Bible John

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Template:Short description {{#invoke:other uses|otheruses}} Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English Template:Infobox serial killer Bible John is the moniker given to an unidentified serial killer who is believed to have murdered three young women in Glasgow, Scotland, between 1968 and 1969.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

The victims of Bible John were all brunettes between the ages of 25 and 31, all of whom met their murderer at the Barrowland Ballroom, a dance hall and music venue in the city. The perpetrator has never been identified and the case remains unsolved and one of the most extensive manhunts in Scottish criminal history.Template:Sfn The case was the first time in Scotland in which the Crown Office authorised publication of a composite drawing of a person suspected of murder.Template:Sfn

This unidentified serial killer became known as "Bible John" due to his having repeatedly quoted from the Bible and to have condemned adultery while in the company of his final victim.Template:Sfn The known movements and modus operandi of the convicted serial killer and rapist Peter Tobin gave rise to speculation that he might be Bible John, after his conviction for three murders in the late 2000s, but police later eliminated him as a suspect.

First murders

Patricia Docker

The alleyway in which Docker's body was discovered, pictured in 2013

On 23 February 1968 the naked body of a 25-year-old auxiliary nurse named Patricia Docker was discovered in the doorway of a lock-up garage in the alleyway behind 27 Carmichael Place in the Battlefield district.<ref name="ISoBJ" /><ref name="Podcastepisode2">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Skelton">Template:Cite news</ref> The location of her body was a few streets away from her home in Langside Place.<ref name="Podcastvideo">Template:Cite web</ref> Her body bore evidence of extensive blunt force trauma, particularly to the face and head.Template:Sfn She had been strangled to death with a strong ligature, possibly a belt.Template:Sfn Docker's handbag, watch, clothes and jewellery (other than her wedding ring)Template:Sfn were missing from the crime scene; her shoes were recovered at the scene.<ref name="Podcastepisode2" /><ref name="NYDN">Template:Cite news</ref> Her clothing was never found,<ref name="MacDougall"/> but her handbag was later recovered from the River Cart by an underwater search unit just west of the Langside Drive bridge; underpants and some lipstick that were also believed to be Docker's were additionally found at this location.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn<ref name="forgotten women" /><ref name="Podcastepisode2" /> Docker's watch casing and bracelet were recovered from water close to the murder scene.Template:Sfn<ref name="Podcastepisode2" />

Extensive door-to-door inquiries in the area produced a witness who recalled possibly hearing a female twice briefly shout "Let me go" the previous evening. This witness stated she could not detect if the female was in distress as she heard no screams or sounds of commotion. Furthermore, the attendees of a party in a flat overlooking the alleyway also informed investigators they had seen and heard nothing unusual.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn Little incontrovertible evidence was discovered at the crime scene; Docker's father identified his daughter's body the following day.<ref name="Maule">Template:Cite news</ref>Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

A postmortem conducted by Gilbert Forbes at the University of Glasgow Medical School confirmed that the cause of death had been strangulation, and that Docker's body bore no clear evidence of sexual assault.Template:Sfn<ref name="heraldscotland.com"/>Template:Refn Furthermore, the stage of rigor mortis upon her body at the time of discovery indicated she had likely died several hours prior to the discovery of her body.Template:Sfn

Docker was a married mother of one, estranged from her husband.<ref name="Herald Scotland">Template:Cite news</ref> On the night of her murder her parents had been under the impression she would spend the evening dancing at the Majestic Ballroom on Hope Street, although for unknown reasons, she is believed to have chosen to spend the majority of the evening at the Barrowland Ballroom, probably because of the 'Over-25s' night which it hosted each Thursday.<ref name="heraldscotland.com">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="forgotten women" /> Ten days into police inquiries,Template:Sfn a witness was found who stated he had seen Docker at the Barrowland.Template:Sfn<ref name="Maule"/>Template:Sfn Police were, however, ultimately unable to find any reliable or detailed witness sightings of Docker at either the Majestic or Barrowland Ballroom that evening.Template:Sfn<ref name="iplayer" /><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> When Docker failed to return home that evening, her parents assumed she had spent the night with a friend.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Investigators theorised Docker may have been killed elsewhere and her body discarded at the location of her discovery.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>Template:Sfn<ref name="ISoBJ" /><ref name="Podcastepisode2" /> The general incline of Carmichael Place would have allowed a car to enter the location quietly and without the driver using the engine, and the use of a vehicle would have enabled the killer to discreetly take the missing clothing and jewellery from the crime scene without being seen.<ref name="Podcastepisode2" />Template:Sfn

