The Rillington Place Ripper

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In this episode, we delve into the chilling case of John Reginald Christie, a notorious serial killer whose heinous crimes shook London in the mid-20th century.  Join us as we navigate the sinister world of the sex strangler of Notting Hill, a seemingly unassuming neighbor whose true nature proved to be far more sinister. Throughout his reign of terror, Christie preyed upon vulnerable individuals, luring them into his home under the guise of providing safety and solace.  

Location

Our episode today primarily takes place in an area of London, England, known as Notting Hill.  Today, Notting Hill is known for its charming streets, colorful houses, and rich cultural tapestry.  Notting Hill is located in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in West London.  Historically, Notting Hill was known for its working-class population and Victorian-era terraced homes. In the mid-20th century, the neighborhood experienced an influx of immigrants, particularly from the Caribbean, greatly influencing its cultural diversity. Notting Hill has also been immortalized in the 1999 romantic comedy starring Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts entitled Notting Hill.  

The period we are going to focus on is from 1943 to 1954 when Notting Hill’s larger homes were subdivided into multi-occupancy rentals.  Notting Hill during that time was impoverished and afforded those struggling financially cheap accommodations. This is the area in which John Christie was able to operate in plain sight.

Discovery

On the 24th of March 1953, Barrison Brown was a new tenant at 10 Rillington Place and had been working in the kitchen one day attempting to hang a bracket on the wall when he noticed that what he thought was a wall was actually a covered up entryway.  Upon tearing down the wallpaper he discovered an alcove that held a horrifying sight, three bodies wrapped in blankets and shoved into the small space in various positions.

Police were immediately contacted and soon descended upon 10 Rillington Place having for some a sense of deja vu as this wasn’t the first time dead bodies had been discovered there.  An intensive search was immediately conducted on the apartment building which held three flats, a back garden area, and a wash house as there were no bathrooms in the building.  Along with the three female bodies in the alcove, two more skeletal remains were found buried in the garden area and a sixth under the floorboards in the front room of the bottom flat.  This sixth body would turn out to be one of the residents of that flat, Mrs. Ethel Christie.

Where was John Christie, Ethel’s husband?  Police wanted to know and they began one of England’s biggest manhunts.  They also needed to identify the five other victims as none of them had been reported missing.  

Beginnings

John Reginald Halliday Christie was born on the 8th of April 1899, in Halifax, England.  He was one of seven children having four older sisters.  It’s been reported that John’s father was abusive and doled out military-type punishments on his children.  John’s mother fawned over him and was overprotective, as he was said to be her favorite.  His older sisters, well, they are said to have dominated him, often bullying and bossing him around.  Could these early family relationships cause John Christie to develop a deep-seated hatred of women due to feeling inadequate?  

At eight, Christie attended the funeral of his maternal grandfather.  This was the first funeral he had attended, and his grandfather, whom he feared, was lying there in an open casket.  This event is reported to have excited Christie and his fascination with the dead.  It’s been reported that he began playing in graveyards.  

Christie was a bright boy and won a scholarship to Halifax Secondary School at age 11.  Christie excelled at mathematics, specifically algebra, and was skilled at detailed work.  Christie had an IQ of 128.  For comparison, an average IQ is around 100.  Christie also involved himself in church activities singing in the choir and becoming a scout.  He loved the scout uniform and would often wear it like how it made him feel.  However, for all his intelligence and activities, Christie was not popular amongst his peers.  

Christie got the unfortunate nicknames “Reggie-No-Dick and Can’t-Do-It-Chrisite” when he was unable to perform sexually with girls his age.  This was a very humiliating experience for Christie and led to his associating sex with acts of dominance, violent aggression, and death.  Christie had to be in complete control in order to be able to rise to the occasion.  These early experiences of childhood bullying and sexual repression would lay the groundwork for the man Christie was to become.  

Military Service

In 1913, at the age of 14 Christie left school landing a job as an assistant movie projectionist at a local movie theater.  Christie would join the military to fight in WWI (July 1914 to November 1918).  He served as a single man and excelled as he had to be detailed in that position.  While serving in France, Christie was hospitalized after a mustard gas attack.  Christie claimed he had been blinded in the attack although doctor’s could find no reason for the blindness.  It was also around this time that Christie lost his ability to speak.  Again doctor’s could find no medical reason for his inability to speak claiming that these conditions were psychosomatic due to feeling of fear.  

