WEBVTT - Season 07 Episode 16: Take Me Dancing Tonight

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<v Speaker 1>This episode contains disturbing images of murder. Parental discretion is advised.

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<v Speaker 1>It's early in the evening of Thursday, February twenty second,

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<v Speaker 1>nineteen sixty eight. A few floors up a tenement flat

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<v Speaker 1>in the south of Glasgow, twenty five year old Patricia

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<v Speaker 1>Docker sat in front of her bedroom mirror. She applied

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<v Speaker 1>the finishing touches to her look for the evening after

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<v Speaker 1>a light dab of lipstick. She regarded her reflection, pleased

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<v Speaker 1>with the favorite orange crocheted dress and her nicely curled hair.

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<v Speaker 1>She couldn't help thinking she looked a little tired, though,

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<v Speaker 1>but when wasn't she Between the long shifts working as

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<v Speaker 1>a nurse at Glasgow's Victoria Infirmary and being a single

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<v Speaker 1>mother to her four year old son, Sandy, it was

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<v Speaker 1>hard for her to imagine a time when she wouldn't

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<v Speaker 1>be tired. Only the year before, Patricia's marriage to her husband,

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<v Speaker 1>a Royal Air Force technician, had broken down. The couple

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<v Speaker 1>were living together with their son in Cyprus, where Patricia's

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<v Speaker 1>husband was stationed. Now she was in Glasgow, back living

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<v Speaker 1>with her parents, the sole career to her son. It

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<v Speaker 1>had been a difficult transition but slowly, Patricia had got

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<v Speaker 1>herself back on her feet. Things were starting to look up,

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<v Speaker 1>and that night, as she sang her son to sleep,

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<v Speaker 1>staring down at his sweet face, she felt a swell

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<v Speaker 1>of love and hope for the future. Around eight pm,

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<v Speaker 1>she said good night to her parents and headed out

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<v Speaker 1>into the cold. Spotting a cab on the street, she

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<v Speaker 1>asked the driver to take her to the Majestic Ballroom,

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<v Speaker 1>where she'd arranged to meet some friends to attend an

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<v Speaker 1>over twenty five's dance. One of them had met her

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<v Speaker 1>husband at a similar event. Though meeting a future husband

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<v Speaker 1>was far from the first thing on her mind, at

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<v Speaker 1>the very least, she was looking forward to letting her

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<v Speaker 1>hair down for the night. Inside the ballroom was packed

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<v Speaker 1>a hot cauldron of noise and smoke. Men and women

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<v Speaker 1>in sharp suits and colorful dresses threw each other about

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<v Speaker 1>on the dance floor, sweat beating on their foreheads. Patricia

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<v Speaker 1>spotted her friends quickly and headed over to join them,

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<v Speaker 1>and for the next few hours they drank and danced,

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<v Speaker 1>finding no end of suitors to accompany them on the

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<v Speaker 1>dance floor. At some point, Patricia's friends noticed that Patricia

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<v Speaker 1>was no longer with them. One remembered her saying something

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<v Speaker 1>about moving on to the barrel Land Ballroom, a couple

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<v Speaker 1>of miles east. They assumed she'd met someone good for her.

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<v Speaker 1>They thought she deserved to have some fun after the

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<v Speaker 1>terrible year she'd had. Early on the morning of February

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<v Speaker 1>twenty third, nineteen sixty eight, a man left his house

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<v Speaker 1>in the south side of Glasgow to walk to work.

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<v Speaker 1>As he passed at garage only yards away from Patricia

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<v Speaker 1>Docker's flat, he saw something strange out at the corner

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<v Speaker 1>of his eye. At first, it looked like a discarded

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<v Speaker 1>mannikin from a clothing shop. Then, with horror, he realized

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<v Speaker 1>it was the naked body of a young woman. In shock,

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<v Speaker 1>the man stumbled back to his house and phoned the police.

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<v Speaker 1>Later that day, the body would be identified Patricia Docker.

