The Notting Hill strangler

Reg Christie turned his London home into a cemetery

By David Cocksedge

TO LONDONERS, few addresses are as spine-chilling as 10 Rillington Place in Notting Hill, the venue where necrophile John Reginald Christie killed and interred his female victims. Worse still is the fact that another tenant was executed for one of the murders that Christie himself had committed.

John Reginald Halliday Christie, known as ‘Reg' was one of seven children born to a carpet designer from Halifax, Yorkshire and his attractive actress wife. Reg first saw the light of day on 8 April 1899 and grew into an insipid child who preferred to scamper around local cemeteries instead of playgrounds. He became a choir boy and later a scoutmaster, but he was never popular, because of his strange aloof manner. His mother perhaps over-protected him, and instilled in Reg an idea that he was somehow superior to most people around him. Later in life he claimed that, as an eight year old, the sight of his dead grandfather, waxy and impassive in his coffin, had a great effect on him.

As a teenager Christie fought in the trenches of France during the appalling carnage of World War 1, but his service came to an abrupt end in 1917 when a mustard shell exploded nearby, injuring his eyes and larynx. Aged 20, he was demobbed in 1919 and awarded a small disability pension. Back in Halifax , he courted and married Ethel Waddington, a local girl that he had known for years.

On the outside Christie appeared to be a perfectly respectable postal office worker with an air of authority and self-importance about him, but in 1926 he was convicted of fraud (stealing postal orders) and spent some time in gaol for the felony. His wife was appalled when she discovered that her husband also consorted with prostitutes.

After his prison term, he moved from Halifax to London where he continued his life of petty crime and was convicted for violence against a sex worker. Pondering his predicament in a prison cell, Christie wrote to his wife asking for reconciliation. She agreed, and they moved to number 10 Rillington Place , Notting Hill in 1938. It was a rundown house in a cul-de-sac with a tiny garden and wash-house which contained the communal lavatory. He and Ethel rented the ground floor flat. Somehow the shabby slum surroundings perfectly mirrored the poverty of Christie's spirit.

Christie rarely spoke at length and had a chilling habit of moving about as silently as a cat. A neighbour said: “He was a very creepy man. He would suddenly be next to you, moving there without a sound. Or you would look around and see him behind you, standing quietly, just looking at you, and you wondered how long he had been there. Because of his war disability, he spoke very quietly, and he moved around like a ghost. He was tall and imposing but totally humourless. In the dozen or so years that I knew Reg Christie, I don't think I ever saw him smile or crack a joke.”

Astonishingly, Christie was accepted as a special constable in the War Reserve Police in 1939. In the jittery climate of pending war, no checks were made into his background; which would have revealed his criminal past. Of course Christie revelled in the position of uniformed authority: being an authorised petty tyrant was something at which he excelled. In August 1943, whilst Ethel was away visiting relatives in Sheffield , Reg brought 17-year-old Ruth Fuerst, an Austrian refugee and part-time prostitute, into his house. After sex, he partially gassed and then strangled her to death. His career as a serial killer had begun.

At first Christie hid the body under the floorboards. Then he dragged it into the toilet, concealing it in a wood pile as he dug a grave in the back garden, in full view of his neighbours. Under cover of darkness, he then buried Ruth's body, which lay undiscovered for a decade.

In May 1944, Christie killed again. He enticed attractive Muriel Eady into his home on the grounds that he had medical training (untrue) and could examine her and determine if she could undergo an abortion. When she slipped into unconsciousness after inhaling coal-gas fumes, he raped and then strangled her with one of her stockings. In his confession, Christie wrote, “I gazed down at her body and felt a quiet, peaceful thrill. I had no regrets.” Muriel's body was buried in the patch of garden beside Ruth Fuerst.

Welsh lorry driver Timothy Evans (24), his wife Beryl and their baby Geraldine moved into the top flat at the end of 1948. The young couple were both awed by Christie's authoritarian manner, and never doubted him when he told them he had medical training during the war. The couple had a tempestuous relationship, however, and often had blazing rows in the flat that disturbed the neighbours. When Beryl found herself pregnant with an unwanted child Christie offered his services as a ‘medical expert' in such matters. If required, he was ‘qualified' to perform an abortion, he said. Beryl submitted to his care and died under his hands later that day. She was gassed and then strangled just as his other victims had been.

