John Reginald Halliday Christie (April 8, 1898–July 15, 1953) was an English serial killer active in the 1940s and 1950s. He was arrested, tried and hanged for murder in 1953. April 8 is the 98th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (99th in leap years). ... 1898 (MDCCCXCVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... July 15 is the 196th day (197th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 169 days remaining. ... 1953 (MCMLIII) was a common year starting on Thursday. ... Serial killers are individuals who have a history of multiple slayings of victims who were usually unknown to them beforehand. ...

Prior to his arrest, he was involved in one of the most sensational murder trials in British legal history. His fellow tenant Timothy Evans was accused of the murders of his own wife and child, and subsequently convicted of, and executed for, the murder of the baby; many critics have speculated that Christie committed the murders and framed Evans for them. Others have suggested that there could have been two separate murderers living in the same shared house at the same time. While neither Christie's guilt nor Evans's innocence in these particular crimes have ever been conclusively proven, the case sparked massive public outrage, contributed to the suspension of the death penalty in Britain in 1965 (it was later abolished outright). The case remains controversial to this day. Evans was pardoned in 1966. Timothy John Evans (November 20, 1924 – March 9, 1950) was a young man, possibly mentally retarded, who was hanged in the United Kingdom in 1950 for the murder of his infant daughter. ... Capital punishment, or the death penalty, is the execution of a convicted criminal by the state as punishment for crimes known as capital crimes or capital offences. ...

Early life

Born in April 1898 and raised in Halifax, then in the West Riding of Yorkshire, Christie was abused by his father and dominated by his mother and sisters. His one happy childhood memory, at the age of eight, was seeing his grandfather's corpse as it lay at rest in the family home; he felt powerful in front of the dead, helpless body of a man he had once feared. Halifax can refer to any of several things: // Australia Halifax Bay, North Queensland Canada Halifax Regional Municipality City of Halifax (dissolved city) Halifax County, Nova Scotia (dissolved county) Halifax (electoral district) Halifax International Airport Namibia Halifax Island United Kingdom Halifax, West Yorkshire Halifax (UK Parliament constituency) Halifax bank (formerly building... West Riding could be West Riding of Yorkshire West Riding of Lindsey in Lincolnshire This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Look up Yorkshire in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Child abuse is the physical or psychological maltreatment of a child, often synonymous with the term child maltreatment or the term child abuse and neglect. ...

Christie won a Scholarship to Halifax Secondary School when he was 11. He was a very bright pupil, who excelled particularly at Mathematics and Algebra. He was skilled at detailed work, and it was later found he had an IQ of 128. He sang in the choir and became a scout, but he was unpopular with his fellow pupils. Upon leaving school in 1913, Christie became an assistant cinema projector. The cinema and photography were two interests of his that he would retain for the rest of his life. Scholarship is the pursuit of academic research, whether in the arts and humanities or sciences, and in all such fields means deep mastery of a subject, often through study at institutions of higher education. ... Euclid, Greek mathematician, 3rd century BC, as imagined by by Raphael in this detail from The School of Athens. ... Algebra is a branch of mathematics concerning the study of structure, relation and quantity. ... IQ redirects here; for other uses of that term, see IQ (disambiguation). ... Look up Scout in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Scout can refer to: International Harvester Scout, an SUV Reconnaissance Scouting, the world-wide youth organization Scout rank (Boy Scouts of America) Scout (comic), a comic book from Eclipse Comics. ... Year 1913 (MCMXIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar). ...

By the time he reached puberty, he already associated sex with death, dominance and violent aggression, rendering him impotent unless in complete control. His first attempts at sex were failures, branding him as "Reggie-No-Dick" and "Can't-Do-It-Christie" throughout adolescence. He was a hypochondriac and hysteric however, and often exaggerated or feigned illness as a ploy to get attention. Puberty refers to the process of physical changes by which a childs body becomes an adult body capable of reproduction. ... Impotence or, more clinically, erectile dysfunction is the inability to develop or maintain an erection of the penis for satisfactory sexual intercourse regardless of the capability of ejaculation. ... Adolescence (Latin adolescentia, from adolescere, to grow up) is the period of psychological, social, and physical transition between childhood and adulthood (gender-specific, manhood or womanhood). ... Hypochondria (or hypochondriasis, sometimes referred to as health anxiety or health phobia) is a somatoform disorder in which one has the unfounded belief that one is suffering from a serious illness. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