Christie’s inability to speak would last for three years but his hypochondria would last much longer.  Christie began exaggerating or feigning illnesses in order to receive attention.  Soon after regaining his voice Christie at the age of 21 married 22-year-old Ethel Simpson Waddington from Sheffield.  They married on the 10th of May, 1920.  Whereas Christie is described as tall and lean with a quite conspicuous manner, Ethan  is described as being big-boned, plump, sentimental and passive.  

Married Life

This was not a blissful union with Chrisite being impotent and frequently turning to sex workers something he started doing at age 19 in order to satisfy his dysfunctional sexual urges.  Ethel stayed with Christie, some speculate out of fear, but the couple would separate less than a year into their marriage, with Christie moving to London and Ethel staying in Sheffield with relatives.  Ethel made a life for herself, becoming a typist. Their separation would last ten years.  

Christie began another life path, that of a criminal.  On April 12, 1921, Christie began a three-month prison sentence after being convicted of stealing postal orders from his job as a postman.  Christie didn’t stop there, and in September 1924, he served 9 months for theft and another 6 months in May 1929 after assaulting a sex worker who he had been living with in Battersea, hitting her over the head with a cricket bat.  In November 1933, Christie stole a car from a priest that had been helping him out and served another three months.  

Reconciliation

It was after his last stint in prison that Christie wanted to get his life back in some semblance of order and reconnected with Ethel asking to reconcile and move with him to London.  Ethel was now thirty-five years old and lonely and decided to give her marriage another try. Unfortunately,  this would be a fatal mistake.  Nothing changed in the Christie marriage, with John still seeking out sex workers for his increasingly violent urges that now held fantasies of necrophilia. Necrophilia is defined as a sexual attraction or act involving corpses.  

Around this time, Christie was hit by a car soon after the couple arrived in London, which also led to an increase in his hypochondria.  Christie stayed home convalescing and complaining of various ailments.  Over the next fifteen years, he saw two doctors one hundred and seventy-five times.  

10 Rillington Place

In December 1938, John and Ethel moved into the ground floor flat of 10 Rillington Place in the Ladbroke Grove neighborhood of Notting Hill.  10 Rillington Place was a small Victoria house at the end of a row of homes that butted against a factory wall.  It was a gritty area with soot from the nearby chimney stacks covering window sills.  The Christie’s were allowed access to the back garden area being on the ground floor.  

Christie joined the War Reserve Police Department at the start of World War II as a constable and was assigned to the Harrow Road Station.  How did he get the job with his criminal record you may be wondering?  Well, he didn’t tell them and they didn’t look into his background.  Christie loved being back in uniform and all the respectability that came with it.  It is said that Christie took his job seriously enough that he got the nickname the Himler of Rillington Place.  

Christie also used his position to gather favors from the working girls if he turned a blind eye and this also went to the criminal underground.  This was the happiest time of Christie’s life as he finally found the purpose of enjoying once again wearing a uniform and the power it held.  He also began an affair with a female coworker whose husband was off serving in the war.  Their relationship, as well as his job, lasted up until her husband returned home and beat the crap out of him. 

First Up

In August 1943, Ethel had gone to visit her sister in Sheffield.  It was while she was away that Christie employed the services of sex worker Ruth Fuerst aged 21.  Ruth was from Austria and had been in England to train as a nurse.  By the time Christie met Ruth she had been working as a sex worker mostly selling her services to American servicemen.  Once inside Christie proceeded to strangle Ruth. I don’t know if it was during the act of sex or prior to sex but knowing that Christie was only able to rise to the occasion if he was in complete control most likely after.  Once she was deceased Christie had sex with Ruth.  

Afterward, Christie wrapped Ruth up in her leopard skin coat and placed her under the floorboards in the front room.  He left her there for one day and the next night dug a shallow grave in the back garden, moving her there shortly thereafter.  This first murder ignited something in Christie, that act of having the ultimate power over someone’s life.

Next Victim

After leaving his constable position Christie took a job with Ultra Radio Works.  There he met Muriel Amelia Eady, age 32. She is described as a spinster from a respectable family.  Muriel and Christie met in a local cafe and over time she came to trust Christie through their ongoing conversations.   Muriel confided in Christie about a personal health issue involving a condition called Contard.  Contard is a delusion in which a person believes that parts of their body are missing or dying off.  It’s a rare condition with only 200 known cases worldwide.  

