Casefile True Crime - Case 139: Beryl & Geraldine Evans (Part 2)

Episode Date: March 21, 2020

[Part 2 of 2] On March 24 1953, a tenant at 10 Rillington Place was renovating their kitchen when they made a shocking discovery. After police arrive at the property, the true extent of the horror becomes clear.  --- Episode narrated by the Anonymous Host Researched and written by Erin Munro Creative Director: Milly Raso For all credits and sources please visit casefilepodcast.com/case-139-beryl-geraldine-evans-part-2

Our episodes deal with serious and often distressing incidents. If you feel at any time you need support, please contact your local crisis centre. For suggested phone numbers for confidential support, please see the show notes for this episode on your app or on our website. Today's episode deals with the crime committed against the child. It won't be suitable for all listeners. At approximately 5pm on Tuesday, March 24, 1953, Beresford Brown rushed out of the ground floor flat at 10 Rillington Place in Notting Hill's Ladbrook Grove neighbourhood to a

payphone outside. He frantically called the police and officers were immediately dispatched to the address. Within minutes, they arrived at the three-storey residential building at the end of the cul-de-sac and raced inside. Police constable Leslie Seisman was one of the first to enter the ground floor flat, finding the derelict residents mostly empty. He made his way into the kitchen, a narrow, ramshackle space cluttered with junk. A section of wallpaper had been torn from a rear wall next to a sink to reveal a small

cupboard-like alcove hidden behind. Constable Seisman peered into the dark, confined space and recoiled in horror. The officers stripped away all of the remaining wallpaper, exposing a small, timber-framed doorway that led into a cramped, brick-enclosed room measuring just 4 feet high and 5 feet 6 inches deep. There were no windows and the flooring consisted of rubble and earth. Tucked inside was the body of a young woman with her bare back facing the opening. She was posed in an upright, kneeling position with her feet folded beneath her and her head

and shoulders hunched forward. One attending officer later recalled, quote, Over the years I have seen some shocking sights, but never one so unnerving as that which greeted ourselves. The deceased woman in the alcove had her wrists bound in front of her with a handkerchief tied in a distinctive reef knot. She was dressed in stockings and suspenders with a black jumper, white jacket and bra pulled up around her neck.

The bra was fixed to a large object wrapped in a blanket that stood in front of the woman and kept her in an upright position. The blanketed object contained another female corpse that was positioned upside down. Her ankles were tied together with a sock and a stocking had been used to secure a pillowcase around her head. She was fully clothed, wearing a dress, petticoat, bra, cardigan and two singlets. A singlet had also been wrapped between her legs like a nappy. Behind her was another blanket, this one concealing the body of a third woman.

Her back was resting on the ground and her legs were stretched vertically against the rear wall. She was wearing a white cotton singlet, cardigan and makeshift nappy. Her ankles were tied together with wire and her torso was smeared with ash and dirt. The naturally cold temperature within the alcove had preserved the victim's remains and it was determined that all three had been sexually assaulted around the time of their death. An autopsy on the woman found sitting upright at the alcove's entrance concluded she had

been killed about a month earlier. The cause of death was a mix of carbon monoxide poisoning and strangulation carried out by a cord with a smooth surface. Scratch marks on her back were consistent with her body having been dragged across the floor. The skin of the second victim was pinkish in colour, indicating she too had experienced gas poisoning. She was also six months pregnant.

The third victim appeared to have been in good health at the time of her death, though her skin also had a pinkish hue and the nails on her hands and feet were poorly maintained. Toxicology reports showed that both women had consumed alcohol on the day they were murdered, which was estimated to have occurred eight to twelve weeks earlier. All three of the women were estimated to have been aged in their twenties. Several loose floorboards were found in the flat's living room and were prized up, exposing a substantial pile of earth and rubble underneath. The debris covered the body of a fourth female victim, wrapped in a flannel blanket with

a pillowcase covering her head. She was dressed in stockings, a floral dress and a silk nightgown. Her cause of death was determined to be strangulation with a ligature, occurring twelve to fifteen weeks earlier. Unlike the women found in the alcove, this victim appeared to be middle aged and bore no signs of sexual assault or alcohol in her system. It had been three years since the bodies of nineteen year old Beryl Evans and her infant daughter Geraldine were found in the backyard wash house of the same property.

Death had been strangled, with Beryl's husband and Geraldine's father, Timothy Evans, ultimately held responsible for the crimes and sentenced to death. Timothy had professed his innocence up until his execution in 1950, maintaining that his downstairs neighbour, John Christie, was his wife and daughter's actual killer. According to neighbours and the building's owner, John Christie moved out of the Rillington Place ground floor flat on Saturday, March 20, 1953, four days before the bodies were found inside. He'd sold all of his household furniture and had arranged for a couple to sublet the

flat, who arrived on the same day that Christie vacated. By coincidence, the landlord visited the property that night and was dismayed to find the unfamiliar couple moving in. Christie hadn't received permission to sublet his home, and the landlord ordered the couple to leave the following morning. Once they were gone, he gave the building's top floor occupant, Berisford Brown, permission to make use of Christie's former residence. Days later, Berisford was performing basic renovations in the kitchen when he uncovered

the hidden alcove. A thorough search of 10 Rillington Place resulted in the discovery of a driver's license in a pile of rubbish in the rear yard, which John Christie and his wife Ethel had exclusive access to. The license was issued to a man named Alexander Baker. Police tracked Alexander down, only to learn that his girlfriend, 27-year-old Hectorina MacLennan had been missing for some time. Originally from the Scottish city of Glasgow, Hectorina was from a large family, with four

brothers and two sisters. In 1948, the MacLennans relocated to London, settling in the inner western area of Kensington. Hectorina's father described her as a happy girl, who was content to spend most evenings at home with her parents, even as a young adult. At the age of 23, she became a single mother to a baby girl. By 1951, she had married a member of the Burmese Air Force, who was stationed in the city of Portsmouth on England's south coast. The couple had a daughter together, but their relationship was cut short when Hectorina's

husband had to return to Burma. In November 1952, her parents returned to Scotland and took Hectorina's daughters with them. Farewelling her children was particularly hard for Hectorina, though she continued to build a life for herself in London, where she eventually commenced a relationship with Alexander Baker. They were eager to live together, but had difficulty finding a home due to their financial struggles. On March 3, 1953, Hectorina was at a cafe when she met the balding middle-aged John

Christie, who informed her that he had a room available to lease. That evening, Hectorina and Alexander visited 10 Rillington Place, with the intention of leasing Christie's spare room. Upon seeing that Hectorina had a boyfriend, Christie appeared troubled, but took them into his home regardless. Inside, it was almost entirely bare, which Christie explained was because he was about to move and had already sent his furniture away. He agreed to let the young couple stay temporarily, but wouldn't permit them to share a bed.

