Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén - "The Monster of Rillington Place" John Reginald Christie Pt. 2

Episode Date: May 5, 2022

John Christie felt alive and in control after his first murder. It's no surprise that he would want to recreate that feeling. So he did. Over and over and over. And the bodies started to pile up at 10 Rillington Place. 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, rape, and assault. We advise extreme caution for children under 13. On December 14, 1952, the mood at 10 Rillington Place was dark and more unpleasant than ever. John and Ethel Christie had a new landlord and several new neighbors, all of whom were making their lives a living hell. There was noise at all hours, and the new tenants partied late into the night. Worse yet, this new crop of renters seemed to take pleasure in antagonizing the Christie's.

Ethel was at her wits' end and on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Depressed and terrified, she spent all day indoors crying, afraid that the neighbors might hurt her, or worse. John Christie hated their neighbors, too. After all, they refused to show him the respect he felt he deserved. Instead, they mocked him, not unlike the kids he'd known at school. But what really bugged Christy about the situation was that his depressed wife was always home, in constant need of attention.

Every time he tried to relax with a book or a cup of tea, Ethel's sobs interrupted him. Christy felt trapped. He had urges that needed attention, too, ones that were darker and more sinister than Ethel's anxiety. But with her crowding him at a lot of her crowding him at a lot of. every moment, it was impossible to find relief. Something had to give. Christy was a killer, so he knew there was an answer to his problem, but he also knew his limitations. He couldn't just get rid of the neighbors causing Ethel's fragile state, and if he couldn't kill the ones responsible for his wife's misery, the only thing left was to end

it for her, once and for all. Hi, I'm Greg Poulson. This is Serial Killers, a Spotify original from Parcast. Every episode, we dive into the minds and madness of serial killers. Today we're finishing our look at 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. Last time, we covered Christie's mundane childhood. and its transition from petty criminal to cold-blooded killer. Today, we'll learn about the vicious killing spree that earned Christy the name the Monster of Rillington Place and find out about the chance renovation that exposed his crimes to the world. We've got all that and more coming up. Stay with us.

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or if he panicked and just snapped. Whatever the case, the murder awakened something inside him. It took care of an itch that his petty crimes had been unable to scratch. He'd spent most of his life feeling weak and powerless. Now, for the first time ever, he was in control, and there was no turning back. But while he basked in the glow of his twisted discovery, life continued much as it ever had. It's unclear why, but in December of 1943, Christy left his job as a police officer,

but he wasn't out of work for long because almost immediately, he found a position as a clerk and driver at a factory that manufactured electrical parts. While in the cafeteria one afternoon, he met 32-year-old Muriel Eadie, and the pair struck up a friendship. She told Christy about her difficult childhood.

Her mother died when she was six, and she rarely saw her father. In most people, these stories might elicit sympathy, but that's not how Christie worked. Instead, he sensed how vulnerable and impressionable Muriel was. Both characteristics made her an easy target for a predator like him. Still, Christy took his time getting to know Muriel, even inviting her to his apartment for tea with his wife Ethel. At some point, Muriel confided to Christy that she had some health concerns. After hearing that, he knew just how to proceed.

Christy had spent a fair amount of time in hospitals, dealing with his own health issues, so he had an extensive knowledge of illness and treatment. At least, that's what he told Muriel. He convinced her that he could find a cure for her ailments. All she had to do was come to his house, preferably when Ethel was away so they could have privacy. Muriel accepted the invitation, having no reason not to trust Christy. After all, he'd introduced her to his wife and given her valuable medical advice already. His intention seemed pure. Plus, he'd never behave like anything less than a perfect gentleman.

But all that was about to change. On October 7, 1944, Christy puttered around his kitchen, creating a strange concoction. He attached two rubber pipes to a glass jar. One led to a vial of perfumed water, the other to a gas main. He watched the jar carefully until his reverie was broken by a knock at the door. It was Muriel. Ethel was out for the afternoon, and she was there for his help, just like he promised. Christy led her into the kitchen and instructed her to inhale from the glass jar sitting on the table.

