John Reginald Halliday Christie
John Reginald Halliday Christie was an Englishman born in Halifax in 1899 who led a troubled life marked by both military service and criminal activity. After serving in World War I, where he suffered speech loss due to mustard gas exposure, Christie faced multiple prison sentences throughout the 1920s and 1930s for offenses including theft and assault. He married Ethel Waddington and later moved to London, where they lived at 10 Rillington Place. His life took a dark turn when he became involved in the tragic case of Timothy Evans, whose wife and child were found murdered, leading to Evans's wrongful execution in 1949 based largely on Christie's testimony. In 1953, Christie was arrested following a manhunt and ultimately confessed to multiple murders, including that of his wife. He was convicted and executed, and his case sparked significant legal and political repercussions, contributing to the abolition of the death penalty in England. Christie's actions have made him a focal point for discussions on serial killers and wrongful convictions, influencing media portrayals and public understanding of criminal psychology.
Subject Terms
John Reginald Halliday Christie
English serial killer
- Born: April 8, 1899
- Birthplace: Halifax, Yorkshire, England
- Died: July 15, 1953
- Place of death: London, England
Major offense: Murders of seven women
Active: 1948-1952
Locale: 10 Rillington Place, Notting Hill, London
Sentence: Death by hanging
Early Life
John Reginald Halliday Christie (KRIHS-tee) was born at Black Boy House in Boothtown, Halifax, near Sheffield, the son of a carpet designer. He won a scholarship to Halifax Secondary School, sang in the local church choir, and was a Boy Scout. He served in World War I, initially with the Fifty-second Nottinghamshire and Derby Regiment and subsequently with the West Yorkshire section of the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment. Christie was injured by mustard gas—a seemingly traumatic experience that rendered him speechless for three years, although doctors could find nothing physically amiss. When the war was over, he returned to live in Halifax; after marrying Ethel Waddington, a typist, he recovered his power of speech.
Criminal Career
Christie served several prison sentences for theft—and one for assault—in the 1920’s and early 1930’s, when he and Ethel became separated. After his release on remission from the last of these sentences, Ethel joined him in London, where they took the ground-floor flat at 10 Rillington Place, an end-of-terrace house in Notting Hill. He obtained work as a clerk but suffered from either continual ill health or chronic hypochondria. He recovered sufficiently to serve as a reserve policeman during World War II, receiving two commendations.
In 1948, Timothy Evans, a van driver, and his pregnant wife, Beryl, moved into one of two first-floor flats above Christie’s. According to Evans, when Beryl became pregnant for a second time in 1949 she did not want the baby, and Christie volunteered to abort it; Christie then told Evans that the abortion had gone wrong and told him to leave London, saying that he would put the surviving baby daughter up for adoption.
Evans initially did as he was told but then went to the police; when the bodies of his wife and daughter were found strangled in the washhouse at 10 Rillington Place, Evans was arrested. He made a confession that he subsequently retracted. Christie was the chief prosecution witness at Evans’s trial for the murder of his daughter; the charge of murdering his wife was not tried. Evans was convicted and hanged in July, 1949. When Christie left 10 Rillington Place in 1953, however, six more bodies were discovered on the premises. Ruth Furst, a nurse, had been missing since 1943; Muriel Eady, a former work colleague of Christie, had been missing since 1944; the others—Ethel Christie and three prostitutes—had apparently been killed in rapid succession in 1952-1953.
Legal Action and Outcome
Christie was arrested on the riverbank in Putney on March 31, 1953, after an intense manhunt during which his photograph was given extensive exposure in the newspapers. He confessed to murdering his wife and was also charged with the other five murders. He then confessed that he had also murdered Beryl Evans. He pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity but was convicted of murder and hanged at Pentonville a month later.
Impact
John Reginald Halliday Christie’s confession to Beryl Evans’s murder resulted in a special enquiry by the Home Office into Timothy Evans’s conviction. Although Christie had not confessed to murdering the child, and Evans had not been tried for the murder of his wife, it seemed likely that Christie must have been guilty of that crime as well and that Evans had been wrongly executed. This probable error became a key factor in the political pressure that resulted in the abolition of the death penalty in England. Evans received a posthumous pardon in 1966.
Christie became a key example of a sexually motivated serial killer, offering abundant scope to journalists and other amateur psychoanalysts. Ludovic Kennedy’s successful dramatization of the case was released in 1971 as the film 10 Rillington Place, starring Richard Attenborough as Christie. The name of Rillington Place was changed to Ruston Close before the houses were torn down and rebuilt as Bartle Road.
Bibliography
Chance, John Newton. The Crimes at Rillington Place. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1961. One of the popularizations hastily written to cash in on the publicity surrounding Kennedy’s book, by a prolific writer of popular crime thrillers.
Eddowes, John. The Two Killers of Rillington Place. London: Little, Brown, 1994. The most significant development of the unorthodox thesis that Evans was, in fact, as guilty as Christie and that the two worked in collusion.
Furneaux, Rupert. The Two Stranglers of Rillington Place. London: Panther, 1961. The most immediate contradiction of Kennedy’s polemical assertion that the hanging of Evans was a terrible miscarriage of justice.
Jesse, F. Tennyson, ed. The Trials of Timothy John Evans and John Reginald Halliday Christie. London: William Hodge, 1957. An anthology reflective of the intense debate generated by the case, with special relevance to Evans’s conviction and its relevance to the political argument for the abolition of capital punishment.
Kennedy, Ludovic. Ten Rillington Place. London: Victor Gollancz, 1961. A best-selling dramatization by a leading journalist, supportive of the view that Evans was mistakenly convicted and hanged; primarily interesting for its painstakingly researched but highly speculative analysis of Christie’s psychopathological history.