Christie enlisted as a signalman in World War I, during which he was hospitalised after a mustard gas attack, claiming to have been blinded. No record of his supposed blindness exists however; in Christie's biography, 10 Rillington Place, author Ludovic Kennedy wrote that Christie exaggerated his blindness, as well as the three-year period afterward in which he was mute. Combatants Allied Powers: Russian Empire France British Empire Italy United States Central Powers: Austria-Hungary German Empire Ottoman Empire Bulgaria Commanders Nikolay II Aleksey Brusilov Georges Clemenceau Joseph Joffre Ferdinand Foch Robert Nivelle Herbert H. Asquith D. Lloyd George Sir Douglas Haig Sir John Jellicoe Victor Emmanuel III Luigi Cadorna... Airborne exposure limit 0. ... 10 Rillington Place, Ladbroke Grove, Notting Hill, London, was the site of the crimes of John Reginald Christie, one of Britains most notorious serial killers, resulting in a miscarriage of justice which contributed towards the abolition of the death penalty in Britain. ... Sir Ludovic Kennedy shown on the cover of his book All In The Mind: A Farewell To God Sir Ludovic Henry Coverley Kennedy (born 3 November 1919) is a British journalist, broadcaster, and author. ... The MUTE Network, MUTE-net for short, is a peer-to-peer and friend-to-friend file sharing network developed with anonymity in mind. ...

Christie married 22-year-old Ethel Simpson from Sheffield, on May 10, 1920. It was a dysfunctional union, as Christie was impotent with her and frequented prostitutes. Friends and neighbours gossiped that she stayed with him out of fear. They separated after four years, when Christie moved to London and Ethel lived with relatives. For other uses, see Sheffield (disambiguation). ... May 10 is the 130th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (131st in leap years). ... Year 1920 (MCMXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday. ... This page is a candidate to be moved to Wiktionary. ...

Over the next decade, Christie was convicted for many petty criminal offences. These included: three months' imprisonment for stealing postal orders while working as a postman on 12 April 1921; nine months in Uxbridge jail in September 1924 for theft; six months' hard labour for assaulting a prostitute (with whom he was living in Battersea) in May 1929; and three months' imprisonment in 1933 for stealing a car from a priest who befriended him. Christie and his wife reconciled after his release in late 1933. He did not reform, however; he continued to seek out prostitutes to relieve his increasingly violent sexual urges, which included necrophilia. April 12 is the 102nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (103rd in leap years). ... Year 1921 (MCMXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for full calendar). ... Uxbridge is a place in the London Borough of Hillingdon in West London, England. ... Look up September in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... 1924 (MCMXXIV) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar). ... Everyday instance of theft: the bike which fits on this wheel has disappeared. ... Penal labour is a form of the unfree labour. ... Battersea is a place in the London Borough of Wandsworth. ... May is the fifth month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of seven Gregorian months with the length of 31 days. ... 1929 (MCMXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Look up Necrophilia in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Christie and his wife Ethel lived in the ground floor flat of 10 Rillington Place,Ladbroke Grove, Notting Hill, London from December 1938. On the outbreak of World War II, he applied to join the police force and was accepted, despite his criminal record. Assigned to Harrow Road police station, he enjoyed the new respect his position gave him and was hard-working and efficient. He also began an intimate relationship with a woman working at the police station whose husband was a serving soldier. The relationship lasted until December 1943, when he resigned and got another job. The husband caught them in the act and beat Christie up. Floor numbering in a building can cause misunderstandings between speakers of different varieties of the English language. ... An apartment estate in Singapore; such blocks make up the majority of public housing in Singapore. ... 10 Rillington Place, Ladbroke Grove, Notting Hill, London, was the site of the crimes of John Reginald Christie, one of Britains most notorious serial killers, resulting in a miscarriage of justice which contributed towards the abolition of the death penalty in Britain. ... The UK Underground movement in the UK was focussed around the Ladbroke Grove/Notting Hill area of London, which Mick Farren commented was an enclave of freaks, immigrants and bohemians long before the hippies got there (1). ... For the film, see Notting Hill (film). ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000...

Murders

First murders

Christie's first known victim was a mistress, Ruth Fuerst, whom he impulsively strangled during sex in August 1943. In October 1944, he murdered a colleague, Muriel Eady, by promising to cure her bronchitis with a "special mixture" he had concocted, using domestic gas which contained carbon monoxide that would render a person unconscious. Once Eady was knocked out, Christie choked her to death, and raped her. For other uses, see August (disambiguation). ... 1943 (MCMXLIII) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1943 calendar). ... 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ... Bronchitis is inflammation of the bronchi (medium-size airways) in the lungs. ... Carbon monoxide, with the chemical formula CO, is a colorless, odorless, and tasteless gas. ...

