63 years ago on this
day, John George Haigh A.K.A The Acid Bath Murderer was hanged at Wandsworth
Prison by Albert Pierrepoint. I got the information from Wikipedia, I would
comment at the end of the story.
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John George Haigh
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John
George Haigh (24 July 1909 – 10 August 1949), commonly known as the "Acid
Bath Murderer", was an English serial killer during the 1940s. He was
convicted of the murders of six people, although he claimed to have killed
nine. He did not use acid actually to kill his victims, but rather as (he
believed) a foolproof method of body disposal – dissolving their bodies in
concentrated sulphuric acid before forging papers in order to sell their possessions
and collect substantial sums of money. During the investigation, it became
apparent that Haigh was using the acid to destroy victims' bodies because he
misunderstood the term corpus delicti, thinking that if victims' bodies could
not be found, then a murder conviction would not be possible. The substantial
forensic evidence, notwithstanding the absence of his victims' bodies, was
sufficient for him to be convicted for the murders and subsequently executed.
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Haigh pictured as a 12 year old choirboy at Wakefield Cathedral.
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Early life:
John George Haigh was
born in Stamford, Lincolnshire, and grew up in the village of Outwood, West
Yorkshire. His parents, John Robert, an engineer, and Emily, née Hudson, were
members of the Plymouth Brethren, a conservative Protestant sect who advocated
austere lifestyles. He was confined to living within a 10 ft (3 m) fence
that his father put up around their garden to lock out the outside world. Haigh
would later claim he suffered from recurring religious nightmares in his
childhood. Despite these limitations, Haigh developed great proficiency in the
piano, which he learned at home.
Haigh won a
scholarship to Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Wakefield. After his conviction,
claims were made that a desk carved with his name remained at the school (and
caretakers would run trips to the cellars to show it to first year pupils), but
they were put aside when a teacher of 30 years at the school said the desk had
been removed over 20 years previously. He then won another scholarship to
Wakefield Cathedral, where he became a choirboy.
After school he was
apprenticed to a firm of motor engineers. After a year he left that job, and
took jobs in insurance and advertising. At age 21, he was sacked after being
suspected of stealing from a cash box.
Marriage and imprisonment:
On 6 July 1934, Haigh
married the 23 year-old Beatrice Hamer. The marriage soon fell apart. The same
year Haigh was jailed for fraud, Betty gave birth while he was in prison but
she gave the baby girl up for adoption and left Haigh. Likewise, his
conservative family ostracised him from that point onwards.
He then moved to
London in 1936, and became chauffeur to William McSwan, the wealthy owner of
amusement parlours. Additionally, he used his mechanical gifts to maintain
McSwan's amusement machines. Following that he became a bogus solicitor and
received a four-year jail sentence for fraud. Haigh was released just after the
start of World War II and, continuing as a fraudster, was sentenced to several
terms of imprisonment.
While in prison he
dreamed up what he considered the perfect murder of being able to destroy the
body by dissolving it with sulphuric acid. He experimented with mice and found
it took only 30 minutes for the body to disappear.
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Police officers searching Haigh's workshop.
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The "Acid Bath" murders:
He was freed from one
term in 1943 and became an accountant with an engineering firm. Soon after, by
chance, he bumped into his former employer, McSwan, in the Goat pub in
Kensington. McSwan introduced Haigh to his parents, William and Amy, who
mentioned that they had invested in property. On 6 September 1944, McSwan
disappeared. Haigh later admitted hitting him over the head after luring him
into a basement at 79 Gloucester Road, London SW7. He then put McSwan's body
into a 40-gallon drum and tipped concentrated sulphuric acid on to it. Two days
later he returned to find the body had become sludge, which he poured down a
manhole.
He told McSwan's
parents, William and Amy, that their son had fled to Scotland to avoid being
called up for military service. Haigh then took over McSwan's house and when
William and Amy became curious as to why their son had not returned as the war
was coming to an end, he murdered them too – on 2 July 1945, he lured them to
Gloucester Road and disposed of them.
Haigh stole William
McSwan's pension cheques, sold their properties – stealing about £8,000
(£256 thousand when adjusted for inflation) – and moved into the Onslow
Court Hotel in Kensington. By the summer of 1947 Haigh, a gambler, was running
short of money. He found another couple to kill and rob: Dr Archibald Henderson
and his wife Rose, whom he met after purporting to show interest in a house
they were selling.
He rented a small
workshop at 2 Leopold Road, Crawley, West Sussex, and moved acid and drums
there from Gloucester Road. He was also known to have stayed at The George Hotel,
Crawley on several occasions. On 12 February 1948, he drove Henderson to
Crawley, on the pretext of showing him an invention. When they arrived Haigh
shot Henderson in the head with a revolver he had earlier stolen from the
doctor’s house. He then lured Mrs Henderson to the workshop, claiming her
husband had fallen ill, and shot her also.
