The search for the still unidentified serial killer dubbed Bible John
The Manhunt for Bible John was one of the longest and extensive in Scotland’s history.
Bible John is a name given to an unidentified man suspected of three murders, so-called because he was believed to quote scripture to his victims.
According to the Glasgow Almanac: An A-Z of the City and its People by Stephen Terry his victims were all young attractive women who he picked up at Barrowland Ballroom, who were then raped and strangled with their stockings. They were also all menstruating at the time. One theory put forward was that he reacted violently to his sexual advances being rejected by the women who were menstruating. However, this is probably not a full enough explanation for why he murdered these women.
These murders took place between February 1968 and October 1969, linked by how they were murdered and their connection to all being picked up from Barrowland Ballroom. There was little evidence after the first murder but witnesses came forward after the second and third.
The Victims
Patricia Docker’s body was found on 23 February 1968, she was a twenty-five year old nurse who worked at Glasgow’s Victoria Infirmary. Described as attractive, 5ft 3in tall with dark brown wavy hair cut short. She had hazel eyes, a ‘snub nose’ and she was married with a husband in the army. She intended to spend the previous night out at the Barrowland Ballroom’s over-25 night with girl friends. She wore a light orange crocheted lace patterned dress with a grey coat, and brown shoes and a brown handbag.
Her naked body was found only yards away from her home in a lane behind Carmichael Place, Langside by a man on his way to work. Police initially suspected she was murdered elsewhere, but this seems strange how close she was to her home. Perhaps he offers to walk them home and then overpowers them?
Approximately eighteen months later on 18 August 1969 Mima McDonald’s body was discovered, a single mother of three, with shoulder length dyed brown hair and 5ft 7in in height. Similarly, she was wearing a dress with a brown woolen coat on the night of her death.
Her body was found in a derelict tenement in Mackeith Street, again twenty yards from her home. It was her worried sister who made the chance discovery from overhearing children running out of the building talking about “the body” according to the Evening Times, 1989. Fearing the worst she investigated and found her sister beaten and strangled and alerted the police.
Her handbag and purse were also stolen, like Patricia Docker. Despite the police appeal to the Glasgow Corporation Cleansing Department for it’s workers to search bin shelters and backcourts her stolen items were never recovered. Perhaps ‘Bible John’ kept them as trophies in order to relive the crime, but also they likely form a component of sexual fantasies.
Helen Puttock’s body was discovered on Earl Street, Scotstoun in a backcourt by a woman taking out her rubbish. She was twenty-nine years old and found face down, she was still wearing her woolen black dress and ocelot fur coat, similar to the other victims.
She was also raped and strangled like the other victims. She had also visited Barrowland Ballroom the night before with her sister. Helen Puttock was also found just yards from her home with her handbag missing, a recurring pattern like many others in these murders.
An Appeal for ‘Bible John’s’ Identity
Being the last person to see Helen Puttock alive also meant that Helen Puttock’s sister Jean Puttock became a crucial witness. Taking part of the same fateful journey Helen took, leaving the taxi before Helen because her house was further on.
Helen met a man who offered her assistance with a broken cigarette machine in Barrowland Ballroom, they quickly struck up conversation and the man reportedly introduced himself as ‘John’. They danced most of the night until he offered to accompany both Helen and Jean home. Jean also danced with a man coincidentally named John that night according to Nigel Wier in British Serial Killers (2012).
Jean Puttock described the man as good-looking and charming, stylishly dressed and reportedly talked about his ‘fervently religious’ parent’s attempt at raising him and his sister the same way, albeit unsuccessful according to the Evening Times, 1989. It is a matter of dispute whether he recited biblical passages or simply stated that he could in passing.
At the time bouncers at the Barrowland Ballroom disputed Jean’s statement. This especially relates to his appearance as Jean described him as “slim, tall with reddish/fair hair” but bouncers at Barrowland described him as “short, well-spoken and had jet black hair”. Police believed the latter to be more reliable due to Jean being drunk that night, despite the fact she attests to her sober state during the taxi trip. Police used this for the basis of their identikit and appeal for more witnesses.
According to Nigel Wier in British Serial Killers, he repeatedly referred to the bible to Helen and Jean, reportedly saying his father believed the dance halls were “dens of iniquity”, stating “I always pray” and referring to Moses. Furthermore the only evidence he left was on Helen’s body; a semen stain and a deep bite mark on her inner leg. The last possible sighting of the suspect was the morning after the last murder at 1:30am, leaving a bus at Grey St, Glasgow and walking towards the public ferry to cross the River Clyde to the south side of the city.
Unfortunately, despite being a key witness in a cruel twist of fate little came from Jean Puttock’s detailed description of the potential suspect and she likely found little closure from the investigation.
