke into an inn. Kurten found a 9-year-old girl called Christine Klein asleep. He strangled her, then cut her throat. Unfortunately, Kurten was not caught. 

From 1925 to 1929, Kurten committed many crimes of arson in Dusseldorf. Then, on 3 February 1929 a woman named Apollonia Khun was attacked with a knife. Fortunately, she survived. On 8 February Kurten strangled and stabbed an 8-year-old girl named Rose Ohliger. On 13 February 1929 Kurten stabbed a 45-year-old man named Scheer while he was walking along the street drunk. Kurten attempted to strangle four women between March and July 1929. However, all escaped. The next murder was on 11 August when Kurten strangled and stabbed a woman named Maria Hahn. 

On 21 August Kurten stabbed three strangers. All three survived. Then, on 24 August Kurten killed two girls, Gertrude Hamacher aged 5 and her adopted sister Luise Lenzen aged 14. Kurten persuaded the older girl to go to buy him some cigarettes. While she was away he strangled the younger girl and cut her throat. He did the same to the older girl when she returned. The next day, 25 August Kurten met a young woman named Gertrude Schulte. Kurten asked to have sex with him. The woman said ‘I’d rather die’. Kurten replied ‘Well die then’ and stabbed her several times. Fortunately, she survived. 

For his next murder, Kurten used a hammer. He killed a young woman called Ida Reuter on 30 September 1929. On 11 October 1929, he killed a young woman named Elizabeth Dorrier with a hammer. On 25 October 1929 Kurten attacked two women with a hammer but both survived.

However, on 7 November 1929 a 5-year-old child was not so lucky. Kurten strangled and they stabbed her. In 1930 Kurten continued to attack young women early in 1930 but all of them survived.

Finally a woman called Maria Budlick came to Dusseldorf by train looking for a job. She had the misfortune to meet Peter Kurten. He persuaded her to come to his apartment for a meal. She agreed and afterward he offered to take her to a hostel. Instead he lured her to a secluded place where he tried to strangle her. Budlick screamed so Kurten let her go. 

Budlick did not inform the police. Instead she wrote a letter, which was incorrectly addressed. A postal worker opened the letter and upon reading the contents he showed it to the police. They spoke to Budlick and she was able to show them the building where Kurten lived. 

By chance Kurten returned to the building and saw police there. He fled the scene and went to live in lodgings. But on 23 May he returned home and he confessed to his wife and urged her to claim the reward for finding the murderer. 

Kurten seems to have decided that the game was up. On 24 May his wife told the police. She also told them that Peter had agreed to meet her at St. Rochus church later that day. Kurten was arrested when he came to the rendezvous. He surrendered without any struggle or protest. Instead he made a long confession to all his crimes. 

Kurten went on trial on 13 April 1931. At first he pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity but he later changed his plea to guilty. On 22 April he was convicted of nine murders. Peter Kurten was executed by guillotine on 2 July 1931. 

Alfred Rouse

 Alfred Rouse was hanged for the murder of an unknown man. Rouse was born in London on 6 April 1894. In 1914 he joined the army but he married Lily May Watkins before he departed for France. In 1915 he was wounded. He suffered head injuries and as well as injuries to his leg. Rouse slowly recovered. He was discharged from the army with a pension in 1916. However In 1920 a doctor examined him and his pension was stopped as he had completely recovered. However, Rouse found work as a car mechanic.

In 1929 Rouse got a job as a salesman. It was a well-paid position and it involved a lot of travelling by car. Rouse was also a womaniser who had many affairs. He had several illegitimate children and faced having to pay maintenance for them. With his financial situation strained Rouse looked for a way out. He turned to murder.

Rouse thought of a plan. He would offer a lift to a down and out and then kill the man. He would set the car on fire. He hoped he could make it look like an accident. The man’s body would be so badly burned it would be unidentifiable but the cars number plates would survive. Rouse hoped the police would identify the car as his and assume the dead body was him. If he was believed to be dead he could make a fresh start. 

However, Rouse bungled the murder. In Britain 5 November is Bonfire Night when people light bonfires and fireworks. At 2 am on 6 November 1930 two young men were returning from a Bonfire Night Dance in Northamptonshire. They saw a fire in the distance. Strangely they saw a man on the opposite side of the road climb out of a ditch. He was carrying a briefcase. The man said ‘It looks like someone is having a bonfire’. He then walked off in the opposite direction to the two men. They soon discovered the burning car. As Rouse hoped, the police quickly identified the burning car. 

