For other uses of the name, see Bible John (disambiguation)

Bible John (disambiguation)

Bible John was a serial killer active in Glasgow in the late 1960s.Bible John may also refer to:*Bible John-A Forensic Meditation, a 1991 comic book series by Grant Morrison based on the Bible John killings...

Bible John is the nickname of a serial killer

Serial killer

A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...

 who is thought to have operated in Glasgow

Glasgow

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

, Scotland, in the late 1960s. Three murders were attributed to him, but it is not clear if they were the work of the same person.

Murders

On 23 February 1968, the body of 25-year-old Patricia Docker was found in Carmichael Place in Glasgow

Glasgow

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

. She had been strangled. The previous night, she had told her parents that she was going out dancing at a nearby club, the Majestic Ballroom in Hope Street, Glasgow. Patricia did, in fact, go to the Barrowland Ballroom for the over-25s night. It was not until about eight weeks after Docker's killing that the police found out that she had actually gone to the Barrowlands. By that time, memories had faded.

On 15 August 1969, mother of three, Jemima McDonald, 32, also went for a night out at the Barrowland Ballroom. The next day, Jemima's sister Margaret, heard rumors in the area that young children playing in an old tenement building in MacKeith Street had seen the body of a woman but the claims were dismissed by most people. By the Monday morning, Margaret was so concerned that she herself went to the old building where she found Jemima's battered body. She had been strangled, raped and beaten to death. Witnesses said that they had seen her leaving the club at midnight with a tall, slim young man with red hair.

On 31 October 1969, 29-year-old Helen Puttock was found murdered in Earl Street in Scotstoun. She had also been to the Barrowland Ballroom on the night she went missing; she had gone there with her sister, Jean, and had met two men called John. One said he was from Castlemilk, the other did not disclose where he was from. After being in their company for well over an hour, they left to head home. Castlemilk John headed to George Square

George Square

George Square is the principal civic square in the city of Glasgow, Scotland. It is named after King George III.-Historical development:George Square was laid out in 1781, part of the innovative Georgian central grid plan that initially spanned from Stockwell Street east to Buchanan Street—which...

 to get a bus, while Helen, Jean and "Bible John" got into a taxi. They crossed the city to the Scotstoun area where Jean got out. The taxi then continued to Earl Street in Scotstoun where Helen lived. The next morning, Helen's battered body was found in the back garden of her flat in Earl Street. She had been raped and strangled. The contents of her handbag had been scattered nearby but the actual bag was missing. It has been suggested that the killer took the bag as a trophy. Grass stains on Helen's feet indicated that there had been a struggle in which Helen probably tried to escape her killer but he had overpowered her easily. She had a deep bite

Bite

A bite is a wound received from the mouth of an animal, including humans.Animals may bite in self-defense, in an attempt to predate food, as well as part of normal interactions. Other bite attacks may be apparently unprovoked. Self inflicted bites occur in some genetic illnesses such as...

 mark on her leg.

Suspect

The suspect was described by Helen's sister Jean as being a well-dressed young man, tall, slim and with reddish/fair hair, and described as being polite, well-dressed and well-spoken. She said the stranger had given his name as "John Templeton" or "Sempleson" and that he had frequently quoted from the Bible

Bible

The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...

. He was reported to have said: “I don’t drink at Hogmanay

Hogmanay

Hogmanay is the Scots word for the last day of the year and is synonymous with the celebration of the New Year in the Scottish manner...

, I pray,” and to have referred to Moses

Moses

Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...

 and his father’s belief that dancehalls were “dens of iniquity”.

Although Helen's sister Jean said that Bible John was "slim, tall with reddish/fair hair", the bouncers at the Barrowland Ballroom dismissed her description and said that the man Helen left with was "short, well-spoken and had jet black hair". This is more believeable as Jean was highly drunk the night of the murder and it has already been proved that the killer didn't quote directly from the Bible, but referred to it. He was heard commenting by one witness that the Barrowland was a "den of iniquity".

The last possible sighting of Bible John was of a well-dressed young man in a dishevelled state with possible scratch marks on his face, getting off a bus at Grey Street at Sauchiehall Street

Sauchiehall Street

Sauchiehall Street is one of the main shopping/business streets in the city centre of Glasgow, Scotland. Along with Buchanan Street and Argyle Street, it forms the main shopping area of Glasgow, containing the majority of Glasgow's high street and chain stores.Although commonly associated with the...

 around 1:30 am. He was last seen heading towards the public ferry to cross the River Clyde to the south side of the city.