He said that his wife was staying with neighbours and would be upset if she discovered an unmarried couple sleeping together in her residence. Consequently, Hectorina slept on a deck chair while Alexander borrowed Christie's bed, and Christie slept sitting up on a board positioned over a bucket. The couple ended up staying at Christie's flat for three nights. At 9.30 am on Friday, March 6, Christie asked them to leave, and they went to seek work at the Hammersmith Labor Exchange. Hectorina waited outside while Alexander went in.

When he returned, Hectorina said that John Christie had shown up and asked her to revisit his place that afternoon. She planned to do so, telling Alexander she would meet him at a nearby cafe afterwards. Alexander went to the cafe as instructed, but by 5pm, there was no sign of his girlfriend. He went to 10 Rillington Place to find her, but Christie claimed that Hectorina had never arrived. Alexander noticed Christie's flat had a very nasty smell, but thought little of it. Christie had offered to help him look for Hectorina, and the pair had searched together

until 9 o'clock that night. On several occasions over the next few days, Christie turned up at the Hammersmith Labor Exchange while Alexander was there, and had inquired as to whether he had found Hectorina. Alexander didn't report Hectorina's disappearance to the police, as the pair lived a rather transient lifestyle, and he doubted anything serious had happened. However, her unexplained disappearance did raise the concerns of Hectorina's brothers, who filed a missing persons report. Hectorina's fingerprints were compared to those on her police file, positively identifying

her as the woman found at the entrance to the alcove in John Christie's former flat. Police also checked the fingerprints of the other two victims from the alcove against records on their database. They ascertained that the second victim was 25-year-old Rita Nelson, who was born and raised in the Northern Islander city of Belfast. Rita had a difficult life, and upon entering adulthood, found herself in trouble with the police for a range of minor offences. At the age of 21, she spent a brief period of time in a mental health facility, and gave

birth to a son shortly after. She was immensely proud of her child, and was devastated when at the age of two he was taken into care. In October 1952, Rita and her cousin travelled to London hoping to find work, but parted ways shortly after their arrival, and to never see each other again. Rita found a room in a lodging house in the inner west neighborhood of Shepherd's Bush, where she mostly kept to herself. The mother described her as a quiet, serious-minded girl, whose main outside interest was going

to the pitches. Rita worked a variety of jobs, including a hospital orderly, a waitress, and a cleaner, saving her money and sending some home to her parents at Christmas. The last time they heard from her was on Friday, January 16, 1953. The exact circumstances of how Rita Nelson first met John Christie were difficult to determine. She was known to frequent cheap eateries known as transport cafes, and it was believed she may have encountered Christie during a visit to one.

In the first week of January 1953, Rita had been offered a job at a tea shop, but her employment was thrown into jeopardy on January 12 when she discovered she was pregnant. As she didn't have a support network in London, Rita obtained a letter from a medical officer requesting that she be admitted to a home for unmarried women until the baby was born. The last time Rita was seen was on Wednesday, January 14. Six days later, on Tuesday, January 20, Rita's landlord visited her room chasing up a late rent payment and found the letter from the medical officer. Days later, the landlord visited a police station to inform them of Rita's unexplained

disappearance. With the discovery of the bodies at Rillington Place, Rita's sister was summoned by the police and identified the second body in the alcove as her sister. Using fingerprint records, the third victim was identified as 26-year-old Kathleen Maloney. Originally from the port city of Plymouth in southwest England, Kathleen's parents both died in quick succession when she was two years old, and she and her two older sisters were sent to live in a Catholic orphanage. Their aunt and uncle visited regularly, with the letter describing Kathleen as, very wild,

not in a bad way, but full of pranks. Throughout her adolescence, Kathleen was transferred between various orphanages, and by the age of 18, she left the system altogether. She worked as a cleaner and a laundress, and went on to have five children, one of whom was adopted while the other four were sent to live in a children's home. Kathleen lived a transient lifestyle, residing in abandoned buildings and moving about between the cities of London, Southampton and Liverpool. She turned to sex work to support herself, and often fell foul of the law.

By September 1952, she was spending most of her time in London's inner west, and was so impoverished that she occasionally slept in public toilets. In October that year, she and her friend Maureen Briggs visited a pub in the neighbourhood of Paddington. There, they sighted a spectacled man in his 50s, standing at the bar with a raincoat over his arm. Maureen described the encounter, quote, He had a thinnish lips, and he was sort of licking his lips when he was talking.

He got talking to me. He asked me if I wanted to earn myself some money, and I said I would. He asked me if I ever had any photographs done in the nude. He said he did that, and he knew a place where he could take me to do some. The man introduced himself as John Christie, and despite his offer to Maureen, nothing eventuated. In early December, the two women bumped into Christie again, and agreed to accompany him to a room that had been set up as a studio.

Maureen lay naked on a bed, while Christie took photographs of her, and Kathleen watched. Christie then undressed, and asked Kathleen to photograph him and Maureen together. No sex was involved, and Christie paid each woman a pound for the work. Some time later, Kathleen struck up a conversation with the public bathroom attendant, saying she had met a man named Mr. Christie whom she felt sorry for because his wife had died. She said that Christie had promised to give her some of his late wife's clothes, but when she visited to collect them, Christie's landlord threw her out. She also told a postman that she had met a man who offered her housing in Ludbroke Grove.

On the evening of Saturday, January 10, Kathleen and Maureen were drinking at a pub when John Christie arrived. He bought them drinks before leaving with a heavily intoxicated Kathleen between 9 and 10 p.m. The pair were last seen crossing the road to a bus stop. John Reginald Christie was born in the northern county of Yorkshire. The fourth of six children to old-fashioned parents, he was his mother's favourite, but had a difficult relationship with his stern father.

Christie was a quiet, nervous child with few friends, and his peers viewed him as odd. Known to friends and family as Reggie, he enlisted in the army as a teenager and served as an infantryman during the First World War. While fighting in France, he was injured in a gas attack and spent a month recovering in hospital. Christie later claimed that the incident left him blind for six months and unable to speak for three and a half years. There were no medical documents to verify this, yet he was known to speak at a particularly

low volume. After the war ended, he returned to Yorkshire and in May 1920, married Ethel Waddington. Over the following decade, Christie committed a series of crimes, including larceny and assault, all of which resulted in brief stints in prison. The assault, which involved Christie striking a woman in the head with a cricket bat, was described by the trial judge as a murderous attack. Christie was released after serving six months hard labour, at which point he and Ethel had been separated for a decade.