Muriel did just that, and quickly lost consciousness. That's when Christy picked her up and carried her to the bedroom. Despite what he'd said, he had no intentions of healing her. He placed Muriel on the bed and raped her. Then, while she was still out cold, he wrapped a rope around her. her neck and pulled it tight until she stopped breathing. Looking down at her body, Christy experienced the same intoxicating feeling of power and control that he'd felt only once before, when he'd killed Ruth first.

Vanessa's going to take over on the psychology here and throughout the episode. As a reminder, she's not a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist, but we have done a lot of research for this show. Thanks, Greg. According to psychologist Helena Hockinen, strangulation heightens the sense of control and power killers have over their victim. For one thing, it requires the murderer to be physically near the victim. Death is, quite literally, in their hands.

With that in mind, it's not unusual that Christy, a man who only felt strong and capable when taking someone's life, chose to strangle Muriel. It may also explain his decision to subdue her using gasey, ass. With her unconscious, he could do whatever he wanted without facing any resistance. After killing her, Christy buried Muriel's body in the back garden at Ten Rillington Place. Sadly, no one investigated her disappearance because her family assumed she died in the ongoing war. Although Muriel's death went unnoticed by everyone else, it had a profound effect on Christy. He'd planned and executed what he believed was a perfect murder, and he could.

couldn't wait to do it again. But the 45-year-old understood that rushing to his next kill was risky. So he bided his time feeling temporarily satiated, the memory of Muriel's murder fresh in his mind. However, just because he was laying low, that doesn't mean his life returned to anything that can be described as normal. During this period, Christie started having an affair with a woman named Gladys Jones, whose husband was off fighting in World War II. It seems that Christie had no intention of harming 33-year-old Gladys.

Maybe he thought she was too clever to manipulate like Muriel, or maybe it was something else entirely. Whatever the reason, the affair was purely sexual for Christy. But his fun didn't last very long. In the winter of 1945, Gladys' husband returned home. Somehow he learned of his wife's affair. Furious, he decided to confront Christy himself. So one night before his wife even knew he was back, he surprised that. the couple as they were entering the Jones apartment.

According to neighbors who witnessed the event, the husband beat Christy badly until someone called the police. The couple later filed for divorce, blaming Christy for the dissolution of their marriage. Christy was forced to pay the cost of the divorce proceedings, but not before making a scene in the courtroom and screaming at Gladys's husband. His tantrum was so extreme that he had to be physically removed. It's unclear if Ethel ever learned about Christie's affair. with Gladys or the reason for her husband's beating. Either way, they remain together, and it was

largely business as usual for the couple for a while. But there was a storm brewing on the horizon, and there were more deaths to come at Ten Rillington Place. Coming up, Christy chooses his next victim, but his plans take an unexpected turn. What could be more shocking than uncovering the deep, dark secrets behind history's biggest stories? Realize, 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.

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Now back to the story. By March of 1948, 48-year-old John Reginald Christie had murdered two people, and no one had even noticed. Killing, he discovered, was the only thing that made him feel alive. Even still, it had been four years since his last murder, and he was itching to do it again. But he didn't want to kill just anyone.

He knew he needed to find the right kind of victim. Someone young and impressionable, someone he could manipulate and bend to his will. When pregnant newlyweds, Timothy and Beryl Evans moved into the apartment upstairs, Christy thought he'd hit the jackpot. Beryl was young and attractive, and much to Christy's delight, the couple's marriage seemed shaky already. Timothy was a heavy drinker, and the pair fought constantly.

Christie perhaps thought Beryl would be open to some comfort and reassurance from an older, married man like him. But Christy needed to plan carefully to make sure the chips fell in his favor, so he slowly befriended the couple as best he could, determined to gain their trust. When Beryl gave birth to her baby, Geraldine, in October of 1948, the Christie's let her keep the stroller in their hallway so she wouldn't have to lug it up the stairs. They also offered marriage advice whenever they could. But even with the Christie's help, Timothy and Beryl still struggled to make their marriage work. For one thing, they both worked low-paying jobs, which meant they could barely afford the rent and other necessities.