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<v Speaker 1>The police assumed she'd been raped, although there was no

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<v Speaker 1>clear evidence to suggest this was the case. What was

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<v Speaker 1>beyond doubt was that she'd been strangled to death barely

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<v Speaker 1>a stone's throw from her home, while her parents and

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<v Speaker 1>her four year old son slept soundly. Soon after officers

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<v Speaker 1>arrived at the grisly scene, they began to search the

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<v Speaker 1>surrounding area Hoping to find some clues as to who

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<v Speaker 1>had murdered Patricia, They interviewed dozens of people who'd attended

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<v Speaker 1>the dance at the Majestic Ballroom, including several young men

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<v Speaker 1>who remembered dancing with Patricia that evening, but the encounters

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<v Speaker 1>had all been brief and the men had alibis for

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<v Speaker 1>the night. Nobody seemed exactly sure when Patricia had left,

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<v Speaker 1>or whether she'd been alone at the time. The male

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<v Speaker 1>officer writing the report on her death described Patricia dismissively

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<v Speaker 1>as a rather spoiled woman who appeared to enjoy the

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<v Speaker 1>company of men. Divorce had only been legal in the

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<v Speaker 1>UK for a decade and still carried a heavy stigma.

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<v Speaker 1>Divorced women in particular were shunned, and divorced single mothers

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<v Speaker 1>all the more so, And despite it all, Patricia also

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<v Speaker 1>had the gall to go out and enjoy herself at

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<v Speaker 1>the end of a long week. The trail went cold

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<v Speaker 1>soon after, and no arrests were made. The brutal murder

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<v Speaker 1>made headlines and terrified Glasgow's residents. Just as scary as

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<v Speaker 1>the crime itself was the reality that the killer was

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<v Speaker 1>still on the loose. But as the months went by

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<v Speaker 1>people began to move on. They chalked up what had

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<v Speaker 1>happened to Patricia as a bizarre, tragic, one off, something

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<v Speaker 1>that happens to people who don't know any better. Instead,

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<v Speaker 1>it was the beginning of a nightmare that would haunt

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<v Speaker 1>the city for decades to come. You're listening to Unexplained

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<v Speaker 1>and I'm Richard McLain Smith. On the evening of Saturday,

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<v Speaker 1>August sixteenth, nineteen sixty nine, Jemimah MacDonald left the house

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<v Speaker 1>she shared with her sister on the East side of Glasgow.

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<v Speaker 1>Jemima or Mima to her friends and family, was thirty

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<v Speaker 1>two and a single mother to three children. She loved

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<v Speaker 1>to dance, and that night she was going to the

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<v Speaker 1>Barreland Ballroom, one of her favorite venues. She still had

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<v Speaker 1>her curlers in when she left the house, and not

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<v Speaker 1>by mistake. This was her trick. She'd keep them in

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<v Speaker 1>until the last possible moment, concealing them under a headscarf

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<v Speaker 1>until she arrived at her destination. Once there, she goes

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<v Speaker 1>straight to the rest rooms and take them out, ensuring

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<v Speaker 1>that her hair stayed bouncy or night. Saturday evenings were

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<v Speaker 1>always lively at the ballroom, where a live band played

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<v Speaker 1>the pop hits of the day. The following morning, Mima's sister, Margaret,

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<v Speaker 1>found that Mima's bed was empty. After searching the rest

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<v Speaker 1>of the house, she soon realized that Mima had never

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<v Speaker 1>come home. Margaret tried not to panic. Maybe Jemimah had

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<v Speaker 1>just spent the night at a friend's house, she thought.

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<v Speaker 1>But deep down, Margaret knew this didn't make any sense.

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<v Speaker 1>For one thing, the Barreland Ballroom could hardly be closer

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<v Speaker 1>to their house. It was less than a mile away,

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<v Speaker 1>and Mima had three children at home. Mima would never

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<v Speaker 1>just go a war. At the very least, she would

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<v Speaker 1>have called pulling on the first clothes she could find.

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<v Speaker 1>Margaret hurried outside onto the street and began to walk.