Police believed Docker's murder had occurred at around midnight.<ref name="Podcastepisode2" /> A sighting of a white Ford Consul 375 driving in the adjacent roads shortly before midnight was ruled out when the occupants came forward; a sighting of a woman entering a light-coloured Morris 1000 Traveller driven by a man at a bus stop on Langside Avenue at approximately 11:10 pm was not discounted from police inquiries, as these people were never traced.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn

By March, 700 of the city's 1,300 taxi drivers had been questioned, as it was unclear how Docker had actually travelled home on the night of her murder. A few weeks into the investigation, an anonymous letter was posted from the north of England by a woman police believed may have been in Glasgow city centre on the night of Docker's death and who may have known the identity of the killer. Details of the letter were released to the press, and police publicly appealed for the woman to come forward, saying the information in the letter was "vital", but she never did.Template:Sfn

Jemima MacDonald

On Saturday 16 August 1969, a 31-year-old mother of three named Jemima MacDonald also opted to spend the evening dancing at the Barrowland Ballroom.<ref name="forgotten women">Template:Cite news</ref> MacDonald was a regular attendee of the Barrowland and, according to family custom, her sister, Margaret O'Brien, took care of her three children in her absence.Template:Sfn As midnight approached, she was seen by several people in the company of a young, well-dressed and well-spoken man of slim build, aged between 25 and 35 and between Template:Cvt and Template:Cvt in height.Template:Sfn<ref name="Podcastepisode6">Template:Cite web</ref> The man had short hair variously described by witnesses as being fair, ginger, or dark brown with fair streaks.Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Podcastepisode3" />

MacDonald was seen leaving the Barrowland at approximately 12:30 am on 17 August in the company of this individual, walking towards either Main Street or Landressy Street, in the general direction of her home.Template:Sfn The last confirmed sighting of her was made by a neighbour at 12:40 am; she was standing with the man at the entrance to the derelict property where her body was later discovered, and the neighbour observed she appeared to have been quite unconcerned, waving nonchalantly.<ref name="forgotten women" />

O'Brien became concerned when her sister failed to return home. Later the same day, she began hearing local rumours that young children had been seen leaving a derelict tenement building in MacKeith Street discussing a body in the premises.<ref name="Skelton"/> By Monday morning, O'Brien was so concerned that she herself, fearing the worst, walked into the old building, where she discovered her sister's extensively battered body lying face down, with her shoes and stockings lying beside her.<ref name="NYDN"/>

A postmortem revealed that MacDonald had been extensively beaten, particularly about the face,Template:Sfn before she had been strangled to death, possibly with her own stockings.<ref name="Podcastepisode3">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="forgotten women" /> Her murder had occurred approximately 30 hours before the discovery of her body.<ref name="The Telegraph">Template:Cite news</ref> Like Docker, MacDonald had been menstruating at the time of her death, although unlike Docker, MacDonald's body was discovered fully clothed.<ref name="Maule"/><ref name="Skelton"/>

Investigators were unable to conclusively determine whether MacDonald had engaged in sexual activity—consensual or otherwise—prior to her murder, and although her other clothing was somewhat disrupted, the two pairs of pants she was wearing appeared to have been undisturbed.<ref name="Podcastepisode3"/>Template:Refn

Police inquiries into MacDonald's movements on the night of her murder produced several eyewitnesses who were able to accurately describe the man in whose company she had been seen at the Barrowland. Door-to-door inquiries on MacKeith Street also produced a woman who remembered hearing female screams on the evening of MacDonald's murder, but she could not recall the precise time. Consequently, police considered this information of little use to their inquiry.Template:Sfn

Initial investigation

The City of Glasgow Police noted several striking similarities between the murders of Docker and MacDonald, including that both women had attended the Barrowland Ballroom on the evening of their murder, been beaten before being strangled to death with a ligature, were menstruating, and had their handbags taken from the crime scene, but initially both murders were not considered to be the work of the same perpetrator.Template:Sfn

Despite extensive public appeals, the investigation into the murder of Docker had quickly become a cold case. Police had little information, owing to both a lack of witnesses and hard evidence.Template:Sfn The investigation had also been severely hindered by investigators not discovering until three days after her death that Docker had attended the Barrowland on the evening of her murder. Eighteen months later, following the discovery of MacDonald, police became aware of remarkable similarities to the murder of Docker. Police did not conclusively link both murders to the same perpetrator, but they could not completely discount this theory. In addition, police were certain the perpetrator(s) held a high degree of local geographical knowledge. However, they may have been a stranger to the district, as none of the eyewitnesses the investigators spoke to knew the man or men seen in the company of either woman prior to her murder.<ref name="Herald Scotland"/>

The Barrowland Ballroom, where each victim is believed to have encountered Bible John, pictured in 2011

