Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén - "The Monster of Rillington Place" John Reginald Christie Pt. 1

Episode Date: May 2, 2022

John Christie wasn’t good at very much. Not relationships. Not even petty crime. But one evening in 1943, he strangled a sex worker to death and hid her body under the floorboards of his flat in Notting Hill, London. He’d found what he was good at, and he’d keep doing it for a decade. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Due to the graphic nature of this killer's crimes, listener discretion is advised. This episode includes discussions of murder and assault. We advise extreme caution for children under 13. In August of 1943, police constable John Reginald Christie walked home to his dreary London flat after a day on the beat. The job lent him a sense of power, purpose, and authority, all of which was otherwise lacking in his life. As he approached his house, Christy noticed a woman waiting

for him on the doorstep. She was tall, slender, and pretty. Her name was Ruth first. The pair had met before, likely on Ruth's beat, as a sex worker. Seeing her, Christy invited Ruth inside, and they went upstairs for a cup of tea. After the warm drink and some light conversation, they moved to the bedroom. As they were having sex, there was a knock at the door. It was a boy delivering a telegram about Christy's wife. All of a sudden, a flood of emotions rushed through Christie's body, anger, inadequacy, fear. But instead of feeling overwhelmed by his conflicting thoughts, Christy felt calm. In that moment, he was more sure of himself than he'd ever been in his entire life.

Looking down at Ruth, he reached for a length of rope. He knew exactly what he needed to do to make things right. Hi, I'm Greg Paulson. This is serial killers. a Spotify original from Parcast. Every episode, we dive into the minds and madness of serial killers. Today, we're covering John Reginald Christie, who terrorized London in the 1940s and 50s. I'm here with my co-host, Vanessa Richardson.

Hi, everyone. You can find episodes of serial killers and all other Spotify originals from Parcast for free on Spotify. Today we'll cover Christie's surprisingly ordinary yet deeply sad childhood and watch his transition from petty criminal to his very first murder. Next time, we'll cover the vicious killing spree that earned Christy the name the Monster of Rillington Place. We'll also learn about the investigation that brought him down. We've got all that and more coming up.

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your gut health ritual. Try Activia today. Enjoying Activia twice a day for two weeks as part of a balanced diet and healthy lifestyle may help reduce the frequency of minor digestive discomfort, which includes gas, bloating, rumbling, and abdominal discomfort. As we get older, we're often forced to put our childhood dreams and goals aside for practical reasons. Because of that, life can sometimes feel unfulfilling, or downright disappointing, especially when we don't achieve the goals we set for ourselves. Still, most of us are able to accept this reality and adjust our expectations accordingly, but some people have a more difficult time letting go. They don't see it as adapting to the cards they've been dealt, but as defeat, failure. In some cases, they even blame their unfavorable

circumstances on others. For those people, these feelings can become overwhelming, and instead of taking up a hobby to find satisfaction, some decide to shift the goalposts entirely. Feeling like they failed at everything that society deems valuable, they strive to succeed at the opposite. John Reginald Christie was one of those people. He couldn't seem to achieve success the conventional way, no matter what way he came at it. It's not that he wasn't set up for success, though. Christie's early life was, if not charmed, at least somewhat average. Born in the northern British city of Halifax in 1890, Christy was the sixth of seven children.

and by all accounts, the least special among his siblings. But he was still shown plenty of affection, at least by his mother. Mary Christie was gentle, sensitive, and loving, and she was adored by just about everyone in their neighborhood. Mary was so popular that friends and acquaintances often dropped by for advice or a kind word when they were feeling blue. Her husband, however, was her polar opposite. Ernest Christie was a strict disciplinarian with a

terrible temper. He inspired fear in his children and often used corporal punishment. Looking back on his childhood, Christy claimed that he lived in constant fear of his father. When he wasn't terrorizing his children, Ernest had a pretty busy schedule. He was a member of the Halifax Ambulance Brigade, founding member of the Conservative Association, and honorary treasurer of the local social league. Despite the apparent lack of affection between them, Christy admired and feared his father in equal measure, to the young boy, earnest personified respectability and success, and Christy behaved in a way he hoped would please and pacify the busy, stern patriarch.