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<v Speaker 1>The morning sunlight was painfully bright in her eyes. She

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<v Speaker 1>wandered toward the end of her street and took a

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<v Speaker 1>right turn, heading north. She had a vague, half formed

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<v Speaker 1>plan to walk to the ballroom, though it would surely

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<v Speaker 1>be closed at this time, but she didn't know what

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<v Speaker 1>else to do. As Margaret made her way to the

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<v Speaker 1>Baryland Ballroom, she passed a derelict house in her neighborhood

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<v Speaker 1>where she was startled by a sudden shriek. A group

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<v Speaker 1>of children burst out of the house and hurled passed her,

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<v Speaker 1>almost knocking her over in their haste to get away. Annoyed,

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<v Speaker 1>Margaret was about to shout after them when she caught

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<v Speaker 1>a snatch of the children's frantic conversation, did one of

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<v Speaker 1>them just say a body? Margaret walked towards the abandoned house,

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<v Speaker 1>her stomach coiling with dread. The front windows had all

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<v Speaker 1>been smashed, and the front door, hanging off its hinges,

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<v Speaker 1>rattled in the breeze. Margaret stepped inside the property, ignoring

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<v Speaker 1>every instinct in her body telling her to turn back.

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<v Speaker 1>It was cold and damp, and as she turned a

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<v Speaker 1>corner into what would once have been a living room,

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<v Speaker 1>she came upon a sight that would haunt her for

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<v Speaker 1>the rest of her life. Her dear sister Mima was

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<v Speaker 1>crumpled in the corner of the room, her open eyes

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<v Speaker 1>staring blankly up at the dusty ceiling. Bruises covered her

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<v Speaker 1>face and neck, and she was fully clothed except for

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<v Speaker 1>her stockings, which were wrapped tightly around her pale throat.

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<v Speaker 1>Eighteen months on from Patricia Docker's unsold murder, another young

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<v Speaker 1>woman had died of violent death in Glasgow. Unlike Patricia,

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<v Speaker 1>Jemima mac donald was confirmed to have been raped, but

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<v Speaker 1>both had been beaten and strangled to death at the

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<v Speaker 1>end of a night out. Their bodies found less than

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<v Speaker 1>two miles apart. The only significant difference between the crimes

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<v Speaker 1>was that Jemima's body was fully clothed, while her handbag

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<v Speaker 1>and other possessions were missing. The male officer writing the

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<v Speaker 1>report felt it pertinent note that Mima received benefits as

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<v Speaker 1>a single mother, that she often frequented the dance halls

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<v Speaker 1>of Glasgow, and that she quote appeared to be extremely

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<v Speaker 1>fond of male company. Whatever judgments may have been made

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<v Speaker 1>about Jemima's personal life, her murder could not just be

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<v Speaker 1>swept under the carpet. The nightmarish story of Margaret discovering

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<v Speaker 1>her own sister's body drew sympathetic press coverage across the country.

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<v Speaker 1>The pressure to identify a suspect was intense. As the

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<v Speaker 1>police began to piece together a picture of Mima's evening,

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<v Speaker 1>They soon discovered that she'd last been seen at the

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<v Speaker 1>Barreland Ballroom on Tuesday evening, three days after her disappearance.

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<v Speaker 1>Punters at the ballroom were greeted by a startling sight.

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<v Speaker 1>A crowd of some twenty uniformed police officers gathered at

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<v Speaker 1>the entrance, each of them holding up a large photograph

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<v Speaker 1>of Jemima's face. Some knew immediately who this young woman was.

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<v Speaker 1>Others were confused, having missed the news, But soon enough

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<v Speaker 1>everybody there was brought up to speed. Early in the evening,

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<v Speaker 1>the music came to an abrupt halt. Then a detective

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<v Speaker 1>stepped onto the stage at the front of the dance hall.

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<v Speaker 1>He briefly recapped the known facts about Mima's death and

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<v Speaker 1>urged anybody with information to come forward. In particular, he

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<v Speaker 1>said they were eager to talk to any barrel and

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<v Speaker 1>regulars in the crowd that had been roughly two thousand

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<v Speaker 1>people at the ballroom on the night Jemima disappeared. Somebody

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<v Speaker 1>had to have seen something. Over the next few days,

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<v Speaker 1>numerous people came forward to tell the police that they

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<v Speaker 1>remembered seeing Mima on that set Satday evening. Several of

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<v Speaker 1>them had seen her leaving the ballroom around midnight accompanied

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<v Speaker 1>by a man. Based on several of these eyewitness statements,

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<v Speaker 1>the police put together a description of the man Mima

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<v Speaker 1>had left with He was tall and slim, between twenty

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<v Speaker 1>five and thirty five years old, with reddish hair. He'd

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<v Speaker 1>been dressed in a smart blue suit, looking like a

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<v Speaker 1>perfectly respectable young man. Nothing about him had rung alarm

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<v Speaker 1>bells to anyone, including Jemima, who, by all accounts, had

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<v Speaker 1>left with him willingly. The police also figured out roughly

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<v Speaker 1>what route the couple had taken after leaving the ballroom,

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<v Speaker 1>thanks to various bystanders who'd seen them together on the streets.