For the first time in a Scottish murder hunt, a composite drawing of the man MacDonald had last been seen alive with was given to the press, being widely distributed via both newspapers and upon television throughout Scotland in efforts to identify the suspect.<ref name="Skelton"/> Male and female undercover police officers performed discreet surveillance at the Barrowland Ballroom in efforts to identify the suspect.Template:Sfn Police surveillance at the Barrowland Ballroom was terminated in late October 1969 due to the initiative's failure to produce any suspects. Detectives were also blamed by proprietors for a sharp decrease in attendance figures.Template:Sfn

Helen Puttock

On 31 October 1969 a man walking his dog discovered the body of 29-year-old Helen Puttock behind a tenement in the Scotstoun district. Her body was found beside a drainpipe in the back garden of her Earl Street flat. She had been stripped partially naked, extensively beaten about the face before being raped, then strangled to death with one of her own stockings.Template:Sfn The contents of her handbag had been scattered close to her body; the handbag itself was missing from the crime scene. Grass and weed stains upon the soles of Puttock's feet and shoes indicated that she had engaged in a ferocious struggle with her killer. She had evidently, at one point, attempted to scale a nearby railway embankment. Her body also bore a deep bite mark on her wrist.<ref name="Skelton2"/>Template:Sfn<ref name="ISoBJ" /> As had been the case with the two previous victims, Helen had been menstruating at the time of her murder.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Her murderer had placed her sanitary towel beneath her left armpit.Template:Sfn

The evening prior to the murder, Puttock and her sister Jean Langford had been to the Barrowland Ballroom, where both had become acquainted with two men, both named John. One of them had said he worked as a slater and resided in the Castlemilk district,Template:Sfn while the other had been a well-spoken man who did not disclose where he lived. After being in the company of these two men for more than an hour, all four left the Barrowland to head home. The man named John who had been Jean's dance partner walked to George Square to board a bus,Template:Refn while Langford, Puttock, and the man who had been Puttock's dance partner hailed a taxi. The trio set off from Glasgow Cross, making a 20-minute westwards journey towards Langford's home in Knightswood. During the trio's conversation in the cab, most of the crucial information pertaining to Bible John's psychological profile became apparent.<ref name="Skelton"/><ref name="AsNearAs">Template:Cite news</ref>

Suspect

The suspect was described by Puttock's sister Jean Langford as being a tall, slim and well-dressed young man wearing a brown and well-cut Reid and Taylor brand suit,Template:Sfn with reddish, sandy or fair hair rounded neatly at the back.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn His wristwatch had a military-style broad leather strap, and, unusually, he was wearing unfashionable leather half-boots.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn He was aged between 25 and 30, approximately Template:Convert to Template:Convert in height, and had blue-grey eyes.Template:Sfn She noticed that two of his front top teeth overlapped, and that one of his teeth at the back right-hand side of his mouth was missing.Template:Sfn<ref name="iplayer" /> She said that she thought he had said his surname was something like "Templeton," "Sempleson," or "Emerson," and he had been polite and well-spoken.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>Template:Sfn<ref name="ISoBJ" /> Langford had also observed that he "wasn't the Barrowland type" as the majority of men who frequented the dance hall were somewhat rougher, and she said that he also was not a particularly good dancer.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Before they left the dance hall, Langford had attempted to use an Embassy-brand cigarette machine which had jammed and failed to dispense her purchase.<ref name="iplayer" />Template:Sfn<ref name="ISoBJ" /> This incident caused a sudden change in the suspect's previously polite demeanour; he demanded to see the manager, with whom he argued aggressively, and asked to know who the local member of Parliament was.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn He then turned and told the group: "My father said these places are dens of iniquity. They once set fire to this place to get the insurance money and did it up with the money they got."Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn<ref name="iplayer" />Template:Sfn Langford then witnessed the man show Puttock an identity card, which seemed to impress her; however, when Langford asked to see the ID herself, the man declined and said while tapping his nose: "You know what happens to nosey folk."Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Much of the information about the suspect came from the conversations the trio had on their 20-minuteTemplate:Sfn taxi ride home.<ref name="ISoBJ" /><ref name="iplayer" /> The man said he disapproved of married women going to the Barrowland Ballroom, and when the women told him they were married he responded with a reference to the Bible, saying "you know what happens to the adulterous wife? She gets stoned to death".Template:Sfn<ref name="iplayer" /><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>Template:Refn He also commented to the women, "I don't drink at Hogmanay; I pray", although he said that he was familiar with several drinking premises in the Yoker district.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn He said he was an only child but contradicted this soon after by saying he had a sister, adding that alcohol was not allowed in his home and that when his sister came home drunk once she was refused entry to the house.Template:Sfn Langford was of the impression that the man regretted mentioning his sister and tried to redirect the conversation to foster homes and foster children.Template:Sfn He revealed that he knew the fares, and possibly the times, for both the buses and the Blue Train services north of the River Clyde.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn As the taxi travelled along the Kingsway the man said he recognised the high-rise flats and said something about his father or another relative having worked there, and that a children's home had once been there.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Langford said that the man appeared to be evasive when asked some questions.Template:Sfn<ref name="iplayer" /> He had a Glaswegian accent.<ref name="iplayer" />

