Latest / 10 Minute Murder | Bingeable True Crime Stories / The Dark History of 10 Rillington Place: John Christie's Reign of Terror

Transcript

The Dark History of 10 Rillington Place: John Christie's Reign of Terror · 10 Minute Murder | Bingeable True Crime Stories

• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Derelict, desolate and still ravaged from the constant raids and
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: bombings of the World Wars. Number ten Rillington Place was
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: a desperate home for desperate people. Jutting out from the
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: war torn street of notting Hill in London. Rubble refuse
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: and even human remains were a common sight for those
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: unfortunate enough to call this three story house home. Each
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: floor had been broken up into a separate apartment, with
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: no bathrooms and only a common outhouse at the end
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: of the garden. There was nowhere for people to wash,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: and for those on the third floor there wasn't even
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: a kitchen. This would be the homestead of one of
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: the most disturbing serial killers Britain has ever known. His
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: name was John Reginald Halliday Christie, although he often went
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: by Reggie. He was born on April eighth, eighteen ninety
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: nine in Halifax and was the sixth out of seven children.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: His father, Ernest John Christie, was a strict disciplinarian who
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: didn't believe in showing his wife or his children affection.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: Growing up, punishments and beatings were in no short supply
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: for John Christie, but strangely enough, the same could also
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: be said for loving attention. John's mother and his older
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: sisters absolutely adored him and overcompensated for the punishments his
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: father would dole out by doing their best to spoil John.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: It was a confusing and troubling home to grow up in,
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: but by his own admission, the defining moment of John's
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: childhood had been the death of his maternal grandfather, David Halliday.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: David had been a contemptuous man, even quicker to anger
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: than John's father, Ernest. John had once been completely terrified
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: of him, But after watching David slowly deteriorate and eventually
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: die from being ill, John was in heaven. The man
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: he had so greatly feared his whole life was dead,
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: and there was John, young, fit and healthy, and he
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: had never felt better about himself. John then turned his
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: attention to academics. He won a scholarship to attend a
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: private school, and then one to go to a boarding school,
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: where he sang in the church choir and was a
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: boy scout, a literal boy scout, but socially John was
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: an outcast. Former classmates described him as quote a queer
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: lad who kept to himself and was not very popular.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: This was unfortunately, how many people would see John for
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: the rest of his life. But things only became worse
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: when John tried to get a girlfriend. He had very
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: little success with the ladies, and the girls who did
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: end up giving him a chance usually ended up breaking
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: up with him shortly afterward. This was all allegedly because
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: John had difficulties sexually performing, and once news about this
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: got out, his peers began calling him things like Reggie,
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: no dick, and can't do it, christy and already psychologically delicate.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: Young man was then drafted into the army to go
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: and fight in the First World War. He saw combat,
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: but in June nineteen eighteen, he was critically injured in
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: a mustard gas attack. John later said that even after
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: months of treatment, he was still left blind and mute
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: for three and a half years. However, records show that
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: John was released from the hospital and sent back to
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: the front lines. It's highly unlikely that a soldier who
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: was both blind and mute would be allowed back into
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: combat and not discharged for the military, so we should
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: take these claims by John with a pinch of salt.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: He did, however, return to Halifax in nineteen nineteen, where
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: he met eighteen year old Ethel Simpson. People who knew
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: Ethyl around the nineteen twenties and the nineteen thirties described
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: her as a refined, well bred, and educated young woman
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: who was extremely attractive. She was a talented shorthand typist,
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: and she often found work as a secretary wherever she went.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: This was the woman that John married in nineteen twenty,
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: but only a few years into their marriage, people began
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: describing Ethel as meek, unattractive, and someone who seemed to
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: have a desperate need for male attention. Part of the
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: shift in their marriage had come from a tragic loss
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: the young couple experienced very early on, when Ethel suffered
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: a miscarriage. This traumatic event seemed to drive a wedge
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: between husband and wife. After that, John returned to an
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: old soliciting prostitutes, but when the brief excitement that provided
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: lost its appeal, he began stealing. John was later caught
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: in the act and arrested. He was sentenced to three
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: months in prison. Far from being deterred after his stint
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: in prison, John was convicted again in nineteen twenty three,
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: this time for obtaining money under false pretenses and under
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: the threat of violence. Up until then, Ethel had stood
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: by her wayward husband, but when he was released and
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: moved to London, instead of coming home, she went her
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: own way to There were rumors to explain why Ethel
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: didn't follow her husband, and they said that Ethel was
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: having an affair with her employer, but people who knew
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: the couple at the time didn't put much weight into
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: the gossip. Instead, they pointed the finger at John, at
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: his life of crime, at his constant solicitation of prostitutes,
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: and the rumors that he had stolen from his very
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: own parents as the reason why the couple had parted way.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: On paper and in the eyes of the law, the
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: Christies were still married, but they wouldn't actually see each
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: other again for another ten years. Despite his history, John
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: joined the Royal Air Force and Ethel went to live
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: with her family. During the years, John was in and
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: out of prison and buried thick in a life of crime,
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: but Ethel was desperately trying to rebuild her life with
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: a man who loved her. His name was Vaughan Brindley
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: and he had two goals in life. The first was
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: to become financially stable enough to support a family and
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: The second was to marry Ethel Christie. But when Vaughan
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: stood on Ethel's doorstep proposing to her in nineteen thirty two,
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: she had to come clean. She had told them that
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: her husband, John had died in the war, but as
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: we all know, he was very much alive and living
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: in London. Ethel would first have to find him and
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: then get him to agree to a divorce if she
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: were to ever marry Vaughan. But the second piece of
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: news she had to break to the man standing in
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: her front doorstep had the potential to be a real
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: deal breaker. Ethel discovered that she was unable to have children.