The police spoke to his wife. She said she had last seen Alfred at 2 am on 6 November. (Rouse later said it was actually about 6.30 am). They showed pieces of the dead man’s clothing to Mrs Rouse. She was not certain if they were his. 

The police were naturally keen to talk to the mysterious man who climbed out of a ditch. It had been a moonlight night and the two young men who saw him were able to describe him to the police. He matched the description of Alfred Rouse. So if he wasn’t the victim who was? 

Meanwhile, Rouse went to his house in London then hitchhiked to the house of his mistress, who was heavily pregnant in Wales. She asked where his car was. He told her it had been stolen. 

However his mistress showed him a newspaper that named him as the owner of the burned car. Rouse decided to leave and he caught a coach to London.  He told his mistress where he was going and she told the police. They were waiting to arrest him when he arrived. 

The police also found that the fire was not accidental. The feeder pipe from the petrol tank to the carburetor had been loosened allowing petrol to leak out. Across the two front seats of the car was the body of a man burned beyond recognition. The post mortem showed he was alive but unconscious when the fire started. 

Rouse had a not very convincing explanation for the fire. He had picked up a man near St Albans and later stopped the car to go to the toilet. He asked the hitch hiker to fill the petrol tank with fuel from a can. The man then asked if he had a cigarette. Rouse did not smoke cigarettes but he had a cigar and gave the man one. He then went into a field. Looking back he saw the car on fire. According to Rouse the passenger must have accidentally ignited the petrol when he lit his cigar. Rouse claimed he tried to rescue the hitch hiker from the burning car but he could not.

The police were skeptical. Why had Rouse taken his briefcase when he got out of the car to relieve himself? (The two men who discovered the burning car saw him carrying one). Rouse claimed that he panicked and fled the scene. 

However the police soon discovered that several of Rouse’s mistresses were taking out had child maintenance orders against him. He would be unable to pay them so he set fire to his car with an unconscious hitchhiker inside hoping he would be mistaken for the dead man. 

He hoped could begin a new life with a new identity. On 27 November 1930 Rouse was arrested for the murder of an unidentified man. 

His trial began on 26 January 1931. Expert witnesses testified that the victim was unconscious when the fire started. It was also revealed that a fragment of his clothing, which had survived the fire had been soaked in petrol.  Rouse stood by his claim that the death was an accident. However, the jury did not believe him. On 31 January he was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Alfred Rouse was hanged on 10 March 1931. 

While awaiting execution, Rouse sent a letter to a newspaper, the Daily Sketch, confessing to the murder. Rouse claimed he met a man outside a pub in London and promised him a job in the Midlands and arranged to drive him there. Rouse got the man drunk by giving him a bottle of whisky. When he was sufficiently drunk, Rouse strangled the man until he was unconscious. Rouse admitted he had deliberately loosened a pipe to let petrol flow out. He also poured petrol over the man. He then set the car on fire. 

John Reginald Christie

  Christie was a notorious serial killer of the 1940s and 1950s. He was born near the town of Halifax in Yorkshire on 8 April 1899. He was one of seven children. His father was a carpet designer. 

According to Christie, his father was a severe disciplinarian. At the same time, his mother was overprotective. John was a rather effeminate boy, and he was not very popular. 

Christie had four older sisters who, he said, were always bossing him around. Christie appears to have developed a resentment towards women.

In 1916, he attempted to have sex with a local girl but was unable to manage it. (Christie suffered from impotence all his life). 

The girl and her friends called him ‘Reggie-no-dick’ or ‘Can’t-do-it-Christie’. It was, of course, a deeply humiliating experience and seems to have worsened his resentment of women. 

Christie later claimed that a defining moment in his life happened when he was 8 years old. He hated and feared his grandfather. However, the old man died. As was common in those days, the body was laid out for the family to see. 

Christie said that on seeing his dead grandfather, he experienced pleasurable feelings. He later described it as ‘a strange peaceful thrill’. He realised his grandfather could never hurt him again. In his mind, dead bodies became intertwined with feelings of pleasure. Afterward, he developed an unhealthy interest in dead bodies. It’s very likely that, as an adult, Christie was a necrophiliac.

Christie was intelligent. He left school at the age of 15 and got a job as a cinema projectionist assistant. In 1917, Christie was conscripted into the army. In 1918, he was wounded in a gas attack. He later claimed that the gas made him blind for 5 months and unable to speak for three and a half years. His voice never fully returned, and he spoke very softly for the rest of his life.

