Cold Open

It’s March 24th, 1953, at 10 Rillington Place in Notting Hill, London.

Inside a rundown rowhouse, 43-year-old tenant Beresford Brown taps a nail into a wall with his hammer. To his frustration, though, it slips straight through with almost no resistance. He steps back and shakes his head. All he wants is a small shelf for his radio here. And yet every nail he’s tried refuses to hold.

So, Beresford raps his knuckles against the wall trying to find out the problem. The whole thing sounds hollow, not at all what he expects. So he gives in to curiosity and, reaching for the edge of the wallpaper…

He peels it from the wall. There’s no drywall behind it, just a wooden panel. And in the gaps around its frame, Beresford can see that there’s a dark alcove. Curious, he finds a flashlight and shines it inside.

The beam lands on a woman’s back.

Beresford stumbles backward, his breath catching in his chest. When he regains his composure, he looks closer. The woman is seated upright, her back to him, her head slumped forward over her knees. And what looks like a thin blanket is draped across her bare shoulders, but her skin is gray. And she’s clearly dead.

For a moment, Beresford can barely move. His mind refuses to make sense of what his eyes are seeing. Then he inches closer, casting the light farther back into the alcove.

But the flashlight slips from his fingers when he catches sight of what’s next. There’s not just one body, but two.

When police arrive on the scene, the horror only gets worse. Hidden farther back in the same alcove is a third woman’s body. Then, they uncover a fourth beneath some loose floorboards in the front room. But even this isn’t the end of the horrors connected to this house—the full extent and crimes of serial killer John Christie won’t be understood for days after his victims were first uncovered on March 24th, 1953.

Introduction

From Noiser and Airship, I’m Lindsay Graham, and this is History Daily.

History is made every day. On this podcast—every day—we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world.

Today is March 24th, 1953: The John Christie Murders.

Act One: The Framing of Timothy Evans

It’s late 1949 at 10 Rillington Place in Notting Hill, London, three years before bodies are discovered inside.

25-year-old Timothy Evans storms through the tiny top-floor apartment, slamming the bedroom behind him. His wife, Beryl, throws the door back open and chases after him, screaming that they’re not done talking yet. She needs him to listen to her.

The Evanses are a young couple who’ve been having the same argument for days. Timothy and Beryl already have a 13-month-old daughter named Geraldine. And now, Beryl is pregnant again.

The two love their daughter very much, but they can barely make ends meet on Timothy’s salary as a truck driver. Another child will mean another mouth to feed, another expense they can’t meet, and another weight pressing down on an already stressful marriage.

Timothy insists they’ll manage. But Beryl can’t see how they would. As the argument escalates, their voices rise, and shouts echo through the thin walls of the house, spilling into neighboring apartments for other tenants to hear. Finally, Beryl goes quiet. Because she knows what she has to do. It’s illegal, and might even be dangerous, but she doesn’t care.

She's going to seek an abortion.

Once she says it out loud, Timothy can see there’s no changing her mind, but he urges her not to speak to anyone else until they’re sure this is what they want to do. But Beryl doesn’t listen. Instead, she turns to the man living in the downstairs apartment—John Christie.

Christie is 50 years old. He’s balding, wears glasses, and speaks in a near whisper, supposedly due to a throat injury he suffered during World War I. He worked as a volunteer police officer during World War II, and he and his wife, Ethel, have lived at 10 Rillington Place for years. To the Evanses, he’s always seemed like a father figure, respectable and trustworthy.

And when Beryl confides in him, Christie tells her that he has medical experience and will be able to help. Beryl believes him, and they agree that Christie will perform the abortion in a few days’ time.

But Christie harbors a secret past—and it has nothing to do with being a doctor. Six years ago, in 1943, he murdered a nurse named Ruth Fuerst. A year after that, he killed Muriel Eady, a former work colleague. Both bodies were buried in the backyard under the cover of darkness. And now, Christie has his eyes set on his next victim—his young neighbor, Beryl.

