TRIAL OF JOHN CHRISTIE

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27074, 24 June 1953, Page 10

TRIAL OF JOHN CHRISTIE

Alleged Confession Of Earlier Murders

INSANITY PLEA BY DEFENCE (NJZ. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 1.30 ami.) LONDON, June 23. John Reginald Halliday Christie, a 55-year-old clerk, accused of murdering four women, confessed in an alleged statement read at his trial in the Old Bailey today to killing two other women in 1943 and burying their bodies in his garden.

In the statement, Christie, who is being tried for murdering his wife, Ethel, said one of the women, an Austrian, went to his flat and he had intercourse with her. Then he strangled her.

According to the police, Christie made the statement while in prison awaiting trial. Some time later he was digging in the garden and came across her skull. He put it in a dustbin he used for burning garden rubbish. The statement said the other woman went to his flat in December, 1943. Christie said he thought that one day when she was alone he mixed an inhalant for her and placed a rubber tube from a gas pipe in the mixture to make her “dopey.” He believed he had intercourse with her and strangled her. Earlier the Attorney-General (Sir Lionel Heald) told the jury at the Old Bailey that there was no “reasonable probability” that grounds existed for an insanity verdict. The alleged murderer, a balding, insignificant-looking. little man, with horn-rimmed glasses, was originally charged with killing his wife and three prostitutes, Rita Elizabeth Nelson, aged 24, Kathleen Maloney, aged 25 and Hectorina McKav Maclennan, aged 25.

Skeletons of two other women were found buried in the garden of his London slum tenement home, 10 Billington place, Notting Hill. Opening the case for the prosecution, Sir Lionel Heald emphasised that under British law a person can be tried for one murder only at a time. With an admission that he did so deliberately, Sir Lionel Heald avoided any direct reference to what he called “other incidents” at 10 Rillington place. “Evidence of Premeditation” Sir Lionel Heald said: “There is every possible proof that he knew he had done wrong, and was making every effort to conceal it. There is even some evidence suggesting that it was premeditated.. It will be my duty to submit that no matter whatever evidence is called , for the defence, it cannot overcome those facts.” The facts relating to Mrs Christie’s death gave the jury “no alternative but to find him guilty of wilful murder,” he said.

Mrs Christie was last seen alive in Billington place some two or three weeks before last Christmas. Fourteen and a half weeks later Mrs Christie’s body was found under the floorboards in the front room of her home. A pathologist reported that death was due to asphyxia, obstruction of the breathing passage, and later said his findings were consistent with the application of something bound around her neck. The date of death was up to 15 weeks before.

“Series of Deceits and Lies” Sir Lionel Heald said that Christie resorted to a deliberate series of deceits and-lies, and eventually forgery, designed to conceal his wife’s death. Christie gave up his job as a transport clerk, sold a gold wedding ring and a woman’s gold wrist watch on December 17. 1952. When the body was discovered Mrs Christie’s wedding ring was missing. All. this was done for the purpose of avoiding suspicion among the relatives and neighbours or anyone who wanted to know what had happened to her. , ~ A letter written by Mrs Christie to her sister, Mrs Bartie, in Sheffield, appeared at first sight to be dated December 15, 1952, the day after the alleged murder, but it was originally December 10, 1952, and had been altered to December 15. It seemed “clear that Christie intended the letter should convey that Mrs Christie was still alive on December 15, 1952.” Shortly before Christmas Mrs Bartie received a letter from Christie in which he stated that his wife had asked him to send Christmas cards for her ‘as her rheumatism in her fingers is not so good just now.” Christie added in the letter: ”1 am rubbing them for her and it makes them easier. We are in good health now, and as soon as, Ethel can write she is going to send a letter. I hope you like the presents she selected for you.” At the top he wrote: • “Don t worry, she is O.K, I shall cook the Christmas dinner.” The Attorney-General said there was no truth in Christie’s statement that a doctor had attended his wife for rheumatism. “It was just an invention again for the purpose of allaying anxiety.” Explanation to Neighbours Christie told a neighbour, Mrs Rosiua Swan, on December 19, 1952, that he had got a job in the north and his wife bad gone ahead to Sheffield to make preparations. Christie later showed Mrs Swan what was purported to be a telegram stating that his wife arrived safely in Sheffield.

A week after Christmas, Christie told two other neighbours his wife was in Birmingham. Christie wrote a letter to his wife’s bank in Sheffield purporting to be signed by her. The Attorney-General said that Christie forged the signature on the letter which asked for the account to De closed and the proceeds sent to Mrs Christie. The bank manager was deceived and sent £lO, deceiving in return a receipt signed “Ethel Christie.” From October onwards Christie was

putting disinfectant down the drain outside the house, and in February he was putting down a substantial quantity of disinfectant in the house itself and in the passages. In March Christie Jet the flat to Mr and Mrs Reilley. Alleged Statement to Police In a voluntary statement to the police after his arrest, Christie said that his wife had been suffering from persecution and assaults from black people living in the house. The statement added: “On December 14, I was awakened at 8.15, sat up and saw that she appeared to be convulsive. Her face was blue and she was choking. I did what I could to, try to restore breathing, but it was hopeless. It appeared too late to call assistance, that is when I could not bear to see her so. I got the stocking tied it around her neck to put her to sleep. I saw a small bottle and a cup half full of water on a small table near the bed. I noticed that the bottle contained two phenobarbitone tablets. It originally contained 25. Then I knew she must have taken the remainder. “I left her in bed for two or three days. I did not know what to do. Then I remembered some loose floorboards in the front room.” The statement said that he put the body in a depression under the floorboards and covered it with earth.

After reading Christie’s statement the prosecutor told the jury that there was no such thing known to the law as a mercy killing. “If you accepted Christie’s statement in full; even if you came to the conclusion that he was a merciful man, that would not assist.”

'Hie Attorney-General added that the motive was immaterial. Insanity Plea Defence counsel (Mr Derek CurtisBennett, Q.C.) told the Court the defence would be insanity. He said: “I should have thought it would have been proper, in fairness, to put the four murders before the Court.” He added that to establish insanity, he was entitled to go into whatever matters he liked—Christie’s life and anything else he thought relevant in order to reach the conclusion that he was insane on the day Mrs Christie was alleged to have been murdered. Mr Curtis-Bennett revealed that Christie had a minor criminal record. He told the Court that Christie had served prison terms for theft, false pretences and malicious wounding between 1921 and 1929. He also brought forward evidence that after being gassed in World War I, Christie had lost his voice and his sight had been affected. Earlier Trial Recalled There was a stir among the gallery when he raised the name of Timothy John Evans, who was hanged in 1950 ior the murder of his wife and daughter, who lived in the same house as Christie. Christie was then a prosecution witness against Evans. Mr Curtis-Bennett questioned ChiefInspector Albert Griffin about these deaths. The witness admitted that Mrs Evans had been strangled, that her hubsand Timothy Evans., a semiliterate labourer, had made conflicting statements, one of which said that Christie was responsible for the death of Mrs Evans, but the other was a confession. In the Old Bailey, where Evans was afterwards found guilty of murdering the child, the suggestion had been made that either Christie was responsible or knew more than he had said about the killing. Mr Curtis-Bennett asked the witness: “Is this a fair question? When that trial of Evans was going on—in this very Court—there werq lying in all probability in the garden of No. 10 Rillington place, two skeletons noone knew anything about?” The detective answered: “Quite probably.”