When Evans returned from work later, Christie gave him the sad news: Beryl had died whilst “undergoing a medical operation”. As Evans had agreed to the abortion, both he and Christie were facing murder charges, he said. If Evans was to move away from London immediately and then confess to Beryl's murder days later, Christie would stow Beryl's body in a drain outside the house, and see that little Geraldine was put into foster care. Amazingly, Evans agreed to this fantastic proposal, which was clearly designed to save only Christie's hide.

On 30 November 1949 , the illiterate Evans walked into a police station in Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales , and confessed to having murdered his wife. Metropolitan police searched around 10 Rillington Place and failed to find the body of Beryl Evans in a storm drain outside the house where Evans said he had hidden it. The drain cover could not be lifted by one man alone, but Evans could not have known that. He was simply repeating what Christie had told him to say.

Investigators also failed to uncover the bodies buried in the garden. Finally, after several visits, they found Beryl's body under logs in the washroom alongside that of the baby Geraldine, just 14 months old at the time of her death.

On hearing that his daughter was dead, Evans looked shocked and then dramatically changed his story. He was not the killer, he claimed, but his neighbour Reg Christie was. “Christie done it!” he shouted.

Though Tim Evans was not bright, he was also not guilty. It was obvious that Christie had also killed the baby simply because she was in the way. He then threw all the blame on the dim-witted Evans during the trial that followed in January 1950.

The dapper Reg Christie cut a much finer figure in the witness box than Evans ever could as he sat in the dock reserved for the accused. Christie's spell of duty as a special constable during the war cast him as a reliable, honest man. His criminal past was not revealed to the jury as Evans' defence team did not discover it. Reg Christie's testimony convinced both judge and jury that he was an innocent bystander and his damning words sealed Evans' miserable fate. The luckless Welshman was convicted of murdering his baby daughter and sentenced to the gallows. He was executed, still protesting his innocence, in Pentonville Prison on 9 March 1950 .

A true sociopath, Christie was not plagued by guilt for his actions, but did suffer a variety of minor aliments including headaches, backache and amnesia for which he consulted a doctor. Then sometime in 1952 he strangled his wife as she slept at night. This was no thrill-seeking murder, however. Just like baby Geraldine, Ethel was in the way. Reg hid her body under the floorboards and told her friends that they were now separated and that she had returned to Yorkshire . Now jobless, he had to sell almost every stick of furniture to raise enough cash for the rent and his addiction to sex with prostitutes.

He met Kathleen Maloney (26) in a nearby public house in January 1953 and took her home. She was gassed, strangled, abused after death and her body stowed behind a kitchen cupboard. Just six days later he also murdered 25-year-old Rita Nelson and stowed her body under the floorboards.

Christie claimed his last victim, Hectorina MacLennan (26) a month later. Her body was placed behind a wallpapered alcove. When her boyfriend called, searching for the missing woman, Christie denied all knowledge of her. He packed a bag, took his mongrel dog to the vet to be destroyed, then locked his front door and walked away. He had turned his home into a mortuary in the 15 years that he had been resident there, and now he had finally reached endgame.

It was not until a new tenant moved in and noticed an unbearable stench pervading the house that Reg Christie was finally unmasked as a mass killer. Trying to locate the reason for the horrible smell, the unlucky fellow poked about in the newly wallpapered alcove and exposed the decaying legs of Christie's final victim. His frantic call alerted police who swiftly unearthed all the bodies buried in and around 10 Rillington Place. In the yard they found a tobacco tin containing four sets of pubic hair.

Reg Christie, a prime prosecution witness in the Evans murder case, now became the subject of one of biggest manhunts ever launched by London 's Metropolitan Police Force. Homeless and alone, he was arrested on 31 March 1953 after being recognised by a policeman as he stared down at the flowing tide on Putney Bridge over the river Thames . He had been living rough in south London , waiting to be caught.