The pair reconciled, though their relationship endured another setback when Ethel suffered a miscarriage. In 1938, they moved into 10 Rillington Place, residing in the top floor flat before taking the ground floor residence at the end of that year. Following the outbreak of World War II, Christie applied to become a war reserve constable. Overwhelmed by the influx of recruits, authorities failed to check his criminal record and accepted his application. He was assigned to the Harrow Road police station, where he took a great joy in overzealousy

patrolling the neighbourhood. His neighbours nicknamed him the Himmler of Rillington Place, after Heinrich Himmler, the commander of Nazi Germany's paramilitary organisation, who also looked somewhat like Christie. At the end of 1943, Christie resigned from the role and went to work for a transistor radio manufacturer. When the bodies were discovered in the Christie's former flat, neighbours informed police that they hadn't seen Ethel for several months.

The last confirmed sighting of her was on December 12, 1952, when she had dropped some washing off at a laundromat in Kensington. In the weeks that followed, John Christie had given varying stories to explain his wife's whereabouts. He told one neighbour that she was visiting relatives in the northern city of Sheffield, while telling another she had gone to Birmingham to care for her sister, who was recovering from surgery. Ethel sent her family gifts every Christmas, but in the one just gone, they had received

a card from her husband instead. In it, John Christie explained that Ethel was suffering from rheumatism in her fingers and was unable to write, but assured that he was taking good care of her and that the doctor had promised she would recover within a few days. Across the top of the card, in capital letters, he scrawled. Don't worry, she is okay. By this stage, police suspected that the older female found under the floorboards in the Christie's former flat was Ethel.

Her brother was summoned to formally identify the body and confirmed it to be his sister. In an effort to locate John Christie, police issued a press release alerting the public to keep an eye out for him. They provided photographs and described him as, quote, aged 55, height 5 feet 9 inches, slim build, dark hair thin on top, clean shaven, shallow complexion, long nose, wearing horn-rimmed spectacles, dentures top and bottom, walks with military bearing, wearing a dark blue herringbone suit, brown leather shoes, fawn-belted raincoat, and a brown Trilby hat.

Meanwhile, the thorough search of 10 Rillington Place turned up little other than a suitcase containing Christie's clothing, a man's tire tied with a reef knot, and a bottle of potassium cyanide. On Friday, March 27, three days after the victims were discovered, investigators turned their attention to the backyard. It measured just 16 feet by 14 feet and contained nothing more than some scattered shrubs and a few bare trees. There, they discovered a portion of a broken garden trellis had been propped up using a

human femur bone. It appeared to have been there for some time, indicating the bone may have gone unnoticed by the investigators who found the bodies of Beryl and Geraldine Evans in the outdoor wash house three years earlier. The sparse garden was excavated, and buried approximately one foot beneath the yellow forcythia bush was a metal rubbish bin containing charred bone fragments. Another foot deeper, investigators uncovered what appeared to be human skeletal remains. The bones were transferred to the mortuary and reconstructed into two near-complete female

skeletons, with one missing at skull and a femur. One victim was estimated to be aged between 20 and 30, and the other believed to be slightly older. Other items recovered from Christie's garden included a square glass jar with rubber tubing attached, scraps of material, a portion of a newspaper dated July 19, 1943, and a pastel's tin that contained pubic hair from four different women. It was believed that one of the samples belonged to Ethel, and two might have come from the unidentified victims in the garden, but none were matched to Hectorina, Rita, or Kathleen.

It appeared Christie kept the hairs as a morbid souvenir, which suggested he was far more prolific than what was already known. However, police also acknowledged he could have obtained the hair from consenting sex workers. The discovery that a seemingly ordinary middle-aged Londoner had been murdering women and storing their bodies in his home became a major international news story. The fact that two of Christie's known victims had a history of sex work prompted one publication to speculate that, quote, Christie might have been driven by some mad urge to kill bad girls,

much like that which inspired Jack the Ripper to murder prostitutes in London's gaslit days. One newspaper even dubbed him the Ripper of Rillington Place. Ten Rillington Place became a macabre tourist attraction, with spectators gathering outside each day to watch while the police worked. It impacted the neighborhood, with one neighbor telling a reporter, It's terrible. At work they shout and make jokes just because I live in the street. As soon as I arrive, they ask what the score is.

Newspaper headlines describe the manhunt for John Christie as a race against time and asked, When will the killer strike again? Christie's older sister issued a public appeal for her brother to turn himself in, saying, It will be the best thing for you. It emerged that on Friday, March 20, after Christie had vacated his flat, he took his pet dog to a veterinarian to be euthanized. Afterwards, he checked into a low-budget hostel called Routon House in North London's Kings Cross District.

He registered under his own name and paid for seven nights in advance. When speaking to a fellow guest, Christie explained he was staying in Routon House due to domestic trouble, and had seemed on edge. When news broke about the bodies found in his former residence, Christie checked out of Routon House despite having paid for two more nights. Two days later, on Friday, March 27, police arrived at the hostel and recovered a suitcase he had left behind. Alleged sightings of Christie started coming in from across London and even overseas, with

reports placing him in cafes, on buses, or wandering the streets. One individual claimed to have seen Christie sleeping in a van in Notting Hill, but by the time police arrived, the vehicle was empty. It didn't take long for the media to connect Christie's crimes with the murder of Beryl and Geraldine Evans at the same address years earlier. Reports about the case referenced Timothy Evans' execution for the crimes and the fact that Christie had testified at his trial, leading the public to question whether a miscarriage of justice had occurred.

Although Christie was never treated as a genuine suspect in the double homicide, in hindsight, his behavior throughout the investigation into the murders of Beryl and Geraldine raised concerns. Not only had he given differing accounts regarding the pair's final movements, he had also been suspiciously dismissive when loved ones tried to ascertain their whereabouts. When implicated in the crimes, Christie highlighted Timothy and Beryl's unstable relationship and focused on establishing Timothy as an aggressive husband who had previously threatened to kill Beryl.

