| Bible John | |
|---|---|
| Killings | |
| Number of victims: | 3 |
| Span of killings | 22 February 1968–30 October 1969 |
| Country | Scotland |
| Date apprehended | Unapprehended |
Bible John is the nickname of a serial killer who is thought to have operated in Glasgow, Scotland, in the late 1960s. Three murders were attributed to him, but it is not clear if they were the work of the same person.
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On 23 February 1968, the body of 25-year-old Patricia Docker was found in Carmichael Place in Glasgow. She had been strangled. The previous night, she had told her parents that she was going out dancing at a nearby club, the Majestic Ballroom in Hope Street, Glasgow. Patricia did, in fact, go to the Barrowland Ballroom for the over-25s night. It was not until about eight weeks after Docker's killing that the police found out that she had actually gone to the Barrowlands. By that time, memories had faded.
On 15 August 1969, mother of three, Jemima McDonald, 32, also went for a night out at the Barrowland Ballroom. The next day, Jemima's sister Margaret, heard rumors in the area that young children playing in an old tenement building in MacKeith Street had seen the body of a woman but the claims were dismissed by most people. By the Monday morning, Margaret was so concerned that she herself went to the old building where she found Jemima's battered body. She had been strangled, raped and beaten to death. Witnesses said that they had seen her leaving the club at midnight with a tall, slim young man with red hair.
On 31 October 1969, 29-year-old Helen Puttock was found murdered in Earl Street in Scotstoun. She had also been to the Barrowland Ballroom on the night she went missing; she had gone there with her sister, Jean, and had met two men called John. One said he was from Castlemilk, the other did not disclose where he was from. After being in their company for well over an hour, they left to head home. Castlemilk John headed to George Square to get a bus, while Helen, Jean and "Bible John" got into a taxi. They crossed the city to the Scotstoun area where Jean got out. The taxi then continued to Earl Street in Scotstoun where Helen lived. The next morning, Helen's battered body was found in the back garden of her flat in Earl Street. She had been raped and strangled. The contents of her handbag had been scattered nearby but the actual bag was missing. It has been suggested that the killer took the bag as a trophy. Grass stains on Helen's feet indicated that there had been a struggle in which Helen probably tried to escape her killer but he had overpowered her easily. She had a deep bite mark on her leg.
The suspect was described by Helen's sister Jean as being a well-dressed young man, tall, slim and with reddish/fair hair, and described as being polite, well-dressed and well-spoken. She said the stranger had given his name as "John Templeton" or "Sempleson" and that he had frequently quoted from the Bible. He was reported to have said: “I don’t drink at Hogmanay, I pray,” and to have referred to Moses and his father’s belief that dancehalls were “dens of iniquity”.[1]
Although Helen's sister Jean said that Bible John was "slim, tall with reddish/fair hair", the bouncers at the Barrowland Ballroom dismissed her description and said that the man Helen left with was "short, well-spoken and had jet black hair". This is more believeable as Jean was highly drunk the night of the murder and it has already been proved that the killer didn't quote directly from the Bible, but referred to it. He was heard commenting by one witness that the Barrowland was a "den of iniquity".
The last possible sighting of Bible John was of a well-dressed young man in a dishevelled state with possible scratch marks on his face, getting off a bus at Grey Street at Sauchiehall Street around 1:30 am. He was last seen heading towards the public ferry to cross the River Clyde to the south side of the city.
The police made a determined effort to hunt for the killer, now nicknamed "Bible John", but although a number of suspects were questioned, no arrests were ever made, and no further victims have been attributed to him. All three victims had been strangled with their stockings, all were menstruating at the time and all three had sanitary napkins or tampons placed on or near the bodies.[2] Their handbags were also missing.
In 1996, police exhumed the dead body of John Irvine McInnes, the cousin of one of the original suspects, from a Lanarkshire graveyard. McInnes, who had served in the Scots Guards, had committed suicide aged 41 in 1981. Police ran a DNA test and compared it with semen found on Helen Puttock's tights and announced it to be non conclusive.
Lord Mackay, then the Lord Advocate, said there was not enough evidence to link the murders with McInnes.
On 12 December 2004, police announced they were to DNA test a number of men in a further attempt to solve the case. This followed the discovery of an 80% match to a DNA sample taken at the site of a minor crime two years earlier.
The 4 May 2007 conviction of Peter Tobin for the murder of student Angelika Kluk led to speculation that he is Bible John.[3] According to a report in The Times, there are striking parallels between Bible John and Peter Tobin. All three of Tobin's former wives gave accounts of being imprisoned, throttled, raped and beaten by him. There are strong similarities between photographs of Tobin when aged in his 20s and the photofit artist's impression of Bible John, and Tobin had moved from Glasgow in 1969 after marrying his first wife, whom he met at the Barrowland ballroom the same year as the killings officially ended. It is alleged that Tobin is driven to violence by the menstrual cycle, something which has long been suspected as the motive behind the Bible John murders. Additionally, Tobin was a Roman Catholic with strong religious views.[2][4]
As a result of Operation Anagram (set up to locate any other potential victims of Tobin) a woman said she had been raped by Tobin after she had met him at the Barrowland Ballroom in Glasgow in 1968 - around the time of the Bible John killings.[5]
In September 2010, the only woman ever to have come face-to-face with Bible John, Jean McLachlan, died aged 74, marking the end of the hunt for the killer.[6][7] McLachlan, who shared a taxi with the mystery killer and her sister Helen Puttock, gave police the description used in the artist's impression, which remains the biggest clue to his appearance more than 40 years later. Although DNA had been used to rule out a previous suspect, detectives believe a DNA link to Tobin is unlikely due to a deterioration of the samples through poor storage.[3]
It is not universally accepted that the three killings were the work of the same person. It has been claimed that the gap of 18 months between the first two killings is unusual with serial killers, the later two may have been copycat killings, and the police may even have hampered their own investigation by prematurely jumping to the conclusion that they were the work of the same person.[8] Professor David Wilson, an expert in criminal behaviour, has stated that the 18 month gap is not unusual following a serial killer's first murder. Wilson investigated the case for three years and believes the available evidence supports that Peter Tobin is Bible John.[4]