Inside 10 Rillington Place: John Christie and me, the untold truth

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Warm congratulates to Peter Thorley for revealing the truth about Tim Evans who was a coward and was rightly executed. His sister was savagely beaten before she was killed and there was no sign of sexual intercourse. Christie’s modus operandi was quite different so yes there were 2 killers and no miscarriage of justice. Reply

Peter: The trial of Evans lasted only three days. That would be ridiculous by the standards of today. There was so much to be criticised. For a start, the numerous people who knew Evans and his capabilities and threats towards Beryl. These included her brother Basil who did very little to support her. There were many others including her closest friend Joan Vincent who was so well aware of Beryl’s marital problems. Neighbours saw and heard the regular violent rows in the Evans household. Also, several workmen had been present at No.10 for nearly three weeks. Not one of these people was called to give evidence at his trial. Had they done so there would have been no question of his guilt. For me, this has been a lifetime of frustration and regret. Born in 1924 in South Wales, Timothy Evans grew up without his biological father and reportedly suffered from health issues that caused him to miss much of school. As a result, he never learned to read or write properly.Marston, John Christie, pp. 104–105 lists Michael Eddowes's The Man On Your Conscience, F. Tennyson Jesse's The Trials of Timothy John Evans and John Reginald Halliday Christie and Kennedy's Ten Rillington Place as being particularly instrumental in keeping the issue of the miscarriage of justice alive. Following Christie's conviction, there was substantial controversy concerning the earlier trial of Timothy Evans, who had been convicted mainly on the evidence of Christie, who lived in the same property in which Evans had allegedly carried out his crimes. [123] Christie confessed to Beryl's murder and although he neither confessed to, nor was charged with, Geraldine's murder, he was widely considered guilty of both murders. [124] This cast doubt on the fairness of Evans' trial and raised the possibility that an innocent person had been hanged. [124]

See for instance Marston's summary of barrister Geoffrey Bing's criticism of the trial, p. 100: "Bing pointed out that Evans's guilt depended on two incredible coincidences. The first was that two murderers, living in the same house but acting independently, strangled women... The second was as extraordinary as the first: that Evans accused the one man in London who was strangling women in the identical way that he, Evans, had strangled his wife and child". A huge fight erupted towards the end of 1949 and Peter Thorley told his father about the bruises he had seen on his sister. Nelson, Sara (13 December 2016). "Rillington Place: The Terrible Truth About The Murderer John Christie". The Huffington Post . Retrieved 21 December 2016.Gammon, Edna E. (2011). A House to Remember: 10 Rillington Place. Liverpool, England: Memoirs Books. p.63. ISBN 978-1-908-22338-8. The film relies on the same argument advanced by Kennedy that Evans was innocent of the murders and was framed by Christie. That argument was accepted by the Crown and Evans was officially pardoned by Home Secretary Roy Jenkins in 1966. The case is one of the first major miscarriages of justice known to have occurred in the immediate postwar period. Most of the script, narrative and character development of it was drawn up in the 1960s. [2] It is, of course, an established fact that Christie was a serial killer and this new account reinforces the belief that he was, far from being ignorant of it all, a party to dealing with the aftermath of Evans’s deeds which would have left him open to charges as an accessory under the Accessories and Abettors Act 1861, still fully in force at that time. Penalties for such offences could be as severe as those imposed upon the principal offender. However, this is of course merely academic given Christie’s subsequent fate for his own crimes little more than three years later.

Q1: Please do tell us about Beryl and what she was like; it’s clear the two of you were very close. She was murdered so young at just 19 years old. It is thought Beryl Evans was killed on November 8, 1949. According to the story Christie gave at trial, he and his wife heard a ‘bump’ during the night and the following morning Timothy Evans claimed Beryl had gone away to Bristol.Timothy John Evans (Inquiry)". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 22 October 1953 . Retrieved 17 October 2016. Barber, Sian (22 January 2013). The British Film Industry in the 1970s: Capital, Culture and Creativity. Palgrave Macmillan. p.17. ISBN 978-1-137-30592-3. During Easter of 1948, Timothy Evans and his wife Beryl moved into the top-floor flat at 10 Rillington Place, where Beryl gave birth that October to their daughter, Geraldine. In late 1949, Evans informed police that his wife was dead. [45] A police search of the building failed to find her body, but a later search revealed the bodies of Beryl, Geraldine, and a 16-week male foetus [46] in an outdoor wash-house. Beryl's body had been wrapped twice, in a blanket and then a table cloth. The post-mortem revealed that both mother and daughter had been strangled and that Beryl had been physically assaulted before her death, shown by facial bruising. [47] Evans at first claimed that Christie had killed his wife in a botched abortion operation, but police questioning eventually produced a confession. The alleged confession may have been fabricated by the police, as the statement appears contrived and artificial. [48] After being charged, Evans withdrew his confession and once again accused Christie, this time of both murders. I knew there and then what I know now. It was him, Evans. I knew his temper, and I knew he’d told Beryl he was going to do it. There was never any doubt in my mind.”

While in Brixton Prison, he boasted his goal had been to kill 12 women and compared himself to John George Haigh, the acid bath murderer.

Australian artist Brett Whiteley produced a series of paintings based on the Christie murders while living in London in the 1960s. [140] There can’t be two killers in one property, living so close together yet both be independent murderers. That would be too unbelievable, so it was taken as fact that Timothy Evans was actually telling the truth when he accused John Christie of murdering Beryl and Geraldine. The truth that has been accepted is John Christie is responsible for all the killings and Timothy Evans was hanged as an innocent man. The film dramatises the case of British serial killer John Christie, who committed many of his crimes in the titular London terraced house, and the miscarriage of justice involving his neighbour Timothy Evans. Hurt received a BAFTA Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Evans.