Bible John
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.
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. 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.
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. 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
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. The location of her body was a few streets away from her home in Langside Place. Her body bore evidence of extensive blunt force trauma, particularly to the face and head. She had been strangled to death with a strong ligature, possibly a belt. Docker's handbag, watch, clothes and jewellery were missing from the crime scene; her shoes were recovered at the scene. Her clothing was never found, 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. Docker's watch casing and bracelet were recovered from water close to the murder scene.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. Little incontrovertible evidence was discovered at the crime scene; Docker's father identified his daughter's body the following day.
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. 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.
Docker was a married mother of one, estranged from her husband. 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. Ten days into police inquiries, a witness was found who stated he had seen Docker at the Barrowland. Police were, however, ultimately unable to find any reliable or detailed witness sightings of Docker at either the Majestic or Barrowland Ballroom that evening. When Docker failed to return home that evening, her parents assumed she had spent the night with a friend.
Investigators theorised Docker may have been killed elsewhere and her body discarded at the location of her discovery. 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.
Police believed Docker's murder had occurred at around midnight. 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.
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.
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. 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. 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 and in height. The man had short hair variously described by witnesses as being fair, ginger, or dark brown with fair streaks.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. 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.
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. 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.
A postmortem revealed that MacDonald had been extensively beaten, particularly about the face, before she had been strangled to death, possibly with her own stockings. Her murder had occurred approximately 30 hours before the discovery of her body. Like Docker, MacDonald had been menstruating at the time of her death, although unlike Docker, MacDonald's body was discovered fully clothed.
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.
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.
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.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. 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 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.
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. Male and female undercover police officers performed discreet surveillance at the Barrowland Ballroom in efforts to identify the suspect. 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.
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. 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. As had been the case with the two previous victims, Helen had been menstruating at the time of her murder. Her murderer had placed her sanitary towel beneath her left armpit.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, 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, 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.