However, although Christie certainly was gassed, there is no record of him being blinded for months or unable to speak for years. He was, no doubt, greatly exaggerating the effects of the gas attack. 

There was nothing physically wrong with his larynx, and speaking in a quiet voice was almost certainly psychological. His voice sometimes returned during times of stress. Christie was a hypochondriac, and all his life, he exaggerated symptoms of illness. 

Christie returned to civilian life in 1919, and in 1920, he married Ethel Simpson. However, Christie suffered from impotence. However, both before and after his marriage to Ethel, he visited sex workers. In 1921, Christie became a postman, but he was dismissed for stealing postal orders. For this crime, he served a 3-month prison sentence. Like many murderers, Christie had a record of petty crime. 

In 1924, he separated from his wife and moved to London. For years, Christie drifted from job to job. 

In 1929, he was living with a woman, and during an argument, he hit her with a cricket bat. He was sentenced to 6 months in prison. Ominously, the judge called it ‘a murderous attack’. In 1933, he was sentenced to 3 months for stealing a car. On his release, he persuaded his wife to return to live with him.

For her, it was, literally, a fatal mistake. In 1938, the couple moved into a flat at 10 Rillington Place, an address that was to become infamous.

When the Second World War began in 1939, he applied to become a war reserve constable. Notably, they did not verify his criminal record before offering him a position. 

Christie appears to have enjoyed wearing a uniform and having authority over others. He became known as the Himmler of Rillington Place. 

Christie committed his first murder in August 1943. Why he turned to murder is not known. However, in the summer of 1943, he was having an affair with a married woman. When the woman’s husband was home on leave, he beat up Christie and threw him out of the house. The writer Ludovic Kennedy suggested this might have been the trigger for murder. Christie was humiliated, and he sought to ‘take it out’ on someone weaker than himself. Sometimes serial killers begin murdering people when something causes them to lose self-esteem, and they decide to ‘take it out’ on someone. 

At any rate, Christie killed a 21-year-old girl named Ruth Fuerst. Ruth came from Austria. She was a part-time sex worker. Unfortunately, she met Christie, and he paid for her services. 

While his wife was away visiting relatives, Ruth went to Christie’s home. She undressed, and Christie strangled her with a rope. Christie said he strangled her while he was having sex with her, although it’s possible he had sex with her after she was dead. Christie said later that he felt pleasurable feelings when he saw the dead body, which he later described as a ‘strange peaceful thrill’. It was similar to the pleasurable feelings he had when he saw the dead body of his grandfather.

At first, he hid Ruth under the floorboards of his living room. Later, when his wife was out, he buried her in the garden. 

Ruth Fuerst was reported missing, but her disappearance did not cause alarm because she came from a ‘twilight world’, where people often disappeared. Christie said that after murdering Ruth, he ‘never gave it a thought’. Christie could simply avoid thinking about unpleasant subjects when it suited him. 

Sooner or later, Christie was bound to kill again. In December 1943, he left his job as a war reserve constable and took a position at Ultra Radio Works in Acton. There, he met a 31-year-old woman named Muriel Eady. Muriel was not married, but she had a boyfriend. 

She became friendly with Christie. The two used to chat in the works canteen during their lunch breaks. Muriel also visited Mr and Mrs Christie at their home.

Unfortunately, she suffered from catarrh. Christie persuaded her that he could treat the illness. He had, he told her, a glass jar into which he poured a special mixture. The lid had a hole in it through which a rubber tube was threaded. It ended in a rectangular mask that could be held over the face, and the patient inhaled fumes. Muriel agreed to try the treatment, and she went to Christie’s flat while his wife was away. 

What Christie did not tell Muriel was that another rubber tube was threaded through the lid. This one led to a gas tap. The rubber tube was pinched shut with a bulldog clip. When Christie removed the clip, carbon monoxide gas flowed through, rendering Muriel unconscious. Christie then strangled her with a rope. 

It is believed that Christie raped Muriel either when she was unconscious or dead. Once again, Christie said he had pleasurable feelings when he looked down at the dead body. 

He described it as ‘a strange peaceful thrill’. He added, ‘I had no regrets’. Christie hid the body in a wash house behind the house, and later he buried the unfortunate woman in the back garden. 

Muriel’s disappearance was, of course, noticed. However, Christie was lucky. She never told anyone that she was going to his house. If she did, he would have come under suspicion. 

Yet, there was no reason, as far as anyone could see, why he should want to kill her. The two had been on friendly terms. 