When Langford asked the man whether he supported Rangers or Celtic, the man responded saying "I'm agnostic".Template:Sfn<ref name="iplayer" />Template:Sfn He made reference to, although did not specifically quote, the Bible.Template:Sfn<ref name="ISoBJ" /> Langford also recalled his mentioning he had at one stage worked in a laboratory,Template:Sfn that his family had a caravan in Irvine, and that although he played golf badly, his cousin had recently scored a hole in one.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn Even though the man seemed to say he did not smoke during the earlier Embassy cigarette machine incident, he then revealed his own packet of Embassy cigarettes and offered one to Puttock, although he did not offer any to Langford and took none himself.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn Langford stated that it had become increasingly clear to her as the trio had ridden in the taxi that this man had considered her presence in the vehicle to be an inconvenience.Template:Sfn The man insisted that the taxi took Langford home first before Puttock, even though she lived further away.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Langford last sighted the pair being driven off in the taxi after she was dropped off at her home in Kelso Street.Template:Sfn<ref name="ISoBJ" /> The taxi driver, Alexander Hannah, was later traced and provided further details of the last part of the journey, explaining that the man had been unable to pay the fare when they arrived in Earl Street (even though he had said he would pay earlier), so Puttock had given him the money to pay the taxi driver out of her purse.Template:Sfn<ref name="Podcastepisode5">Template:Cite web</ref> Hannah was unfamiliar with the route and made some wrong turns during the last part of the journey, causing Puttock to become frustrated and ask him to stop on Earl Street.Template:Sfn<ref name="unsolved" /><ref name="Podcastepisode5" /> Hannah also noted that after paying the fare, the suspect had caught up with Puttock and grabbed her, causing Puttock to resist; however, Hannah had assumed the two were simply "lovers having a tiff".Template:Sfn<ref name="unsolved" />

Final sighting

The last possible sighting of the suspect was made by the driver, conductor and passengers of a night service bus, who noticed a man matching the description given by Langford "walking quickly ... in a determined manner" along Dumbarton Road and then boarding their bus at approximately 2:00 am on 31 October.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn<ref name="Podcastepisode6" /> He was in a particularly dishevelled state, with mud stains on his jacket and a livid red mark or scratch on his cheek just beneath one eye.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn These witnesses also recalled his repeatedly tucking a short cuff of one sleeve into his jacket sleeve (a man's cufflink was later found alongside Puttock's body).Template:Sfn<ref name="Podcastepisode6" /> He had also paid for the fare from a distinctive red purse likely belonging to Puttock, whose red purse was missing from the crime scene.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The man got off the bus at the junction of Argyle Street and Derby Street/Gray Street.<ref name="Podcastepisode6" />Template:Sfn

Contemporary police records show that investigators gave particular credence to these sightings because the physical description of this individual was markedly similar to Langford's description of Puttock's companion at the Barrowland.Template:Refn It was initially believed that the man may have used the nearby Govan ferry to cross the River Clyde to the south of the city, but the ferrymen working that night could not remember such an individual.Template:Sfn

The murder of Helen Puttock held remarkable similarities to the two previous murders, further raising suspicions that all three murders had been committed by the same person. Each of the victims had been the mother of at least one child and had met her murderer at the Barrowland Ballroom. The handbag of each woman was missing. Each victim had been strangled to death, and at least two of these women had been raped prior to their murders.Template:Sfn Each of the three women had been escorted home by her killer and murdered within yards of her door. Additionally, all had been menstruating at the time of death<ref name="The Telegraph"/> and had their sanitary towel or tampon placed upon, beneath, or near their body.<ref name="Skelton2"/>Template:Sfn This led to speculation that the women had been murdered for their refusal to engage in intercourse with their murderer, due to their periods.<ref name="letters">Template:Cite news</ref> Template:Quote box