It's unlikely that earnest behavior was enough to transform his young son into a killer, though it probably didn't do him any favors. However, their complicated relationship may have been the catalyst for a lifelong trait of Christy's. At age 10, Christy experienced. a bout of rheumatic fever that kept him out of school for five months. And in all that time being sick, he couldn't help but notice that people seemed to pay more attention to him when he wasn't well. Vanessa is going to take over on the psychology here and throughout the episode. As a reminder, she is not a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist, but we have done a lot of research for this show.

Thanks, Greg. As we'll see in this story, Christy made repeated and continual visits to the doctor throughout his life. Though he was never diagnosed with the condition, this suggests that he may have had factitious disorder. According to the Mayo Clinic, factitious disorder is a serious mental disorder in which someone deceives others by appearing sick or by self-injury. The condition can be extreme to the point that a person makes up symptoms to convince others that treatment such as a high-risk surgery is needed.

However, it's important to note that although people with factitious disorder know their causing their symptoms or illnesses, they may not understand the reasons for their behaviors, or recognize themselves as having a problem. In other words, if Christie had factitious disorder, it's unlikely his actions were ever intentionally malicious, at least not when it came to his own health. Of course, it's hard to imagine someone as young as Christy having malicious intentions, but given what came next, it seems his mind was turning towards darker interests. In March of 1911, the 11-year-old was taken to see his grandfather's body at a local funeral parlor. The experience had a profound effect on Christy, but instead of fear or confusion, he experienced a sense of calm enchantment, almost like an enlightenment.

There isn't enough contemporary psychological research to connect this incident to any of Christy's later behavior. However, it's possible that it kindled a fascination with corpses. According to a childhood friend, Christy made frequent visits to the local cemetery, so he could peek through the gaps in the children's vault in order to see the tiny coffins. Though this particular image is creepy, there were a few bright spots during Christy's childhood, too. His family was heavily involved in their local church, and as a boy, he attended Sunday school and participated in the church theater and choir performances, possibly at his father's insistence.

He also joined the local scout group and earned a badge in first aid. Despite all this extracurricular activity, it seems Christy had a somewhat lonely childhood. Although he participated in sports and got along with his classmates at school, he wasn't able to actually make any friends. His classmates remembered him as an average boy who always kept to himself, which might have been why he didn't end up completing his education. In 1913, when Christy was just 14, he dropped out to find a job, He'd never been the most talented student anyway, and he wanted to start making some money.

He might have even hoped that work would be a new place to make friends, but he found work as a projectionist in a local movie theater, which was a job that forced him to spend many more hours alone. He'd simply traded one kind of solitude for another. Despite the lonely hours, Christy worked at the movie house for several years, and it was during this time that he had his first sexual experience, or at least his first close call. In Halifax, there was a lover's lane,

which teenagers haunted because of the privacy it afforded them. So when Christie scored a date with a girl his age, he knew just where to take her. By all accounts, the night didn't go well for either of them. Christie was inexperienced, and although exactly what happened isn't clear, his prowess as a lover, didn't impress his date. After the encounter, the girl mocked Christy's performance,

and apparently talked about her experience with others. Before long, Christie was the object of scorn and ridicule, including a series of embarrassing nicknames, including, Can't Do It, Christy. The teasing had a lasting impact on Christy's developing and fragile ego. Likely as a result, he developed a deep resentment toward women, one that took root in his mind, never to leave. He also began having severe psychological misgivings about sex

and his own perceived shortcomings in that regard. Stung by the jeers and taunts of his peers, who had never accepted Christie in the first place, he set out to prove his manhood the only way he could think of by enlisting in the military. Then again, maybe it was just a way to escape. But running away from your problems rarely works, because they're always waiting for you