It was also a time when the Germans were firing V2 missiles at London. Some people were blown to pieces and never identified. It was eventually assumed that it must have happened to Muriel. 

Years later, Christie accidentally unearthed Muriel’s thigh bone while digging in the garden. He used it to prop up his garden fence. 

Christie continued to live an outwardly normal life until 1949. His next victim was Beryl Evans. She was married to Timothy Evans, a van driver. They had a baby girl, Geraldine. The marriage was not happy. They were short of money, and they frequently argued. Timothy Evans was a man of low intelligence (he had an IQ of 68), and he was illiterate. He was also a very impressionable man. And he was a fantasist. He often told ridiculous stories. 

The couple lived in a flat above Christie’s. In 1949, Beryl became pregnant for a second time. She did not want the child, as they could not afford it, and she made attempts to abort. (Abortion was illegal at that time).

Unfortunately, she made the mistake of telling Christie. He persuaded her that he knew how to carry out abortions (whether he did or not is uncertain; maybe he just claimed he did to kill her). Beryl Evans was keen to get rid of the child. 

Her husband, Timothy, was reluctant, but Christie persuaded him. Christie claimed that he was training to be a doctor before the war, but he had to give it up after an accident. It was a lie that he ever trained to be a doctor, but it was true that he did have an accident. He was hit by a car in 1934. 

Christie showed Evans a first-aid book leftover from his days as a policeman. Evans could not read, but he was impressed by the diagrams and became convinced that Christie did have some medical knowledge.

However, Christie did say that there was one chance in ten that the operation would be fatal. 

That was plausible, as women did indeed die from abortions. At the time, workmen were working in the house, but when they were on their lunch break, Christie went upstairs. 

He may have persuaded Beryl to inhale gas, but she struggled. Christie hit her in the face and strangled her. It’s possible he had sex with her dead body.

When Timothy Evans came home, Christie convinced him that Beryl had died during the abortion. He told Evans that her stomach was ‘septic poisoned’ as a result of the pills she had taken in an attempt to abort herself. Unfortunately, Evans believed Christie’s lies.

Evans wanted to tell the police, but Christie persuaded him not to. Christie said, truthfully, that he had been in the police and knew how they operated. He told Evans the police would ‘knock him about’ until he confessed. Unfortunately, Evans was a man of low intelligence, and he was easily influenced. Christie was able to dominate him. 

Christie persuaded him to help him move the body of Beryl Evans to an empty flat between his and the Evans flat. He told Evans he would hide Beryl’s body in a drain where it would decompose. But he told Timothy to sell his wife’s wedding ring, otherwise it could be used to identify the body.

That left the problem of the baby girl, Geraldine. At first, Christie said he would look after the child while Timothy went to work. But he couldn’t do that forever. He told Evans that he knew a childless couple who would adopt the child. Of course, no such people existed. Christie persuaded Evans to go to Wales, where he stayed with relatives. 

After he went, Christie strangled the baby girl. Even Christie, horrible as he was, must have balked at the idea of killing a baby. 

But for him, it was a matter of survival. He could not go on looking after the child indefinitely, and if he tried sooner or later, someone was certain to find out. 

Some workmen had been doing work in the house. Christie asked if he could have some semi-rotten floorboards they had removed. They agreed. 

After the workmen left, Christie placed the bodies of Beryl and Geraldine in a wash house behind the house and hid them behind boards of wood.

But Evans was worried about Geraldine, and he returned to London for a short time. He told Christie he wanted to see the baby. Christie said it was too soon. Sadly, the child was already dead. 

Naturally, Evan’s family noticed that Beryl and the child were missing, and they grew concerned. His mother wrote to her relatives in Wales, wanting to know what was going on. 

Eventually, Evans decided to go to the police. Unfortunately, he did not tell them the truth. He was trying to protect Christie, whom he still thought was his friend. Evans told the police that he met a man in a cafe. He told the man his wife was pregnant and did not want the child. 

The man helpfully gave him some tablets, which would cause his wife to abort. Unfortunately, his wife died as a result of taking the tablets, and he hid the body in a drain. 

Christie said he was going to hide the body of Beryl Evans in a drain, so Timothy assumed the police would find it there. Of course, they did not. The police found that one man on his own could not lift the drain lid, and it was empty. 

It must have been a shock to Timothy to find out that Christie had lied to him, and he made a new statement. This time, he told the police that Christie had offered to perform an abortion, and Beryl had died as a result. But Timothy had lost all credibility by lying to the police. They would naturally think, ‘if he lied once, he might lie again’.