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: The news destroyed Vaughan, who then called off their whole
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: relationship and he left Ethel with her dreams. Also now crushed,
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: Ethel caught wind of John's latest arrest and went to
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: visit him in prison. There, between cold metal prison bars,
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: husband and wife saw each other again for the first
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: time in over a decade. A tentative truce was formed,
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: one where John promised to forego his life of crime,
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: and where Ethel agreed to leave the peaceful and beautiful
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: homes she shared with her family in Halifax and move
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: back in with John. She can't have been overly impressed
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: by the destitute streets of Willington Place, and even less
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: so with the condition of the apartment she was now
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: to live in, but it was a fresh start. She
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: and John occupied the ground floor, which gave them direct
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: access to the garden, and the Christies found a new
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: lease on life. John kept his promise and found steady work,
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: and Ethel was able to catch the train to visit
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: her family in Sheffield whenever she wanted. John would use
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: the time Ethel took to see her family two solicit prostitutes,
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: but this time it seemed like Ethel was at least
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: aware of what he was doing. But what she wasn't
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: aware of is what happened in nineteen forty three when
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: John brought home the twenty one year old Ruth. First,
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: Ruth wasn't to prostitute per se, but worked in a
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: factory and resorted to prostitution when she couldn't make ends meet.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: She'd met John at a bar and had agreed to
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: sleep with him back at his apartment in number ten
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: Rillington Place. There, however, in the throes of passion, John
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: tied a rope around Ruth's neck and strangled her to death.
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: He then buried her under the floorboards in the kitchen
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: and used the cover of darkness the following night to
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: bury her in the communal back garden. In nineteen forty four,
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: he brought home one of his colleagues from work. Thirty
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: one year old Muriel Amelia Edie, suffered from bronchitis, and
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: John claimed that he had the perfect cure. Put a
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: mixture of pungent things into a jar, inserted a tube,
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: and told Muriel that all she had to do was
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: breathe in through the tube. Muriel listened, but she didn't
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: see that John inserted another tube into the jar that
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: connected to the gas pipe in the kitchen. Muriel went
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: out cold. John then sexually assaulted her several times before
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: he strangled her to death. He buried her outside beside Ruth.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: In the meantime, the new neighbors had moved in upstairs.
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: They were both young, both suffered from learning disabilities, and
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: had just had a baby. Timothy Evans was said to
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: be an insecure young man with a wild imagination. He
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: often told stories about himself that made him seem brighter
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: and more exciting than he actually was, but the truth
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: was he had an IQ of only about seventy. He
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: often drank most of his wages away, leaving his eighteen
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: year old wife, Beryl with little to feed herself and
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: the baby. Beryl also struggled with numbers, and whenever the
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: money ran out, Timothy would beat her. John often went
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: upstairs to break up the fights between them, and he
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: was there again when the couple found out that they
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: were pregnant with their second child. With things being as
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: tight as they were, Beryl wanted an abortion, but they
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: were illegal in Britain at the time. Desperate, the young
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: couple turned to John, and John told them that he
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: could perform the procedure for them. During Ethel's next trip
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: to Sheffield to see her family, Beryl made her way
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: downstairs to John's flat, and that was the last time
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: her husband Timothy ever saw her alive. Later that evening,
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: when Timothy went down to check on her, John blocked
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: the door to the apartment and told Timothy that Beryl
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: was dead. He then convinced Timothy to leave town and
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: leave his young daughter, Geraldine behind two Timothy listened, but
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: a short time later, back in his hometown in Wales,
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: Timothy handed himself in to the police and told them
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: that he had accidentally killed Beryl. He said that he
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: had accidentally poisoned her when trying to abort the baby,
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: and that he had put her body in the drain
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: outside of the house. The police investigated his claim and
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: found John at home in Rillington Place, but that was
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: about all they did find. They didn't find Beryl, her daughter, Geraldine, Muriel,
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: or Ruth. They searched the property again on December eighth.