Ongoing investigation

Within hours of the discovery of the body of Helen Puttock, an additional composite drawing of the suspect was created using the detailed description provided by her sister.Template:Sfn Langford saw the earlier image created after the murder of Jemima MacDonald and believed it was an excellent likeness.<ref name="express">Template:Cite news</ref>Template:Refn Detective Superintendent Joe Beattie asked the public to study this composite drawing closely, should it resemble anyone they knew. Due to the suspect's hair being unfashionably short for the era, over 450 hairdressers in and around Glasgow were shown the updated drawing of the suspect, and all dentists in and around the city were asked to examine their records to determine whether they held records of a male patient with overlapping incisors and a missing tooth in the upper right jaw. Both lines of inquiry proved fruitless.Template:Sfn The police also produced an artist's impression portrait, created by Lennox Patterson, Registrar of the Glasgow School of Art, based on the recollections of Puttock's sister. In June 1970, police employed the photofit system in an attempt to produce a better likeness of the suspect. This was the first instance this method of identifying a murder suspect was used in Scotland.<ref name="iplayer"/>

More than 100 detectives were assigned to work full-time on the case, and 50,000 witness statements were taken in door-to-door inquiries.<ref name="Skelton2">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Ultimately, more than 5,000 potential suspects were questioned in the first year of the inquiry alone, and Jean Langford was required to attend over 300 identity parades,Template:Sfn but she was adamant none of those required to participate in these identity parades had been the man with whom she had last seen her sister, and all were cleared of any involvement.<ref name="Skelton2"/> Fearing that the perpetrator would strike again, a team of 16 detectives was instructed to mingle with dancers at all dance halls in Glasgow. In particular, these detectives frequented the Barrowland on Thursday and Saturday nights at the over-25s events, where each victim was presumed to have met her murderer.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>Template:Refn

Despite the extensive manhunt, no further developments arose and the investigation into the three murders gradually became cold, with many officers assigned to the case believing that the perpetrator had either died, been jailed for an unrelated offence, had been incarcerated at a mental hospital, or that senior police officers had known his actual identity but had been unable to prove he had committed the murders.<ref name="MacDougall">Template:Cite news</ref> Others speculated that he may have simply moved away from the Glasgow district, or murdered whenever in the vicinity;<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> this possibility prompted police to circulate multiple copies of the composite drawing at all British Army, Navy, and Air Force bases in the United Kingdom, Europe, and the Middle and Far East; this line of inquiry failed to produce any significant leads.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Potential suspects

John Edgar/"John White"

Les Brown, who worked on the Bible John case as a junior detective, claimed in 2005 that he had identified a likely suspect at the time but that he was dismissed simply because he did not have notably overlapping front teeth.<ref name="Bible John Police Get New Informati">Template:Cite news</ref> The man had been found arguing with a young woman in the Barrowland, and Brown said that he closely resembled the facial composite of Bible John. The man subsequently supplied police with a false name and address before revealing his true name and address in the Gorbals.<ref name="Bible John Police Get New Informati" /> The man's real name was John Edgar.Template:Sfn

Several years later, Brown spoke at length to a detective who had taken the same man to a hospital after arresting him outside the Barrowland Ballroom at the time of the murders. The suspect had needed several stitches in his head following an altercation, and as soon as his handcuffs had been released, he escaped from the hospital. At the time of this incident, he had also falsely given his name to medical personnel as John White. In addition to this basic circumstantial evidence, the "whole demeanour" of the man had led Les Brown and several of his colleagues to believe he may have been the perpetrator.<ref name="Bible John Police Get New Informati" />

After Brown wrote of his suspicions in his 2005 autobiography, the man came forward and offered to provide a DNA sample in order to clear his name.Template:Sfn This led to his elimination as a suspect.Template:Sfn The author Paul Harrison has also criticised the theory, pointing to how Brown contradicted himself by voicing his opinions that Peter Tobin may have been responsible.Template:Sfn

David Henderson

In 1983 a Lanarkshire contractor named Harry Wyllie contacted Strathclyde Police; he claimed to conclusively know that his friend David HendersonTemplate:Sfn had been Bible John, adding that both he and Henderson had been raised in the Cranhill district of Glasgow and both had frequented the Barrowland Ballroom in the 1960s. Wyllie had, he claimed, read an article in the Evening Times five years previously before suddenly realising his friend had been the perpetrator of the murders. The alleged suspect was traced living in the Netherlands, married to a Dutch woman.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Subsequently, police questioned Henderson and eliminated him as a suspect.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Langford also told police that Henderson did not look like the killer.Template:Sfn

Hannah Martin rapist

In the years following the Bible John murders, several women came forward to claim that they had been sexually assaulted after an evening at the Barrowland.Template:Sfn One of these women, Hannah Martin, claimed that she had been assaulted and raped by Bible John and had subsequently given birth to his child in January 1970; a daughter she initially named Isobel.Template:SfnTemplate:Refn

