It was Scotland’s greatest unsolved homicide inquiry – the seek for a serial killer who hunted ladies in Glasgow’s dance halls.
Investigative journalist Audrey Gillan got down to inform the story of three forgotten victims killed by the person generally known as Bible John within the Nineteen Sixties. However what she discovered shatters the idea it was the work of a triple assassin.
Her BBC podcast has revealed claims of a police cover-up and incompetence that means Bible John was a fantasy created by senior officers and the media. Cops are finding out the claims. Under, Audrey shares her ideas on the most recent developments.
After I began this, the thought was actually simply to inform the story of the ladies – Patricia Docker, Jemima MacDonald and Helen Puttock.
As a journalist, this was the story that I all the time wished to return to. I’d damaged the information in 1996 that the police had been about to exhume the physique of a person they thought could possibly be Bible John.
That story was on the entrance pages of newspapers however, in case you seemed on the protection, these three ladies who had been killed had been only a sidebar on this large piece. I wished to make amends for that. I wished to make amends for actually not figuring out very a lot about them.
I wished to carry color to the story of them – what music they appreciated, what garments they wore, what gave them pleasure, actually. That was the beginning. I by no means imagined what I used to be doing would result in the police trying once more on the investigation.
I by no means imagined it will go away individuals, together with myself, asking the query: ‘Was Bible John a fantasy?’ I attempted to not be categorical about it.
I wished individuals to hearken to my podcast and make up their very own minds. I’d all the time stored maintain of the police notes that I’d had from 1996. Through the pandemic I used to be dwelling on a small island and received them out.
Studying them once more, the misogyny jumped out at me and made me livid. The ladies who died had been described within the notes as being promiscuous, keen on time or who appreciated to drink – simply because they went to the dancing.
I wished to talk to the individuals they left behind and have a look at the ripple impact of those tragedies. I wished to have a look at the entire legend of Bible John – a chapter that appears to have haunted
Glasgow and definitely has been round all my life. Going by means of my previous notebooks, I began seeing very various things – together with this line that there was a parallel story operating right here, a cracker.
I needed to attempt to persuade the cops who I had spoken to in 1996 that they need to communicate to me once more. I didn’t suppose I'd get them to take a seat down and divulge to me what they meant by “the cracker”.
I’m so grateful that they did – and I’ve additionally had the households of the ladies who died telling me that they're so grateful too. In 1996 the “younger me” believed these three ladies had been killed by the identical man and this man was Bible John.
I believed too that the person they had been going to exhume – John Irvine McInnes – was prone to be the killer. I do know now retired detective chief inspector Jim McEwan and detective Brian Hughes – who labored on the 1996 reinvestigation – consider McInnes was the person who left the Barrowland within the taxi with Helen on the night time she died however they don't consider he was the person who killed her.
And in my head now I don't suppose Patricia, Jemima and Helen had been killed by the identical man. I’m not a detective – however there are too many discrepancies. What hyperlinks them is the Barrowland ballroom. Except for that, they had been all strangled, they had been all menstruating and so they all died near dwelling.
However all that could possibly be coincidental. There’s no actual proof of a hyperlink. Sure, they had been all strangled however, when ladies are murdered, it’s typically the case they're strangled.
There are different issues you might say that make their murders look very totally different. Patricia was discovered bare and her garments had been nowhere to be discovered.
When Jemima was discovered, the 2 pairs of pants she had on had been nonetheless up and absolutely intact – so it doesn’t seem like there had been a sexual encounter. I feel the thought of there being a serial killer was a creation – particularly when you think about that years later the person who headed the 1969 investigation, Joe
Beattie, gave an interview the place he mentioned: “We by no means linked the deaths.” So you need to ask: “What had been you doing then?”
The parable of Bible John – the identify – got here from the police press conferences. The police had been in a panic as initially they did suppose that they had a serial killer. That they had a witness – Helen’s sister Jean. She described a person who referred to as himself John and the way within the taxi they shared dwelling she thought he was quoting from the Bible.
A journalist on the telephone to his information desk mentioned: “I do know what to name this man – Bible John.”
Should you hear in my podcast to the dramatisation of the interview Helen’s sister Jean gave to me, you realise even the Bible ingredient wasn’t that a lot. It simply all ballooned into this large narrative – this man who was choosing ladies off the sting of the dancefloor. I don’t suppose such a fantasy could possibly be created right this moment.
Homicide investigations right this moment depend on DNA and fingerprint proof. They will stay unsolved nevertheless it’s totally different. A police officer would by no means say now: “If I see him, I’ll understand it’s him” – which is what occurred with Beattie on this case.
The officers in 1969 had been too reliant on their eyewitness and, due to that, different issues within the investigation weren’t accomplished. It’s very tough to see how it will be attainable for the police to return now and reinvestigate the whole lot that occurred. However good on them if they are saying they’re going to attempt.
What proof can they have a look at? What proof stays preserved? What cops who had been there are nonetheless alive? What witnesses are nonetheless alive? The shadow of Bible John has hung over Scotland for greater than 50 years. Was all of it only a little bit of a legend that grew legs?
However we are able to always remember that three ladies had been killed, households had been damaged aside and different lives ruined.
Bible John: Creation Of A Serial Killer is on BBC Sounds
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