Bible John Timeline

[Herlock Sholmes]

I did this a while ago so I thought I’d post it here in case it’s helpful to anyone. I can add things at any time. Let me know if you spot any mistakes.


1938 - John Irvine McInnes born.

1949 - Joe Beattie promoted to CID.

1958 (August 6th) - The Barrowland fire.

1957 - John Irvine McInnes joins the Scot’s Guards

1959 - John Irvine McInnes discharged from the Scot’s Guards.

1959 - McInnes meets Ella Russell from Muirkirk.

1960 (December 24th) - The Barrowland re-opens after the fire.

1961 - Jemima MacDonald has a child with Elridge ‘Bunny’ Motley called Andrew. Jemima already has a daughter Elizabeth by a man called Ignatius Bucharitza(?)

1962 - Jemima and Elridge have a child called Alan.

1962 - Pat Wilson marries Alex Docker. They have a daughter the result of an affair that Pat had with an American airman in Edinburgh.

1963 - Pat and Alex Docker have a son, Alex (known as Sandy)

1964 - Jemima and Elridge Motley split.

1964 (March) - Helen Gowans marries George Puttock. They have a son called David in the same year.

1964 (March 16th) - John Irvine McInnes and Ella Russell marry at Muirkirk Parish Church.

1965 - Alex Docker posted to Cyprus. Pat and son join him 5 months later (daughter’s location unknown)

1967 (April) - Pat and Alex marriage breaks down and they return to the UK. She and her 4 year old son Alex (Sandy) move in with her parents (John and Pauline) in Glasgow. She gets a job as a nursing auxiliary at Mearnskirk Hospital. Her husband remains in England at RAF Digby in Lincolnshire.

1968 - John Irvine and Ella McInnes have a son called Kenneth. At some point they have a stillborn son.

1968 - Helen and George have another son called Michael. At some point Helen and the children join George in Lippstadt, Germany where he’s stationed with 22 signal regiment.

1968 (19th February - 3rd March) Alex Docker goes on leave with his girlfriend.

1968 (Friday February 23rd) - The body of Patricia Docker (25) discovered in Carmichael Place, Battlefield

1968 (Friday February 23rd) Just after 8.00am - (after two traffic officers had already arrived at the scene) DC Norman MacDonald and DS Andrew Johnstone arrive.

1968 (24th February) - Alex Docker identifies his wife’s body

1968 (February 26th) - Elphinstone Dalgleish makes appeals to the public about the Morris 100 Traveller and the White Ford Consul seen in the vicinity.

1969 (February) - Helen and George Puttock and their sons return to the UK. They stay with George’s mother. Two weeks later Helen and the boys go to stay at Helen’s mother’s in Earl Street.

1969 (Sunday, August 17th) 12.15am - Someone says that they had seen a couple at the junction of Abercrombie Street and London Road.

1969 (Saturday August 16th) 8.30pm - Jemima MacDonald leaves home and heads out for a night of dancing.

1969 (Sunday August 17th) 12.40am - Jemima is seen talking to a man outside 23 Mackeith Street, Bridgeton after a night at the Barrowland.

1969 (Monday, August 18th) 10.00am - The body of Jemima MacDonald (32) discovered at 23 Mackeith Street by her sister Margaret.

1969 (August 26th) - The Daily Record issues a photo fit of the man they want to speak to. Although this image had been shown on TV it was the first time that such an image had been put down in print in Scotland.

1969 (Thursday October 30th) 8.30pm - Helen and Jeannie set out from Earl Street.

1969 (Friday October 31st) Approximately 1.00am - Helen Puttock’s estimated time of death.

1969 (Friday October 31st) Approximately 1.00 - Taxi driver William MacDonald sees a woman in an Ocelot coat (like Helen’s) running down South Street.

1969 (Friday October 31st) around 2.00am - A night bus travelling along Dumbarton Road picks up a dishevelled looking man at the Gardner Street junction

1969 (Friday October 31st) around 7.25am - The body of Helen Puttock discovered at 95 Earl Street, Scotstoun by Archibald McIntyre.

1971 - John Irvine McInnes checks into Heartwood Psychiatric Hospital.

1972 - McInnes and his wife divorce.

1976 - Joe Beattie retires. (after the investigation into the Ibrox football stadium disaster (1972/1973?) he got moved to the Scottish Police Training College at Tulliallan Castle in Fife as Deputy Commandant)

1980 (30th April 1980) around 10.15 - John Irvine McInnes body found after he’d committed suicide

1987 - Elizabeth McInnes dies (mother of John Irvine McInnes)

1995 (18th September) - The review team was set up - DI Jim McEwan, DC Willie Lindsay, DC Brian Hughes and civilian crime analyst Susan McCargh. They were based at Patrick police office reporting to DCS John Fleming.

1996 (January 27th) - Strathclyde Police issued a statement confirming a strong rumour that the police were becoming increasingly confident that a man that committed suicide in Stonehouse was Bible John.

1996 (February 1st) - The exhumation of John Irvine McInnes.

2000 - Joe Beattie dies aged 82.

2010 - Jeannie Langford dies.

2020 (September) - Helen’s younger son Michael died.

2022 (20th November) - George Puttock died.

[cobalt]

The Ibrox disaster occurred on January 2nd 1971. An inquiry into the accident to be headed by law Lord Wheatley was announced in February, so it seems likely that Joe Beattie's police investigation would have been superseded by this. Beattie had actually attended the football match (and I can guess which member of the Old Firm he was supporting on the day.)

Do we know anything about McInnes' employment record from 1959 when he left the Scots Guards, presumably as part of his National Service? I doubt he worked at the furniture store for a decade.

[Herlock Sholmes]

According to Garcia, after was discharged in 1959 he returned to Glasgow where he got a job at McGregor’s furniture store on Sauchiehall Street although in the podcast Audrey Gillan said that he spent a year working as a nursery man first.

He would have been around 21 at that time that he was discharged so he would have 22/23 when he got the job at McGregor’s then it’s said that at 25 he was assistant manager at a different store (he doesn’t mention what type of store) So this would have been around 1963.

Then, at some point, he and his wife started an old people’s home.

Garcia says that in 1968 he got a job in another furniture store in Ayr (he had Ayrshire links on his mother’s side) and it was here that he embezzled money from his employers (this is why his photograph was on police records) but this must have been earlier because he was clearly working at Moylan’s at the time of the murders.

So it’s impossible to get an accurate timeline on McInnes employment record Cobalt. In general it looks like: army - nursery man - furniture shop - furniture shop - old people’s home - furniture shop (possibly Moylan’s)

[cobalt]

Cheers Sherlock, there seem to be a few problems with the timeline. As you pointed out, in February 1968 McInnes could not have been murdering Pat Docker in the south of Glasgow on a Thursday night if he was working in a furniture shop in Ayr as stated by Garcia. Unless, that is, he committed the Docker murder then moved to Ayr later in the year, which might explain the gap in between the murders to those who theorise about serial killers. If McInnes was caught with his fingers in the till in Ayr that could explain his being back working in the Hamilton area rather sharpish in 1969.

If McInnes was caught committing fraud in Ayr there are a couple of problems. First up, the theory that he attended a psychiatric unit to avoid prosecution makes no sense since this has been dated in 1971: at least 3 years after his offence! And I think the photo of McInnes recognised by a bouncer at the Barrowland and also the taxi driver was a police mugshot, but if it was taken from around 1968 then McInnes could not have looked older as one of them noted. (Unless he had another police mugshot from later in his 'career.')

If McInnes is our man it seems he was careful to commit his crimes, whether financial or murderous, outside his own locality.