The murders of Beryl and Geraldine Evans

Christie buried both Fuerst and Eady in the building's communal garden. Timothy Evans and his wife, Beryl, moved into the top-floor flat of 10 Rillington Place in April 1948, a few months after their marriage. Six months later, on 10 October Evans's wife gave birth to a daughter, whom they named Geraldine. In November 1949, Beryl Evans found out she was pregnant again, but feared they could not afford another child. According to Christie's confession, he promised the couple he could abort the baby. October 10 is the 283rd day of the year (284th in leap years). ... An abortion is the removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus from the uterus, resulting in or caused by its death. ...

On November 8, he used his "special gas" to incapacitate Beryl, whom he strangled and raped. When Evans returned from work that night, Christie told him his wife had died during the procedure, and that they had to hide the body. Both of them could thus avoid being jailed (abortion was illegal in England at the time). Christie then convinced Evans, whom Kennedy describes as a gullible man with an IQ of 70, to stay with a relative in Wales and leave Geraldine in his care. Evans later said he returned to the flat several times to ask about Geraldine, but Christie had refused to let him see her, saying that it was too soon to take her back. November 8 is the 312th day of the year (313th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 53 days remaining. ... This article is about the country. ...

On November 30, 1949, Evans went to the police in Merthyr Tydfil and confessed to accidentally killing Beryl by giving her "abortion pills", and then disposing of her body in a sewer drain. He told the police that, after arranging for Geraldine to be looked after, he had gone to Wales. When police examined the drain, however, they found nothing. When re-questioned, Evans said that Christie had offered to provide an abortion for Beryl. Evans had returned home from work on November 8 to find Beryl dead. He said Christie then disposed of the body and made arrangements for some people to look after Geraldine while Evans laid low. November 30 is the 334th day (335th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 31 days remaining. ... 1949 (MCMXLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1949 calendar). ... Merthyr Tydfil (Welsh: ) is a town and county borough in Wales, with a population of about 55,000. ... November 8 is the 312th day of the year (313th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 53 days remaining. ...

During a search of 10 Rillington Place on December 2, 1949, the police found the bodies of Beryl and Geraldine Evans hidden in the wash house in the back garden. Both had been strangled. When Evans was shown the clothing taken from the bodies of his wife and child, he was asked whether he was responsible for their deaths. He replied that he was. He now confessed to having strangled Beryl during an argument over debts and strangling Geraldine two days later, after which he left for Wales. December 2 is the 336th day (337th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1949 (MCMXLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1949 calendar). ...

This confession, along with other, contradictory statements Evans made during the police interrogation, is often cited as proof of his guilt, although Kennedy says his interrogation was brutal and manipulative. In any event, Evans recanted, and the case went to trial, which began on January 11, 1950. Christie was a key witness for the prosecution, and was instrumental in Evans being found guilty two days later. The jury took only 40 minutes to come to this decision. After a failed appeal on February 20, Evans was hanged on March 9, 1950. January 11 is the 11th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1950 (MCML) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... It has been suggested that Mandate (law) be merged into this article or section. ... February 20 is the 51st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... March 9 is the 68th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (69th in leap years). ... 1950 (MCML) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Murders after the conviction of Timothy Evans

Christie was fired from his job from the Post Office Savings Bank, which he had held for the previous four years, due to the disclosure of his previous criminal offences at Evans's trial. He sank into deep depression and lost 28 pounds. He remained unemployed until August 1950, when found a clerical position with British Road Transport services. He stayed there until December 6, 1952, when he suddenly resigned. Christie claimed to his boss and to his neighbours that he had found a job with better prospects in Sheffield and that he would be leaving London to move there with his wife early in the new year. When his wife disappeared, he claimed his wife had already moved and that he would be following on soon. The Post Office Savings Bank (constructed between 1904 and 1912) in Vienna, Austria, was designed by Otto Wagner and became an important early work of modern architecture. ... Clinical depression (also called major depressive disorder, or sometimes unipolar when compared with bipolar disorder) is a state of intense sadness, melancholia or despair that has advanced to the point of being disruptive to an individuals social functioning and/or activities of daily living. ... December 6 is the 340th day (341st on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1952 (MCMLII) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... For other uses, see Sheffield (disambiguation). ...