Now, with a new baby, their meager budget was stretched even thinner. To make matters worse, Timothy might not have been mentally equipped to deal with the pressures and responsibility of supporting a family. He reportedly had an IQ around 70, and his cognitive limitations made it difficult for him to find anything but the most low-paying, menial jobs. Compounding their issues, Timothy and Beryl both seem to take pleasure in making each other jealous. At work, Beryl openly flirted with other men. When she returned home, she liked to tease her husband about the flirtation, and delighted in his anger. Unable to cope with what felt like an attack on his masculinity,

Timothy showed up at her office and slapped his wife across the face. As a result, Beryl was fired, but it didn't stop there. Perhaps wanting further revenge against his wife, Timothy had an affair with one of Beryl's friends. Despite these infidelities and the toxic nature of their relationship, Beryl found herself pregnant again in the summer of 1949, but this time she had no intention of keeping the child. Sometime around October, Beryl confided in Ethel

that she'd tried to induce a miscarriage by taking pills. It's unclear if Christie was present for this conversation, or if his wife relayed the news later. Either way, he figured he could use his knowledge of medical terms to trick Beryl into following his advice. It was exactly the moment he'd been waiting for so patiently. We can't be sure exactly what happened next, but it seems that Christy convinced the young couple that he could perform an abortion for them,

and they agreed to accept his offer. It sounds like an incredibly risky move, but abortion wasn't legal in England at the time, so there wouldn't have been many options open to them. Even if they did have somewhere to go, they had no money to pay for the procedure themselves. Plus, they trusted the older man. He seemed to possess an in-depth knowledge of medicine, and he'd always been kind and helpful to them. So on the agreed-upon date, Christy went upstairs to see Beryl after Timothy left for work.

When he arrived, he set up his glass jar of gas and perfumed water, likely telling Beryl it was a sedative to numb the pain of the procedure. He instructed her to inhale from the jar, entrusting the man who'd become like a father figure to her, she did. The young woman lost consciousness almost immediately, which meant Christy was free to do whatever he liked, and he had something very specific in mind. He grabbed the same rope he'd used on his other victims, wrapped it around Beryl's neck, and squeezed as tight as he could for several minutes. When she was dead, Christy left her in the apartment and simply went home.

When Timothy returned from work that evening, Christy told him that the operation had been unsuccessful and that Beryl died in the process. But Christy knew how to help, he said. Christy explained that he could place baby Geraldine with a loving family and cover up Beryl's death. All Timothy had to do was get out of London as fast as he could. Christie would take care of everything else.

Panicked, Timothy quit his job and sold all of the family's meager possessions. Then he fled to a relative's house in Wales, leaving baby Geraldine with the Christies. But Christy had no intention of giving the baby to anyone. Shortly after Timothy left, he strangled the infant and hid her tiny body with her mothers. Even though he'd made a clean break, guilt soon got the best of Timothy Evans. On November 30th, he walked into a Welsh police station and confessed to murdering his wife. He was arrested for the murder, but police had to locate the body before anything else. Officers arrived at 10 Rillington Place later that day, but the remains were nowhere to be found.

Confused, the police interviewed the Christie's, who claimed that Timothy and Beryl had left together, It's unclear exactly what Christie told his wife, but it seems that Ethel had no clue what her husband had done. Unfortunately for Christy, Timothy did, and his story to police changed later that night. Around 9 p.m., the grieving husband and father told officers that his earlier confession was a lie. This time, he told them what he thought was the truth. John Christie had killed Beryl while performing an abortion. He also told them that he left baby Geraldine with Christ. convinced that she'd be placed with a loving home.

The police returned to question the Christie's once again in more detail, but the couple maintained their innocence and assured investigators that they had no idea what happened to Beryl or her child. By this stage, it was clear that someone was lying, so on December 2nd, police conducted another search of 10 Rillington Place. This time, they looked in the outhouse, where they discovered the bodies of Beryl and Geraldine, And, contrary to Timothy's latest story, autopsies showed that both had been strangled to death.