Furthermore, he had told laborers working on the property to leave their surplus piles of timber so that he could, quote, make use of them. A short time later, Beryl and Geraldine were found in the backyard wash house, hidden behind the timber. Both had been strangled in a similar manner to the other victims found within Christie's flat. Timothy had accused Christie of killing Beryl after performing a botched abortion, yet Dr Robert Tier, who carried out Beryl's autopsy, reported that her body showed no signs of

having undergone such a procedure. A bruise inside her vagina indicated she may have attempted to induce a miscarriage, though Dr Tier noted that it could have been caused by an attempted rape post-mortem. He considered taking a swab of her vagina, but his colleagues thought it unnecessary. It was reported that while on the run, Christie approached a 24-year-old pregnant woman named Margaret Wilson in a cafe. He claimed to have surgical knowledge and could abort her pregnancy if she wanted to, quote, get rid of it.

But Margaret rejected his offer. When that reader Nelson was also pregnant at the time of her murder, it was speculated that Christie was offering to perform abortions in order to lure victims to his flat. Whatever his intentions, it was clear that he targeted vulnerable and destitute women. As the public speculated whether Timothy Evans had been telling the truth, police issued a press release asserting that there was no connection between his crimes and those attributed to Christie. At 9.10 on the morning of Tuesday, March 31, exactly one week after the six bodies were

discovered in 10 Rillington Place, police constable Thomas Ledger was on patrol near Putney Bridge, south of the River Tams that cuts through London. An unkempt gaunt man was leaning on the wall framing the river and peering into the water. He appeared as though he'd been hit by hard times, prompting constable Ledger to call out. What are you doing, looking for work? The man replied, yes, but my unemployment cards haven't come through yet. He introduced himself as John Waddington, telling the officer that he was from the

western-born gardens area in Paddington. When constable Ledger asked Waddington to remove his hat, he immediately recognized the man who was promptly taken into custody. Upon arriving at Putney police station, Waddington threw his identification card at the arresting officer and verbally confirmed that he was wanted murderer John Christie. He had his marriage certificate and other personal papers on him and a newspaper clipping about Timothy Evans. When the police informed Christie that his wife Ethel had been murdered, he burst into

tears and confessed to the killing. Christie claimed that Ethel had been, quote, suffering a great deal from persecution and assaults at the hands of their fellow Rillington Place tenants. She had undergone medical treatment to settle her nerves. However, by December 1952, she had become afraid of her neighbors and was too scared to use communal areas of the property when others were present. On Sunday, December 14, Christie said he awoke to Ethel having a seizure and choking. Her face turned blue and he attempted to help her, but was unsuccessful.

Christie then noticed his phenobarbital tablets next to the bed, a medication used to treat epilepsy, insomnia, and anxiety. The bottle originally contained 25 pills, but there were only two left, leading him to conclude that Ethel must have overdosed on them. After admitting to killing Ethel, Christie confessed to slaying the three other women found in the alcove of his former kitchen, but asserted he had acted in self-defense. In regards to Kathleen Maloney, Christie said she had drunkenly propositioned him on the street one evening, and when he turned her down, she followed him home.

Inside the flat, Kathleen attempted to hit him with a frying pan, but Christie fought back, causing Kathleen to fall into a deck chair that had a long piece of cord hanging from it. Christie stated, I don't remember what happened, but I must have gone haywire. The next thing I remember, she was lying still in the chair with a rope around her neck. The kitchen alcove was typically covered by a cupboard, but he pushed it aside to stash Kathleen's body inside.

As for the murder of Rita Nelson, Christie claimed that she and another young woman had approached him while he was eating in a nodding hill cafe. They told him they were looking for accommodation, and as he was considering moving out of his flat at the time, he invited them over to see his place that evening. Only Rita showed up, and she offered to have sex with Christie if he would convince the landlord to let her have the flat. Christie refused, prompting Rita to threaten and fight him. Christie couldn't remember much after that, except that he ultimately killed her, and

quote, must have put her in the alcove straight away. As for Hectorina McClannan, Christie said that she wanted to stay at his flat without her boyfriend, Alexander. Christie was opposed to this idea and tried to push Hectorina out of his home, but she fought back. Although he wasn't sure how, her clothes wrapped around her neck in the ensuing struggle, and she had died.

John Christie was taken to nodding hill police station to be formally charged with the murder of his wife Ethel. Outside of his capture spread quickly, drawing a large crowd to gather outside the police station to catch a glimpse of him. Among the onlookers was Timothy Evans' oldest sister, Eileen, who watched in silence as Christie was led into the building. The following morning, Wednesday, April 1, a downcast Christie made his first appearance in court before he was taken to Brixton Prison on remand.

On his admission, consulting doctors described him as somewhat emotional, tremulous and tearful. Public interest in the case was strong, and two tabloid newspapers started a bidding war over the rights to Christie's story. He negotiated a deal with Weekend Paper the Sunday Pictorial, giving them an exclusive in exchange for payment of his legal fees. He spent his time in prison scribbling notes about his life to pass to the reporters. In one anecdote, Christie recalled that at age 11 he viewed his grandfather's deceased body prior to its burial.

Having been afraid of his grandfather, seeing his lifeless body gave Christie a sense of power. After this, he became somewhat fascinated by death. In his teens, Christie earned the nicknames No Dick Reggie and Can't Do It Christie after failing to perform during a sexual encounter with a girl. The experience left him with a fear of, quote, appearing ridiculous as a lover and led him to seek out sex workers. When he married Ethel at the age of 22, the two were rarely sexually intimate.

Over the following months, John Christie was interviewed numerous times by doctors and psychiatrists to determine the legitimacy of his confessions. The prison's principal medical officer later said Christie was, quote, one of the very few murderers I have really disliked on site, while a clinical psychiatrist described him as, insignificant and unattractive, full of snivelling hypocrisy. Christie was unanimously declared sane, with an above-average intelligence and acute anxiety centering on sexual fears. Despite frequenting them himself, Christie told one psychiatrist that he was horrified

by pubs and was equally adverse to masturbation. When a psychiatrist replied that he saw no problem with either, Christie said that was very regrettable. He used the same phrase when talking about the murders, often referring to them as, these regrettable happenings. When faced with the results from Kathleen, Rita and Hectorina's autopsies, all of which contradicted his assertions that the murders were carried out in self-defense, and in the case of Ethel mercifully, Christie changed his story.

He admitted that he had gassed some of his victims using a device made from a square glass jar that had a metal screw-top lid with two holes in it, one of which held a rubber tube. Inside was a concoction made from Friar's Balsam, a pungent solution often inhaled as a remedy for asthma, colds and bronchitis. Several of his victims were made to inhale the mixture through the rubber tube, and as they did so, Christie then inserted a second tube into the jar which was connected to a gas point.