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: This time the bodies of Beryl, Geraldine, and a sixteen
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: week old fetus were discovered in the outhouse back in
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: the yard. An autopsy revealed that both Beryl and Geraldine
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: died from strangulation. It was then that Timothy found out
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: that Geraldine was also dead, and when asked if he
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: was the one responsible for their deaths, he simply replied yes.
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: Timothy was then taken to court, and the star witness
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: against him was none other than John Christie himself. Timothy
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: was found guilty of murdering his wife and daughter and
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: it was sentenced to hang on the thirty first of January. Meanwhile,
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: at number ten Rllington Place, the Christie's had a new
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: upstairs neighbor, but John and Ethel both obviously hated them.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: They were a family of immigrants from the West Indies,
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: and neither of the Christies were very happy about having
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: black neighbors. On December sixth, nineteen fifty two, John then
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: used the excuse of having these neighbors to do something
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: completely despicable. In his own words, quote, my wife has
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: been suffering a great deal from persecution and assaults from
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: the black people in the house number ten Rillington Place,
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: and had to undergo treatment at the doctor for nerves.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: On fourteen December, I was awakened by my wife moving
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: about in bed. I sat up and saw that she
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: had appeared to be convulsive. Her face was blue and
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: she was choking. I did what I could to try
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: to restore breathing, but it was hopeless. It appeared to
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: be too late to call for assistance. That's when I
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: couldn't bear to see her, so I got a stocking
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: and tied it around her neck to put her to sleep.
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: I left her in bed for two to three days
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: and didn't know what to do. Then I remembered some
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: loose floorboards in the front room that I believe I
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: went back and put her in a blanket or a
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: sheet or something, and tried to carry her, but she
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: was too heavy, so I had to sort of half
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: way carry, half drag her and put her in that
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: depression and cover her up with earth. I thought it
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: was the best way to lay her to rest. On
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: January nineteenth, nineteen fifty three, John brought home a twenty
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: five year old Rita Nelson, another prostitute from Belfast, who
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: was pregnant. John told her that he could perform an
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: abortion for her, and Rita agreed to go back with
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: him to his apartment. She inhaled gas from a jar,
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: not knowing that John was pumping gas from the stove
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: into it as well. He then repeatedly assaulted her Before
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: he strangled her to death. He wrapped her in a
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: blanket and hid her in an alcove in the kitchen,
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: which he covered with wallpaper. In February of that same year,
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: John brought Kathleen Maloney, a twenty six year old prostitute
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: from Ladbrook, back to his apartment. He raped, strangled her,
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: and hid her body in the same alcove. About a
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: month later, he struck again. This time he targeted twenty
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: six year old Hectorina mcclennan, who was actually a former roommate.
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: She and her boyfriend had once lived with John for
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: months at Willington Place, and she didn't think anything of
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: being invited back to the same house. After bumping into
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: John on the streets there, she received the same treatment
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: as Rita and Kathleen before her. Almost unbelievably, John then
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: sublet his apartment with four bodies hidden away in the
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: kitchen and even more in the backyard. John moved out
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: of Number ten Rillington Place. One thing then led to another,
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: and the bodies hidden behind the wallpaper in the kitchen
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: were finally discovered. John Christie was arrested, and at first
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: he only admitted to the murders of the women in
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: the alcove and his wife Ethel, But when the skeletons
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: in the backyard were also finally found, he confessed that
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: he'd murdered them as well. He then admitted to killing
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: Beryl Evans too. In court, John was found guilty and
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: sentenced to death for his crimes. On July fifteenth, he
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: was led to the gallows at HM Prison, Pentonville, the
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: same gallows with the same executioner, Timothy Evans had just
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: a few years before his sentence was carried out. Timothy
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: Evans was then posthumously awarded an official pardon. That is
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: ten minute murder for today Brief and binge able True Crime.
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: I'm Joe the host, and you don't have to tell me.
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: Go ahead and click delete on that email that you're
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: typing out to me right now. You don't have to
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: let me know that this episode is not ten minutes long.
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: It's more like fifteen minutes. At this point, I know
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: the time got away from me. I didn't feel like
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: I could cut another five minutes from the story. I
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: wanted to get all of that information in at some point,
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: go back and listen. I picked up the pace substantially
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: because I was like, oh, snap, this is gonna take
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: too long. Merry Christmas, I guess I don't know. You
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: got a bonus today. And that's kind of the way
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna treat this episode. I'm gonna throw it in
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: here on a weekend and there you go. It's an
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: addition to the normal Tuesday Thursday episodes for you. And
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: that's it. That's your episode. Thank you so much for
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: listening to ten minutes fifteen minute murder Bye,