Ethel had gone out of town again in October 1944, and that is when Christie invited Muriel over to 10 Rillington claiming that he could help cure her condition with his “special mixture”.  Christie had devised a homemade gas mask that he placed over her mouth and nose releasing carbon monoxide rendering her unconscious. Once unconscious Christie strangled her with a rope then proceeded to have sex with her.   He then buried Muriel in the back garden with Ruth.  

New Victims

 In April 1948, new neighbors moved into the top flat of 10 Rillington Place.  Timothy, 24, and Beryl, 19,  Evans had been married less than a year with Beryl giving birth in October of that year to the couple’s first child, Geraldine. Depending on what you read there are two versions of the Evans marriage. One they were a young in-love couple the other, Timothy was a drinker with a violent temper and the couple often fought.  It didn’t help matters when in November 1949, Beryl discovered she was pregnant.  The couple was barely making it financially.  Timothy drove a van for a living and could barely read and had a 70 IQ so jobs were limited to his ability. The couple was also behind in their payments for the furniture they purchased.   Beryl worked a part-time job and didn’t want to lose it and wanted to terminate her pregnancy.  Timothy wasn’t initially in agreement.

In England at this time abortion was illegal and those looking to terminate pregnancies had to turn to underground services. The Christies were known in the area as helping those who wished to terminate their pregnancies.  They had a makeshift deck chair with ropes in the seat and back area that ladies would sit on.  Christie would then use his special gas to knock them unconscious with Ethel performing the procedure.  Christie would then carry the women into the front room to recover.  

Christie knew that Beryl wished to terminate her pregnancy and offered to help her.  On November 8, 1949, with Beryl sixteen weeks into her pregnancy, Christie arrived at Evan’s door.  Ethel was not involved with this procedure and may not have even known what Christie was planning.  Christie once again used his special gas to incapacitate Beryl who he then proceeded to strangle and have sex with her post-mortem.  

When Timothy returned home that evening Christie met him at the bottom of the stairs.  He told him that Beryl had died during the procedure and that they needed to hide her body.  Christie convinced Timothy that he needed to leave and go stay with relatives in Wales and leave his daughter in his care.  Christie claimed that he knew of a family that would take care of Geraldine.  Christie also told him that he would dispose of Beryl’s body down a nearby manhole.  

Guilt

 On November 30th, Timothy Evans went to the Merthyr Tydfil Police Station stating that he had accidentally killed his wife. He claimed that he had given her something that a man had given her to help terminate her pregnancy.  He told them that he had disposed of her body down a nearby sewer drain.  He told officers that he arranged for his daughter to be taken care of and had gone to Wales to lay low.  

Three officers went to investigate Timothy’s story and examined the drain outside the building.  To the officers, it seemed that Timothy’s story wasn’t starting to not add up as it took all three of them to remove the manhole cover.  It was when Timothy was re-questioned that he told an officer about John Christie’s offer to provide an abortion to Beryl and that he had offered to take care of hiding her body and having a couple take care of Geraldine.  However, Timothy returned several times to see Geraldine and Christie would always refuse.  

Two Bodies

Police asked Timothy what time Beryl had died.  He told them what Christie had told him, Beryl had been dead since 3 pm on November 8th due to her stomach becoming septic.  Police paid another visit to 10 Rillington Place on December 2nd and talked to both John and Ethel Christie about Evan’s claims.  The Christie’s presented as a respectable middle-aged couple telling police that Timothy Evans was an abusive husband and the couple often fought.  

Police conducted a full-scale search of 10 Rillington Place and it was behind a woodpile in the wash house that Beryl and baby Geraldine were discovered. Both had been strangled.  Timothy Evans was told of the discovery and was shocked upon hearing about his daughter’s death.  Another lengthy interview took place this time at the Notting Hill Police Station.  It was during this interview that Evans allegedly confessed to murdering his wife and child.  He confessed to strangling Beryl during an argument over debts and then strangling his daughter two days later.  

However, there are some that do not believe Evans was responsible for their deaths. Keep in mind Evan’s low IQ score and the police questioning him hours on end when he is physically and emotionally exhausted. There is also the issue that the statements that Evans had signed do not match how Evans would have spoken in real life of someone with limited education and low intellectual ability.  

For example, here is part of the statement from the Notting Hill interview, “I then found out she was in debt with the rent.  I accused her of squandering the money so that started a terrific argument in my house.”  Forensic Linguistic expert, Dr. John Olson, believes that Evans would have likely said, “We had a bloody row” instead of “a terrific argument.”  Dr. Olsen doesn’t believe that Timothy Evans fully understood the statement he was signing that tied him to the murders of his wife and child.

