Bible John (Scotland, Unsolved) (1 Viewer)

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Hellwig

Banned
Bible John

father_jack_hackett.JPG

Bible John or "John Sempleson"
Killings
Number of victims Probably 3
Country Scotland
Date apprehended Unapprehended
For other uses of the name, see Bible John (disambiguation)
Bible John is the nickname of a serial killer who murdered three young women after meeting them at the Barrowland Ballroom in Glasgow, Scotland between 1968 and 1969. As of 2012, the killer has never been identified although the known movements and modus operandi of convicted serial killer Peter Tobin suggests that he may have been behind the killings. This has never been proven.
Contents [hide]
[edit]Murders
On 23 February 1968, the body of 25-year-old Patricia Docker was found in Carmichael Place in Glasgow. 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 had, in fact, gone 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. Pat's handbag was missing from the murder scene, although it was later found dumped in the River Clyde, suggesting that the killer may have been from that area of the city.
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. Police conducted door-to-door enquiries at the time and found a woman who remembered hearing screams coming from the same building in MacKeith Street, although she could not vouch for the time. Police considered the information of little use and the investigation was later wound down.
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 was murdered; she had gone there with her sister, Jean, and had met two men called John. One said he was from Castlemilk while 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 walked to George Square to get a bus, while Helen, Jean and "Bible John" hailed a taxi. They crossed the city to Knightswood 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 mark on her leg, suggesting that the killer had bitten Helen when she'd refused to have sex with him because she was menstruating. This provides another link to Tobin, because the menstruation cycle has always been known to drive Tobin to violence.
[edit]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 during the taxi ride home. He was reported to have said: “I don’t drink atHogmanay, I pray,” and to have referred to Moses and his father’s belief that dancehalls were “dens of iniquity”.[1]
Although Helen's sister Jean said that Bible John was "slim, tall with reddish/fair hair", the bouncers at the Barrowland Ballroom dismissed this description and said that the man Helen had left with was "short, well-spoken and had jet black hair". Police at the time considered this to be a more reliable description as Jean was drunk the night of the murder and they had already discovered that the killer had not been quoting directly from the Bible, but had been referring to it, although he was overheard by one witness commenting 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 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.
[edit]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 at the time and all three had sanitary napkins or tampons placed on or near the bodies.[2] Their handbags were also missing.
In 1996, police exhumed the 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, had committed suicide aged 41 in 1981. Police ran a DNA test and compared it withsemen 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.
[edit]Developments
The 4 May 2007 conviction of Peter Tobin for the murder of student Angelika Kluk led to speculation that he is Bible John.[3] According to a report in The Times, 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 photo fit artist's impression of Bible John, and Tobin had moved from Glasgow in 1969 after marrying his first wife, whom he had met at the Barrowland ballroom the same year as the killings officially ended. It is alleged by his former wives that Tobin is driven to violence by the 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.[2][4]
As a result of Operation Anagram in 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.[5]
In 2007, author David Leslie's search for Hannah Martin, the key prosecution witness in a £50 million drug case he was researching for a book resulted in Hannah's daughter Isobel (a pseudonym) coming forward. Hannah had died in 2002 but from the authors interviews with Isobel and Hannah's friends he discovered she may have been another of Bible John's victims. In 1969, Hannah Martin had met a well dressed man at the Barrowland Ballroom who escorted her home. Hannah was raped by her escort in nearby Carmichael Street, the same location where Pat Docker had been killed, he fled after Hannah's screams were heard by local residents. Hannah said that her attacker had fair/red hair, wore a blue suit and had teeth overlapping one another; the same description as that given by Jeannie Williams. Hannah never reported the rape and only discussed it with her closest friends. To this day it is unknown if Bible John was behind this attack although the description suggests it could be the same offender. As a result of the rape Hannah fell pregnant and in 1970 gave birth to a daughter. David Leslie has suggested that Isobel's DNA could be compared to that of suspects.
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.[6][7] 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.[3]
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.[8] ProfessorDavid Wilson, 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.[4]
[edit]See also
[edit]References
  1. ^ Brown, David; O'Neill, Sean (14 November 2007). "'Bible John' – the sanctimonious dancehall killer who vanished". Times Online. Retrieved 26 April 2010.
  2. ^ a b Reid, Melanie (8 May 2007). "Was Angelika’s murderer the infamous Bible John?". Times Online. Retrieved 26 April 2010.
  3. ^ a b David Wilson "Killer question", Times Online, 27 December 2009
  4. ^ a b Scots murderer Peter Tobin is Bible John, says UK serial killer expert Daily Record 13 June 2010
  5. ^ Peter Tobin update Crimewatch, BBC, July 2010
  6. ^ Hunt for Bible John comes to an end after only witness in case dies Daily Record, 26 September 2010
  7. ^ Only Bible John witness dies Scotsman.com News, 27 September 2010
  8. ^ Jeffrey, Robert Crimes Past: Glasgow's Crimes of the Century
[edit]External links
 

blacklotus

the mind is like a parachute, works best when open
LOL that isnt bible john, that pic is of a character out of a british show called father ted!! :lulz::lulz:
 
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