He then removed a bulldog clip he had fastened to the tube to allow gas to flow into the jar. In other instances, he leaked the gas from the tube directly into the room. At the time, London homes were fitted with coal gas which contained 15% carbon monoxide. This caused the victim to quickly lose consciousness, at which point Christie would strangle them to death using an 18-inch rope. In his writings, Christie painted himself as a merciful, considerate killer, stating, In all of the cases, my intention was to avoid hurting them at all.

They were rendered semi-conscious first, and that in each case would eliminate the possibility of hurting them. In contrast, he allegedly boasted about his crimes to fellow inmates and told them that his goal was to kill 12 women. He claimed that women had always pursued him because they were attracted to his gentlemanly upbringing, and remarked, You can't help feeling that women who give you the come-on wouldn't be so smug if helpless or dead. As to whether he had more victims, Christie wrote to the press, I have tried to think

hard about whether there were other bodies, but seem to think it is possible. Those pubic hairs in the tin lead me to think that, but I have no clear recollection. In mid-April, Christie was officially charged with the murders of Kathleen Maloney, Rita Nelson and Hectorina McClannan. Psychiatrist Dr. Jack Hobson noted that Christie appeared to enjoy attention and often tried to prolong their conversations by making a provocative remark towards the end of a session. On Thursday, April 23, as their meeting drew to an end, Christie raised the topic of the murder of Beryl Evans, stating, There is something about Mrs. Evans, which I can't quite remember.

Four days after he brought up Beryl Evans to Dr. Hobson, John Christie once again spoke of his former neighbor. This time he elaborated on her death, claiming that he had found Beryl in her home attempting to gas herself, and she offered to have sex with him if he would assist her suicide. After the gas had rendered her unconscious, Christie said he then raped and strangled her. Dr. Hobson was concerned that Christie was attempting to claim responsibility for a higher number of murders as part of a defense strategy to be declared legally insane.

Yet, he ultimately believed his story about Beryl. Quote, Christie was a pathological liar and had unparalleled facility for self-deception. It was always difficult to sort out facts from fantasy in the history he gave. I do feel, however, that in his account to me he was telling the truth to the best of his ability, and that the whole interview was one of the most reliable I had with him. He told me the story spontaneously, with very little prompting, factually, coolly, and without histrionics. On Monday, May 18, after obtaining permission to do so, the police exhumed the bodies of

Beryl and Geraldine Evans from their shared grave in London's Gunnersbury Cemetery. A trio of pathologists from Britain's home office then reexamined the bodies, including Dr Donald Tear, who had performed the pair's initial postmortems. They inspected the bodies for any areas that were pink in tone, as this would suggest carbon monoxide poisoning. Beryl's thighs and teeth displayed some patches of pink, but disfaded when her corpse was exposed to air. This indicated the discoloration wasn't caused by carbon monoxide, but by a natural decomposition

phenomenon known as postmortem pink. The pathologists determined that Beryl hadn't been gassed as Christie asserted, with one concluding, I am obliged to say that exhumation proved unrewarding. On Friday, June 5, investigators were summoned to Brixton Prison to meet with John Christie, who offered an explanation regarding the two skeletons buried in his backyard. Six years before he claimed to have killed Beryl Evans during his time working as a war reserve constable, Christie met 21-year-old Ruth first, a Jewish student nurse from the

Austrian capital of Vienna. In 1939, Ruth's parents and brother had fled to New York to escape the Nazis, but Ruth had been reluctant to leave her homeland. She decided to join her family at the last minute, but had left it too late to obtain a United States visa. Instead, she relocated to London and kept in contact with her family via mail. In early 1940, Ruth spent six months in an internment camp for refugees before returning to London.

She gained employment in a munitions factory, but her wages were low, and it's believed that she took up sex work to supplement her income. By September 1943, Ruth had been reported missing by her landlord and an organisation she was involved in that assisted Jewish refugees. The last her family had heard from her was three months prior, on May 25. As Ruth was a foreigner with no close friends or family nearby, her disappearance garnered little attention. Christie claimed that Ruth had fallen madly in love with him, although investigators believed

it was more likely that he had paid her for sex. He alleged that on Tuesday, August 24, 1943, while Ethel was away visiting family, Ruth visited his flat to proposition him. They had sex, during which Christie strangled Ruth with a rope. Shortly after, he received a telegram informing him that Ethel was coming home earlier than expected, so he quickly stashed Ruth's body and clothing underneath the living room floorboards. Ethel returned, and when she went to work the next morning, Christie carried Ruth's body to the outdoor wash house and then dug a hole in the yard.

That night, he snuck outside and buried Ruth's body and belongings. Months later, he was working in the garden when he accidentally dug up Ruth's skull, so he placed it into a metal bin and reburied it. While working at the Transistor Radio Factory in the early 1940s, Christie struck up a friendship with fellow employee, 32-year-old Muriel Eady, who was living with her aunt in the southwest London district of Putney. Christie confessed that shortly after meeting Muriel, he had started carefully plotting her murder.

He and Ethel hosted Muriel and her boyfriend at their flat on multiple occasions, and after discovering that Muriel suffered from chronic bronchitis, Christie invited her to come over to make use of a device he claimed could cure her affliction. On the afternoon of Saturday, October 7, 1944, while Ethel was once again away visiting family, Muriel visited 10 Rillington Place to accept Christie's offer. Christie made Muriel a cup of tea and handed her his homemade jar device that was covertly connected to his property's internal gas line. She quickly lost consciousness, and Christie carried her into his bedroom, where he raped

and strangled her. He stored her body in the wash house before burying it in the backyard under the cover of darkness. When Muriel failed to return home that night, her loved ones contacted the police. There were many disappearances around that time due to the war, and because there was no evidence of foul play, local law enforcement didn't seem overly concerned. While working in the garden several years later, Christie said he inadvertently uncovered Muriel's femur bone and used it to hold up a trellis.

This confirmed that the femur had been visible at the time the murders of Beryl and Geraldine Evans were being investigated, but had gone unnoticed. Christie also claimed that his dog once dug up Muriel's skull, so he had smuggled it under his coat and disposed of it through the window of a nearby abandoned house that had been bombed during the war. Children playing in the area later found the skull and handed it in to the police, but they never ascertained its identity. Three days after Christie provided these statements, he addressed the murder of Beryl Evans.

