The Christie Case

[Honest John]

Thanks for the compliment. Yes, I saw Marriott's book; it is as you say. He's more interested in Jack the Ripper and wrote a book on the topic a few years ago, titled, Jack the Riper: The 21st century investigation. Not brilliant, but I have seen worse on that topic. Marriott's serial killer book isn't great on Haigh either.

[contrafib]

Err apologies, my computer didn't seem to be sending my message but obviously it was so it has appeared x4. Any chance of erasing 3 of them??

[contrafib]

And there wouldn't be any point writing another book on the case unless some new files were released or new evidence suddenly came to light.
As we've discussed many times before, some kind of documentary showing the history of the case and showing the current divergence of opinion over the Evans murders would be welcomed.

I've also mentioned this programme before, that aired in England 10 years ago.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1741161/combined

It featured a woman called Peggy Baker, who had an encounter with and very lucky escape from Christie, (Honest John, to my knowledge you never came across this in your research) and also interviews with some former residents who i think were called Dymond and Hildreth (not sure about those though). There's an accompanying book for the series called 'To Kill And Kill Again' (written by our chum Martin 'conspiracies never exist ever, ever' Fido) which will probably have the details.

[Sherlock]

I was looking through a newly-published paperback in my local bookshop yesterday entitled "The Evil Within" by Trevor Marriot, a retired detective, who provides a potted history of the world's most notorious serial killers.

It had a reasonable amount on the Christie and Evans cases, but as far as I could see from my brief look it was once again merely a re-hash of the "standard version", with no new information.

I think that it will be very difficult to better Honest John's book for many years to come!!!!!!

[Sherlock]

Ones also wonders if Ruth Fuerst's daughter Christina Sonya, Rita Nelson's son George, Hectorina Maclennan's two daughters Marion and Juline, and any of Kathleen Maloney's five children are still alive today and know about the sad deaths of their mothers.

Another interesting point is that Timothy Evans also had a half-brother named John who lived at home as well as his mother, stepfather and two sisters. Oddly, Ludovic Kennedy never mentioned him in his book, although he has much to say about Evans's relationship with his sisters.

[Sherlock]

It is also interesting that an artist named Frank Nicolle sketched Christie as he sat on a stool in a cafe and that the latter admired the drawing. I wonder if the sketch is still in existence today?

I also remember reading in a biography of pathologist Francis Camps that another artist drew a sketch of Christie in the dock at the Old Bailey and that the artist's housekeeper felt ill when she looked at it!!! I cannot remember the title of the book but I think it was published as a paperback in the late 1980s or early 1990s. The book contained an illustration of the sketch; I only remember that the artist was nicknamed "Pip".

[Sherlock]

Hello Honest John

It was interesting that you were unable to find any evidence to corroborate crime reporter Norman Rae's claim that he arranged a meeting with Christie near Wood Green Town Hall after the latter had left Rillington Place in early 1953. Do you therefore think that Rae concocted this story for his own purposes?

On the other hand it would seem that Christie did have some dealings with the press, as he had first met Sunday Pictorial reporter Harry Procter at the time of the Evans murders in 1949, and after Evans's conviction he attempted to sell photographs of Evans to the Kensington Post. Christie also lent his camera to a member of this newspaper's staff for an outing in 1952.

It seems that Christie was quite active as a photographer in the Noting Hill area.
One wonders if any photographs taken by him still exist today; the only one I am aware of which may have been by him is the well-known one of Timothy, Beryl and Jeraldine with Evans's sister in the back garden of 10 Rillington Place.

[Honest John]

Glad you liked the book. Yes, it certainly could have been quite a lot longer. Originally there was a lot about the legal and political controversy from 1953 onwards, but this had to be cut to meet word limits.

The Evans pictures are pretty expensive to reproduce and I was able to acquire other pictures more economically. Yes, I was trying to shift the attention a little away from the events of 1949-50, as important as these are.

I was also aiming to be as factually accurate as possible, so hearsay, eg that Christie was a police informer in the 1940s (see Murderers' Moon) was dropped.

[contrafib]

Honest John,

i read your book over Xmas and i think it certainly plugged a gap in the market, so to speak, being the first book to collate lots of information about the main players in Christie's life. I consider it a must-have for those interested in the case, and i will write a review saying this.
I do think you were a little hamstrung by limitations regarding the word count because i would have liked to have read a bit more of your own analysis regarding Christie. I don;t mean to expect a professional analysis of his mental state, but your conclusion was interesting and it might have been nice to have had a progression of the 'Christie as human being' idea through the book. The book generally read as a very straight factual account of his life. Also surprised to see so few pictures of Christie and none of the Evans family despite their significant role in the subject's life. Was this to move the book away from being about the Rillington Place case??
So many pictures of places as well.
Overall, very worthwhile.

[Honest John]

I will ask about inclusion in the paperback version which comes out next year, but if this can't be done I am happy to post the details on this site.

By the way, 6 Almeric Road, Christie's home in Battersea in early 1929 still stands - his only known address in London to be still standing, apart from 23 Oxford Gardens.

If anyone thought the recent book to be of any merit, please consider a review on amazon.

[Sherlock]

Yes, I would also be very interested in that information if you ever planned to publish it in any form, Honest John.

[Brickbat]

I subsequently learnt a little more about Beryl Thorley's family in the 1930s, Christie's finances in 1952 and Ruth Fuerst's movements and employments 1939-43. Too late for inclusion unfortunately.

@Honest John: Do you plan to include all the additional information in a later (paperback) edition of your book, or will it be avalable in another form? Thank you.

[RonIpstone]

Accuracy is not Limehouse's strong suit.

[contrafib]

Oh come on contrafib! I don't see what difference the attractiveness or otherwise of Mrs Evans makes to the case at all. The truth is, she was murdered, and however shady and furtive Timothy Evans might have been, he could easily be matched by Christie who had convictions for violence against women and had already murdered before the Evans family moved into the house.

I don't think it's a huge factor but it's an example of the inaccuracy of the film.

[Honest John]

Christie only had one conviction for violence - in 1929 against Mrs Coles (the 1923 incident was not one of violence contary to oft repeated myth) - and that was 20 years before the murder of Beryl and Geraldine. Conviction not convictions, therefore. Not that this proves or disproves anything, of course, as regards the Evans issue.