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Casual misogyny is certainly a feature of these police documents, a world where a woman who 'likes male company' (don't most women?) segues into 'promiscuity.' The blanket statement about the Gowan sisters- that 'all three are promiscuous' - can hardly have been thoroughly checked for accuracy. The character of the women is constantly implied by attributing two possible surnames by which they were known; this was a legal nicety used in sheriff courts when sentencing prostitutes and carried a serious social stigma at the time. The tabloid newspaper equivalent at the time was 'attractive divorcee.'
No doubt the police could claim they were seeking to avoid ambiguity by referencing these names, just as referencing that some had children to more one father might be some sort of motive for their murder. But it does not read like that today and I doubt it did at the time. Jemima McDonald had three children and we are offered the less than crucial information that one father was a Yugoslav whilst another was from the Caribbean. The third child's father was presumably a Glaswegian so he is not deemed worthy of mention- although unlike the others he was most likely still living in the area! This casual racism includes mention of Patricia Docker having 'affairs with Greek Cypriots' whilst in Cypress.
So I can see why Audrey Gillan is highlighting the social lens through which the murders were investigated, and how it may have hindered the inquiry. After all, none of these women were killed by a 'foreigner.' Everything points to their having met their death at the hands of a fellow Glaswegian. And if they were as free with their favours as the police believed, that was surely not the reason they were killed: they were killed because they refused the sexual advances of a sexual maniac, not because they welcomed his advances.
No doubt the police could claim they were seeking to avoid ambiguity by referencing these names, just as referencing that some had children to more one father might be some sort of motive for their murder. But it does not read like that today and I doubt it did at the time. Jemima McDonald had three children and we are offered the less than crucial information that one father was a Yugoslav whilst another was from the Caribbean. The third child's father was presumably a Glaswegian so he is not deemed worthy of mention- although unlike the others he was most likely still living in the area! This casual racism includes mention of Patricia Docker having 'affairs with Greek Cypriots' whilst in Cypress.
So I can see why Audrey Gillan is highlighting the social lens through which the murders were investigated, and how it may have hindered the inquiry. After all, none of these women were killed by a 'foreigner.' Everything points to their having met their death at the hands of a fellow Glaswegian. And if they were as free with their favours as the police believed, that was surely not the reason they were killed: they were killed because they refused the sexual advances of a sexual maniac, not because they welcomed his advances.
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