He claimed that Beryl had confided that her husband Timothy was beating her and she intended to take her own life. One morning in early November 1949, Christie went upstairs to the Evans's flat and found Beryl lying on a quilt in front of the kitchen fireplace. Using a rubber tube attached to a tap, she was attempting to gas herself. Christie revived Beryl and promised not to tell anyone what had happened. Two days later, Christie went to check on Beryl. She said she was determined to end her life and offered to sleep with him in exchange for

his help in doing so. They attempted to have sex, but Christie was suffering from back pain and inflammation of the small intestine and was unable to continue. Instead, he turned the gas tap on and waited until Beryl was almost unconscious before strangling her with the stocking. Christie's confession contradicted Beryl's autopsy, which showed she had sustained a number of violent injuries, including bruises to her face. When Timothy Evans returned home the evening of Beryl's death and learned of her fate,

Christie warned that as her husband, he would be a probable suspect. Panicked, Timothy concurred and said that he would dispose of Beryl's body using his work van. Christie told investigators that he was under the impression Timothy had followed through with this plan, and also said that he had no idea what had happened to baby Geraldine. Despite these confessions, no charges were placed against Christie for the murders of Ruth Burst, Muriel Leedy, or Beryl Evans. British law at the time meant that although Christie had been charged with four murders,

those of Ethel Christie, Hectorina McLennan, Kathleen Maloney, and Rita Nelson, he could only be prosecuted for one. The crown settled on trialling him for Ethel's murder, as they believed Peirce was the strongest case against him. Although Christie had already confessed to the crime, he pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. His trial commenced at London's Old Bailey Court on Monday, June 22, 1953. It was the same venue where Timothy Evans had faced trial in 1950.

Unlike Timothy's case, Christie's generated a huge amount of media attention. Thirty-eight newspapers, including eleven international publications, sent journalists to cover the trial. Members of the public, as well as some celebrities, took up seats in the courtroom's public gallery to observe proceedings. In his opening address, the director of public prosecutions, Sir Lionel Heald, acknowledged that while almost everyone in the court would have read something in the papers about the discoveries at 10 Rillington Place, he urged the jury to forget these details.

Presenting his case that John Christie had murdered Ethel on or around Sunday, December 14, 1952, Heald provided a brief rundown of the circumstances surrounding Ethel's death. He established the findings from her autopsy, her last known movements, and Christie's inconsistent stories to family and neighbors explaining her whereabouts. Heald then reminded the jury that the prosecution was only required to prove Christie's intent, not his motive. A number of witnesses were called to testify. Among them was the laundromat employee who had last seen Ethel when she dropped off some

washing on December 12, 1952. Witnesses of Ethel's family told the court of receiving her annual Christmas card, which had been penned by her husband that year. The same furniture dealer who had bought Timothy Evans' furniture in 1949 also testified that he had bought some furniture from Christie in early January of 1953. Heald addressed the murders of Beryl and Geraldine Evans, but downplayed the possibility that Christie was responsible for these deaths. Timothy Evans had claimed that Beryl died after Christie performed a botched abortion

on her, but there were no injuries present to support this theory, nor had Christie confessed to this detail. However, Sir Heald did highlight the fact that while Timothy was on trial, Christie had already claimed the lives of Ruth First and Muriel Leedy. On the stand, he asked the police witness, when the trial of Timothy Evans was going on in this very court, there were lying, in all probability, in the garden of 10 Rillington Place, two skeletons. The officer replied, probably.

John Christie's defense lawyer, Derek Curtis Bennett, argued that Christie's behavior indicated he wasn't sane at the time of the murders. This was supposedly evident by Christie's decision to allow new tenants to move into his flat, despite knowing there were four bodies hidden inside. According to Curtis Bennett, this showed he wasn't aware that his actions were wrong. The defense also embraced the theory that Christie was responsible for killing Beryl and Geraldine Evans, as they believed a higher victim count would support their assertion that Christie was insane.

Curtis Bennett pointed out that it would be an unlikely coincidence to have, quote, two stranglers in this tiny house, where there is not enough room to swing a cat in the kitchen. Christie was called as a witness for the defense, and on the stand, his attorney asked him to describe each of the murders he had committed over the past decade in chronological order. Christie provided a vague recollection, and claimed several times that he couldn't recall certain details. When asked why he had tried to conceal Ethel's murder, Christie replied that he had been in denial about her death.

As for the murders of Hectorina, Rita and Kathleen, Christie maintained that he couldn't recall many details about the crimes, but didn't think he was doing anything wrong at the time. Once again, Christie claimed responsibility for the murder of Beryl Evans, repeating the confession he had given the police two weeks earlier, though he denied having anything to do with the death of baby Geraldine. Christie claimed that at one stage he had forgotten about the Evans' case altogether. This prompted the judge to interject by asking, quote, You say that you killed Mrs Evans.

You had discussed with her husband about disposing of her body and the danger he stood in. He was charged with her murder and the murder of the little child. You gave evidence in a murder trial in this court. Do you mean that you had forgotten all that? Christie replied, Yes sir, it had gone clean out of my mind. Prosecutor Heald pointed out that at Timothy Evans' trial Christie had denied killing Beryl. As he was now admitting to the crime, Heald asked, How do you expect the jury to believe you?

To which Christie remained silent. The defense called upon psychiatrist Dr Jack Hobson, who had interviewed Christie on multiple occasions during his time on Remand. It was his opinion that Christie was suffering from a severe case of hysteria, which in the 1950s was believed to be a mental disorder that caused anxiety, nervousness and hallucinations. Dr Hobson supported the defense's argument that Christie hadn't known he was doing anything wrong and believed he may have forgotten many of his actions as a result of his disorder. He also acknowledged that Christie was a frequent liar, who took more offense from accusations

that he frequented pubs than the suggestion he was a murderer. In response to Dr Hobson's assertions, the prosecution called two psychiatrists to the stand who had also interviewed Christie. One argued that his so-called lapses in memory were more likely an attempt to minimize his criminal actions, while the other believed Christie wasn't mentally ill, but that, quote, His present reaction, abnormal as it may seem, is usual in the case of a murderer. The absence of shame and remorse at the crime. This psychiatrist theorized that Christie's crimes stemmed from the shame of being impotent,

which led him to prefer raping unconscious victims. The trial ran for three days, and on Thursday, June 25, 1953, both sides presented their closing arguments. The defense emphasized that the killings were clearly committed by an insane man, while the prosecution pointed out that sexual perversion is not necessarily insanity. At the time, the mandatory sentence for murder was the death penalty. The jury deliberated for 80 minutes before returning to declare John Christie guilty of the murder of his wife Ethel.

