A new documentary on mysterious serial killer... WHO WAS BIBLE JOHN?
By JUSTIN DUNN news@ sundaysport. co. uk
DECADES have passed.
But just the mention of the name is enough to terrify women of a certain age and spark fierce debate as to his true identity.
The serial killer who is thought to have murdered three young woman in Glasgow in the late 1960s achieved widespread notoriety after he was nicknamed Bible John.
And a new BBC documentary, The Hunt for Bible John, starting on Monday, seeks to find out who he really was.
His three known victims had several things in common:
They had all been dancing at the famous Barrowland Ballroom on the night they were killed.
They were all menstruating at the time of their deaths, all their handbags were missing, and they were all strangled.
Unsolved
Their suspected killer was a young man who gave his first name as John.
He quoted texts from the Bible and spoke of how his father regarded dance halls – such as the Barrowland – as “dens of iniquity”.
He referred to Moses and also once said: “I don’t drink at Hogmanay. I pray.”
Despite a massive murder hunt and repeated investigations since, the murders remain unsolved.
But police have come as close as they ever have to unmasking Bible John.
Many believe he is the same man who is currently languishing in jail, convicted of three other murders – those of Angelika Kluk, Vicky Hamilton and Dinah McNicol.
That man is Peter Tobin – a convicted Scottish serial killer and sex offender who is currently serving three sentences of life imprisonment with a whole life order at HM Prison Edinburgh for three murders.
Prior to his first murder conviction, Tobin served ten years in prison for a double rape committed in 1993, after which he was released in 2004.
Three years later, he was sentenced to life with a minimum of 21 years for the rape and murder of Angelika Kluk in Glasgow in 2006.
Skeletal remains of a further two young women who went missing in 1991 were subsequently found at his former home in Margate, Kent.
Tobin was convicted of the murder of Vicky Hamilton in December 2008, resulting in his minimum sentence being increased to 30 years, and of the murder of Dinah McNicol in December 2009, resulting in a whole- life order.
When he was convicted of the murder of Vicky, evil Tobin taunted a prison psychiatrist that he had killed 48 women, then sneered: “Prove it.”
A national probe, Operation Anagram, investigated whether Tobin is linked to dozens of unsolved murders – including the Bible John killings.
The three killings still rank No1 in the unsolved list of Scotland’s crime files.
It was early on February 23, 1968, when the body of 25- yearold Patricia Docker was found in a Glasgow doorway. She had been strangled.
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 stockings. Just 77 days later, on October 31, 1969, Helen Puttock, 29, was found.
She had also been to the Barrowland Ballroom the night before with her sister Jean Langford.
Her body was found early the next day.
She had been strangled and her handbag was missing.
The suspect was described by Jean as well- dressed, tall and slim with reddish, fair hair, polite and well- spoken. He mentioned texts from the Bible.
Among detectives involved in the triple- murder hunt was Joe Jackson.
He went on to became head of Glasgow’s CID, probing 150 killings, and was convinced that Bible John was Tobin.
He said: “I saw his photo after the church killing and thought: ‘ This is as near Bible John as you’re going to get’.”
Tobin was 21, living in Glasgow at the time and a regular at city dance halls.
Strangling
Around that time, he launched a sex attack on his first wife, driven to violence by the menstrual cycle – a factor in all the Bible John murders.
He left Scotland in 1969 – the year the killings stopped.
Tobin, now 75, met his first wife, Margaret Mackintosh, then 17, at a Glasgow dance hall in 1968.
Soon he was raping, beating and strangling her.
Detectives issued pictures of a younger Tobin, who does bear a striking similarity to the Bible John posters.
Another similarity was that eyewitnesses told police that the suspect had one tooth missing in his upper- right area of the mouth.
Dental records proved that Peter Tobin had a tooth removed around the late 1960s
Detective Supt David Swindle, head officer in Operation Anagram, said at the time: “The picture might jog people’s memories.
“Everything indicates that Tobin has probably killed other people.”
Operation Anagram was wound down in June 2011, but it’s email address remains open.
So the question really is: Does the legend of Bible John live on?
■ The Hunt for Bible John is on Monday, November 22, at 9pm on BBC Scotland.