Old Bailey

The Old Bailey is the criminal court located in central London and where Timothy Evans stood on trial for murder on January 11, 1950.  By the time Evans was brought to trial, he had retracted all of his statements and fully blamed the murders of Beryl and Geraldine on John Christie.  He pleaded not guilty.  Evan’s trial lasted three days with John Christie as the star witness for the prosecution.  Christie testified that both he and his wife were awoken by a loud noise in the middle of the night on November 8th sounding like someone was moving heavy objects around.  He also testified to the loud arguments and violent drunken fights the Evans would have.  

John Christie made a great witness for the crown.  He was a former policeman who spoke matter-of-factly and gave off an air of respectability.  After 40 minutes of deliberation, the jury came back with a verdict of guilty.  Evan’s mother shouted at Christie as he left the courtroom, “Murder, murderer.”  Ethel then leaped to her feet defending her husband, “Don’t you call my husband a murder he is a good man.”  

Evans appealed his conviction on February 20, 1950, with no success. On March 19, 1950, Timothy John Evans was hanged.  He protested his innocence to the moment of his execution.  

Unraveling

By 1950, four people had been murdered at 10 Rillington Place though two remained undiscovered.  Things were starting to unravel for Christie.  He lost his job as a clerk at the Post Office Savings Bank that he had held for the prior four years due to his criminal history coming to light during his testimony.  Also, a new landlord had taken over the apartment building after Beryl and Geraldine’s murder.  He filled the unoccupied flats with new occupants and Christie was nervous about his two previous crimes being discovered.  The Christie’s also began to argue more with Ethel becoming depressed and being prescribed medication.  

On December 14, 1952, two years and two months after Evan’s hanging, John Christie would strike again.  This time his wife of thirty-two years was his target.  Christie strangled Ethel in their bed.  He did not take advantage of her sexually as he had done to his previous victims.  He wrapped her body up in a blanket and placed her under the floorboards of the living room (front room).  You can imagine the sense of control Christie felt walking over his wife day in and day out.  To cover up Ethel’s murder, Christie wrote letters to her sister in Sheffield claiming Ethel couldn’t write to her due to severe arthritis.  On December 16th, Christie sold off Ethel’s wedding rings and her watch.  He also sold most of his furniture only keeping three chairs, the kitchen table and a mattress.  

Days later a theft occurred in the building, Len Trevallion, a metropolitan police officer was assigned to question the tenants.  Christie invited the officer into the front room.  Trevallion noted the terrible smell and even commented on it asking Christie if he could do something about it.  Christie’s reply was, “It’s all these colored people and they’re strange cooking. It makes a terrible smell.”  So not only a murder but a racist one at that.  Little did Trevallion know that he was standing over the decomposing body of Ethel Christie.  

On the Hunt

With Ethel out of the way, Christie was on the hunt for another victim.  It is now January 1953.  He didn’t have to hunt for long when Rita Wilson, age 24, who worked at a local tea shop found herself with an unwanted pregnancy.  She turned to the couple that was known in the area for helping desperate women.  She didn’t know that one of them was no longer alive when she turned up at the Christie residence.  Rita would become Christie’s 6th victim.  After strangling Rita and having sex with her dead body he wrapped her up in a blanket and placed her in the kitchen alcove.  

Kathleen Maloney, a local sex worker originally from Southampton and someone Christie had known from previous encounters would be victim number seven.  Christie brought Kathleen back to his flat.  She was drunk and easily subdued.  Once again, Christie strangled and then proceeded to have intercourse with his latest victim.  He left her in the rope deck chair overnight then shoved her into the small alcove the next day.  Christie had to place Kathleen on her back with her legs up against the wall to make her fit in the small space.  

Christie was out of control.  With Ethel no longer around he stepped up murdering vulnerable women he thought would not be missed.    

Last One

His last victim, however, would be missed, and the undoing of Christie’s undiscovered murderous spree.  Hectorina MacLennon, age 26, needed somewhere to live and Christie offered her his flat.  Christie got a surprise when Hectorina showed up with her boyfriend, Alex Baker.  The couple moved in but only for three days when they decided to leave.  Christie, not wanting his prey to get away, asked Hectorina for one final visit which would turn out to be a fatal mistake.  