when you eventually come back. Up next, Christy experiences the horrors of war. What could be more shocking than uncovering the deep, dark secrets behind history's biggest stories? Realizing that everything you thought was true was a lie. Hi, it's Carter from the podcast series Conspiracy theories. Every Monday and Wednesday, take a closer look at the blurred line between fact and fiction and discover that there may be more to the so-called truth than you think. From the government's link to Bigfoot and the otherworldly secrets of the Vatican, to the Grateful Dead's role in the spread of LSD, and more. On conspiracy theories,

we leave no stone unturned and no skeptic unheard. Some may just be outlandish claims. Others may make you rethink everything. Follow the Spotify original from Parcast conspiracy theories. Listen free only on Spotify. Are you looking for support in your weight management journey? Zepbound terseptitide may be able to help. Zepbound is a prescription medicine used with a reduced calorie diet and increased physical activity to help adults with obesity. Or some adults with overweight who also have weight-related medical problems to lose excess body weight and keep the weight off. Zepbound is approved as a 2.5, 5, 7.5, 10, 12.5, or 15.

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After a childhood spent trying to please a domineering father and being bullied by his peers, John Christie jumped at the chance to escape Halifax. The 17-year-old was so eager to escape his life that he enlisted before being drafted and prepared to be shipped off to war. In April of 1917, he was sent to a town 60 miles from Halifax to begin basic training. There, he was trained as a signaller, which is someone who reads and passes

messages to different battalions on the battlefield. The job was a step up in responsibility from his work at a movie theater, but it wasn't the only significant turn in his life just then. The timing of exactly when it happened isn't clear, but at some stage in 1916 or 1917, Christy had sex for the first time, and what's important about that fact is not so much that he lost his virginity, But how? Though the timing of the event is up for debate, we do know that the lucky lady was a sex worker. It seems likely that she plied her trade near the army encampments where Christie was stationed. It's important to point out that the fact that Christy's first time having sex was with a sex worker isn't that unusual,

especially for the time period. But the experience changed him. Crucially, it jumpstarted an obsession with sex workers that, like his general resentment towards women, carried on for the rest of his life. It's likely that Christy felt especially drawn to sex workers because they didn't make him feel inadequate. Unlike the first girl he took out, they didn't laugh at him or make him feel bad

about his perceived shortcomings. With them, for the first time in his life, he probably felt like a man. But despite his newfound joy in sex, Christy's life continued at pace. In April of 1918, duty called, and he was shipped off to France to fight the invaseless, German army. And while his skill as a signaler was valuable in the front lines, his time there

was short-lived. Less than two months after he arrived in the trenches, he was injured when a mustard gas shell exploded. The extent of his injuries isn't clear, but whatever happened to him was severe enough that he was immediately removed from combat. After his evacuation, he spent time at several military hospitals before returning to England in late August to convales. During his recovery, Christy found himself unable to speak, or perhaps he stopped speaking of his own volition. He also claimed to have been temporarily blinded, but this is contradicted by medical records from that period. Given this, it's possible that Christy was again exhibiting signs of factitious disorder. As we mentioned earlier, it's unlikely that people with factitious disorder

understand the reason they fake illnesses, but it's usually a way to garner sympathy and attention. Whatever the realities or exaggerations of his condition, one thing was certain. Christy's hopes of rewriting his lackluster reputation at home by becoming a war hero were well and truly dashed. That might explain the considerable shift in his behavior. When he returned to the soldier's barracks, he began behaving oddly, even for him. He'd always been a loner, but now that he couldn't or wouldn't speak, the only way he could communicate was with a pad and pencil, but his trauma also manifested in other ways. On August 31st, 1919, 20-year-old Christy missed a mandatory parade. The offense was

minor, but still earned him an open arrest within the barracks. That meant he wasn't permitted to leave the grounds. But a short time later, he broke out and was missing for two whole days. As a result of the infraction, he was fined 18 days pay, but the severity of the punishment wasn't the issue. What's key here is that this sort of rule-breaking was completely out of character for the Christie who'd worked so hard to remake himself. It also stood at odds with his goal of proving he was a brave man worthy of respect. Still, the incident wasn't enough to tarnish his short military career, and he was discharged in October of 1919,

with what amounted to a full pension. But instead of pursuing a fresh start, Christy slipped back into his old life, perhaps taking comfort in the familiar details of it. He returned to Halifax to live with his parents and settled back into his former solitary job as a cinema projectionist. It might have felt like he was going backwards.