When officers told Timothy what they'd found, he'd changed his story again. This time he claimed that he'd strangled his family. Exactly why Timothy kept changing his story is unclear, but according to a 2009 article from the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, some people are more likely to provide false confessions than others. Suspects who are gullible or who have cognitive impairments might admit to crimes because they're not equipped to handle the pressures of an interrogation. False confessions are also more likely to occur when someone is experienced a lack of sleep, stress or withdrawal from alcohol. In Timothy's case, we know that he was under tremendous financial and emotional stress. He and Beryl fought constantly, and he was drinking heavily at the time.

He also had a low IQ and likely couldn't comprehend the gravity of what he'd confessed to. Unfortunately for him, his admission was all the police needed, and he was charged with the murders of his family. Timothy's trial began in January of 1950. In a sadistic twist, John Christie was chosen as the principal witness for the prosecution. Now he'd have a direct hand in making someone else pay for his crimes. Naturally, Christy denied all knowledge of the murders and denied Timothy's accusation that he'd performed an abortion on barrel. Luckily for him, it wasn't a difficult allegation to disprove because no procedure had been performed and she'd actually died by strangulation.

Christy told the courtroom that on the night of the murder, he'd heard a thud from the Evans apartment upstairs. Then he'd heard heavy things being moved around and dragged across the floor. Few in the courtroom had reason not to believe Christy. After all, he was a veteran and a former police officer. If anyone was to be trusted, it was someone like him. When it was time for Timothy to take the stand, the prosecution concentrated on a series of misleading statements and confessions. But he insisted that Christy had told him to lie.

Again, the stress and pressure of the trial were probably far too much for Timothy to handle or process, and the prosecutor easily poked holes in his story. Then, when he was asked what motive Christie would have had for killing Timothy's wife and daughter, he had nothing to offer. After closing arguments, the jury deliberated for only 40 minutes before returning with their verdict. Guilty. In the aftermath of the reading, a man's sobs echoed through the courtroom, but they weren't from the defendant.

They were coming from John Reginald Christie. Whether Christie's tears were out of relief or a sense of guilt, they didn't save Timothy Evans. Two months later, in March of 1950, he was executed by hanging. After that, Christy's health seemed to decline. It's possible he experienced extreme stress from the trial and guilt over the outcome. Over the next two years, he took at least eight months of sick leave from work for everything from insomnia to memory loss.

But it wasn't just the stress of the Evans affair that took a toll on Christie's health. A new landlord had purchased the house at 10 Rillington Place, and he made significant changes to the building. The house was made up of several floors, each containing bedrooms, a kitchen, and a bathroom. But the new landlord wanted to maximize his profits,

so he rented out each bedroom separately, transforming the hallways, kitchens, and bathrooms into communal spaces. The multi-family dwelling was now more like a boarding house. Christy complained that the new tenants were noisy and disrespectful, and that they made it impossible for him and his wife to sleep. Eventually, the couple confronted their new neighbors, who, according to Christy, threatened and abused them in response.

Soon, the Christie's were spending most of their time stuck in their pair of rooms, complaining to one another. Neither could sleep, and both were experiencing stress-related health issues. For someone like Christy, who relieved stress through affairs and murder, the situation was untenable. He clearly couldn't carry on an affair in his suddenly cramped living quarters, and with his wife always around, he felt certain he'd never get to kill again. That pressure drove Christy to the brink of his already tenuous sanity. By late 1952, he was ready to snap, and in December the stress was so bad, he quit his job.

But that wasn't the only impulsive decision he made. that month. Even before his new neighbors moved in, Christy had resented his wife for many years. Their marriage was dull, and in his view, all Ethel did was complain. It didn't help that the couple hadn't been intimate in a decade. But at least before, she'd go out to run errands and see friends, giving him a measure of peace. Now she was home all the time, which unnerved him to no end. Christy felt like his wife was preventing him from living his best life, and to be clear, that was a life in which he could explore and satisfy his sexual and murderous urges. Christy did empathize with his wife suffering, though.

