Bible John

:"For other uses of the name, see Bible John (disambiguation)."Bible John is the nickname of an unidentified serial killer who is thought to have operated in Glasgow, Scotland, in the late 1960s. Three murders were attributed to him, but it is not clear that they were the work of the same person. All three of the missing women had been menstruating at the time of their disappearance.cite web |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article2866216.ece|title= The Times (London), 14 November 2007 - accessed November 17 2007]

Murders

On February 23, 1968, the body of 25-year-old Patricia Docker was found in a Glasgow doorway. She had been strangled. The previous night she had been out dancing at a nearby club, the Barrowland Ballroom.

On August 15, 1969, Jemima McDonald, 32, went for a night out at the Barrowland Ballroom. The next day she was found in an old building, strangled with her own stockings. Witnesses said they had seen her leaving the club at midnight with a tall, slim young man with red hair.

On October 30, 29-year-old Helen Puttock was found murdered. She had been to the Barrowland Ballroom the night before with a friend who recalled she having been last seen with a well-dressed young man — tall, slim and with red hair — whom she described as being polite, well-dressed and well-spoken. She also said the stranger had given his name as "John" and that he had frequently quoted from the Bible. He was reported to have said: “I don’t drink at Hogmanay, I pray,” and to have referred to Moses and his father’s belief that dancehalls were “dens of iniquity”.

The police made a determined effort to hunt for the killer, now nicknamed "Bible John", but although a number of suspects were questioned, no arrests were ever made, and no further victims have been attributed to him.

In 1996, police exhumed the body of John Irvine McInnes, the cousin of one of the original suspects, from a Lanarkshire graveyard. McInnes, who had served in the Scots Guards, had committed suicide aged 41 in 1981. Police ran a DNA test and compared it with semen found on Helen Puttock's tights and announced a possible match, but were later forced to retract the claim.

Lord Mackay, then the Lord Advocate, said there was not enough evidence to link the murders with McInnes.

On December 12 2004, police announced they were to DNA test a number of men in a further attempt to solve the case. This followed the discovery of an 80% match to a DNA sample taken at the site of a minor crime two years earlier.

New developments

The 4 May 2007 conviction of Peter Tobin for the similar murder of student Angelika Kluk has led to public speculation that he is Bible John. There are similarities between Tobin's police mugshot from that era and the photofit artist's impression of Bible John, and Tobin moved away from Glasgow in 1969, the same years the killings officially ended.cite web |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article1760235.ece|title= The Times (London), 8 May 2007 - accessed November 17 2007] Police are not commenting upon any similarities, but say that any surviving forensic evidence will be rechecked. [ [http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2007210772,00.html Have we locked up Bible John?] by HARRY MACADAM for The Sun May 11, 2007 - accessed May 18 2007]

Tobin, 61, appeared in private at Linlithgow Sheriff Court (15 November 2007) charged with the murder of 15-year-old Vicky Hamilton, who went missing in 1991. Her remains were found at a house in Margate, Kent, where Tobin once lived. Essex Police had been investigating the disappearance of another missing girl, Dinah McNicol, also missing for 16 years. On 16 November 2007, a second body was discovered under the patio of the Margate home, which was later confirmed to be McNicol's. cite web |url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/11/17/nmargate117.xml|title= Daily Telegraph, 17 November 2007 - accessed November 17 2007]

Bible John in popular culture

Bible John's crimes inspired a novel by Ian Rankin, "Black and Blue" of the Inspector Rebus series published in 1997, as well as a comic book ("Bible John-A Forensic Meditation") written by Grant Morrison in 1991.

References

External links

* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4089653.stm BBC report of DNA tests carried out in December 2004]
* [http://www.sundaymail.co.uk/tm_objectid=14992233&method=full&siteid=86024&headline=dna-breakthrough--police-trace-family-of-bible-john-serial-killer-name_page.html Sunday Mail reports background to new DNA test]
* [http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/unsolved/bible_john/index.html Crime Library story on Bible John]
* [http://heritage.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=1267&id=1983412005 Scotsman article and 2005 artist rendition of suspect]