Fifty years on, Glasgow’s ‘Bible John’ murders are back in the spotlight
More than 50 years since ‘Bible John’ murders, they remain unsolved,
A SERIES of murders struck fear into Glasgow in the late 1960s. Three women had set off for a night out at a dance hall, but they never came home.
Patricia Docker, Jemima Mcdonald and Helen Puttock are all linked by a terrible act – they were murdered in a similar brutal and sadistic fashion.
Each had met their killer, who at one point had given his name as John and who quoted passages from the Bible, in the city’s Barrowland Ballroom.
More than 50 years on no one has never been caught for the killings.
Now, a two-part documentary will look back on the chilling murders in 1968 and 1969.
George Puttock, the husband of murder victim Helen, said that despite the time that has passed it is still a vivid memory.
Speaking in the BBC documentary
The Hunt For Bible John, by Bafta award-winning Murder Case director Matt Pinder, Mr Puttock said: “They say time is a healer, but it never does heal – it is still a vivid memory. Helen was just a really, really, happy go lucky girl, absolutely music mad and dancing mad.
“We used to go to a lot of dances, especially when I was in the army. I used to be so proud when I walked anywhere with her and I knew people were thinking ‘he is a lucky chap’ – and I was a lucky chap.”
He went on to recall: “I wasn’t keen on her going dancing, which obviously would have been with other men, but then her mum said it was something they really enjoyed doing, nothing to worry about.
So I accepted what her mum had said and allowed her to go.”
Mr Puttock didn’t want his wife and her sister to come home by bus that night and gave her £5 for a taxi, which he now says is the worst £5 he has ever spent. The last time Helen was seen alive was in a taxi home with her sister and a man calling himself John.
“It is just a feeling you can’t describe
– the hurt, the heartache for me and my family,” added Mr Puttock. “In the morning when I woke up and she still wasn’t home I went to the front bedroom, looked out of the window and saw a police van. Don’t ask me why, but I knew then that something was wrong.
“I went down and as I was walking towards the police caravan I heard people saying there was a girl and she has been murdered. A police chief came to speak to me and asked me what my wife was wearing.”
After describing what she had on that night, Mr Puttock was then told his wife had been murdered. “That was the first I knew,” he added.
Mrs Puttock was allegedly the third victim of the man known as “Bible John”.
The killer first struck on February 22, 1968, after picking up Patricia Docker in the Barrowland. She was found strangled the next morning in the city’s south side.
On August 17, 1969, Jemima Mcdonald was found in a derelict building, strangled with her stockings in an east end close to her home. The 32-year-old had also been at the Barrowland Ballroom.
Her sister lived nearby and was becoming increasingly concerned as Jemima hadn’t been home – she went to the scene and that’s when the mother-ofthree’s body was found.
Just days on from the second murder police issued an image of a man with the plea of “find this man”, but while it might have been suspected that the deaths were linked it still hadn’t been said publicly. It was the first time an artist impression had been used in newspapers in Scotland in the hunt for a killer. More than 100 people responded, but there were no new lines of inquiry.
Two months later, Mrs Puttock, 29, and her sister met two men, both named John, at the Barrowland. Mrs Puttock’s body was found in Scotstoun the day after she met the man. It was her murder that would provide the killer’s nickname.
The suspect’s now infamous moniker came after a key witness described a man who picked up women yet quoted extensively from the Old Testament and frowned on adultery.
Describing Glasgow of that time, former Herald columnist Jack Mclean says in the documentary: “Scotland was very dreary and Glasgow was. You can understand why people would go to the dance halls to get some kind of glitter in their lives.”
Former Herald managing editor and author Robert Jeffrey said: “Back in the 60s people didn’t go home, sit down, have their tea and watch TV. The pre-eminent way of entertainment was largely going for a night at the dancing. Glasgow was a city which was known to be dancing daft.”
However, that sense of freedom changed after the murders and left a city frightened and fearful.
Despite one of the biggest manhunts in Scottish history, these brutal killings remain unsolved.
The testimony of Jeannie Williams, Helen’s sister, proved instrumental in building a picture of the suspect. She told journalist Magnus Linklater, and later police detectives, that her sister left the Barrowland in a taxi with a man called John, whom they had met earlier that night.
Jeannie’s description of a mysterious red-haired, smart-suited man who had crooked teeth and quoted from the Bible, would become the basis of the biggest manhunt Scotland had ever seen.
Mr Linklater recalled: “I think it was Jeannie who first picked up a dancing partner. A very good dancer called John and then Jeannie noticed a man who seemed to be a cut above the others, well turned out, short haircut, very smartly dressed in a brown suit.
“He came along and asked Helen to dance. All four left together and as they were leaving there was a problem with the cigarette machine. They put the money in and the cigarettes wouldn’t come out. This character, John, suddenly got absolutely enraged by this and she noticed his cold anger. He turned to them and said these places were dens of iniquity.
“One thing Jeannie noticed were his two front teeth crossed and he had a missing tooth at the back, which was a very important detail.”
The two women and one of the men got a taxi and during a conversation Jeannie asked if he was an atheist, Mr Linklater added: “He quoted something from the Bible. He insisted she get out of the taxi and that was the last Jeannie ever saw of her sister Helen.”
With none of the modern investigative tools such as CCTV and DNA fingerprinting at their disposal, 1960s detectives took the unusual step of commissioning a life-like drawing of the suspect, based on Jeannie’s description.
Released to the public through the press, the portrait led to hundreds of Glaswegian men being questioned. Barbers, dentists and tailors were all shown the image of Bible John in the hope they might recognise him.
However, despite 50,000 statements being taken and more than 300 identity parades being held, detectives were no closer to solving the murders.
Poignantly in the documentary, the words of Patricia Docker’s son, Alex, who was just four years old when his mother was killed, are read out. He says that, mercifully, he has no memory at all of the events leading up or directly after the tragedy.
He said: “I can’t remember the grief I must have gone through. I admit I find it difficult to think about even though disconnected in time and relationship, but there is no one left alive that I know of who knew my mother and, indeed, I would have liked to have known more about her myself.
“Her parents died not long after she did and I can only imagine the tragedy hastened that. All I was told, though, was that she was an excellent mother to me for the brief time we shared.”
Retired senior detective David Swindle, who snared serial killer Peter Tobin and who now operates Victims Abroad and supports the families of people who die abroad, such as Scottish victims Kirsty Maxwell and Craig Mallon, was involved in revisiting the case in his career.
During investigations he ruled out any link with Tobin and the cases, and also believes the three cases might not even be linked.
Mr Swindle said: “We researched any potential links between Peter Tobin and the so-called Bible John. Tobin, for the first two murders, was in Brighton. The artist’s impression of Bible John created shows him with red hair. We have photos of
Tobin in the 60s and it shows his hair was not like that.
“There was DNA found on Helen Puttock’s tights. One thing for sure is that DNA is not Tobin’s. His profile has been compared against it. There is nothing to indicate Tobin was involved in these cases.
“I am not satisfied the same person was involved in these three cases. At that time it was old-style policing. They didn’t have DNA. They didn’t have CCTV or forensic science techniques they have nowadays, so it is very unfair to go back and be critical of what police officers were trying to do many years ago.
“I would hope some day someone will be caught, but the chances of that are very slim.”
They say time is a healer, but it never does heal... it’s still a vivid memory
I would hope some day someone will be caught, but the chances of that are very slim