Despite a physical and mental breakdown, Christie seemed composed as he was interviewed in depth by homicide detectives. The killings were all accidental, he claimed, caused by the victims themselves as they struggled. He described the resulting deaths as “those regrettable happenings,” as he attempted to help the women abort their unwanted babies. The policemen were amazed and appalled. There seemed to be no end to his hypocrisy and denial of guilt.

John Reginald Halliday Christie stood trial at London 's Old Bailey on 22 June, accused of four murders. He pleaded insanity. The presiding judge described the case as “a horrifying one.” The jury did not believe Christie's defence plea and took just an hour and twenty minutes to find him guilty. He was hanged in Pentonville Prison on 15 July 1953 . During his drab lifespan of 54 years and 97 days, he had prematurely ended the lives of eight females, one of them an infant. And his perjured evidence had sent an innocent man to the gallows.

Yet on the eve of his execution, a government tribunal failed to find a miscarriage of justice in the case of Timothy John Evans. John Scott Henderson, QC, decided that Christie had confessed to the murder of Beryl Evans only to help his own case, to add weight to his plea of insanity. Several Labour members of Parliament and the Howard League for Penal Reform were appalled at this decision and refused to accept the findings, which seemed rather convenient for the police investigation.

Public disquiet about the Evans case rumbled on, fanned by such notable writers as Ludovic Kennedy whose book, ‘ Ten Rillington Place ' was the basis for a powerful 1971 movie starring Richard Attenborough as Reg Christie and John Hurt as Timothy Evans. In 1966 an inquiry under Mr Justice Brabin ruled: “It is more probable than not that Evans killed Beryl Evans and it is more probable than not that Evans did not kill his daughter Geraldine.” This was obvious: Geraldine was still alive on the day Evans went away to Wales and made his subsequent confession. As Evans had been charged with the murder of Geraldine, it followed that a miscarriage of justice had been committed.

Brabin's conclusion was not satisfactory as far as campaigners were concerned, but it was enough to get Evans a posthumous Royal Pardon. His body was exhumed from Pentonville Prison and re-buried in consecrated ground. It had taken British Justice sixteen long years to admit that it may have made a mistake.

(Research: ‘John Reginald Christie' by Nigel Blundell, Sunburst Books 1994; ‘Ten Rillington Place ' by Ludovic Kennedy; christie_crimelibary.com)

IF YOU need a check on my True Crime series of stories, published in the Hua Hin Observer, here is a complete list to date:
April 2002 -The Green Bicycle case, 1921. May 2002 - The Craig/Bentley Case, 1952. June 2002 - The A6 Murder Case, 1961. July 2002 - Murder of the Earl of Errol, 1941. August 2002 - The O J Simpson murder trial, 1995. September 2002 - The Aileen Wuornos case, 1989. October 2002 - The Ronald Opus case, 1993. November 2002 - Madame X, 1929. December 2002 - The Spree Killer, 1984. January 2003 - Shootout at Smiths' Club, 1966. February 2003 - The Christine Dryland case, 1991. March 2003 - Poisoned Pie in Essex, 1982. April 2003 - The Heydrich assassination, 1943. May 2003 - The Diana Davidson Murder case, 1969. June 2003 - The death of Alkibiades, 404 BC. July 2003 - The headsman of Colmar, 1780. August 2003 - The Ruth Ellis case, 1955. September 2003 - The Mel Jones Murder case, 1975. October 2003 - The Bluebeard of the bath, 1915. November 2003 - Murder in a combat zone, 1966. December 2003 - The Barn Restaurant murder case, 1972. January 2004 - The assassination of JFK, 1963. February 2004 - Judge Falcone and the Mafia, 1992. March 2004 - Gilles de Rais/Bluebeard, 1404-1440. April 2004 - The hand in the sand case, 1885. May 2004 - The body in the bag, 1979

The Majestic Mantas of purple rock

The idyllic island of Koh Lanta lies on the Andaman coast in southern Thailand. It is striving for the popularity of neighbouring tourist destinations such as Koh Phi Phi and Phuket but has a long way to go, and this is what attracted me to spend a week or so there over the holiday season. I was looking for a peaceful slice of paradise, but one still close enough to the good dive spots in the area.

