John Christie - Daily Mail - Evening Standard - Fred Dinenage: Murder Casebook TV - Great Crimes & Trials TV - 10 Rillington Place 1971 -
I gave them a merciful exit. John Christie
I can’t stand it any more. They are hunting me like a dog and I’m tired of it. I’m cold and wet and I’ve nothing to change into. John Christie, telephone call to crime report desk News of the World
He Made A Death Machine: Clerk, police ‘special’ – then, a murderer: For most of his 55 years John Reginald Halliday Christie was the man-in-the-crowd whom no-one notices: the little man who might stand next to you in a bus queue or share a train compartment, leaving afterwards only a vague impression that he had been there. Daily Mail article
Christie Peads Insanity says QC: He asks permission to refer to other killings. Evening Standard headline
Is Christie Sane? Doctors Clash. Evening Standard headline
In 1953 the police entered 10 Rillington Place in London. It was simply a house of horrors. The scene of eight horrific murders. Fred Dinenage: Murder Casebook: John Christie and 10 Rillington Place, CI 2011
In 1948 a couple by the name of Evans moved into the flat above the Christies. Tim and Beryl Evans were expecting their first child, and they soon attracted the attention of their sinister neighbour. ibid.
On his return Evans was told by Christie that he’d tried to carry out an abortion on Beryl but tragically she had died during the procedure. ibid.
The suspicion of guilt didn’t fall upon Christie. ibid.
After just forty minutes of deliberation the jury found Evans guilty of murder. ibid.
Christie was tried for the murder of his wife Ethel in a trial that lasted only four days. When asked if he’d committed more murders than were known about he replied, I can’t say exactly. I might have done. ibid.
On 9th March 1950 at Pentonville Prison a man known as Timothy Evans went to the gallows. He had been found guilty of the murder of his wife Beryl who had been strangled, and of his baby daughter Geraldine. Great Crimes & Trials: John Christie
10 Rillington Place ... It was Mr Christie who came up with the solution to the unwanted pregnancy. He told them he could perform abortions ... When Timothy got back Christie told him his wife had died during the operation. ibid.
Christie then volunteered to take baby Geraldine away to stay with friends. ibid.
Evans was found guilty and went to the gallows protesting his innocence. ibid.
Once he had cleared away all the rubbish Beresford Brown [the new tenant] started to remove the wallpaper and prized open the alcove at the back of the kitchen. To his horror he found himself looking at the torso of a semi-naked woman. He called the police. And when they had removed the body they found another two concealed behind her both wrapped in blankets. All three women had been strangled. ibid.
The garden fence was being supported by a human thigh-bone. ibid.
His bald head and small glasses [John Christie] made him unmistakable. ibid.
He showed little remorse for his deeds, proud of his skill as a killer. ibid.
The question of Timothy Evans’ innocence refused to go away. In 1961 Ludovic Kennedy book 10 Rillington Place crushed the evidence against Evans ... Evans received a free pardon posthumously. ibid.
It’s the moral question that concerns me. The taking of life. No matter how rudimentary. 10 Rillington Place 1971 starring Richard Attenborough & John Hurt & Judy Geeson & Pat Heywood & Isobel Black & Ray Barron & Douglas Blackwell & Gabrielle Daye & Jimmy Gardner & Edward Evans et al, director Richard Fleischer, Christie to victim
I know where you should be. You know what I mean. ibid. wife to Christie
Christie confessed his crimes and was hanged at Pentonville Prison. ibid. caption