In fact, Christie murdered his wife in bed on the morning of December 14, 1952. She was last seen alive two days earlier. The day after he murdered his wife, he altered the date of a letter she had written on the 10th to the 15th, explaining that Ethel had no envelopes so he sent the letter from work. On December 16 he took his wife's wedding ring to a jewellery shop and sold it for £2 10s. A week after that, he sold her watch and wedding band. He kept writing letters to her sister in Sheffield up to early January, claiming that Rheumatism had prevented her from writing. December 14 is the 348th day of the year (349th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1952 (MCMLII) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... -1... Rheumatism or Rheumatic disorder is a non-specific term for medical problems affecting the heart, bones, joints, kidney, skin and lung. ...

On January 8, 1953, Christie sold most of his furniture to a dealer for £12. He kept three chairs, a kitchen table and a mattress to sleep on. On February 2 he forged his wife's signature on an account she had and emptied it for £10, 15 shillings and 2d. After early February, Christie no longer bothered to answer the letters from relatives inquiring after his wife. January 8 is the 8th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1953 (MCMLIII) was a common year starting on Thursday. ... February 2 is the 33rd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ...

Between January 19 and March 6, 1953, Christie murdered three more women — prostitutes he invited back to 10 Rillington Place. Nobody missed Kathleen Maloney from Southampton or Rita Nelson from Belfast, but Hectorina MacLennan was seen with Christie by her boyfriend, Alex Baker. Christie claimed that MacLennan had wandered off and kept up the pretence for two weeks, asking Baker how she was. Baker presumed she had gone back to Scotland. January 19 is the 19th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... March 6 is the 65th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (66th in leap years). ... 1953 (MCMLIII) was a common year starting on Thursday. ... Southampton is a city, unitary authority and major port situated on the south coast of England. ... WGS-84 (GPS) Coordinates: 54. ... Motto: (Latin) No one provokes me with impunity(English) Wha daur meddle wi me? (Scots)[1] Anthem: Multiple unofficial anthems Capital Edinburgh Largest city Glasgow Official languages English, Gaelic, Scots[2] Government  - Queen Queen Elizabeth II  - Prime Minister Tony Blair MP  - First Minister Jack McConnell MSP Unification    - by Kenneth I...

Arrest, trial, and execution

Christie moved out of 10 Rillington Place on March 20, 1953. He defrauded a couple who took up residence by taking £7, or three months' rent money from them, although he was not authorised by the landlord of the property to do so. They were forced to move out within 24 hours. The day he left Rillington Place, Christie booked a room at the King's Cross Rowton Houses under his real name and address. He asked for seven nights, but only stayed for four, leaving on 24 March 1953. March 20 is the 79th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (80th in leap years). ... 1953 (MCMLIII) was a common year starting on Thursday. ... In the broadest sense, a fraud is a deception made for personal gain. ... Kings Cross refers to a district in two places: Kings Cross, London, England Kings Cross railway station, is a major London railway terminus and Kings Cross, New South Wales is a district in Sydney, Australia Kings Cross railway station, Sydney is an underground railway station in Sydney. ... Rowton Houses were a chain of hostels built in London, England by the Victorian philanthropist Lord Rowton to provide decent accommodation for working men in place of the squalid lodging houses of the time. ... March 24 is the 83rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (84th in leap years). ... 1953 (MCMLIII) was a common year starting on Thursday. ...

A few days later, a new tenant discovered the bodies hidden in a wallpapered-over coal cellar in the kitchen. Christie's flat was cold, and the bodies of the dead women had been preserved quite well. Pathological tests later revealed carbon monoxide in their bodies. A nationwide manhunt ensued on March 25. Three days later Christie telephoned the News of the World and arranged to meet a reporter in the dead of night. He offered an exclusive interview and said he would allow himself to be handed over to the police after consuming a meal that included a thick gammon rasher, two fried eggs, baked beans and chips. The meeting never took place because Christie was frightened by the appearance of two policemen as he waited to meet the reporter. He fled, thinking he had been set up. Pathology (in ancient Greek pathos = pain/pation and logos = word) is the study of diseases. ... Carbon monoxide, with the chemical formula CO, is a colorless, odorless, and tasteless gas. ... March 25 is the 84th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (85th in leap years). ... The News of the World is a British tabloid newspaper published every Sunday. ...