Construction is evident pretty much everywhere on this stretch of Thai coastline as developers and business owners hurry to get their properties in shape for the tourist season. Tsunami damage to Koh Lanta was minimal but still visible; our “beachfront” view was somewhat obscured by a tsunami wall that was being built. The concrete eyesore did nothing for the natural beauty of the coastline, but probably went a long way in keeping local minds at rest.

Sombre reminiscing and government-sponsored events were being held on December 26, a year after the waves struck, over in Phuket (about 75 kilometres northwest of Lanta) and Khao Lak, where the impact was greatest. I was heading out in search of the excellent diving that the area is famed for. Our divemaster held a minute's silence in remembrance before the dive brief, a thoughtful gesture.

Our dive sites of the day were the renowned Hin Daeng and Hin Muang (Red Rock and Purple Rock). I had looked forward to diving these two spots since moving to Thailand several years ago. The two remote pinnacles are the only area for miles of empty ocean where fish come to feed - this in turn attracts bigger fish and more marine life.

The trip out is a long three hours, but even further when starting from Krabi or Phuket. Fortunately there were not too many other boats at the rocky outcrop - the spot can get very busy at times.

The first dive was Hin Daeng, and the first thing that struck me on descent was how good the visibility was when compared with other sites in Thailand . Immediately after marvelling at the clear, deep-blue waters, I began to notice the prolific marine life here, with fish including clown and redtooth triggerfish, large angelfish, larger moray eels and an impressive school of barracuda. With my face buried into the reef searching for smaller critters, I failed to notice the huge manta sweeping past only a couple of metres away until my dive buddy frantically grabbed my attention. The huge ray did a couple of passes over the rocky pinnacles and disappeared into the blue in the direction of Hin Muang, where our next dive was to be.

The excitement was high back on the boat with talk of who saw the manta and who missed it. After our surface interval we moved over to Hin Muang, 500 metres away, and jumped in for our second dive.

The loaf-shaped pinnacles here drop down to around 60 metres. The top portions are totally carpeted in anemones without a square inch to spare, as if they're competing for reef real estate. We were only underwater for around five minutes before the first manta showed up - followed by the second. The next 50 minutes or so were spent at around 10 metres, where three of these majestic creatures swam with us. Each with their own little team of cobias and remoras, they seemed to be playing in our bubbles and even posing for photos.

Mantas are the largest in the ray group or Mobulidae family and are distributed throughout tropical waters. They are usually found near the surface, where they filter-feed on plankton and other small organisms. Fully grown adults can reach 8 metres across, though the average size is closer to 6. They are harmless to humans and rarely hunted; however, we noticed a length of fishing line caught up around one of the feeding lobes of one of the animals on the dive.

Another disturbing sight at these dive sites was the presence of fishing nets tangled up on the coral. A trusty dive knife always comes in handy to cut them off. It is a little disappointing that the Thai authorities are not making more effort to protect their natural marine wonders from over-fishing. They are often all too quick to take over-inflated national-park entrance fees from foreigners, but rarely put the money back into the preservation of the parks. When they finally wake up to the fact that coral reefs and their inhabitants don't last forever, it will be too late.

The most unsettling sight of all happened just as we were preparing to leave. A huge floating mass of plastic bags carelessly cast off from a local fishing boat began drifting past. Most of the divers aboard immediately jumped in to clean up what they could and get the plastic out of the ocean. We managed to collect most of the floating refuse and hated to think what would happen if one of those mantas inadvertently swallowed something it shouldn't.

These two Andaman dive gems are very popular and get a lot of boat traffic, but it would be nice to think that most scuba divers and boat operators are environmentally aware and care for their natural surroundings. The reef and coral out here showed very little damage and were totally unaffected by the previous season's natural cataclysm. We all wish it could remain that way for our children and even grandchildren to see.

by Martin J. Young

The Sino Russian Romance – Asia Times Online

On Tuesday, 21st March, Russian President Vladimir Putin made an official state visit to China. Putin arrived in time to witness China's Year of Russia ceremony, kicking off a yearlong festival with the aim of encouraging improved cultural relations between the two countries.