Evans made another statement. This time he told the truth. He told the police how Christie had offered to give his wife an operation, and she had supposedly died during the operation.  

The police in London were contacted, and they decided to search 10 Rillington Place. They found the bodies of Beryl Evans and the baby hidden behind wood in the wash house. 

Unfortunately, the police did not dig in the garden at that time. If they did, they would have found the bodies of Ruth Fuerst and Muriel Eady. They also did not notice a human femur holding up the garden fence. 

The police interviewed Christie, who did everything he could to incriminate Evans. That, of course, was a despicable thing to do, but Christie was an odious man. He knew that if Evans was not blamed for the two murders, then he would be. 

He was the only other possible suspect. Christie had been a policeman himself, and he knew how the police operated. He lost no time telling them he had been a War Volunteer Constable and he had been given two commendations.

He also tried to blacken Evan’s reputation. He said that Evans was ‘very well known locally as a liar’. That was true, Evans was always telling tall tales, but so was Christie a liar. 

Christie also told the police that he and his wife were both of the opinion that Evans was ‘a bit mental’, which wasn’t true. If anyone was ‘a bit mental,’ it was Christie. Unfortunately, Christie was able to turn the police against Evans. 

The police took Evans to London, where he was informed that his wife and his child were dead. Until that moment, Timothy thought his daughter was alive. He was devastated when she found out she was dead and said he no longer cared whether he lived or died. Evans was told the bodies had been found in the wash house.

The police questioned Evans into the early hours of the morning. He eventually broke down and confessed to both murders. 

However, the police put words in his mouth. He was an inarticulate man with a low IQ, and the ‘confession’ included words he simply would not have used.

It might seem hard to believe that anyone would confess to a murder they did not commit, but people do. 

There have been many cases where an innocent person confessed to murder but was later proven to be innocent by forensic evidence. 

Today, we have a much better understanding of false confessions. In the 1950s, people were much less likely to believe that an innocent person would confess to murder.

But there was a problem with the confession. Evans confessed that he put the bodies in the wash house before he went to stay with relatives in Wales. However, there were workmen in the house at the time. 

Two of them, a plasterer and a plasterer’s mate, made statements to the police that they finished working in the wash house and cleaned it out on the day after Timothy Evans arrived in Wales. That meant his confession could not be true. 

But the police had made up their minds that the confession was genuine. So they interviewed the two men again and persuaded them to change their statements. This time, they said they left the wash house empty before Evans went to Wales. (One of them was shown a picture of a dead baby, which had nothing to do with the case). 

So, instead of changing their theory to fit the evidence, the police changed the evidence to fit their theory. A chance to save an innocent man was missed, and so was a chance to stop a serial killer. 

Timothy Evans went on trial for murder on 11 January 1950. Christie was a cautious but convincing prosecution witness. He told the court he had been blinded for five months after a gas attack during the First World War. (He was indeed injured in a gas attack, but his claim that he was blinded for months was a gross exaggeration. He claimed that he was unable to speak for three and a half years, which was also a lie. Unfortunately, he gained sympathy from the court by telling that story.

He also told the court he had been a War Reserve policeman during the Second World two and he had been given two commendations. That was true, but no doubt it impressed the court.

Christie claimed that he had been ill with fibrositis (musculoskeletal pain) at the time of the murders. 

(The truth is, he was ill after they were committed). Christie also told the court all about the rows Mr and Mrs Evans had. 

The defence lawyer brought to light the fact that Christie had several convictions. 

But the prosecution lawyer pointed out that Christie had not been in trouble with the law for 17 years. He persuaded the jury that Christie was a changed man.

In contrast, Timothy Evans made a poor showing. He was unintelligent and inarticulate. 

He also seems to have become confused during the trial. He was no match for the prosecution lawyer. Worse, Evans had confessed to killing his wife. Inevitably, the jury found him guilty. 

Timothy Evans was hanged on 9 March 1950. 

Christie’s life then returned to normal for nearly three years. His next victim was his wife, Ethel. The motive for this murder is not certain. 

Christie hid his wife’s body under the floorboards of his home, but not before he removed her wedding ring. He sold it. He told the neighbours that his wife was away visiting relatives in Sheffield. When she was killed, Ethel was in the middle of writing a letter to relatives. 

Christie cunningly finished it, claiming Ethel had rheumatism and could not do so herself. 