In April 1969 Martin had left the Barrowland in the company of a tall man with whom she then had sex, and then accepted his offer of a lift home.Template:Sfn However, during the drive, the man's sexual demeanour became more aggressive, and Martin, drunk and terrified she may be attacked, vomited in the man's car.Template:Sfn He then bundled her out of the car and drove off, leaving her standing on the pavement.Template:Sfn One author, David Leslie, has claimed that Martin's daughter could be the one indubitable link to the identity of Bible John.Template:Sfn

John Irvine McInnes

In 1996, Strathclyde Police exhumed the body of John Irvine McInnes from a graveyard in Stonehouse, South Lanarkshire.Template:Sfn McInnes, who had served in the Scots Guards, had died by suicide in 1980 at the age of 41, by severing the brachial artery in his upper arm. He was the cousin of one of the original suspects in the Bible John investigation<ref name="McInnes">Template:Cite news</ref> and related to a senior police officer.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> However, Jean Langford had not picked him out in numerous identity parades, and she continued to insist in 1996 that McInnes was not Bible John.Template:Sfn<ref name="iplayer" /> A DNA sample was taken from McInnes's body for comparison with semen samples found on the stockings belonging to Helen Puttock and which had been used to strangle her.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Fifty Years On, Britain's Top Seria">Template:Cite news</ref>Template:Refn The results of the testing conducted proved inconclusive, with then-Lord Advocate Lord Mackay stating insufficient evidence<ref name="Men give DNA in Bible John case">Template:Cite news</ref> existed to link McInnes with the murder of Helen Puttock.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The Crown officially cleared McInnes of any involvement in the Bible John murders in July 1996.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Strathclyde Police and the McInnes family pathologist confirmed in 2005 that further advancements in DNA testing had now enabled a match between McInnes's DNA and the killer's to be fully disproven.<ref name="unsolved">Template:Cite episode</ref>

Peter Tobin

Some have speculated that the convicted serial killer Peter Tobin may have been Bible John. He had lived in Shettleston in Glasgow in the late 1960s; he then relocated to England in August 1969 (before the final two murders committed by Bible John) after marrying his first wife, whom he had met at the Barrowland Ballroom in 1968.Template:Sfn<ref name="Herald Scotland"/><ref>Template:Cite AV media</ref><ref name="Scotsmanjuly">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="telegraph.co.uk">Template:Cite news</ref>Template:Refn The amount of violence Tobin inflicted on his known victims between 1991 and 2006 and his level of organisation did not suggest the work of an amateur, leading some to believe he may have killed prior to his first known victims.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> However, one discrepancy is that Bible John displayed his victims' bodies in public places, whereas Tobin buried all his known victims.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Some contemporary visual similarities exist between Tobin when aged in his 20s and the 1969 composite drawing of Bible John, although the composite drawing showed Bible John with red hair and contemporary pictures of Tobin show he did not have this hair colour.<ref name="2022 doc" /> In addition, all three of Tobin's former wives have given accounts of being repeatedly imprisoned, throttled, beaten and raped by him, and each has stated he had been driven to extreme physical violence by the female menstrual cycle (a factor long suspected by investigators as being the perpetrator's motive behind the murders). In addition, Tobin is known to have been a staunch Roman Catholic with strong religious views,Template:Refn and the alias Bible John may have given to Jean Langford and Helen Puttock in 1969 is similar to one of the pseudonyms known to have been regularly used by Tobin: John Semple.<ref name="Scotsmanjuly"/>Template:Refn

David Wilson, a criminologist, strongly believes the available evidence supports his theory that Tobin is Bible John; others have criticised his theory.Template:Sfn<ref name="crime files"/>Template:Sfn He has stated that the moment he believed Tobin was Bible John occurred during Tobin's trial for the 1991 murder of 18-year-old Dinah McNicol, in which a witness's trial testimony of what Tobin had said in the company of herself and McNicol on the evening of McNicol's abduction contained notable similarities to things reportedly said by Bible John. Some important points of overlap were both men mentioning they did not drink at Hogmanay and having a cousin who had once scored a hole-in-one in a game of golf. This information, alongside other circumstantial evidence, led Wilson to state: "I didn't set out to prove Tobin was Bible John, but I would stake my professional reputation on it."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Operation Anagram

As a result of a police investigation named Operation Anagram, which was initiated in 2006 to trace the movements of Tobin throughout the decades and to determine his potential culpability in any other crimes, a woman informed investigators she had been raped by Tobin after she had met him at the Barrowland Ballroom in 1968, shortly after the first of the murders believed to have been committed by Bible John.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> However, Operation Anagram found no other evidence to support the theory that Tobin was Bible John.Template:Sfn<ref name="iplayer" />Template:Sfn