Putin's visit to China is further evidence of the intensifying ties between Moscow and Beijing, with Liu Guchang, China's ambassador to Russia, describing the bilateral relationship as reaching an “unprecedented high level”.

Both countries find it in their strategic interests to improve relations. This enhanced relationship is manifest in their participation in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the strengthening of their military relationship, improved economic ties, and substantial energy commitments.

STRATEGIC PARTNERS. The Russia-China relationship improved significantly last July 1, when a meeting between Putin and his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao led to a joint statement that rejected attempts by any country to gain a “monopoly in world affairs” and to “impose models of social development” on other countries.

This statement was clearly directed at the United States and came after Moscow and Beijing reached agreement that they did not desire increased US influence in Central Asia. The “colored revolutions” that were sweeping through Eurasia - in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan - caused concern in both Moscow and Beijing, as each perceived US motives in the region as potentially threatening their spheres of influence.

Moscow and Beijing's efforts to increase control over the countries that make up the SCO reflect this policy. For instance, shortly after the SCO meetings in Kazakhstan last July 5, member-state Uzbekistan announced that the US military could not use its base at Karshi-Khanabad for any purpose other than its support operations in Afghanistan. Tashkent's statement was a prelude to its July 29 announcement that the United States would have to shut down its operations at Karshi-Khanabad altogether.

Outside the SCO, Russia and China have closely aligned diplomatic stances. Russia supports China's policy toward Taiwan, voicing criticisms in recent weeks regarding Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian's move to “cease” the activities of the National Unification Council. Beijing, for its part, remains quiet about Russia's activities in Chechnya. Moreover, both countries have been reluctant to take concrete action against Iran and its controversial nuclear-research program.

Last August, the Russia-China relationship reached a symbolic point when both countries engaged in their first-ever bilateral war games. The exercises, called Peace Mission 2005, took place from August 18-25 and consisted of sea, land and air manoeuvres. Peace Mission 2005 provided Beijing the opportunity to demonstrate to Taiwan and other Asian states that its improved relations with Moscow augment Chinese power in the region. Additionally, the war games allowed Russia to show the United States and the European Union that Moscow was nurturing a relationship with the up-and-coming Asian superpower. On a more immediate level, the joint war games provided Moscow the opportunity to sell more Russian military hardware to the Chinese.

For instance, as a result of Peace Mission 2005, Beijing discussed with Moscow the purchase of Russian-made Il-76 air transport planes and Il-78 air-refuelling tankers. China continues to buy much of its military equipment from Russia, including Su-27 and Su-30 fighter jets and a few Sovremenny-class destroyers. Speaking to reporters on January 13, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov said, “Russian-Chinese military and technical cooperation has been, is and will be developing. I can assure you of that.”

Indeed, the chairman of the State Duma Committee for International Affairs, Konstantin Kosachev, recently said China and Russia are “strategic partners”. Nevertheless, Moscow has refrained from selling Beijing some of its most technologically advanced weapons systems, although this could change.

Peace Mission 2005 also served Russia and China's interests in Central Asia, with Sino-Russian military cohesion sending a strong signal to the states of the SCO. The signal was that Russia and China see it in their strategic interests to control developments in Central Asia and in the former Soviet republics. This signal acts as a warning to those states - or factions within those states - that changes in foreign policy toward the West and away from the East could result in repercussions from China and Russia.

With Peace Mission 2005 behind them, Russia and China are planning for new military exercises, this time to take place in southern Russia. Russian Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev stated on March 2 that Russia and China have “made plans to conduct exercises in spring 2007 in [Russia's] Southern Federal District”. According to Nurgaliyev, the joint exercises will include special forces from China's Public Security Ministry, in addition to special forces and regular troops from Russia's Interior Ministry. The exercises, described by Nurgaliyev as large-scale, will “develop skills for cooperation in accomplishing objectives to counter the threat of terrorism”.

Economic and energy needs

In addition to the political and geostrategic motives, there are economic imperatives behind this strengthening partnership. Bilateral trade volume in 2005 reached nearly US$30 billion, a 37% increase from 2004, and leaders of both countries have pledged to at least double that level by 2010.