As someone who had apparently experienced a lifetime of medical issues, he knew what it was like to suffer, and there was a solution that would end both of their torment. He could kill two birds with one stone. It's impossible to know with certainty what happened on a moment. December 14, 1952. All we have is Christy's bizarre confession given years later. In it, he claimed that Ethel awoke that morning gasping for breath. He tried to help her, but nothing worked. As Ethel's breathing grew even more labored, her face turned blue, and Christy realized she was

going to die. But he claimed he couldn't bear to see his wife suffering, so he strangled her, putting her out of her misery. It's entirely possible that things happened the way Christie described, but given his murderous history and deep disdain for his wife, the truth is probably far simpler. Christy likely strangled Ethel in her sleep, satisfying an urge that had been gnawing at him for years. Either way, with his wife dead and no one around to answer to, Christy felt more powerful and free than he had in a long time. In his mind, nothing could stop him from killing again.

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at least for a while. But reality set in when he realized he would have to account for Ethel's absence. He wrote several letters to her family, claiming she was too ill to write herself, but he assured them he was taking care of her as best he could. Since Christie had quit his job,

he had no money coming in, so he sold Ethel's possessions to stay afloat. But he still had to deal with the biggest problem. He had nowhere to move Ethel's body to, so he placed her beneath the floorboards in his apartment. Then he cleaned the room with disinfectant, presumably to mask the smell. Around this time, Christy's actions became much more desperate and disorderly.

It's possible he sensed that his days of freedom were numbered. If that was the case, it's telling that he didn't try to run. all he wanted to do was kill again before it was too late. Sometime in early January of 1953, Christy met 25-year-old Rita Nelson, either in a cafe or while she was on her beat as a sex worker. Like most of Christy's victims, Rita hadn't had a particularly easy life. After leaving school when she was 14, she bounced from job to job, never quite finding her footing.

She'd also been in trouble with the law, mostly for petty offenses like theft, disorderly conduct, and prostitution. In January, Rita was pregnant. The exact nature of her relationship with Christy is unclear, but it's possible he convinced the young woman he could help her put an end to the pregnancy. On or around January 16th, Christy invited Rita to his place. Once inside, he administered his combination of gas and perfumed water until the young woman lost consciousness.

He proceeded to rape. her, then tied a rope around her neck, and strangled her to death. After killing her, he placed Rita's body in an alcove behind a wall in his apartment. Now there were two dead bodies hidden in the cramped unit. Several of Rita's family members reported her missing almost immediately, but it seems that police never seriously investigated her disappearance. Even so, Christy was paranoid that the police were onto him, and he was desperate to claim another life before they knocked on his door. Less than a month later, he met 26-year-old

Kathleen Maloney. She'd moved to London when she was 19, and like Rita, she supported herself with sex work. She was also a heavy drinker and spent much of her time in bars, frequently drinking to the point of belligerence and even arrest. We don't know for sure, but Christy probably met Kathleen at a bar that invited her back to his room at Ten Rillington Place. Once he had her alone, he almost certainly used his signature gas and strangulation method on Kathleen before raping her lifeless body. Shortly after killing her, he propped her body in a chair in the corner of the room, then fell asleep. By now, Christy's mind was unraveling at a rapid pace. He was no longer the careful, cautious killer who bided his time between attacks and cleaned up after himself. Now he was

sloppy, indifferent even. The next morning he awoke, having forgotten that he left Kathleen's dead body in the room. When he regained his faculties, he shoved her in the alcove with Rita. Sadly, no one filed a missing person's report, and Kathleen's disappearance was likely never examined. In fact, like many serial killers, Christie probably targeted Kathleen and Rita on purpose. As they were both sex workers, he might have suspected their disappearances were less likely to be investigated. But there may have been more to it than just that. A 2012 article from Scientific Americans suggests that many men who pay for sex are motivated by a desire to dominate and control women.

Christy was certainly looking for easy prey, but as someone who'd been mocked as a boy for his sexual inadequacies, he also used sex to prove to himself that he was in control. However, that veneer of control was slipping. Christy was panicked and exhausted, and his actions were those of a man who could barely control himself, let alone anyone else. But after he killed Rita, Christy didn't need to carefully select his next victim. This time, she came to him. Since he didn't have any money coming in, Christy decided to rent out one of the two rooms in his apartment, so he placed an ad on a local bulletin board. In early March, about a week after his last murder, Hectorina McClennan responded.