When asked whether he had anything to say before the required judgment of death was passed, Christie silently shook his head. He was then transferred to Pentonville Prison, the same facility where Timothy Evans had been incarcerated following his own murder conviction. Upon his arrival, some of the other prisoners booed and yelled out foul names, prompting Christie to remark to his escorting officers, quote, how disgusting some people are. He was assigned to Timothy Evans' former cell to await his death sentence. Christie's confessions relating to Beryl Evans during his trial provoked renewed questions

about whether Timothy Evans could have been innocent of her murder. On July 2, one week after Christie's conviction, he received a letter from Timothy's mother, Thomasina Probert, urging him to tell the complete truth. Thomasina wrote, It may save your soul from hell, and it will give me the peace of mind I have not had for three years past. Christie, whose execution was scheduled to take place in 13 days, refused to provide any further information. Nevertheless, the possibility that a miscarriage of justice had occurred gained momentum.

Newspaper editors, members of parliament, and a penal reform organization called for an inquiry into the murders of Beryl and Geraldine Evans. On Monday, July 6, it was announced that a private inquiry would be conducted by judicial officer John Scott Henderson. The findings would be made public on Monday, July 13, two days before Christie's execution. This gave Scott Henderson just one week to read and analyze all of the evidence from both criminal cases. He interviewed 23 relevant individuals over two days, including John Christie himself.

When asked whether he was responsible for the double homicide, Christie replied, Well, I cannot say whether I was or not. An Anglican chaplain told Scott Henderson that Christie had told him that he had nothing to do with the two deaths, but had confessed as he thought it was necessary to implicate himself in more murders because, quote, the more the merrier. A lawyer retained by Thomasina Probert submitted various questions to be posed to Christie during the inquiry. She sought clarification about the abortion story, the tie used to strangle Geraldine,

and to Joan Vincent's admission that she felt someone press against the door to prevent her from entering the Evans's flat on the day of Beryl's murder. Scott Henderson deemed these queries irrelevant and dismissed them. On Monday, July 13, the inquiry's findings were delivered, with Scott Henderson concluding that John Christie was lying when he confessed to Beryl's murder in a bid to support his insanity plea. Scott Henderson felt that Timothy Evans had given details in his fourth and final confession that only the killer could have known, and therefore concluded that Timothy was responsible

for the murders of Beryl and Geraldine. He referred to the newspaper clipping found in Timothy's flat that detailed an infamous murder in which the victim had been wrapped in a bundle, finding it significant that Beryl's body was bound in a similar manner. Rather than settle the matter of who was responsible, Scott Henderson's inquiry prompted even more public debate. Critics argued that the inquiry primarily focused on details that indicated Timothy Evans' guilt, while ignoring potentially exonerating information.

For example, Timothy was barely literate, making it unlikely that he ever read the incriminating newspaper article found in his flat. Additionally, Timothy had been fed information prior to his confessions, including how and where the bodies of his wife and daughter were found. Scott Henderson also failed to investigate the pathologist report that stated Beryl's killer might have raped her following her death. Meanwhile, preparation for John Christie's execution went ahead as planned. His final visitor, an acquaintance he had fought alongside during World War I, asked Christie

whether he had killed Geraldine Evans. Christie replied, I don't know, I can't remember, before looking slyly and blinking deliberately. His visitor interpreted this as a confession. On the morning of Wednesday, July 15, 1953, the same executioner who had hanged Timothy Evans fetched Christie from his cell and restrained his arms. When Christie complained that he's nose itched, the executioner replied, It won't bother you for long.

He was hanged at 9am, becoming the last serial killer to be executed in England. Six minutes later, a notice of Christie's death was posted on the prison gates, with several hundred people gathering to laugh and jeer at the announcement. An increasing number of high-profile individuals continued to campaign on behalf of the late Timothy Evans, and in October 1953, John Scott Henderson's inquiry was openly critiqued in Parliament. Two years later, in 1955, four editors from several prominent English newspapers formed a delegation to petition the Home Secretary for a new inquiry.

That same year, Barrister Michael Lettos released a book titled The Man on Your Conscience, in which he asserted that Timothy had been wrongfully executed. The Commissioner of London's Metropolitan Police shared his belief that the inquiry had proved Timothy's guilt, and stated, It is still safe to say that the risk of an innocent man being executed is so remote that it can be disregarded. In 1961, another book supporting Timothy's innocence was published by Scottish journalist and author Ludovic Kennedy.

Titled Ten Rillington Place, it dissected Scott Henderson's inquiry to reveal its errors and falsehoods, and declared that Timothy's second confession, in which he claimed John Christie offered to perform an abortion for Beryl, as the truth. Investigators had dismissed this story because Beryl's body showed no signs of having undergone such a procedure, but Kennedy theorised Christie offered the abortion as a ruse to be alone with Beryl so that he could rape her. To explain her facial injuries, Kennedy speculated that Christie had attacked Beryl after she fought off his attempts to gas her, before proceeding to sexually assault and strangle

her. Following this, Christie likely told Timothy that Beryl died during the abortion, and then forced Timothy to help hide her remains by convincing him that, as her husband, he would be the one held responsible. She believed Timothy was unaware of Geraldine's fate, and fully accepted Christie's story that he had placed her into someone else's care. After learning of Geraldine's death, Timothy had likely deduced she had been strangled because he saw the knotted tie lying on top of her clothes.

Kennedy also speculated that Christie went to great lengths to pin the murder on his neighbour, including planting the suspicious newspaper clippings in Timothy's apartment, and compelling Ethel to support his liars to authorities. Kennedy described Timothy Evans as a simple man of low intelligence who was easily manipulated. Timothy had an IQ of 70, whereas Christie was of above-average intelligence, with an IQ of 128. Christie also pointed out that Timothy's dictated confessions contained words such as waltz and incurring, which were unlikely to have been used by someone of his limited

education. To Kennedy, it appeared the police had guided Timothy during his lengthy late-night interrogations. This was further supported by the amount of time that took Timothy to provide each statement. His second statement, which implicated John Christie, was just shy of 1,800 words and took him two hours and 40 minutes to articulate. In contrast, his final confession, in which he claimed to have strangled a barrel in a fit of rage, neared 2,000 words and only took him one hour and 15 minutes to detail. The time discrepancy suggested that he might have been prompted along by interviewing officers

to hasten the process of incriminating himself. Tan Rillington Place became one of the most influential texts relating to the case, and Kennedy was considered something of a spokesperson for Timothy's innocence campaign. Four years after the book's publication in 1965, Kennedy teamed up with fellow campaigner and newspaper editor Harold Evans to form the Timothy Evans Committee. Within four months, the committee received 109 signatures from members of parliament in support of a new inquiry into the deaths of Beryl and Geraldine. When the Home Secretary announced that a second inquiry would be going ahead, many welcomed

the news. One reporter stated, The ghost of Timothy Evans has haunted the people of Britain. However, the police who handled the original investigation were displeased, as was Beryl's brother, Basil. Timothy had apologised to Basil during his trial, which Basil took as a sign of his guilt. The second inquiry took place towards the end of 1965 and was helmed by High Court Judge Sir Daniel Braben.