No matter how hard he tried, Christy couldn't seem to shake off the feeling of mediocrity. But sometime in 1920, a glimmer of hope appeared during an encounter with a young woman named Ethel Simpson. Like Christy, 22-year-old Ethel was somewhat unremembered. She came from a middle-class family and worked an entry-level job, though unlike Christy, who wasn't particularly handsome and wore unflattering suits, Ethel was rather attractive, so their pairing wasn't a given.

However, in Britain at the time, young men were somewhat scarce. Many had died during the war, and some who returned lived with post-traumatic stress. In other words, Christy may have felt like the best option Ethel could find, even if he didn't talk. Perhaps she viewed him as a strong silent type, since according to Christy, he courted her with a notebook and pencil, and she became quite good at lip reading. Still, they bore enough affection for each other that the two married after only a few months.

However, no members of their families attended the ceremony, which took place at the local registry office. We can't be sure, but the solitary event suggests that maybe both sets of parents disapproved of the match. and unlike Christie's siblings nuptials, his wedding wasn't even mentioned in the local paper. Despite the seemingly tebid response to their romance, the couple moved into their own place, and things started to look up. For the first time, it appeared that Christie had finally found a positive, stabilizing influence, someone who loved him unconditionally and didn't judge him or withhold affection.

Unfortunately, that affection never seemed to manifest physically. Though he was newly married, Christy's sex life with Ethel was, like so many other arenas of his life, disappointing to him. According to Christy's own account, the two didn't have sex before they were married, and rarely did so once they tied the knot. It's possible the performance issues that he experienced as a teen had returned. If that was the case, it seems that the problem was restricted to the marital bed. Christy had no problem performing with women outside of his marriage, and often met up with sex workers. It's entirely possible that his problem was just sex with feelings, or when he was in a relationship. Put another way when it was with a woman he respected.

Conversely, when the sex was illicit or a manifestation of resentment and anger, he had no trouble performing. In a 2012 article published in Scientific American, author Nicholas Westerhoff explored the motivations that lead men to pay for sex. According to Westerhoff, Some psychologists believe the practice serves as a salve for common psychological afflictions, such as an unfulfilled appetite for sex, love, or romance. Others paint a dimmer portrait of Johns, believing they're typically driven by chauvinistic motives, such as a desire to dominate and control women. In Christie's case, it was likely a convergence of all these factors.

He and his wife had an unfulfilling sex life, which he resented. This, coupled with the teasing he endured as a boy, made him resent women. As a result, he might have used sex to show both the sex worker and himself that he was, in fact, in control. Though he seemed unable to satisfy his wife in the bedroom, Christie did manage to hold down a job and support the pair of them, at least for a while. He still received his military pension,

and by 1921 he had moved on from a cinema job and was working as a temporary mailman. However, the period of calm didn't last long. The erratic, borderline troublesome behavior that had begun when he was in the Army returned to cause more issues. That spring, Christie stole several money orders and even some stamps from the mail he was supposed to be delivering. The money orders totaled around 700 pounds, which was about three times the average annual

salary of the era. So it was a pretty hefty payday for him. But he didn't get away with it for long. The missing items were quickly reported and tied to Christie before he could cash the majority of the money orders, but according to reports, only a single pound was missing from the recovered items. It's unclear why Christie engaged in this sort of petty theft, particularly since he didn't cash or spend any of the money he stole. But it's possible he was seeking some sort of excitement outside of his everyday life.