Investigation

The police made a determined effort to hunt for the killer, now nicknamed "Bible John", but although a number of suspects were questioned, no arrests were ever made, and no further victims have been attributed to him. All three victims had been strangled with their stockings, all were menstruating

Menstruation

Menstruation is the shedding of the uterine lining . It occurs on a regular basis in sexually reproductive-age females of certain mammal species. This article focuses on human menstruation.-Overview:...

 at the time and all three had sanitary napkin

Sanitary napkin

A sanitary napkin, sanitary towel, sanitary pad, menstrual pad, maxi pad, or pad is an absorbent item worn by a woman while she is menstruating, recovering from vaginal surgery, for lochia , abortion, or any other situation where it is necessary to absorb a flow of blood from a woman's vagina.These...

s or tampon

Tampon

A tampon is a mass of cotton or rayon or a mixture of the two inserted into a body cavity or wound to absorb bodilyfluid. The most common type in daily use is designed to be inserted into the vagina during menstruation to absorb the flow of menstrual fluid...

s placed on or near the bodies. Their handbags were also missing.

In 1996, police exhumed the dead body of John Irvine McInnes, the cousin of one of the original suspects, from a Lanarkshire graveyard. McInnes, who had served in the Scots Guards

Scots Guards

The Scots Guards is a regiment of the Guards Division of the British Army, whose origins lie in the personal bodyguard of King Charles I of England and Scotland...

, had committed suicide

Suicide

Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...

 aged 41 in 1981. Police ran a DNA

DNA

Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...

 test and compared it with semen

Semen

Semen is an organic fluid, also known as seminal fluid, that may contain spermatozoa. It is secreted by the gonads and other sexual organs of male or hermaphroditic animals and can fertilize female ova...

 found on Helen Puttock's tights and announced it to be non conclusive.

Lord Mackay, then the Lord Advocate, said there was not enough evidence to link the murders with McInnes.

On 12 December 2004, police announced they were to DNA test a number of men in a further attempt to solve the case. This followed the discovery of an 80% match to a DNA sample taken at the site of a minor crime two years earlier.

Developments

The 4 May 2007 conviction of Peter Tobin

Peter Tobin

Peter Britton Tobin is a convicted Scottish serial killer and sex offender now serving a sentence of life imprisonment for the murders of three young women....

 for the murder of student Angelika Kluk led to speculation that he is Bible John. According to a report in The Times

The Times

The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

, there are striking parallels between Bible John and Peter Tobin. All three of Tobin's former wives gave accounts of being imprisoned, throttled, raped and beaten by him. There are strong similarities between photographs of Tobin when aged in his 20s and the photofit artist's impression of Bible John, and Tobin had moved from Glasgow

Glasgow

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

 in 1969 after marrying his first wife, whom he met at the Barrowland ballroom the same year as the killings officially ended. It is alleged that Tobin is driven to violence by the menstrual cycle

Menstrual cycle

The menstrual cycle is the scientific term for the physiological changes that can occur in fertile women for the purpose of sexual reproduction. This article focuses on the human menstrual cycle....

, something which has long been suspected as the motive behind the Bible John murders. Additionally, Tobin was a Roman Catholic with strong religious views.

As a result of Operation Anagram

Operation Anagram

Operation Anagram is a British police investigation into the movements and life of serial killer Peter Tobin, convicted of three murders of young women since 2006...

 (set up to locate any other potential victims of Tobin) a woman said she had been raped by Tobin after she had met him at the Barrowland Ballroom in Glasgow in 1968 - around the time of the Bible John killings.

In September 2010, the only woman ever to have come face-to-face with Bible John, Jean McLachlan, died aged 74, marking the end of the hunt for the killer. McLachlan, who shared a taxi with the mystery killer and her sister Helen Puttock, gave police the description used in the artist's impression, which remains the biggest clue to his appearance more than 40 years later. Although DNA had been used to rule out a previous suspect, detectives believe a DNA link to Tobin is unlikely due to a deterioration of the samples through poor storage.

It is not universally accepted that the three killings were the work of the same person. It has been claimed that the gap of 18 months between the first two killings is unusual with serial killers, the later two may have been copycat killings, and the police may even have hampered their own investigation by prematurely jumping to the conclusion that they were the work of the same person. Professor David Wilson

David Wilson (Criminologist)

David Wilson is Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Birmingham City University.Wilson studied at the University of Glasgow , Selwyn College, Cambridge, and at the Cambridge Institute of Criminology, where he gained a PhD in 1983. He joined Her Majesty's Prison Service as a junior...

, an expert in criminal behaviour, has stated that the 18 month gap is not unusual following a serial killer's first murder. Wilson investigated the case for three years and believes the available evidence supports that Peter Tobin is Bible John.

See also

• Bible John-A Forensic Meditation
  Bible John-A Forensic Meditation
  Bible John - A Forensic Meditation was a story written by Grant Morrison and drawn by Daniel Vallely which appeared in the anthology title Crisis #56-61 in 1991.-Publishing history:...
  
  
• Black and Blue
  Black and Blue (novel)
  Black and Blue is a 1997 crime novel by the Scots author Ian Rankin. The eighth of the Inspector Rebus novels, it was the first to be adapted in the Rebus television series starring John Hannah, airing in 2000....
  
  

External links

• Men give DNA in Bible John case BBC News, 12 December 2004
• Sunday Mail - Reports background to new DNA test
• Bible John Crime Library