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<v Speaker 1>They'd taken a short cut towards Mima's house, walking for

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<v Speaker 1>about fifteen minutes until they reached a secluded lane. They

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<v Speaker 1>believed the couple had spent some time in that lane

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<v Speaker 1>winching Scottish slang for kissing before Mima was killed. But

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<v Speaker 1>despite all of these details about Jemima's final moments and

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<v Speaker 1>a solid description of the man who had almost certainly

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<v Speaker 1>murdered her, the police was still no closer to finding

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<v Speaker 1>their suspect. Soon they turned to more unorthodox methods. On Saturday,

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<v Speaker 1>August twenty third, exactly a week after Jemimah MacDonald's murder,

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<v Speaker 1>a woman was seen walking down the street wearing a

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<v Speaker 1>black pinafore dress, high heels and a brown woolen coat,

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<v Speaker 1>exactly what Jemima had worn on the night of her murder.

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<v Speaker 1>The woman walked steadily from the Baryland Ballroom to the

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<v Speaker 1>derelict house located on mc keith Street where Jemima was killed.

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<v Speaker 1>To anyone who had seen Jemima on the final night

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<v Speaker 1>of her life, it would have felt like seeing a ghost,

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<v Speaker 1>and that was the point. The woman was, in fact

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<v Speaker 1>a police officer orchestrating an elaborate re enactment in the

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<v Speaker 1>hope of jogging anybody's memory about the time leading up

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<v Speaker 1>to Jemima's death. Some witnesses did come forward with new information,

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<v Speaker 1>but there was still nothing concrete, nothing they could use

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<v Speaker 1>to identify a suspect, and the pressure was mounting because

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<v Speaker 1>now investigators were confident that Patricia Docker and Jemima MacDonald

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<v Speaker 1>had been killed by the same person. At the time,

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<v Speaker 1>very few people used the phrase serial killer. It would

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<v Speaker 1>be another five years before that term became widely known,

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<v Speaker 1>when the FBI established its Behavioral Science Unit and pioneered

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<v Speaker 1>the practice of criminal profiling. But though the terminology was new,

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<v Speaker 1>the terrifying notion of a lone nightmarish monster stalking the

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<v Speaker 1>streets was not. It was just over a decade since

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<v Speaker 1>Glasgow was terrorized by the specter of Peter Manuel, a

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<v Speaker 1>vicious murderer who'd killed at least seven people and is

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<v Speaker 1>still known as Scotland's worst ever serial killer. Though Manuel

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<v Speaker 1>was hanged in nineteen fifty eight, its crimes cast a

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<v Speaker 1>shadow over the city and haunted its police force. They

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<v Speaker 1>were determined to do whatever it took to stop this

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<v Speaker 1>latest killer before he claimed any more victims, and so,

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<v Speaker 1>for the first time in Scottish history, the police commissioned

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<v Speaker 1>a facial composite sketch of their suspect based on the

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<v Speaker 1>eyewitness descriptions. They printed this sketch onto thousands of leaflets

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<v Speaker 1>and posters and distributed them all across the country. Their

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<v Speaker 1>goal was twofold first and foremost. They wanted to cast

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<v Speaker 1>as wide a net as possible, encouraging the wider public

0:17:25.000 --> 0:17:29.199
<v Speaker 1>to come forward with any information about the suspect. But

0:17:29.320 --> 0:17:33.520
<v Speaker 1>they also hoped that seeing his likeness on wanted posters

0:17:33.800 --> 0:17:38.200
<v Speaker 1>would deter the killer from striking again, but it did

0:17:38.440 --> 0:17:52.080
<v Speaker 1>no such thing. On the evening of October thirtieth, nineteen

0:17:52.200 --> 0:17:56.320
<v Speaker 1>sixty nine, twenty nine year old Helen Puttock left her

0:17:56.359 --> 0:18:00.440
<v Speaker 1>house with her older sister Jeanne. All day had been