When speaking to the media on March 13, Russia's trade commissioner to China, Sergei Tsyplakov, projected that Russia-China trade may reach $36 billion this year. The two countries are also expected to agree on the establishment of special economic zones, which was noted by a Chinese diplomat on Saturday as “one of the most important documents to be signed [during Putin's visit] at an inter-governmental level”.

Energy is also a critical area for Sino-Russian cooperation. Bilateral initiatives are driven by Beijing's aggressive effort to secure reliable access to energy supplies to fuel its booming economy, which recently surpassed France and the United Kingdom as the world's fourth-fastest-growing, at an annual rate of roughly 10%. As the world's second-largest importer of oil (nearly 130 million barrels in 2005), with demand projected to grow roughly 7% in 2006, China naturally looks to the Russian Far East as a source for imports.

Russia currently provides 8% of China's energy needs, and is expected to ship nearly 15 million tons of oil to China this year - nearly double last year's level. Already the amount shipped this January via the Trans-Siberian Mainline Railway was up 42% from the same period in 2005. Yet Russia's ability to meet the 2006 target remains unclear as, among other reasons, the imperilled Yukos will have difficulty even meeting previous years' export levels.

The two countries have been engaged in discussions for expanding energy cooperation on a number of fronts, and Putin's visit to Beijing is widely expected to finalize - if not add substantive momentum to - talks about oil and gas pipeline projects. For instance, Russian state energy firm Gazprom announced on March 13 that it would sign a memorandum with China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) agreeing to build gas pipelines to China's Xinjiang region. The budget and prospective date of completion are unknown.

The signing occurred during Putin's visit, and builds on negotiations that were initiated last December between the two energy companies. Beijing has been seeking ways to raise the level of gas as a percentage of total energy consumption to 8-10% by 2010, doubling current figures. Gazprom chief executive officer Alexander Medvedev said the signing of an agreement in Beijing this month will “stipulate the price formula” for gas shipments.

Putin's visit may also provide a push to negotiations about a cross-border oil pipeline from Siberia to northeastern China. Such a pipeline would be an offshoot of the East Siberia-Pacific Ocean (ESPO) pipeline, which received final approval from Russian authorities at the end of February, overcoming vociferous criticism from environmental groups concerned about the pipeline's proximity to Lake Baikal and the possibility of oil seepage into the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) World Heritage Site.

On March 11, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov, who is also co-chairman of the Russian-Chinese commission for cooperation in education, culture, health care and sports, announced that the Russian state oil giant Transneft would construct the ESPO line through Siberia to the Pacific coast, with a possible spur to China. The first stage of the $11 billion, two-stage pipeline will run 2,400 kilometres from Taishet in Ikurtsk region to Skovorodino in Amur region and is due for completion in 2008; the second stage consists of a pipeline from Skovorodino to Perevoznaya Bay for export to Japan and other Asia-Pacific economies.

The agenda for Putin's visit included discussions about an ESPO offshoot from Skovorodino that will link up with China's energy grid in Daqing. China has lobbied intensively for this separate pipeline, fearing that Siberian oil supplies will be directed instead to Japan. A possible Daqing spur is expected to deliver a total capacity of 30 million tons of crude to China, with the remaining 50 million proceeding to the terminal at Perevoznaya.

A LASTING PARTNERSHIP During the past year, Russia and China have taken measures to improve their bilateral relationship, and Putin's visit is sure to strengthen ties. Moscow and Beijing recognize their mutual interests in Central Asia, both in terms of limiting US encroachment and weakening revolutionary forces in the region. Although debates persist about sales of advanced weaponry, China's security calculus still requires a reliance on imported Russian arms that, in turn, sustains Moscow's defence economy.

The most contentious aspect of the bilateral relationship is in the energy arena: Russia has historically been reluctant to allow Chinese investment in this strategic sector, and unwilling to commit firmly to the construction of cross-border oil pipelines. Yet recent developments may portend changes in this area. Russia's readiness to establish a direct energy corridor to China ensures that relations will continue to intensify in the near term, although it remains unclear whether continued cooperation - in political, military, and economic areas - will lead to a truly durable partnership.

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