After disposing of
the Hendersons' bodies in oil drums filled with acid, he forged a letter from
them and sold all of their possessions for £8,000 (except their dog, which he
kept). This 1948 amount is the equivalent of £216 thousand.
Last victim and capture:
Haigh's next and last
victim was Olive Durand-Deacon, 69, the wealthy widow of solicitor John
Durand-Deacon and a fellow resident at the Onslow Court Hotel. She mentioned to
Haigh, by then calling himself an engineer, an idea that she had for artificial
fingernails. He invited her down to the Crawley workshop (number 2 Leopold
Road) on 18 February 1949, and once inside he shot her in the back of the head,
stripped her of her valuables, including a Persian lamb coat, and put her into
the acid bath. Two days later Durand-Deacon’s friend, Constance Lane, reported
her missing.
Detectives soon
discovered Haigh’s record of theft and fraud and searched the workshop. Police
not only found Haigh’s attaché case containing a dry cleaner’s receipt for Mrs.
Durand-Deacon’s coat, but also papers referring to the Hendersons and McSwans.
Further investigation of the sludge at the workshop by the pathologist Keith
Simpson revealed three human gallstones and part of a denture which was later
identified by Mrs Durand-Deacon's dentist during the trial and conviction.
Questioned by
Detective Inspector Albert Webb, Haigh asked him "Tell me, frankly, what
are the chances of anybody being released from Broadmoor?" (a high
security psychiatric hospital). The inspector said he could not discuss that
sort of thing, so Haigh replied "Well, if I told you the truth, you would
not believe me. It sounds too fantastic to believe".
Haigh then confessed
that he had not only killed Durand-Deacon, the McSwans and Hendersons, but also
three other people: a young man called Max, a girl from Eastbourne, and a woman
from Hammersmith.
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Haigh leaving Court during his trial.
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Trial and execution:
After arrest, Haigh
remained in custody in Cell 2 of Horsham Police Station when it was in
Barttelot Road. He was charged with murder at the nearby courthouse in what is
now known as the Old Town Hall. Haigh pleaded insanity, claiming that he had
drunk the blood of his victims. However, as stated above he had previously
asked a police officer "What are the chances of getting out of
Broadmoor"?
The Attorney-General,
Sir Hartley Shawcross KC, (later Lord Shawcross) led for the prosecution at
Lewes Assizes, and urged the jury to reject Haigh’s defence of insanity because
he had acted with malice aforethought.
Sir David Maxwell
Fyfe KC, defending, called many witnesses to attest to Haigh’s mental state,
including Dr Henry Yellowlees who claimed Haigh had a paranoid constitution,
adding: "The absolute callous, cheerful, bland and almost friendly
indifference of the accused to the crimes which he freely admits having
committed is unique in my experience."
It took only minutes
for the jury to find Haigh guilty. Mr Justice Travers Humphreys sentenced him
to death.
It was reported that
Haigh, in the condemned cell at Wandsworth Prison, asked one of his prison
guards, Jack Morwood, whether it would be possible to have a trial run of his
hanging so everything would run smoothly. It is likely that his request went no
further, or, if it did, the request was denied. Haigh was led to the gallows
and hanged by executioner Albert Pierrepoint on 10 August 1949.
The case of John
George Haigh was one of the post-1945 cases which gained much media coverage at
the time. Along with the case of Neville Heath, it attracted a great deal of
coverage in the newspapers even though Haigh's guilt (as with Heath) was not
questioned. In the case of Haigh, it was also the method of disposal which has
given him his place in criminal history. The editor of the Daily Mirror,
Silvester Bolam, was sentenced to a prison term for contempt of court for
describing Haigh as a "murderer" while the trial was still under way.
Haigh's confirmed victims:
The McSwan family:
William Donald McSwan
(9 September 1944)
Donald and Amy McSwan
(2 July 1945)
The Henderson family:
Archibald and Rosalie
Henderson (12 February 1948)
Henrietta Helen Olive
Robarts Durand-Deacon, née Fargus (18 February 1949)
Comment:
Like John Christie, I am personally
satisfied that justice was served for all those innocent victims who were
murdered by these serial killers. If John George Haigh was still alive after
the death penalty was abolished in the UK, the European Court of Human Rights
might have reduced his sentence and set him free, causing the death of more
victims.
Here is tongue twister:
How many people did Haigh murder in 1944?
1
How many people did Haigh murder in 1945?
2
How many people did Haigh murder in 1948?
2
How many people did Haigh murder in
1949? 1
How many people did he murder all
together? 6 people confirmed were but could be 9.
How many people did he murder since
10 August 1949? ZERO!!! That was the day when he was hung. PERIOD!!!
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