And later that week, Beryl's husband, Timothy, returns home from work, desperate for news on how the abortion went. But when he opens the door to his apartment, only Christie stands there, his head bowed. He has tragic news. He tried to perform the abortion, but there were complications. And Beryl didn’t survive.

Christie takes Timothy to see his wife’s body. But doesn’t give him much time to grieve. Instead, Christie urges Timothy to disappear for a while. Suspicion is sure to fall on him after his wife’s sudden death, and it would be better if he lay low for a while. Christie then offers to dispose of the body for him. And as for their daughter Geraldine, Christie suggests arranging an adoption since she no longer has a mother to look after her. Christie even offers to take Geraldine in himself until a new family can be found.

At first, Timothy takes Christie’s advice. He entrusts Geraldine to him and travels home to Wales. But there, he is racked with guilt. After several weeks, he walks into a Welsh police station and admits that his wife, Beryl, died from a failed illegal abortion in London.

Investigators, though, quickly pick apart Timothy’s story. Under questioning, he confesses that John Christie was the man who performed the abortion. But when officers search the house, they discover Beryl’s body in the outdoor wash-house with bruising on her neck and face. And she’s not the only victim they find. One-year-old Geraldine’s body is in the wash-house too. Both of them have been strangled. Police interrogate John Christie about the deaths, but he claims to have no idea how the bodies got there—and even though Christie and his wife are the only ones with access to the locked wash-house, the police believe him.

This is because detectives are already sure they know who actually did it—and after hours of further questioning, an emotional Timothy confesses to killing both his wife and child.

Later, he will recant, saying the confession was coerced. But by then it will be too late. Timothy will be officially charged with the murders of both his wife and daughter—and soon he’ll be fighting for his own life.

Act Two: Christie Runs Rampant

It’s January 11th, 1950, at the Old Bailey courthouse in London, around a month after Beryl Evans and her daughter, Geraldine, were found dead.

From the defendant's seat, Timothy Evans bows his head as a court official calls John Christie to the stand. Timothy is visibly shaking. He’s on trial for murdering his wife and one-year-old daughter, and he’s unsure if he’ll be able to keep his emotions in check. But as Christie is sworn in on the stand, Timothy forces himself to meet the eyes of his former neighbor—the man he’s sure is the real killer.

But across the room, Christie sits still. He calmly answers the prosecutor’s questions. And speaking in a near whisper, he explains how he often heard Timothy and Beryl shouting in their upstairs apartment. He says their arguments went on for hours. And in Christie’s telling, Timothy was violent and unstable, and it was only a matter of time before he snapped.

During cross-examination, Timothy’s lawyer reveals to the court that Christie has a criminal record himself—he’s been convicted of theft and assault. The defense hopes that these details will give the jury a reason to doubt Christie’s testimony, as Timothy has maintained his innocence since the beginning of the trial. And when it comes time for the defense to speak, Timothy's legal team claims his confession was coerced by police investigators. And they return again and again to the idea that there is another suspect who has been overlooked, John Christie.

But their arguments don't land, and the jury believes the prosecution’s version of the story. After just 40 minutes of deliberation, they find Timothy guilty. And there can be only one punishment for such a crime, and less than two months later, on March 9th, 1950, Timothy Evans is hanged at Pentonville Prison in London.

As far as the British legal system is concerned, justice has been served. Only John Christie knows the truth—that the real killer is still out there, and he’s living at 10 Rillington Place.

And more than two years later, he strikes again. This time, Christie’s victim is someone close to him. On December 14th, 1952, he strangles his wife Ethel in bed. Then he pries up the floorboards in the living room, before lowering her body into the shallow space beneath. When he replaces the boards, he carefully aligns them so they look untouched. The only evidence that they’ve moved is that they’re a little loose.

And the next time Christie sees one of his neighbors, he casually mentions that Ethel has gone to Birmingham to care for her sick father. No one has any reason to doubt him.