Hectorina and her boyfriend, who will call Logan, were short on money, and Christy, offered them his spare room. The arrangement only lasted a few days, though. Then he told the couple he wanted them out. So on March 6th, Logan went looking for a new place to stay, and that's when Christy made his move. He gassed, raped, and murdered Hectorina. Then he placed her body next to Kathleen and Rita's in the alcove behind the wall.

Later that day, Logan showed up looking for his girlfriend, but Christy insisted that she wasn't there, that she'd left. He showed Logan around to prove that Hectorina was gone and even made him a cup of tea. Although Christie managed to fool the young man, the visit was a wake-up call. Soon it might not just be a disgruntled boyfriend knocking on his door, but the police. He decided it was time to get going. On March 20th, he left Rillington Place in hopes of staying one step ahead of the authorities. With Christy gone, his landlord wasted no time renting the room to a new tenant,

who set about doing some home improvements. On March 24th, he chose a wall to hang a phone. But when he tried finding a stud, he discovered that the structure was just a flimsy piece of wood. The space behind the wall was hollow. He took down the wood to see what his options were for hanging the phone. And that's when he made a startling discovery. He'd found Christie's hiding place.

When police arrived a little later, the man pointed out the three dead bodies stuffed into the three. the alcove. That same day, investigators pried up some loose floorboards and found the body of Ethel Christie. The next day, news of the murders were splashed across every newspaper in Britain. Overnight, John Reginald Christie had become the country's most wanted fugitive. When the news of his crimes broke, Christy was living in a large, run-down boarding house in another part of London. But when he saw his picture in the paper, he fled immediately, leaving his meager possessions behind. He spent the next few days moving constantly and resting wherever he

could at night, but he didn't get very far. Eventually, he ended up in Putney, just five miles from his old neighborhood. That's where a police officer spotted him on the morning of March 31st. Moving quickly, the cop arrested the dishevelled killer and brought him in. At the station, Christy confessed to the murders almost immediately, sort of, because he explained that he killed the women in self-defense, though how he expected anyone to buy that is baffling. When Christie's trial began that June, his lawyers thought the same and argued that he was not guilty by reason of insanity. Their client was unwell, they said, and the murders were the product of a disturbed and troubled mind. Despite their best efforts, the jury was unconvinced by the lawyer's arguments.

After a four-day trial in just over an hour of deliberations, they announced their verdict, guilty. A month later, in July of 1953, Christy was sent to the gallows. In the years after Christie's execution, there was renewed interest in the conviction of Timothy Evans, and in 1965, an investigation was opened into his trial. The report concluded that Christy, not Timothy, had killed baby Geraldine. And for that crime at least, Timothy was awarded a posthumous pardon. Timothy's trial was one of the principal cases that led to the United Kingdom, abolishing the death penalty a short time later.

Timothy Evans was eventually granted a full pardon in 2003, over 50 years after his death. Eventually, Christie's flat on Rillington Place was demolished and the street was renamed. In fact, the entire Notting Hill neighborhood, once gray and decrepit when Christy lived there, is now one of the most expensive areas in London. Today, the site of the murders has been transformed into a small garden,

where neighbors can gather and children can play. But no one can quite forget the horrors perpetrated there. By the monster of Rillington Place. Thanks again for tuning in to serial killers. We'll be back soon with an all-new episode. For more information on John Christie, amongst the many sources that 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 assistants by Ron Shapiro, Trent Williamson, Carly Madden, and Joshua Kern. This episode of serial killers was written by Tony Goodman, with writing assistance by Sarah Hussein and Joel Callan. fact-checking by Cara McElene and research by Brian Petrus and Chelsea Wood. Serial killers stars Greg Polson and Vanessa Richardson. Yamava Resort and Casino at San Manuel is California's number one entertainment destination for today's superstars.

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