John George 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 whether it had any bearing on his later behaviour is unknown. Haigh was certainly a psychopath.
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 to make 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 1937. He was released in August 1940. He then worked as a fire watcher, alerting the fire brigade when necessary. However, in June 1941 he was sent to prison again. He was released in 1943.
It has been suggested that Haigh was affected by his experiences during the Second World War and that is what led him to murder. Or maybe the third time he was in prison, he was determined not to get caught again.
This time, while in prison, Haigh obtained acid from the prison workshop. He also obtained dead mice that prisoners had caught. He carried out experiments by dissolving dead mice in acid. It had obviously occurred to him that he 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 told his fellow prisoners that murder could not be proven without a corpus delicti. But he misunderstood the Latin phrase. It means a body of evidence that a crime has been committed. It doesn't mean a human body. Haigh was sure he could get away with murder - and for a while he did- but he was eventually caught.
His first victim was William McSwan, who had employed him before. The two met, apparently by accident, and renewed their friendship. On 6 September 1944, Haigh lured William and then hit him over the head with an iron bar. He finished off William McSwan and placed him in an oil drum. He then filled it with acid. After two days, the body had dissolved into sludge, which Haigh poured down a drain.
Haigh told William'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 workshop, where he killed him. William's mother arrived about an hour later, and Haigh killed her too. He had two more oil drums in which to dissolve the bodies.
Afterwards, Haigh faked their signatures. He sold the McSwans' property, and he persuaded people that they had emigrated to Australia. However, Haigh spent huge amounts of money on gambling, and by 1948 he was starting to run out of money. His next two victims were Dr Archibald Henderson and his wife Rosalie.
On 13 February 1948, Haigh persuaded Archie Henderson to a workshop he rented in Crawley, Sussex, by telling him he had an invention to show him. Haigh shot Dr Henderson with a revolver 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 their signatures, allowing him to sell their property. He managed to convince people that the Hendersons had gone to live in South Africa. However, Haigh continued his lavish spending, and before long he was running short of money again.
His last victim was a wealthy widow named Olive Durand-Deacon. In 1949, Haigh was living in the Onslow Hotel in London; Mrs Durand-Deacon was a fellow guest. She 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 to his workshop. When she entered the workshop, Haigh shot her in the back of the head. Haigh placed the body in an acid bath. He then pawned Olive's jewellery. He took her Persian lamb 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 parts of it remained on the ground.
Meanwhile, other residents of the hotel naturally noticed Olive was missing, and became worried. A woman named Constance Lane told the police. They spoke to the residents of the hotel, and a policewoman, Alexandra Lambourne, was immediately suspicious of Haigh. She persuaded her superiors to check if he had a criminal record. They found out he had convictions for fraud.
They also discovered he had a workshop in Crawley. They searched it and found a receipt for Olive's Persian lamb coat from the dry cleaners. They also found a revolver that had been recently fired. They also discovered that Haigh had sold the dead woman's jewellery.
Haigh realised the game was up and he confessed to the murder of Olive Durand-Deacon. He also told the 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 the workshop in Crawley. Despite Haigh's boast that he had completely destroyed the body of Olive Durand-Deacon, traces of her were found, including animal fat, which acid does not dissolve. Olive had been suffering from gallstones, and a layer of fat covered them and protected them. There were also fragments of foot bones (they probably survived because the body was not completely immersed in acid). Most telling of all, the police found a denture, which a dentist identified as belonging to Olive.
Haigh went on trial for murder on 18 July 1949. He pleaded not guilty because of insanity. But the jury were most unlikely to accept his plea as he obviously killed for money. Nevertheless, the defence called Dr Yellowlees, who said that Haigh was a 'paranoiac'. However, the prosecution lawyer asked Dr Yellowlees if Haigh knew he was doing something punishable by law. Yellowlees was forced to admit he did. The prosecution lawyer 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.
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