How lightly, a middle-aged man turns London Terrace into a grave | UK News

The dilapidated facade of 10 Rillington Place looks like any other terrace on a west London street. However, behind the front door is a haunted house, with bodies hidden in the garden, under floorboards and even in kitchen cupboards.

Now long since disbanded, the Notting Hill address was the home of serial killer and former clerk and special constable John Christie, who attacked and killed seven women in the area over a decade.

He and his wife Ethel first moved into the flat at the address in the 1930s, where the couple are believed to have had a difficult marriage. Christie has spent time in prison for petty crimes and assaults, and is fond of sex workers.

However, his criminal ways turned deadly in 1943, when Ethel went to live with relatives.

Christie’s first victim was Ruth Fuerst, an Austrian nurse, who also made money as a sex worker. When their paths crossed, Christie invited them back to the flat. After locking him in his house, he strangled Ruth and buried her body in the garden.

According to the Watford Observer, Christie would later write in a statement that he ‘experienced a strange and peaceful sensation’ during the act, because the only way to achieve sexual power was with a helpless victim.

A year later Christie claimed his second victim. This time, there was a friend named Muriel Eady. Suffering from bronchitis, he visits her after Christie claims that he has medical training and knows how to relieve chest complaints.

Christie persuades Muriel to give her an infusion potion to help her breathe, not knowing that it is actually a mixture of carbon monoxide gas and balsam.

When Muriel died, Christie was raped and strangled with a stocking, then buried in her garden, near Ruth’s place.

It would be five years before he killed again – but this time Christie took two lives: neighbor Beryl Evans and baby Geraldine.

Beryl and her husband Timothy have moved from Wales, with their one-year-old daughter, to the flat above Christie and Ethel at 10 Rillington Place. The couple is said to be a volatile couple who struggle to pay the bills and fight in public.

When Beryl becomes pregnant unexpectedly, Christie offers an abortion, against her husband’s wishes.

Already 16-weeks pregnant, she took him up on the termination offer, but did not do it, it is believed that Christie administered another lethal dose of carbon monoxide and raped Beryl when she was unconscious.

Then he killed her and her daughter Geraldine.

When Timothy returns from work to find her lifeless body, he panics and flees to Wales, before inadvertently confessing to the police that he accidentally killed his wife and child.

Timothy told officers he’d hidden Beryl’s body in the drain at 10 Rillington Place, but a search came up empty. After checking the washhouse in the courtyard, he found a large package behind the dark recess of the sink, which was wrapped in a tablecloth and tied with a cord.

Inside was the rotting body of Beryl Evans, while tucked under a pile of wood was little Geraldine. Both had been strangled, and the man’s tie was still around the baby’s neck.

Timothy then confessed four more times, each time with different details, while Christie, who gave evidence in court, told the prosecution that he heard bumps and scrapings from the flat above, as if the body was being dragged.

This is the most controversial and debated case of the 20th century. Despite conflicting stories, Timothy was found guilty of murder and hanged in March 1950.

Christie wept in the dock as the sentence was read out – although it was unclear whether this was through relief, or an attack of conscience.

But what drove him to commit such a heinous crime in the first place – why let the innocent take the blame?

According to Crime expert and former senior detective, David Swindle, some people are born with bad traits.

David, who led Operation Anagram, the investigation into Scottish serial killer and sex offender Peter Tobin, told Metro: ‘There are definitely bad guys out there. Their eyes were open. Tobin’s eyes were black – there was a void inside.

‘But you can’t stereotype. Many murderers lead normal lives. Many of these people – like Ian Brady and Peter Tobin – integrate into society. And that’s how they get away with killing. He is organized, cunning and knows what he is doing.

‘She’s controlling, conniving, can be charming and can be clever,’ added David. ‘That is the great thing about the individual. But what does the killer look like? You can’t talk.’

Indeed, Christie manipulates Timothy into a perfect alibi and uses the veil of respectability to protect himself.

The Welshman, who was already very emotional, was interrogated throughout the evening and morning by detectives. Some experts, such as criminologist Dr Harriet Pierpoint, suggest police pressure and a state of shock caused Timothy to give a false confession.

Compared to Timothy Evans, who had a reputation for drinking and hot-headedness, the real killer – with a background as a reserve Constable in the war – looked perfectly innocent.

Meanwhile, Christie and Ethel’s difficult marriage takes a turn for the worse.

Suffering from hypochondria and having lost his job as a clerk two years after Timothy was hanged, Christie strangled his wife in front of him in the early hours of December 14, 1952.

Ethel lay there for two days before her husband wrapped her in a blanket and pushed her onto the damp, rotten floorboards of their house. The next day, Christie sends a letter written to her sister to cover her tracks.

But he still wasn’t done with his murderous reign of terror.

In 1953, Christie claimed his last three victims, all within seven weeks: 25-year-old Rita Nelson, who was pregnant; Kathleen Maloney, a 26-year-old sex worker; and Hectorina Maclennan, 26, who had been friends with Christie’s boyfriend.

All three women were gassed and raped, before the killer hid their bodies in a kitchen cupboard.

But how did he get away with it for so long? As unthinkable as his crimes were, post-war Britain lacked the surveillance or forensic capabilities that the service now has, and when Evans was hanged, Christie may have felt invisible.

David said: ‘The police didn’t have the technology we have now. You don’t have CCTV, but today, we are the most surveilled country in the world. You can’t do anything without leaving a trace these days. If Christie were operating today, he would be caught in no time.’

By March 1953, the death house on Rillington Place had become a graveyard for seven women and babies Geraldine and Christie had no choice. Without a job, he had no income, and after selling his wife’s jewelry and most of his furniture, he rented a house and left for good.

It is the new tenant, Beresford Brown, who will make a grisly discovery. Disgusted by the smell and filth in the flat, he starts to clean Christie’s kitchen, only to find Ethel’s decomposed body under the floor.

The police were called and Christie became the most wanted man in the country.

He was arrested in London on 31 March 1953 after being discovered by the police and tried at the Old Bailey – the same court where he testified against Timothy Evans. The police immediately conducted a search of Rillington Place and with the body they found potassium cyanide and lead pubic hair.

Although Christie pleaded insanity, he was found guilty and sentenced to death.

In sentencing, the judge told him: ‘John Reginal Halladay Christie (you will) be taken from this place to a lawful prison and then to the place of execution. And here you will be hanged by the neck until you die. And your body will be buried in the prison precincts, which will be the last confinement before the execution. May God bless your soul.’

Christie was hanged on July 15 of the same year, while 200 people waited outside the gates.

For David Swindle, the death penalty is not the answer. Not only are the police and the justice system wrong, the death penalty can prevent families from knowing the truth.

The Christie case is a classic example. Most serial killers do not admit what they have done. He likes to keep power,’ she explained.

Indeed, the John Christie case was a turning point for the British public. Timothy Evans has been hanged for a crime that shows the inherent flaws in the punishment.

Just over a decade later, in 1965 the death penalty was finally overturned and Evans was granted a posthumous pardon the following year.

Rillington Place was renamed Runton Close in an attempt to shake off its grisly past, but in 1978 the entire street was demolished.

Today, Bartle Road and Andrews Square stand on the former burial site, while modest red-brick terraced houses fill the tree-lined streets – no hint of the gruesome crime committed years ago.

Do you have a story you want to share? Get in touch by emailing Claie.Wilson@metro.co.uk

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