0:18:00.480 --> 0:18:05.000
<v Speaker 1>debating whether to go through with their night out. Three

0:18:05.040 --> 0:18:09.760
<v Speaker 1>months after Jemima MacDonald's murder and unease had settled over

0:18:09.800 --> 0:18:13.760
<v Speaker 1>the city and many women stopped going out after dark,

0:18:14.480 --> 0:18:17.920
<v Speaker 1>but Helen and jean were determined not to let fear

0:18:18.080 --> 0:18:21.920
<v Speaker 1>rule their lives. As long as they stuck together, they

0:18:21.960 --> 0:18:26.800
<v Speaker 1>thought they'd be all right. Helen had recently split up

0:18:26.840 --> 0:18:31.119
<v Speaker 1>with her husband, George, and although the breakup was her decision,

0:18:31.440 --> 0:18:34.720
<v Speaker 1>it had been a hard few weeks. She was sorely

0:18:34.760 --> 0:18:37.240
<v Speaker 1>in need of a night out, and there were few

0:18:37.280 --> 0:18:41.840
<v Speaker 1>better places for it than the Barreland Ballroom. On that

0:18:41.960 --> 0:18:45.959
<v Speaker 1>Thursday evening, the dance hall was once again packed with

0:18:46.200 --> 0:18:50.520
<v Speaker 1>energy and excitement, and Helen soon began to forget her troubles.

0:18:51.480 --> 0:18:54.720
<v Speaker 1>At some point, she told her sister she was heading

0:18:54.720 --> 0:18:58.880
<v Speaker 1>off to buy some cigarettes. Finding a cigarette machine by

0:18:58.920 --> 0:19:02.440
<v Speaker 1>the bar, she put in some coins and pressed the button,

0:19:03.200 --> 0:19:07.520
<v Speaker 1>but the pack got stuck. Elen shook the machine as

0:19:07.560 --> 0:19:11.200
<v Speaker 1>hard as she could, but the packet refused to drop.

0:19:11.800 --> 0:19:14.480
<v Speaker 1>She was just about to give up when a young

0:19:14.560 --> 0:19:19.000
<v Speaker 1>man asked if she needed help. The man was about

0:19:19.040 --> 0:19:23.080
<v Speaker 1>her age, well dressed in a smart suit with a

0:19:23.119 --> 0:19:28.800
<v Speaker 1>winning smile. After successfully unjamming the cigarette machine for her,

0:19:29.320 --> 0:19:33.879
<v Speaker 1>he introduced himself as John. Ellen and John hit it

0:19:33.920 --> 0:19:37.600
<v Speaker 1>off immediately. He was a good dancer and an even

0:19:37.640 --> 0:19:42.400
<v Speaker 1>better conversationalist. He asked a lot of questions about her

0:19:42.440 --> 0:19:47.560
<v Speaker 1>life and seemed genuinely interested in the answers. It had

0:19:47.600 --> 0:19:51.040
<v Speaker 1>been a while since Helen had met anyone like him.

0:19:51.840 --> 0:19:55.919
<v Speaker 1>After some more time dancing, Ellen and Jean decided to

0:19:56.000 --> 0:19:59.040
<v Speaker 1>call it a night. Why don't they all get a

0:19:59.040 --> 0:20:03.359
<v Speaker 1>cab back together, suggested John, since he was heading in

0:20:03.400 --> 0:20:08.160
<v Speaker 1>the same direction, and so the trio left and piled

0:20:08.240 --> 0:20:17.760
<v Speaker 1>into the back of a cab together. In the back

0:20:17.800 --> 0:20:21.480
<v Speaker 1>of the cab, Ellen and Jean lit cigarettes as they

0:20:21.520 --> 0:20:25.280
<v Speaker 1>moved west through the heart of the city. They listened

0:20:25.320 --> 0:20:28.679
<v Speaker 1>with interest as John began to talk more about his

0:20:28.760 --> 0:20:32.760
<v Speaker 1>own life. He told the sisters that he'd been raised

0:20:32.840 --> 0:20:37.679
<v Speaker 1>by very strict, devoutly religious parents who'd put the fear

0:20:37.720 --> 0:20:41.600
<v Speaker 1>of God in him from a young age. They certainly

0:20:41.680 --> 0:20:44.920
<v Speaker 1>wouldn't have approved of their activities that night, he said,

0:20:45.720 --> 0:20:50.720
<v Speaker 1>declaring that dance halls are dens of iniquity. He asked

0:20:50.760 --> 0:20:54.760
<v Speaker 1>them if they knew what the Bible said about adulterous women.

