[CHRISTIE JOHN REGINALD]: (1899-1953) English Serial killer of the 1940s & 1950s, his victims including at least eight females, amongst them his wife Ethel, whom he strangled at his flat at 10 Rillington Place, Notting Hill, London. Christie was arrested, convicted and hanged in 1953. An historically important Autograph Manuscript, unsigned, seven pages, folio, Pentonville Prison, 8th July 1953, being the holograph pencil notes made by Detective Chief Inspector George J. Woolcott while present at an interview with John Reginald Christie, conducted as part of an official Private Inquiry by John Scott Henderson QC into the conviction of Timothy Evans, a tenant at 10 Rillington Place. Woolcott heads his manuscript 'Interview between Mr. G. Blackburn and Prisoner, J. W. H. Christie, at Pentonville Prison between 6.30pm and 8pm on Wednesday, 8th July 1953' and notes that the Prison Governor and Chief Officer of the Prison were also present along with himself and [George] Blackburn (Assistant Chief Constable of West Riding, Head of C.I.D. 1939-48), and adds the following introduction, 'Mr. Blackburn opened the interview by telling Christie that he was enquiring into the Evans case and gave him clearly to understand that no matter what he might say in reply to any question, he, Mr. Blackburn, could offer Christie no hope whatever of any favour being shown to him in any way or suggest anything whatever to interfere with the course of justice.' Woolcott's manuscript continues Replies to Questions and what follows are comprehensive notes on the responses that Christie provided, in part, 'It was not easy for me to walk up and down stairs at the time of the Evans' murders…..Evans went on the bus with me; he went to Paddington.…..I went up to Evans' flat with Chief Inspector Jennings and Inspector Black. They will tell you the state I was in. We didn't know Mrs. Evans a great deal. My wife looked after their kiddie. We never went out with them. We were just amiable. We wanted to help them in any way we could. She was taking pills and things. I recall quite clearly giving her sound advice. As we knew her she was looking half like a skeleton. My wife knew what was wrong with her. She was too far gone (pregnant). It was a waste of time taking pills. When we chatted our persuasion was more emphatic than we wanted it to be. We made it sound as dangerous and as bad as we could to make her pack up taking the stuff. After Evans had the fight upstairs they were going to separate but the Probation Officer has a talk to them. My wife said that if there was any controversy about the baby she wanted to adopt it and she offered to adopt it legally. She was told that Evans' mother was going to take the baby. I had no ill feeling against Evans. I knew bits behind the scenes about him. I just didn't like to be seen with him. He wasn't my type. Once he brought home three gold wristlet watches and said he was selling them for a sailor friend. He asked me to buy one. Then he told me a café proprietor had offered him a bag of sugar to sell if the price was fair. I knew he was working for a baker and it was to come from the shop, but the proprietor was not a man who would sell sugar…..' continuing 'How he came to live at Rillington Place - We had rooms and were looking for a flat. We found this flat…..The Evans never interfered with us and we weren't inclined to make them our friends. They got wed because of their baby. He got some furniture and if we could help them we did. Some people in our street told me he had been hitting her. His mother caught him once hitting her in some mews and gave him a hiding for hitting her. Evans lived there about 18 months while we were there. We went there in 1937. Evans was not there when war broke out. Their first baby was a girl, Geraldine. She was 14 months old. I don't recollect anyone teaching it to walk. I don't think it was capable. It could only say the usual "dad, dad". I wouldn't know when a child should talk, we never had any children. I never heard it talk. Mrs Evans was not working all the time she was there, she gave up just after they came because of the baby. My wife told me after the baby was born that Mrs Evans wanted to go to work but she couldn't go out and look after the baby. My wife promised to look after the baby. She looked after it for over three weeks, then his mother, Mrs Probert, or his sister looked after it. She didn't get any payment. I think she had the idea that she would adopt it later. I don't know if Mrs Evans was working right to the end. They used to bring the baby down on their way out and call for it when they came in. We could here it downstairs when it was crying. They used to leave it upstairs if they hadn't gone out for long. They left their doors open and if it cried my wife went up with my torch and saw to it. I never fed it. I should be too scared to feed a baby. We went up to their flat once or twice. When