60 years ago on
this date, 15 July 1953, The Rillington Place Strangler, John Christie was
executed by hanging at Pentonville Prison, London, England. I had blogged
earlier about Timothy Evans whom I have doubts if he was truly innocent of the
crime. I will post some information from Wikipedia and murderpedia about John
Christie. There are more about him from this previous blog post.
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| John Christie |
INTERNET SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Christie_%28murderer%29
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Birth
name
|
John
Reginald Halliday Christie
|
|
Also
known as
|
The
Rillington Place Strangler
|
|
Born
|
8 April
1899
Halifax, West Riding of Yorkshire, England |
|
Died
|
15 July
1953 (aged 54)
Pentonville Prison, London, England |
|
Cause of
death
|
Hanged
|
|
Sentence
|
Death
sentence
|
|
Killings
|
|
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Number
of victims
|
8 known
|
|
Country
|
England,
United Kingdom
|
|
Date
apprehended
|
31 March
1953
|
John Reginald Halliday Christie (8 April 1899 – 15 July 1953),
born in Halifax, West Riding of Yorkshire, was a notorious English serial
killer active in the 1940s and early 1950s. He murdered at least eight
women – including his wife Ethel – by strangling them in his flat at
10 Rillington Place, Notting Hill, London. Christie moved out of
Rillington Place in March 1953, and shortly afterwards the bodies of three of
his victims were discovered hidden in an alcove in the kitchen. His wife's body
was found beneath the floorboards of the front room. Christie was arrested and
convicted of his wife's murder, for which he was hanged.
While
serving as an infantryman during World War I, Christie was apparently injured
in a gas attack, which he claimed left him permanently unable to speak loudly.
He turned to crime following his discharge from the army and was imprisoned
several times, for offences including theft and assault. On the outbreak of
World War II in 1939, he was accepted for service in the War Reserve Police,
when the authorities failed to check his criminal record. He committed his
murders between 1943 and 1953, usually by strangling his victims after he had
rendered them unconscious with domestic gas; some he raped as they lay
unconscious.
Two
of Christie's victims were Beryl Evans and her daughter Geraldine, who along
with Beryl's husband Timothy, were tenants at 10 Rillington Place during
1948 and 1949. This case sparked huge controversy after Timothy Evans was
charged with both murders, found guilty of the murder of his daughter, and hanged
in 1950. Christie was a key prosecution witness, but when his own crimes were
discovered three years later, serious doubts were raised over the integrity of
Evans' conviction. Christie himself subsequently admitted killing Beryl Evans,
but not Geraldine. It is now generally accepted that Christie murdered both
Beryl and Geraldine, and that a miscarriage of justice occurred when Timothy
Evans was hanged. Police mishandling of the original enquiry, and their
incompetence in searches at the house allowed Christie to escape detection, and
enabled him to murder four more women.
In
an official inquiry conducted in 1965–6, Mr Justice (Sir Daniel) Brabin
concluded that it was "more probable than not" that Evans killed his
wife but that he did not kill his daughter Geraldine. This finding, challenged
in subsequent legal processes, enabled the Home Secretary to grant Evans a
posthumous pardon for the murder of his daughter in October 1966. The case
contributed to the abolition of capital punishment for murder in the United
Kingdom in 1965.
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| John Christie |
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