Many serial killers have childhood issues, and John Christie was no exception. Their parents usually tend to be abnormal, rude, or both, and this can of course lead to the killers they grow up to be.
John Christie himself / Picture Credit: Serial Killer Documentaries on YouTube
While the parents are not always the issue, of course, Christie’s mother does seem to have sparked a hatred of women within her son.
Who was John Christie?
Our focus this week is the British serial killer John Christie, who murdered at least six women, including his wife.
Christie was arrested a number of times and served prison sentences for theft and assault, before becoming a serial killer.
He was arrested and hanged in 1953.
Early life into adulthood
John Reginald Halliday Christie was born in Yorkshire, England, in 1898.
His home was headed by a disciplinarian father and an overprotective mother.
Due to this, Christie grew to be a sexually-dysfunctional, controlling hypochondriac, with an inherent dislike of women.
He left school when he was 15 and during World War One (WW1), served as a signalman.
Christie was involved in a mustard attack that he claimed left him blinded temporarily, and caused muteness which would last for over three years.
Many believe, however, that the muteness was just a plea for attention.
His earlier sexual dysfunction and control issues preluded any normal sexual relations, and he began frequenting prostitutes at 19 years old.
This ‘muteness’ did not prevent his marriage to Ethel Simpson in 1920. His sexual issues and use of prostitutes subsequent his wedding day.
Christie, who became a postman, was sent to prison for stealing postal orders; two years later he was put on probation for his violent behaviour.
He left Ethel around this time and moved to London, leaving his wife behind in Sheffield.
By the age of 29, Christie had been in prison a few times, for differing periods of time.
After spending time inside for car theft, Christie asked his estranged wife to join him in London, which he did in 1933.
He would still pay a visit to prostitutes, however these visits now included acts of necrophilia.
The Christie’s moved into 10 Rillington Place in 1938.
Crimes
Christie’s first known victim was killed sometime in 1943.
Ruth Furest was a 21-year-old Austrian girl who was having an affair with Christie – until he spontaneously strangled her during sex; he then buried her in the communal back garden at Rillington Place.
Christie was disturbingly excited by the thrill Furest’s death brought him, so he took care to plan his next attack.
His 32-year-old neighbour, Muriel Eady, would be the next unfortunate victim.
In November 1944, Christie invited Eady over as he had told her he could help cure some chest pain she’d been having, with the use of a special inhaler. However, the inhaler contained carbon monoxide.
Once she’d passed out, Christie strangled her while raping her; she died during the process. She joined Furest in the back garden.
In 1948, Timothy Evans and his wife Beryl moved into Rillington Place. Sometime after, Beryl gave birth to a baby girl, who they named Geraldine.
Evans had an IQ of around 70, and was a rather impressionable man despite his sometimes aggressive temper.
Evans’ learning difficulties made it hard to hold down a steady job, and a while later when Beryl found out she was pregnant again, she worried that they could not support another child.
Christie claimed to have knowledge of abortions, which were illegal in the UK at this time, and offered to help Beryl.
Beryl unfortunately became Christie’s third victim; she was incapacitated, strangled and violated, which seemed to be the killer’s pattern. Beryl died in November of 1948.
Christie persuaded Evans that his wife’s untimely death was due to septic poisoning via other abortion methods she has tried.
Evans was convinced to go to Wales where his family lived, and Christie had told him he found a couple willing to look after baby Geraldine. She was never seen alive again.
After some time and questions from his mother became frequent regarding Beryl and the baby, Evans, while wishing to protect Christie, said that he had killed his wife accidentally, and dumped her body in a sewer drain.
After police found nothing, Evans changed his story and implicated Christie in the murder of Beryl.
Christie’s house was then searched, and the bodie of Beryl and baby Geraldine were found hidden in the washhouse in the back garden at Rillington Place.
Evans went on trial in January 1950, and due to his defence team not picking up on inconsistencies in both Christie’s and Ethel’s story (which Christie forced his wife to tell), Evans was found guilty and hanged in March, 1950.
In December of 1952, Ethel went missing. Her husband told friends and family different reasons as to why she was not communicating with them. Not surprisingly, Christie had strangled his wife and placed her body under the floorboards in the parlour.
Christie would go on to kill three more women: Rita Nelson, Kathleen Mooney, and Hectorina McLennan, all in 1953.
However, the hunt for Christie began when a tenant, who took over Christie’s flat after he moved out in March 1953, began to renovate the kitchen and found a concealed cupboard with corpses inside.
The killer was apprehended 10 days after the bodies were found. He told police that he killed at least four women, but only in either self-defence (from prostitutes taking advantage) or to give them mercy.
Trial and aftermath
Christie’s trial lasted only four days, and the jury retuned a guilty verdict after deliberating for only one hour and 20 minutes.
Christie was sentenced to death, and was hanged two weeks after his trial in July 1953, at Pentonville Prison in London.
In regard to Evans, an inquiry was conducted in 1965 about his guilt. The inquiry concluded that he strangled his wife but not his daughter, and was granted a posthumous pardon in that same year as he was hanged for the murder of his daughter, not his wife.
Since Christie never admitted to killing baby Geraldine, despite him admitting to the other murders and the fact that her body was found in his house, it seems unlikely that the guilt of Evans will ever be definitively established.
Written by Melissa, who you can follow on Twitter @melissajournal
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