they distempered the walls they asked us to go up and see it. They had only been there about a week then. There was no necessity to go up otherwise. I don't know if I went up after that, I'm not certain. I had no quarrels with Evans, he showed respect for me. He always called me "Mr". They should have been grateful to me. They had nothing against me. She told me he didn't know she was taking the pills etc. That was a few days after our talk to him and her. He told me that he didn't know that she was taking them. All these things you have talked about have been drummed into me time and time again, and not so kind as you are with it. My solicitors and legal advisers have been very severe with me. I can't say why I can't remember whether I killed Mrs Evans or not……can't remember what happened in 1949 but what's more surprising still I can remember my school days quite well. If I could remember I would tell you. Next Wednesday is not far away so what does it matter. When I am upset I always go off my food. I was off food for thirteen days at once last year. I feel certain I didn't see Inspector Black after the Evans case. He told me if I wanted anything I could write to him. I don't think I got the sack from the Post Office because of what was said in the Evans case. I was away ill, then I went back and something cropped up. Two of their investigating officers came and spoke to me and escorted me to the door. No one pointed the finger at me after the Evans' case, on the contrary, they were always willing to help. My wife and I were very happy until the blacks bought a house. When I was in the witness box Counsel suggested I knew more than I was saying. He suggested that I killed Mrs Evans and her baby, I still say, and I am not emphatic, that I did not kill the baby. The solicitors have been harder on me than you to try and jog my memory. They have been vigorous with me but no matter what anyone says I am sure I didn't kill the baby. I know you want to know the truth, so do I. I still stick to what I have said about my wife when she died. When Counsel suggested that I killed Mrs Evans and her baby the Judge pulled him up. No one does something wrong admits it at first. If it can be said without doubt that I am responsible for something I would accept it, if the opposite with medical evidence etc. I accept that. I was not down and out when the police found me. I have been in the police myself. They have to put the frills on. There is something else you don't know. There were three policemen at Putney, not one. Two were sure I was not Christie and said "Let him go", but nothing was said about that. I remember Chief Inspector Griffin at Notting Hill. I made a statement to him, but I can't remember and I didn't know that I had a medical exam when I first went to Brixton on remand. When I was at Putney and they asked questions I didn't know what they were saying. I asked them to tell me something. They said they had found three bodies in the kitchen. I said if that's the case I must have done it. There was very little in my statement apart from promptings. Police and solicitors said it would be a miracle if there were two stranglers in one house. It pointed it was me. No one has suggested to me that I killed Mrs Evans. There were two stranglers in the house because someone killed the baby I know I didn't do it. There is a similarity. Evans case was four and a half years ago, then there's the same now. My solicitor mentioned the similarity of the cases. They questioned me about all sorts of murders. They asked me if I was at Windsor. You remember the little girl that was strangled at Windsor but there, mine were all adults. I am not certain whether the story I told at my trial was true. I am certain there was phenol-barbitone with my wife. I am certain and stick to it regardless of the laboratory. My mind has worked over and over for months. They talked to me and I get a picture in my mind and I believe it has happened, then I develop another picture and I believe that. I volunteered to be hypnotized and accept the truth drug. Do you think I would do this if I wasn't telling the truth? I know the effects of gas poisoning, I got some when a 15 inch gas main was hit with a bomb in Harrow Road during the war. It doesn't take long for people to be overcome. I can't say why I was not overcome and Mrs Evans was. If I used the gas tube in the same way on those three, I wouldn't get gassed. I wouldn't discuss my case with other prisoners in Brixton. I talked to two people. One was Sir George Miller who got three years. We talked about photography. He was an amateur photographer, so was I, I was keen on it. Then there was that fellow, Haskain, he had fits. He told me why he left home and how the police told him not to worry. In my cell I start trying to think, then my mind wanders. I behave myself here, nothing worries me. I will try and think again and see if I can