Baker showed up at 10 Rillington Place expecting to find Hectorina there, but Christie told him she never showed up.  The men then proceeded to search the building and local streets but there was no trace of Hectorina.  Clearly, Baker never looked in the alcove.

Christie started to become nervous as the bodies of his victims were starting to pile up.  He decided to leave the area, but with little money, he needed a plan.  Christie met a couple looking for a rental and he persuaded them to rent his flat.  He took seven pounds off them for three weeks’ rent and took off.  The couple soon found out Christie wasn’t the landlord and were promptly asked to vacate the premises by the real landlord.  

On the Run

John Christie was now on the run.  He was able to get ten pounds from his wife’s bank account and then proceeded to check himself into a seedy motel,  using his real name and address. He asked for seven nights, but only ended up staying four and left on March 24th.  After that, he just drifted about London for days.  The next day, March 25th after police were called to 10 Rillington Place and made their horrific discoveries a nationwide manhunt was in effect.  

On March 28th, Christie contacted the News of the World publication offering to give an exclusive interview and he would even allow the reporter to turn him over to the authorities.  The meeting would never take place due to Christie becoming spooked when he saw police officers in the area he was to meet the reporter.  

On March 31, 1953, Christie was stopped near the Putney Bridge by a police officer.  He gave the name of John Waddington, age 35 from Westbourne Grove when asked.  The officer questioning him recognized Christie and took him into custody and transported him to the nearby Putney Police Station. 

Christie began to talk, sharing with the officer that the murder of his wife had been a mercy killing.  He claims that he awoke to find her convulsing and unable to breathe.  He merely did not want to see her suffer so he put her out of her misery.  As for the other bodies, well, he claimed that they were all in self-defense.  John Christie’s version of events always cast himself in a good light.   He was either the victim of these women or somehow they just died in his presence.  Beryl Evans, well he claims he helped her commit suicide.  The one murder that he never owned up to was Geraldines.  

After Christie’s arrest Officer Trevallion visited Christie in jail.  Trevallion claims that Christie  told him the reason for Ethel’s murder was that after the procedures Ethel performed, Christie would place them in the front room to recover.  He said that Ethel caught him messing with the girls and she threatened to go public.  

Insanity

On April 1, 1953, Christie was charged with his wife’s murder and, on the 15th he was charged with Rita Nelson, Kathleen Maloney and Hectorina MacLennon’s murders.  The strongest case was Ethel’s murder.  

Christie knew that he was facing a death sentence.  In hopes of not being hanged, he pleaded guilty by reason of insanity.  His trial began on June 22, 1953, in courtroom number one in the Old Bailey Criminal Court.  His trial would last four days. 

When Christie took the stand in his own defense he seemed to not recall certain events.  Here is an example, “the statement I made on 5th June 1953, is true so far as I remember what happened, except that a square scarf was not used when the gas was inhaled.  I cannot remember if it was the Austrian girl Ruth Fuerster, the woman Eady who inhaled the gas.  I can’t remember whether the gas was inhaled in the bedroom or the kitchen.” 

Christie showed little emotion when talking about the murders of his last three victims only briefly showing signs of humanity when talking about his wife.  It took the jury one hour and twenty minutes of deliberation to find Christie guilty of all four murders.  On June 29th Christie stated that he would appeal his death sentence.  Although the police tried to postpone Christie’s execution in order to elicit more information about other murders he may have committed.  However, the Home Secretary, David Maxwell Fyfe, would not grant a reprieve.  

While waiting for his execution, Timothy Evans’s mother wrote Christie begging him to admit to killing baby Geraldine something he refused to do.  In fact, he also retracted his earlier statements admitting to killing Beryl.  Perhaps this was Christie’s last final act of having some form of power and control by refusing to talk.  

On July 15, 1953, John Reginald Christie was hanged at Pentonville Prison by the same hangman who ended Timothy Evan’s life. 

Posthumous

In the years since Christie’s execution public opinion on the guilt of Timothy Evan’s resulted in several inquiries.  In 1966, Evans received a posthumous Royal Pardon, however, his conviction was not quashed.  Evan’s hanging along with the death penalty convictions that resulted in the hangings of Derek Bently, hung around the time of Evan’s hanging, and Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in England in 1955 led to the suspension of the death penalty in 1965.  

Pop Culture

If you are interested in learning more about this case there are several shows that I linked in the resource section.  Including the 1971 movie entitled 10 Rillington Place starring Richard Attenborough, Judy Geeson, and John Hurt.  

Additional Resources