0:20:55.840 --> 0:21:01.760
<v Speaker 1>Ellen and Jean chuckled nervously. No, they said that they

0:21:01.800 --> 0:21:06.879
<v Speaker 1>should be stoned to death, said John, all emotion suddenly

0:21:07.000 --> 0:21:12.200
<v Speaker 1>gone from his face. Then, unprompted, he began to recite

0:21:12.240 --> 0:21:17.760
<v Speaker 1>a passage from the Bible. The transformation was unnerving. As

0:21:17.880 --> 0:21:22.160
<v Speaker 1>John spoke, his eyes took on a glazed appearance, and

0:21:22.240 --> 0:21:27.520
<v Speaker 1>his voice changed, becoming deeper and more forceful. It was

0:21:27.600 --> 0:21:32.639
<v Speaker 1>as if he'd suddenly been possessed, And then just like that,

0:21:33.480 --> 0:21:39.080
<v Speaker 1>John snapped right back to his usual charming self. Though

0:21:39.119 --> 0:21:43.280
<v Speaker 1>a little unnerved, Ellen and Jean laughed off his strange

0:21:43.280 --> 0:21:48.439
<v Speaker 1>behavior as a joke. John called through to the driver

0:21:48.960 --> 0:21:53.000
<v Speaker 1>and instructed him to drop Gene off first, since he

0:21:53.080 --> 0:21:57.159
<v Speaker 1>and Helen were both going to the same neighborhood. A

0:21:57.200 --> 0:22:01.919
<v Speaker 1>short time later, Jeane climbed out of the cab. She

0:22:02.040 --> 0:22:06.240
<v Speaker 1>watched Helen wave goodbye through the window as the taxi

0:22:06.320 --> 0:22:10.240
<v Speaker 1>pulled back out into the road and disappeared into the night.

0:22:11.680 --> 0:22:15.840
<v Speaker 1>That last mental image of her sister would haunt her

0:22:16.359 --> 0:22:26.359
<v Speaker 1>for the rest of her life. The next morning, a

0:22:26.400 --> 0:22:29.879
<v Speaker 1>woman got up early to take out her rubbish in Scotsten,

0:22:30.400 --> 0:22:33.880
<v Speaker 1>a neighborhood on the bank of the River Clyde. As

0:22:33.880 --> 0:22:37.080
<v Speaker 1>she walked into the back court where the bins were stored,

0:22:37.600 --> 0:22:42.640
<v Speaker 1>she stopped in her tracks. Helen Puttock was lying, fully

0:22:42.640 --> 0:22:47.399
<v Speaker 1>clothed and face down on the ground. She'd been dead

0:22:47.520 --> 0:22:53.879
<v Speaker 1>for hours. The woman's screams soon attracted a crowd of

0:22:54.000 --> 0:22:59.000
<v Speaker 1>horrified passers. By the fact that it was Halloween made

0:22:59.080 --> 0:23:04.119
<v Speaker 1>the night Marrish seen all the morm A cab. Helen

0:23:04.240 --> 0:23:09.640
<v Speaker 1>had been raped, beaten, and then strangled to death. Glasgow's

0:23:09.680 --> 0:23:15.120
<v Speaker 1>serial killer, it seemed, had struck again. When the police

0:23:15.200 --> 0:23:18.240
<v Speaker 1>arrived at the scene, they were able to determine a

0:23:18.280 --> 0:23:23.560
<v Speaker 1>few grim details about Helen's final moments. Grass stains on

0:23:23.600 --> 0:23:26.760
<v Speaker 1>her feet showed that she had tried to escape her

0:23:26.800 --> 0:23:30.280
<v Speaker 1>attacker by fleeing up the side of a railway embankment,

0:23:31.040 --> 0:23:36.360
<v Speaker 1>and her injuries suggested she'd fought for her life. As

0:23:36.400 --> 0:23:40.240
<v Speaker 1>the authorities began to look more closely at the three murders,

0:23:40.720 --> 0:23:45.720
<v Speaker 1>they noticed another unnerving detail. All three women had been

0:23:45.800 --> 0:23:49.560
<v Speaker 1>menstruating at the time they were killed. This might have

0:23:49.640 --> 0:23:53.680
<v Speaker 1>seemed like a coincidence, except that a sanitary pad had

0:23:53.720 --> 0:23:57.880
<v Speaker 1>been left close to each of the bodies, indicating that

0:23:57.960 --> 0:24:01.159
<v Speaker 1>this was a twisted kind of signals for the killer.