According to Douglas Skelton from the Evening Times, despite over 100 detectives, 50,000 statements taken from door-to-door enquiries, talking to taxi-drivers, bus drivers, pub and hotel staff, nurses and religious groups little new leads emerged. Police even considered ‘Bible John’s’ jacket to be unusual and therefore talked to local tailors. They also interviewed dentists hoping to identify the suspect from the teeth marks left on Helen Puttock’s body.
Police interviewed more than 1000 suspects yet they were all cleared, and over the years suspects have been cleared from the DNA sample collected from the last crime scene. However, it is possible the sample has degraded and no longer able to identify if a suspect was ‘Bible John’.
The Potential Suspects
One potential suspect was forty-one year old ex-Scots Guard John Irvine McInnes who was controversially exhumed after his suicide in 1980. It was suggested by police and psychiatrist Dr Prem Misra that if he was ‘Bible John’ then he likely killed himself for the thrill by severing his brachial artery and bleeding to death. The reason suggested was that after each murder the thrill and pleasure he derived from it diminished so he killed himself for the “ultimate thrill” according to Dr Misra as quoted in the Bizarre suicide of Bible John by Scottish Daily Record 1996.
However, John McInnes was later cleared as a suspect through DNA testing. This resulted in Labour’s shadow Home Affairs spokesman, Mr John McFall, MP for Dumbarton quoted as stating “We know the police have a duty to investigate unsolved murders. This case seems to be a text-book example of how not to go about it.” for the costly endeavor of DNA testing and putting the McInnes family under undue distress.
Another potential suspect is Peter Tobin whose links to Glasgow, Barrowland Ballroom and his criminal history offer a compelling connection to bible John.
Is Peter Tobin ‘Bible John’?
A now seventy-one year old Peter Tobin received a life sentence in 2006 for the rape and murder of Angelika Kluk, a young polish girl in Glasgow. He met Angelika by coming to St Patrick’s Church homeless group, Loaves and Fishes in the Anderston area of the city. According to the BBC he took advantage of it’s ‘open door policy’, doing odd jobs in order to gain access to a victim.
He was previously convicted for the sexual assault of two fourteen year old girls in 1994. He fled after the sexual assault to Coventry, seeking refuge in an evangelical christian community under a false name. However, it’s members realised who he was after seeing a photo of Tobin on the BBC’s Crimewatch so they alerted the police. Tobin was released in 2004 and he moved back to Scotland from Hampshire where he would later rape and murder Angelika Kluk.
Peter Tobin has a criminal history of murder and rape, often involving himself in christian organisations and coming from an irish catholic background. He lived much of his early life in Scotland returning after his release from prison in 2004. This all eerily connects Tobin to ‘Bible John’ circumstantially but what is more compelling is what was uncovered by a BBC Crimewatch appeal and Operation Anagram which is a police operation to examine Tobin’s past and uncover other potential victims.
A woman responded to this BBC Crimewatch Appeal saying she had met Tobin in Glasgow when he was twenty-one. According to the BBC she said “He was very polite to me — nice, laughing and joking — just an everyday guy.” that they had gone on a date at a local pub after meeting at the Barrowland Ballroom. Later she found herself fighting for her life after Tobin potentially spiked her drink and waking up in a tenement stair landing. She said “He was lying on top of me, pulling at my clothes, punching my face, pulling my hair out in chunks.” and was only saved by a couple who must have heard her screams. In 2009 she described her legs giving way when she recognized a picture of a young Tobin in a magazine which lead her to come forward to the BBC Crimewatch appeal in December 2009. As Peter Tobin was 21 at the time and was born August 1946 which would mean this occurred just before or during the time of the ‘Bible John’ murders making him a potential suspect who was not identified initially.
According to renowned Scottish criminologist Professor David Wilson would stake his professional reputation on Peter Tobin being Bible John. However, due to deterioration of DNA evidence police are unable to conclusively link Peter Tobin to the murders.
Peter Tobin is currently serving three sentences of life imprisonment with a whole life order at HM Prison Edinburgh meaning he will never be released. As a result of the woman coming forward on the 2009 BBC Crimewatch appeal many more potential victims came forward.
Flaws in initial investigation
According to The Herald in 1996 Mr Joe Beattie, the detective who led the original inquiry was quoted as stating there was never evidence to directly link the murders of three women to one killer, which would suggest ‘Bible John’ was a media invention. However, this does seem to go against the grain of what the investigation found and the intensely small location of the murders in a relatively short time span, with similarities such as items being stolen and all the victims menstruating and where the victims were found being always close to their homes would suggest a single offender.
Furthermore, according to the Daily Record Detective Joe Jackson suggested a white lie told by Patricia Docker to her parents about where she was going the night she was murdered hampered the initial direction of the investigation.
Some seem to believe like MP Mr John McFall that the police investigation was handled poorly and caused undue distress to the family of John McInnes. Furthermore, due to the Deterioration of evidence police deem it unlikely any DNA tests will be conclusive. Therefore, the identity of Bible John cannot be conclusively determined whether it is Peter Tobin or someone else.
John William