Elimination as a suspect

Tobin has since been eliminated as a suspect by police.<ref name="2022 doc"/> Although often reported that Tobin moved from Glasgow to Brighton after the 1969 murders, he in fact relocated from Glasgow to Brighton with his fiancée, Margaret Mountney, before the second murder attributed to Bible John.Template:Sfn Operation Anagram discovered that Tobin was in Brighton at the time of the final two Bible John murders.<ref name="2022 doc"/> He had married his first wife in Brighton on 6 August 1969, 10 days before the 16 August murder of Jemima MacDonald, as recorded on their marriage certificate.<ref name="ISoBJ">Template:Cite AV media</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>Template:Sfn Tobin's wife testified the pair were still on their honeymoon in Brighton at the time of the murder of the second victim, and she insists he was with her at the time.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn She has strongly criticised the theory that Tobin is Bible John.Template:Sfn Tobin was in police custody regarding an unrelated crime when another of the killings occurred. He was also still living in Brighton at the time of the third murder, meaning he would have had to travel without his wife's knowledge to Glasgow and back from Brighton to have committed the murder of Helen Puttock.Template:Sfn

Tobin's DNA was checked against the semen sample for Bible John as part of Operation Anagram. The results of this analysis conclusively proved the bodily fluid did not originate from Tobin.<ref name="2022 doc">Template:Cite web</ref> Wilson has questioned the DNA evidence, but the police also have a record of the bite mark that was found on Helen Puttock's wrist which they can cross-check with Tobin's dental records, as had been done with John McInnes when he was exhumed and subsequently eliminated as a suspect in 1996.Template:Sfn Tobin also had a distinctive scar under his left eye at the time, and no witnesses reported Bible John as having such a scar, and Tobin was also 5 ft 6 in, much shorter than the witness accounts of Bible John.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The key witness with Bible John in the taxi, Jean Langford, also insisted that Tobin was nothing like the man.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

David Swindle, the senior investigating officer in charge of Operation Anagram, has stated that there is no evidence to link Tobin to the Bible John murders, and Operation Anagram eventually discounted the theory.<ref name="2022 doc" /> Swindle had previously presided over the 2002 review of the Bible John murders, four years before the initial discoveries of Tobin's murders.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In his 2010 book The Lost British Serial Killer, the author David Wilson claimed that Peter Tobin was Bible John, but his co-writer, Paul Harrison, later recanted the claims they made in it. In 2013 Harrison published a new book, instead claiming that Bible John was a police officer.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Harrison concluded: "the obnoxious little pervert that Tobin has been proven to be is not the killer referred to as Bible John".Template:Sfn

Domestic violence theory

A former crime editor for the Daily Record newspaper, Jane Hamilton, has since stated that detectives she has interviewed who had reviewed the Bible John case files in the 1980s were of the belief that two of the murders linked to Bible John were actually domestic incidents.<ref name="crime files">Template:Cite episode</ref>

Patricia Docker's estranged husband Alex had been an early suspect in her murder.Template:Sfn The two had married in 1963, but their marriage had been an unhappy one, and the issue of divorce had been raised between them more than once.Template:Sfn The marriage further deteriorated shortly after a posting to Cyprus – where Docker is believed to have conducted at least one affair – followed by a brief move to Digby, Lincolnshire, where Alex Docker was an RAF corporal.Template:Sfn<ref name="forgotten women" /><ref name="Podcastepisode2" />Template:Sfn Docker had decided to return to Glasgow with their son (b. 1964) in April 1967; she and her son lived with her parents at the time of her murder.Template:Sfn<ref name="forgotten women" />

Alex–who claimed to have last seen Docker at her home in October 1967 when the two had met to discuss divorce<ref name="forgotten women" /><ref name="Podcastepisode2" />—was considered by police to have had a possible motive to kill his estranged wife. He had sought a hasty divorce in order to marry his new partner, with whom he is known to have signed a hotel register on the day after Patricia's murder as 'husband and wife'.<ref name="Podcastepisode2" /> Furthermore, investigators discovered that he had also been on leave from RAF Digby in Scotland at the time of the murder.Template:Sfn The pair were actively contemplating divorce at the time of Docker's murder, having corresponded about the issue in early 1968.<ref name="forgotten women" />

Shortly after Docker's murder, her husband had taken their son from his grandparents to live with him and his new partner in Lincolnshire.<ref name="forgotten women"/>Template:Refn

Jemima MacDonald had also recently separated from her husband at the time of her murder and had likewise moved back to Glasgow the year prior to her death.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>Template:Sfn<ref name="national"/> Her former husband stated in 2022 that police had considered him a suspect and that he had been repeatedly questioned regarding her murder.<ref name="Jemimaepisode">Template:Cite web</ref>