After the drama and danger of war, his existence probably felt relatively dull in comparison. Interestingly, Christie wasn't alone in his actions. Writing about Christie, author John Oates points out that many servicemen who were recently discharged also engaged in petty crime. Unique or not, Christy was sentenced to a term of three months behind bars for the theft. However, his brief stint in prison failed to curb his burgeoning criminal tendencies. Less than two years later, Christie had another brush with the law, though it was for a much more passive transgression.

This time he was accused of failing to pay his bill at a guest house where he was lodging. He was required to once again appear before a judge, but his mother ended up paying the funds on his behalf, which brought the minor affair to a close. Naturally, his legal troubles caused a strain on the Christie's marriage, though it wasn't Ethel who lost patients first. In 1923, it was 24-year-old Christy who upped and walked out, leaving his wife Anne Halifax behind.

After that, he moved to love. London, perhaps drawn by the size and excitement of the city, as well as the anonymity those elements afforded him. Here, no one knew him as the boy with no friends who couldn't impress his father. When people looked at him, they didn't see the injured veteran who couldn't please his wife. There's little information available about Christy's activity during this period. All we really have are police records, which showed that he was moving from petty crime to more serious offenses. In August of 1924, Christy burgled a cinema where he'd been briefly employed stealing five pounds.

The following month, he stole a child's bicycle and was caught when he attempted to pawn it. For the two offenses, he received a prison sentence of six months. After he was released, he spent the next several years bouncing from odd job to odd job. Coincidentally, his estranged wife was doing much the same thing after moving in with her brother in Sheffield. In 1928, while working as a typist at a steel plant, Ethel met a young man named Vaughan Brindley. The two began a courtship that frequently took them to local dances, the theater, and even weekend trips away.

It looked like the beginning of something great. However, the relationship fizzled out when Brindley found out that Ethel was unable to have children. He was eager to start a family of his own and presumably left to make that happen. During this period, also entered into a relationship with another woman, but unlike the early days of Ethel's relationship with Brindley,

this courtship was an unmitigated disaster. 29-year-old Christie began dating Maude Cole in 28. Though it may have begun on a pleasant note, the courtship quickly soured, mostly because Christy wasn't bringing in any money or making an effort to look for work. Less than a year later, with her patience at an end, Maude told Christy to get lost.

He didn't take kindly to this directive and told her that if he couldn't have her, then no one would. But neither of them made a move yet. A few days later, the two sat down to lunch as though nothing had happened. Sometime during the meal, Christy got up and calmly picked up a cricket bat from a corner of the room. He approached Maude, and without warning, he brought the bat crashing down on her head. Maude was stunned. It felt like something had just exploded inside her head. and she blacked out for a second while blood gushed from her scalp.

She came to and somehow had the clarity of mind to defend herself from Christy, who by this time had his fingers in her mouth to stifle her screams. Luckily, an upstairs neighbor heard the commotion and rushed to investigate. When the neighbor arrived, Christy fled, but the neighbor was far more concerned about Maude, who was covered in blood. The kindly neighbor took the terrified woman to his flat and called the police. They tracked down and arrested Christie a short time later. When he appeared in court to face charges,

Christy tried to brush off the incident as a simple accident. He claimed he had just carelessly swung the bat to test it out and somehow hit maud in the head. Understandably, the judge didn't buy the far-fetched story and sentenced Christy to another six months in prison. After his release in 1930, Christy returned to London. There he found work as a truck driver. But instead of turning the page on his criminal past, the 31-year-old leaned into it even harder.

A short time after he arrived in London, he stole a car from a garage near his dispatch office. However, in true Christy fashion, he was caught soon after the crime, this time when he pulled the car over and fell asleep. The theft and joyride earned him another three months behind bars. But just as it seemed that Christie's life was spiraling out of control, he received an unexpected visitor. Ethel came to see him in prison. It's unclear why she sought him out, but Ethel suggested that the two put their past behind them and get back together. Christie agreed, though he neglected to mention his stint in prison for assaulting his girlfriend. So upon Christie's release in 1934, Ethel moved in with her husband in London.