help myself and you by the time I see you tomorrow but it stands very clearly in my mind that I did not kill the baby. Thank you for being so kind to me.' Together with a folder containing various related letters and documents including a T.L.S. by George Blackburn, one page, 4to, Wakefield, 16th July 1953, to Woolcott, on the printed stationery of the County Chief Constable's office, West Riding Constabulary, thanking him for his assistance in the inquiry and referring to favourable letters of appreciation from Scott Henderson and the Home Secretary, David Maxwell Fife; a briefer set of pencil notes from the interview, in the hand of Woolcott, three pages, folio; a contemporary copy of the final typescript of the interview, presented to a second inquiry in 1965, along with a contemporary copy of Woolcott's signed statement given to the later inquiry, one page, folio, 29th November 1965, in part, 'I recall accompanying Mr. Blackburn when he interviewed Christie at Pentonville Prison. I refer to my handwritten note of the interview….I recall that I wrote out the head note before Mr. Blackburn commenced his questions. The replies are I am certain the actual replies made by Christie….Christie's attitude was that he was emphatic that he did not kill Geraldine Evans and the last sentence in the notes was in fact made by Christie after the interview had concluded and was not in answer to any question. I have no recollection of Mr. Blackburn commenting at the interview upon whether there was any evidence that Christie had killed the child. In fact I am certain that evidence available was never at any time mentioned either in the case of Mrs. Evans or the child….', a small number of T.Ls.S. from the office of The Treasury Solicitor regarding the Inquiry by Mr. Justice Brabin into the deaths of Beryl and Geraldine Evans, all to Woolcott, referring to his statement and asking him to appear before Brabin on 20th December 1965 at the Royal Courts of Justice, and in another letter returning Woolcott's original pencil notes. Also included are photocopies of the pages of Woolcott's personal scrapbook containing newspaper articles relating to the various cases he was involved in during his career from August 1929 - January 1958, covering his role in the 1953 Inquiry. G to VG, Sml Qty.
A FASCINATING AND IMPORTANT MANUSCRIPT MOST LIKELY THE LAST PRIMARY EVIDENCE PROVIDED IN RELATION TO THE EVANS MURDERS BY CHRISTIE BEFORE HE WAS HANGED ON 15TH JULY 1953
Timothy John Evans (1924-1950) Welshman accused of murdering his wife and daughter at their residence at 10 Rillington Place, London in November 1949. In January 1950 Evans was tried and convicted of the murder of his daughter, and he was sentenced to death by hanging. During his trial, Evans had accused his neighbour John Reginald Christie of being responsible for the murders. Three years after Evans's trial, Christie was found to be a serial killer who had murdered a number of women at his property, including his wife, and this cast serious doubt on the safety of Evans's conviction.
Because Christie's crimes raised doubts about Evans's guilt in the murders of his wife and daughter, the serving Home Secretary, David Maxwell Fyfe commissioned an inquiry to investigate the possibility of a miscarriage of justice. It was chaired by John Scott Henderson QC. The inquiry ran for one week and its findings upheld Evans's guilt in both murders with the explanation that Christie's confessions of murdering Beryl Evans were unreliable because they were made in the context of furthering his own defence that he was insane. The conclusion was met with scepticism by the press and the public alike: if Christie's confessions were unreliable, why should those of Evans be acceptable? The enquiry ignored vital evidence, and was biased to the prosecution case.
The result of a prolonged campaign was that the Home Secretary, Frank Soskice, ordered a new inquiry chaired by High Court judge Sir Daniel Brabin in 1965-66. Brabin found it was "more probable than not" that Evans murdered his wife and that he did not murder his daughter. This was contrary to the prosecution case in Evans's trial, which held that both murders had been committed by the same person as a single transaction. The victims' bodies had been found together in the same location and had been murdered in the same way by strangulation. Despite his perverse conclusion, the Brabin enquiry exposed police malpractice during the Evans case, such as destruction of evidence.
Since Evans had only been convicted of the murder of his daughter, Roy Jenkins, Soskice's successor as Home Secretary, recommended a Royal pardon for Evans, which was granted in October 1966. The case generated much controversy and is acknowledged as a major miscarriage of justice. It played a large part in the abolition of Capital Punishment in the United Kingdom.
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