Contemporary police reports indicate MacDonald had visited the Barrowland for three successive nights in the week prior to her murder, and that she was "in receipt of public funds, plus maintenance from the fathers of her children".<ref name="forgotten women" /> Reflecting the attitudes of the time, following MacDonald's murder, the press devoted extensive focus on the fact MacDonald had borne three children by two different men; her two youngest with a man described as a 'West Indian', and her eldest with a man described only as a Yugoslav national she had reportedly met in Liverpool.<ref name="national">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="forgotten women" />

Helen Puttock's husband, George, was conclusively eliminated as a suspect in his wife's murder in 1996 after his DNA was tested against the semen samples discovered upon his wife's stockings and was found not to match. Castings of his teeth were also found not to match the bite mark the killer had left upon her wrist.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn<ref name="Podcastepisode9">Template:Cite web</ref>

Aftermath

No further murder victims killed in Scotland or elsewhere in the United Kingdom have ever been conclusively attributed to Bible John,Template:Sfn and the manhunt for this murderer was one of the most extensive manhunts in Scottish criminal history.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The murders of the three women remain unsolved,<ref name="NYDN"/> but the case remains open, with many investigators remaining certain that the perpetrator(s)<ref name="Fifty Years On, Britain's Top Seria"/> of these crimes were highly likely to have been shielded by one or more individuals he or they had known.Template:Sfn

No uniform consensus exists that the three killings were actually the work of the same person.Template:Sfn It has been claimed that the gap of 18 months between the first two killings is unusual for a serial killer,Template:Refn and that the later two murders may have either been copycat killings, or the sole two committed by the same perpetrator. Criticism has also been levelled against the police for potentially hampering their own investigation by prematurely jumping to the conclusion that all three murders had been committed by the same person.Template:Sfn

In 2004, police announced their intentions to genetically test several men in a further attempt to identify the perpetrator, with all concerned being requested to submit blood samples.<ref name="Men give DNA in Bible John case"/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> This followed the previous discovery of an 80% genetic match from the semen samples retrieved from the final crime scene attributed to Bible John with a DNA sample retrieved at the site of a minor crime committed two years earlier. The sample was enough of a match to lead officers to believe that the person who committed the offence was related to the killer.Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

The sole witness ever to have engaged in a lengthy conversation with Bible John, Jean Langford, died in September 2010 at the age of 74. Langford had given police the description used to form the second composite drawing created of the suspect, which remains the most significant clue as to the perpetrator's physical appearance. Despite Professor Wilson's assertion that Peter Tobin may have been Bible John, when Langford discussed her sister's murderer many decades later, she dismissed this theory, stating emphatically that Tobin had not been the man she had shared a taxi with on the night of her sister's murder.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Media

Books

Television

  • The BBC has broadcast a 30-minute documentary focusing on the murders committed by Bible John. Presented by Hugh Cochrane, this episode was screened on 18 September 1970, and concluded with a direct quote from Jeremiah, Chapter 23, Verse 24, appealing to the perpetrator to hand himself in to the police: 'Can any hide himself in secret places, that I shall not see him? saith the Lord?Template:Sfn
  • Granada Television have broadcast a drama-documentary focusing on the murder of Helen Puttock as part of the true crime drama television series In Suspicious Circumstances. This episode, titled "Dancing With Death", was first broadcast on 23 March 1993 and focuses upon the murder of Helen Puttock.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • Channel Four has broadcast a 25-minute documentary upon the Bible John murders. Titled Calling Bible John, this documentary was presented by Andrew O'Hagan and was first broadcast in March 1996.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
  • The case of Bible John featured in a December 2005 episode of Unsolved. Narrated by Alex Norton, the program primarily focuses on the death of the final victim, Helen Puttock, and includes interviews with Puttock's husband George.<ref name="auto">Template:Cite news</ref>
  • STV has broadcast a 45-minute documentary focusing on the murders committed by Bible John. This documentary, titled In Search of Bible John, was initially broadcast in 2011, and explores the possibility that Peter Tobin may have been the perpetrator of the three murders.
  • A two-part documentary by BBC Scotland focuses on the manhunt for Bible John. Titled The Hunt for Bible John, this episode was first broadcast by BBC Scotland in November 2021 and across the UK on BBC Two in January 2022. The programme featured contributions from George Puttock, writer Andrew O'Hagan, journalist Magnus Linklater and psychologist David Canter.<ref name="auto"/><ref name="iplayer">Template:Cite web</ref>

Radio/Podcast

BBC Sounds have broadcast a 13-part series focusing upon the murders committed by Bible John. Presented by journalist Audrey Gillan and titled Bible John: Creation of a Serial Killer, this series was broadcast between 29 September and 7 December 2022.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

See also

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Notes

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References

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Cited works and further reading

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