But with Ethel no longer in his way, Christie’s killing accelerates. One month later, he lures Rita Nelson to his apartment. She’s a sex worker who is six months pregnant, but that doesn’t stop Christie from poisoning her with carbon monoxide and then strangling her. Then, in February 1953, he does the same to another woman, Kathleen Maloney. And just days later, he strikes again, killing Hectorina MacLennan.

As with his earlier victims, Christie hides the bodies around his home. This time, he doesn’t choose the garden, or the wash-house, or under the floorboards. Instead, he stuffs all three bodies into an alcove in his kitchen. He blocks up its entrance with a wooden board and wallpapers over the top. But Christie soon decides that he can no longer share a house with his victims.

And a few days after his final murder, Christie illegally sublets his apartment and promptly disappears. It doesn’t take long for the landlord to discover what he’s done, though. And he kicks out the unauthorized tenants. And while he advertises for new occupants, he allows the man who lives upstairs to use Christie’s old kitchen. Beresford Brown then discovers the hidden alcove and its gruesome contents. He contacts the police, who soon discover Ethel Christie beneath the floorboards, as well as two more bodies buried in the backyard.

The Metropolitan Police launches an intense manhunt for Christie. Detectives share his photograph with the newspapers and ask the British public for their help in finding him before he flees the country.

But John Christie has not even left London.

He’s just keeping a low profile, drifting from place to place. He visits cafes. He sits in cinemas, watching movies among strangers in the dark.

And for a few days, he gets away with hiding in plain sight like this. But his luck will soon run out, and the murderous campaign of one of Britain’s most notorious serial killers will finally be put to an end.

Act Three: The Constable and the Killer

It’s 9 AM, on March 31st, 1953, near Putney Bridge, London, a week after bodies were discovered at John Christie’s home.

Police Constable Thomas Ledger walks his beat along the Thames, his footsteps matching the sluggish flow of the river. Though cars and buses roll slowly over the bridge above, the riverside path is quiet and deserted—all except for one man standing near the water’s edge.

He’s poorly dressed, his coat hanging loose around his slumped shoulders. He isn’t looking at the water so much as through it.

So, Constable Ledger asks if the man is all right. The man turns, startled, and then nods. Ledger presses a bid, asking if the man is looking for work. And he says yes, but explains that he’s waiting on his unemployment papers. He gives his name as John Waddington, but has no identification to prove it.

That's when Constable Ledger notices something and asks the man to remove his hat. The moment the brim lifts, Ledger recognizes him. For the past few days, this man's face has been everywhere—in newspapers, on posters, on bulletins in the police station. And there’s no mistaking it now.

The man in front of Constable Ledger is John Christie.

Ledger places a firm hand on Christie’s shoulder and informs him that he’s under arrest. Christie doesn’t argue or try to run. He simply complies, as if he’s been expecting this moment all along.

Then, later, under questioning by police, Christie admits to murdering seven women, including his wife, Ethel. He’s sentenced to death and executed on July 15th, 1953. By the same executioner that hanged Christie’s neighbor, Timothy Evans, just three years earlier.

And thirteen years after this death, the British government will announce that Timothy Evans has been posthumously pardoned. Now there is clear that John Christie was the real killer of Beryl and Geraldine Evans.

Timothy's body will be exhumed from its grave at Pentonville Prison and returned to his family for a private burial. By then, Britain will have effectively abolished the death penalty. But the change came too late for Timothy. And the terrible injustice he suffered was only revealed when John Christie’s killing spree came to light after the discovery of bodies at his former home on March 24th, 1953.

Outro

Next on History Daily. March 25th, 1807. After decades of campaigning, the British Parliament passes a law making the slave trade illegal.

From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham.

Audio editing by Muhammad Shahzaib.

Sound design by Mollie Baack.

Music by Thrumm.

This episode is written and researched by Alex Burns.

Edited by Scott Reeves.

Managing producer Emily Burke.

Executive Producers are William Simpson for Airship and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.