With his wife out of the way, Christie was free to kill more women. Christie killed two women in January 1953. One of them was 25-year-old Kathleen Maloney from Plymouth. Kathleen was the mother of five children. She was a sex worker. 

Kathleen lived in Southampton for several years, but in 1952 she moved to London. She met Christie in a pub. Witnesses saw them leaving together.

It’s not certain how Christie killed her. He later claimed that he had a rubber tube attached to a gas tap. The end of the tube was hung over a chair that he asked the woman to sit in. A bulldog clipped onto the tube stopped the flow of gas. When he removed it, the woman would inhale the gas and become unconscious. He then strangled her with a rope. Christie likely had sex with the dead bodies. He never admitted to necrophilia, but that is not saying much. He was a habitual liar.

Christie also murdered 25-year-old Rita Nelson from Northern Ireland. Rita was a former sex worker who had obtained a job working in a Lyons Tea room. At the time of her death, she was 6 months pregnant. 

It’s not certain how Christie killed her. It’s thought Christie may have met her in a cafe. 

He may have offered to give her an abortion and persuaded her to inhale gas, then strangled her when she was unconscious. At any rate, she was certainly gassed and strangled. 

His last victim was Hectorina MacLellan, aged 26. Hectorina was aged 26. She was originally from the Hebrides, and she was the mother of two children. Christie claimed that he persuaded her to sit in a chair. 

Hung over it was a rubber tube connected to a gas tap. A bulldog clip stopped the flow of gas. Christie said he removed the bulldog clip, but Hectorina saw him and attempted to leave. Christie claimed he grabbed her by the neck and squeezed until she went limp. He then placed her in the chair and waited until she had inhaled some gas and become completely unconscious. He then strangled her with a rope.

On 24 March 1953, a man named Beresford Brown, who lived in a flat above Christie’s. Peeling back wallpaper, he saw a woman’s back. The police were called, and they found three dead women inside a kitchen alcove. 

Post mortems showed that all three had been gassed, but not fatally, and then strangled with a ligature. 

The police also discovered the decomposing body of Ethel Christie under the floorboards. Later, they found the bodies of Ruth Fuerst and Muriel Eady.

The police also found a tobacco tin in the garden. Inside were four pieces of pubic hair, but none came from the victims. It seems Christie had a pubic hair fetish, and he liked collecting samples from women. 

On 31 March 1953, a policeman saw a man standing by the embankment of the River Thames. He asked the man his name. Christie replied he was John Waddington. 

The policeman asked the man to remove his hat. When he did so, the policeman recognised him as John Reginald Christie. 

Christie was taken to a police station where he was informed that the body of his wife, Ethel, had been found under the floorboards of his home. Christie admitted to killing her, but he claimed it was a mercy killing. 

He said that on the morning of 14 December 1942, he woke up and his wife was having a fit. There was a bottle of phenobarbital tablets on the bedside furniture, and it was empty, suggesting Ethel had tried to commit suicide by taking an overdose. As usual, Christie was lying; an autopsy found no trace of phenobarbital in Ethel’s body. Christie claimed he could not bear to see his wife suffering like that, so he ‘put her to sleep’ by strangling her with a stocking. 

Christie eventually confessed to the murders of Ruth Fuerst, Muriel Eady, Rita Nelson, Kathleen Maloney, and Hectorina McLellan. Christie later also confessed to the murder of Beryl Evans. 

The psychiatrists who examined Christie found him to be obnoxious. He was a habitual liar who claimed he could not remember what happened whenever it suited him. One psychiatrist described him as ‘a crashing bore’. Another said Christie was ‘full of snivelling hypocrisy’.

Christie went on trial on 22 June 1953. He pleaded not guilty because of insanity. One psychiatrist testified that he was insane, but two others testified that he was not.

Christie had a personality disorder, but that did not mean he was insane. The prosecution pointed out his calculated behaviour after he murdered his wife, such as selling her wedding ring and his attempts to deceive people into thinking she was still alive. The prosecution lawyer also asked Christie if he would have strangled his wife if there had been a policeman standing in the room at that time. Christie admitted he would not. He effectively admitted that he knew he was doing wrong.

In 1953, English law said that to be found insane, the defence had to show that an accused person was not aware of the nature and quality of their acts. Christie did not meet that criterion. 

Christie was found guilty and sentenced to death. John Reginald Christie was hanged on 15 July 1953. 

In 1966, Timothy Evans was given a posthumous free pardon. In 2003, the Home Office awarded his family compensation.