They were both eager for a fresh start, hoping for a new lease on their relationship. Unfortunately for John Christie, old habits died hard. Up next, Christy's crimes turn deadly. Every outfit starts with a choice. What am I wearing underneath? Something comfortable? And let's be honest. Something that keeps everything looking smooth.

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In 1934, John Christie and his wife Ethel reconciled after being estranged for nearly a decade. They moved into a London flat and began the second phase of their life together. For at least three years, things were calm and peaceful, almost normal. Then in 1937, they packed up and moved to a new larger place together. The couple's new home was in Rillington Place in the Kensington section of London. Unfortunately for them, it was one of the poorest, dullest and dirtiest neighborhoods in the city. The Christie's occupied the ground floor of a small, shabby, multi-unit house. And though their surroundings were perhaps not ideal, this period was relatively peaceful and tranquil.

It seems that the couple actually got along well. Christy managed to find steady, if not well-paying employment at a cinema, and the two even got a dog. However, despite his rediscovered marital bliss, another recurring problem in Christy's life returned. During this time, he made dozens of trips to the family doctor for a whole host of health issues. Whether the problems were real or imaginary is unclear. Remember, Christy might have been living with factitious disorder, so it's possible he was seeking attention and sympathy through feigned illnesses, but his questionable health wasn't the only bump in the road because a far more serious threat lurked on the horizon, the outbreak of another world war. In spite of his painful

and traumatic experience during the previous war, Christie eagerly applied for a position as an air raid precautions warden in London, but he was rejected. The rejection reinforced Christy's old feelings of inadequacy. During the last war, he'd enlisted in an effort to shake off his old personality and assumed the mantle of a brave hero. But he'd fallen short of that goal. Now, his second chance at wartime valor had been dashed. Still, he was able to secure a less important position as a wartime reserve constable. Essentially, this made him a substitute police officer. Even though it wasn't the role he wanted, his new position made him feel superior and granted him a sense of power he'd never had before. More than anything, Christie's new job allowed him to manipulate him to

manipulate, coerce, and intimidate one very specific group of people, sex workers. Christy allowed the neighborhood sex workers to ply their trade in peace, as long as they offered him discounts or freebies. Even though he was back together with Ethel, Christy continued visiting sex workers on a frequent basis. Unlike with his wife, he didn't seem to have any trouble performing sexually with them. Plus, the sordid nature of the act gave him a thrill and a sense of accomplishment. both of which were sorely lacking in his everyday life. In many ways, Christy had tried to make a go of it as a functioning member of society,

but since his childhood, normalcy, respect, and acceptance had felt out of his reach. Now, despite being married with a good job, he'd never really addressed or worked on the things in life that made him feel inadequate. He failed at staying faithful to his wife. He failed at being a respectable clean-cut cop, and rather than trying harder, he decided to do. to stop trying at all and lean into his failure. A study published by the National Center for Biological Information found that individuals with

personality disorders such as anti-social behavior are more likely to experience work insecurity. Anti-social behavior, like what Christie exhibited throughout his life, involves acting in dramatic, emotional, and erratic fashions, difficulty with impulsive behavior and frequently violating social norms. These traits were evident in Christie's obsession with illness, his inability to make friends or relate to coworkers, and his eventual theft from his employers. Crucially, turning their attention to crime means there's no oversight, no boss to clash with, and no built-in social norms or etiquette to conform to. Even Christy's relationships with women were disastrous. In addition to cheating on his wife with sex workers, he began an affair, with one of his female

