Mystery of the monster
BIBLE John is an unidentified serial killer who is alleged to have killed three young women in Glasgow in 1968 and 1969.
The Record revealed that Scots serial killer Peter Tobin has denied he was responsible despite persistent rumours linking him to the murders.
Patricia Docker, a 25-year-old nurse, was the first woman killed. Patricia had been at the Barrowlands on February 13, 1968. The next morning her battered body was found naked in a lane yards from her home in Langside Place.
Eighteen months later on Friday August 15, 1969, Jemima McDonald, a 32-year-old mother of three, enjoyed a night out at the dance hall. On the following Monday, Jemima’s own sister, Margaret, found her body in an old tenement building in Mackeith Street in Bridgeton. She had been raped, beaten and strangled. But she was fully clothed.
Helen Puttock, 29, died after visiting the Barrowlands with her sister Jean in October 1969. Her body was found in the back garden of her flat in Earl Street, Scotstoun, the next morning. She had been battered to death, raped and strangled. It was the third murder of Helen which would give rise to the nickname Bible John.
When leaving the Barrowlands with her sister, Jean, they picked up two men, both called John. Castlemilk John left to get a bus home and the sisters decided to share a taxi with the other John. During the journey, he told the women he didn’t drink as he was religious. He said: “I don’t drink at Hogmanay. I pray.”
With almost all of the witnesses dead and no new evidence it’s unlikely the murders will ever be solved.