His findings were released in October the following year, and concluded that Timothy Evans had likely killed Beryl after an argument about money. He then either sought John Christie's assistance in moving her body, or Christie had overheard the killing and agreed to help out of fear the police would come to the property and discover the remains of Ruth First and Muriel Leedy buried in the garden. Braben believed that the two men had initially planned to use Timothy's work van to dispose of Beryl's body elsewhere, but this was foiled when Timothy lost his job. Braben stated,

I find the evidence in respect to the death of Geraldine more perplexing. I do not believe that he who killed Beryl Evans must have necessarily killed Geraldine. They were separate killings, done I think for different reasons. I think it was more probable than not that John Christie did it. It was a killing in cold blood that Christie would be more likely to do. Braben admitted that it was difficult to know the truth as both of the convicted men were liars. The findings were once again met with skepticism, although they enabled Timothy to be posthumously pardoned as he had only ever been convicted of Geraldine's murder.

On Tuesday October 18 1966, 16 years after his execution, Queen Elizabeth II signed a free pardon for Timothy Evans, officially clearing him of his daughter's murder. The Evans case was often used as an example of why the death penalty should be abolished, and it galvanized a number of British politicians to propose a bill titled The Abolition of Death Penalty Act. Instead of execution, the act called for individuals convicted of murder to be given a mandatory life sentence. It was passed on November 8 1965 and made permanent in 1969. After Timothy was pardoned, his family requested that his body be exhumed from the unmarked grave

at Pentonville Prison for reburial in Greenford Park Cemetery, west of London. Permission was granted and the re-interment was scheduled to take place at 3.30 pm on Wednesday November 10 1966, followed by a private memorial service. News of the ceremony was leaked to the press, prompting a slew of journalists, photographers and television crews to gather at Greenford Park Cemetery. A decoy van was dispatched from Pentonville Prison to distract them, while Timothy's family and lawyers made alternative plans. They covertly travelled to St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Cemetery in east London,

where the actual service and burial took place. When the press realized they had been tricked, they harassed Timothy's mother by calling her into the early hours of the morning. Over the years, it became widely accepted that John Christie was responsible for the murders of Beryl and Geraldine Evans, yet some still theorized that two killers were coincidentally living under the same roof. Several authors have penned books arguing that Timothy Evans was telling the truth when he admitted to killing his wife and daughter, as evident in his confessions, behaviour following the murders, reputation of lying and history of domestic violence.

Those convinced of Timothy's guilt also note that John Christie preferred victims whose disappearances wouldn't be immediately noticed or actively investigated, as opposed to someone with a close support network like Beryl. Furthermore, Beryl's facial injuries were inconsistent with Christie's other known attacks, and she didn't present the same signs of gas poisoning as several of his other victims. There were also several flaws in Christie's confessions that didn't align with the known facts of the Evans case. Advocates for Timothy's guilt have also drawn attention to reports that he associated with Donald Hume while in prison. The young man arrested for the murder featured

in the newspaper clippings recovered from the Evans' flat. Hume claimed that Timothy requested his assistance in sorting out a defense story, and Hume had encouraged him to, quote, blame everyone but yourself. Hume also alleged that Timothy insisted John Christie had murdered Beryl, but admitted to killing Geraldine because she wouldn't stop crying. However, when Timothy described his prison experience prior to his execution, he commented, There are 18 of us here, but you have to watch Donald Hume. In January 2003, more than five decades after Timothy's death, an independent assessor for Britain's home office, Lord Daniel Brennan, revisited the infamous case. He decreed that

given John Christie had confessed to killing Beryl Evans, the findings from the second inquiry concluding Timothy was the killer should be rejected. Brennan believed there was no evidence implicating Timothy in the double homicide and declared. The conviction and execution of Timothy Evans for the murder of his child was wrongful and a miscarriage of justice. The home office subsequently compensated each of Timothy's sisters with an undisclosed six-figure sum. The payments were intended to acknowledge the deep and profound impact their brothers' imprisonment and execution had on their lives, but they felt more could be done to clear Timothy's name. Despite his posthumous pre-pardon, his conviction for Geraldine's murder had never been formally

expunged, so on August 26, 2003, Timothy's sister Eileen submitted an application to refer the conviction to the Court of Appeal. Her application was rejected, with the court ruling that the pardon was sufficient recognition of Timothy's innocence. The following year, Timothy's half sister Mary saw the review of the decision. The judges accepted that Timothy hadn't murdered Beryl or Geraldine, but felt the cost and resources required to quash his conviction couldn't be justified, and her request was dismissed. On March 9, 2010, to mark the 60th anniversary of Timothy's execution, the BBC published an interview with Mary, in which she shared the devastating impact that the murders and execution had on their family. She didn't

recognize the simple-minded individual depicted by the media, instead describing Timothy as a fun-loving scam and a sensitive young man. Mary said her brother was so worried about the feelings of others that he occasionally concealed the seriousness of his chronic foot injury from his mother to avoid upsetting her. She also claimed that the family had tried to warn investigators about Timothy's tendency to make up stories, but, quote, the police chose to take him at his word. Mary believed Timothy had been in shock upon learning of Beryl and Geraldine's death and made up a story in an attempt to make sense of it. Mary stated, We never once doubted Tim's innocence. The whole investigation was rotten through.

They made Tim out to be a simpleton, a drunk, and a wife-beater. Three of John Christie's victims, Kathleen Maloney, Rita Nelson, and Hectorina MacLennan, had buried in unmarked graves at Gunnersbury Cemetery in Kensington, the same resting place as Beryl and Geraldine Evans. Ethel Christie was cremated and her ashes were given to her brother. What became of the remains of Ruth First and Muriel Leedy isn't publicly known. Over the years, the Evans and Christie cases have been explored through various novels, songs, movie adaptations, and television programs. In 1971, a film titled Ten Rillington Place was released, starring Richard Attenborough as John Christie. The story was also told in a 2016

BBC miniseries titled Rillington Place. The address continued to attract onlookers curious to see the infamous murder house for themselves, much to the dismay of a local residence. In an effort to dissuade spectators, the street was renamed Ruston Close. Changing the street name did little to deter tourists, and in 1978, the block was completely demolished. Today, the land is home to rows of neat brick housing and a small, tidy park dotted with trees and flowering shrubs.