co-workers whose husband was away fighting in World War II. However, whatever thrill or pleasure Christy derived from the illicit act ended when the soldier returned home and allegedly punched him in the face. Still, this didn't stop Christy from pursuing extramarital affairs with whoever he could talk into bed. Ruth First was born and raised in Austria. When the German army invaded in 1938, the teenager was forced to flee. By June of 1939, she was a little bit of 1939, she was a little bit of living in London. However, when the Axis powers were poised to invade Britain, Ruth was sent to an internment camp for German and Austrian nationals. When she was released in 1941, the 19-year-old moved back to London where she found a job in a hotel. She also found herself pregnant. Ruth couldn't

keep the baby, so when her daughter was born in 1942, she put her up for adoption. Soon after, Ruth turned to sex work to help her get by. That's how she made. John Christie. It's likely that Ruth met Christy while he was on his beat as a policeman. It's also likely that he used his position to sleep with her. According to his account, Ruth had visited his house at least twice prior to August 1943. That's probably why it wasn't a surprise when he found her on his doorstep when he arrived

home from work that day. Seeing the young woman made him feel proud, like he was finally a real man. Soft with pride, Christy invited Ruth up for tea and small talk. Then they moved into the bedroom. According to one version of events, as the two were having sex, there was a knock at the door. It was a boy with the telegram from Ethel. She'd been staying with her brother in Sheffield, but sent word that she'd be coming home soon. Exactly what happened next isn't totally clear. Maybe he was simply angry to be reminded of his wife at that moment, or feared what Ethel might do if she found out he'd enter

entertained another woman in their bed. Either way, something about the telegram triggered Christy's temper, and he lashed out at the person closest to him just then, Ruth. He grabbed a piece of rope, wrapped it around Ruth's neck, and pulled tight. He strangled the young woman until she stopped breathing and lay lifeless before him. As he stared down at Ruth's body, a strange sense of calm fulfillment enveloped Christy, but the moment of perverse euphoria ended with a sharp realization. He needed to dispose of Ruth's body before his wife returned.

He quickly wrapped her nude body in a coat and hit her beneath the floorboards in the living room. It's unclear exactly when, but Christie eventually buried Ruth's body in the back garden and burned her clothes. When all was said and done, John Christie was a changed man. He'd failed at nearly everything in his life,

his career, his affairs, even at petty crime. In fact, he'd never been good at anything until now. He'd finally found his true, perverse calling. Murder. We'll be back soon with part two of John Reginald Christie, where we'll see him transform into the monster of Rillington Place. For more information on John Christie, amongst the many sources we used, we found John Christie of Rillington Place,

biography of a serial killer by Jonathan Oates, extremely helpful to our research. You can find all episodes of serial killers and all other Spotify originals from Parcast for free on Spotify. We'll see you next time. Have a killer week. Serial Killers is a Spotify original from Parcast. Executive producers include Max and Ron Cutler, sound design by Juan Borda, with production assistance by Ron Shapiro, Trent Williamson, Carly Madden, and Bruce Kitovich.

This episode of serial killers was written by Tony Goodman with writing assistance by Sarah Hussein and Joel Callen, fact-checking by Kara McAureline, and research by Brian Petrus and Chelsea Wood. Serial killers stars

Greg Paulson and Vanessa Richardson. Pay off your home, travel for life, drive a Ferrari. In celebration of the world premiere of the Monopoly Big Board Bucks slot machine by Aristocrat Gaming, Yamava Resort and Casino at San Manuel

is giving one person a $1.6 million dream package. The biggest prize in Yamava's history. Club's Toronto members can earn daily instant prizes and secure a spot in the finale May 29th. Don't pass go and own it all. Only at Yamava, celebrating its 40th anniversary. You win? Details at yamava.com must be 21-20. Please gamble responsibly. Monopoly is a trademark of Hasbro. Hasbro is not a sponsor of this promotion. A beloved 75-year-old man washing up, getting ready for bed, is brutally beaten and killed. Despite an exhaustive investigation, the killer avoids arrest and then strikes again. I'm Global News crime reporter Nancy Hicks.

You might listen to a lot of true crime podcasts this year, but they're not crime beat. Search for and follow the award-winning podcast Crime Beat on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and wherever you find your favorite podcasts.