During the next week, Christie aimlessly wandered all over London, spending daytime in Cinemas and Cafes. He slept on Park benches at night. By the end of March he had run out of money. The search for him ended on at 9.10 on the morning of March 31 when he was arrested near the embankment at Putney Bridge after being challenged about his identity by a policeman. When asked what his name and address were, he said "John Waddington, 35 Westbourne Grove". He was then asked to remove his hat. The policeman recognized him and asked: "You are Christie, aren't you?" Christie confirmed that he was. When arrested, he had with him his his identity card, a ration book, his union card, an ambulance badge, and an old newspaper clipping about the remand of Timothy Evans, with details about his alleged killings. March 31 is the 90th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (91st in leap years), with 275 days remaining. ... Embankment can be: An artificial slope which can be made out of earth, stones or bricks, or a combination of these. ... Putney Bridge Putney Bridge is a bridge crossing of the River Thames in west London, linking Putney on the south side with Fulham to the north. ...

The next day he was charged with his wife's murder. On April 15, he was charged with murdering the three prostitutes. April 15 is the 105th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (106th in leap years). ...

Whilst in prison, Christie confessed to murdering all the women found in the cellar, as well as Beryl Evans. He maintained though that he did not kill Geraldine Evans.

Christie's trial began on June 22, 1953, in the same court where Evans had been tried. He was on trial solely for the murder of his wife. Christie pleaded insanity and claimed to have a poor memory of the events. The prosecution stated that although Christie may have been sexually perverted, that did not mean that he was insane. The jury agreed and after 22 minutes they found him guilty of murdering his wife. June 22 is the 173rd day of the year (174th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 192 days remaining. ... 1953 (MCMLIII) was a common year starting on Thursday. ... The insanity defense can be used in the U.S. Criminal Court systems, depending on the circumstances of the case. ...

Four days later, on June 29, Christie said he would not appeal against the death sentence. The Home Secretary, David Maxwell Fyfe said on July 13 that he would not grant a reprieve because there were no physical or psychological grounds for doing so. Some MPs tried to postpone the execution so that Christie could talk more about the murders but Maxwell-Fyfe refused to grant this also. Christie was hanged on July 15, 1953, on the same gallows as Timothy Evans, by Albert Pierrepoint. June 29 is the 180th day of the year (181st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 185 days remaining. ... David Patrick Maxwell Fyfe, 1st Earl of Kilmuir (1900-1967) was an important British politician and jurist. ... A Member of Parliament, or MP, is a representative elected by the voters to a parliament. ... July 15 is the 196th day (197th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 169 days remaining. ... 1953 (MCMLIII) was a common year starting on Thursday. ... Albert Pierrepoint (30 March 1905 – 10 July 1992) is the most celebrated member of a Yorkshire family who provided three of Britains Chief Executioners in the first half of the 20th century. ...

Controversy

While Christie neither confessed to nor was convicted of killing Geraldine Evans, public opinion widely considered him guilty, casting serious doubt on to the fairness of Evans's trial and execution. Christie had been a key witness against him; if he did kill Geraldine, then Evans was executed on the basis of perjury. Kennedy argued that it was unlikely that two strangler-murderers were living and killing in the same shared house at the same time, and cites the fact that Beryl's rape had been suppressed at trial; Other critics cite Evans's confession, volatile temper, and motive of wanting to dispose of an unwanted pregnancy. To date, there exists no definitive evidence to prove or disprove either theory. It is unlikely that the exact truth will ever be known. Perjury is the act of lying or making verifiably false statements on a material matter under oath or affirmation in a court of law or in any of various sworn statements in writing. ...

In 1970, the movie 10 Rillington Place was released, based largely on Kennedy's book, starring Richard Attenborough as Christie and John Hurt as Evans. Parts of the film were shot in Rillington Place itself (renamed Ruston Close after Christie's execution), using a similar neighbouring gaslit property, shortly before the entire street was cleared for redevelopment. Sir Richard Samuel Attenborough, Baron Attenborough, CBE (born August 29, 1923) is a prolific English film and stage actor, and Academy Award, BAFTA and three-time Golden Globe winning director, producer and entrepreneur. ... John Hurt as Chancellor Adam Sutler in V for Vendetta. ...

External links

• http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/history/christie/index_1.html Crime Library article on Christie]

See also

• 10 Rillington Place

10 Rillington Place, Ladbroke Grove, Notting Hill, London, was the site of the crimes of John Reginald Christie, one of Britains most notorious serial killers, resulting in a miscarriage of justice which contributed towards the abolition of the death penalty in Britain. ...

Bibliography

• Ramsland, Katherine, "John Christie", Crimelibrary.com
• 10 Rillington Place by Ludovic Kennedy, Victor Gollancz, London, 1965