0:24:02.240 --> 0:24:06.320
<v Speaker 1>This time around, police were more optimistic about their chances

0:24:06.359 --> 0:24:11.320
<v Speaker 1>of catching the killer. Unlike Patricia and Jemima, Helen hadn't

0:24:11.359 --> 0:24:15.400
<v Speaker 1>gone out alone. Her sister Jean had been with her

0:24:15.560 --> 0:24:18.960
<v Speaker 1>for almost the entire evening and was able to give

0:24:18.960 --> 0:24:22.359
<v Speaker 1>a detailed description of the man. Helen had gone home with.

0:24:23.600 --> 0:24:27.920
<v Speaker 1>Her description matched the profile the police already had from

0:24:27.960 --> 0:24:33.359
<v Speaker 1>the Jemima MacDonald eyewitnesses, and with the additional information she provided,

0:24:33.840 --> 0:24:37.320
<v Speaker 1>they produced a new and more accurate sketch of the

0:24:37.400 --> 0:24:43.399
<v Speaker 1>suspect's face. Unfortunately, John had been evasive about where he

0:24:43.560 --> 0:24:47.000
<v Speaker 1>lived or what kind of work he did, but the

0:24:47.040 --> 0:24:50.840
<v Speaker 1>details he'd shared about his childhood at least gave them

0:24:50.960 --> 0:24:56.119
<v Speaker 1>something to work with. That strange behavior in the taxi, meanwhile,

0:24:56.480 --> 0:25:01.840
<v Speaker 1>would earn him the moniker Bible John. Over the next

0:25:01.840 --> 0:25:06.399
<v Speaker 1>few months, the police arrested and interviewed dozens of potential

0:25:06.480 --> 0:25:10.520
<v Speaker 1>suspects and followed up on hundreds of leads. Determined to

0:25:10.640 --> 0:25:15.760
<v Speaker 1>leave no stone unturned, they also took some more unusual steps,

0:25:16.280 --> 0:25:19.520
<v Speaker 1>like bringing in a psychic who was confident he could

0:25:19.640 --> 0:25:24.200
<v Speaker 1>locate Bible John. This proved to be an empty promise.

0:25:25.600 --> 0:25:29.359
<v Speaker 1>The police also hired a psychiatrist to produce one of

0:25:29.400 --> 0:25:34.360
<v Speaker 1>the first ever criminal profiles, using the information from Gene

0:25:34.680 --> 0:25:39.800
<v Speaker 1>about John's childhood and religious beliefs, along with clues that

0:25:39.920 --> 0:25:43.720
<v Speaker 1>might point toward a preferred process in the way he

0:25:43.760 --> 0:25:48.439
<v Speaker 1>committed his murders. But for all of this work, the

0:25:48.520 --> 0:25:54.680
<v Speaker 1>investigation was ultimately fruitless. Nobody was ever charged for any

0:25:54.720 --> 0:25:59.280
<v Speaker 1>of the three murders, and the case remains unsolved to

0:25:59.320 --> 0:26:10.760
<v Speaker 1>this day. It's been widely speculated that Bible John is

0:26:10.800 --> 0:26:15.600
<v Speaker 1>in fact Peter Tobin, a prolific killer who was convicted

0:26:15.640 --> 0:26:19.320
<v Speaker 1>of killing three women in Glasgow during the nineteen nineties.

0:26:20.160 --> 0:26:22.439
<v Speaker 1>He would have been in his mid twenties during the

0:26:22.480 --> 0:26:26.840
<v Speaker 1>Bible John murders and once boasted to a prison psychiatrist

0:26:27.119 --> 0:26:32.480
<v Speaker 1>that he'd killed more than forty people. However, Tobin denied

0:26:32.600 --> 0:26:35.880
<v Speaker 1>that he was Bible John, and no evidence was ever

0:26:36.040 --> 0:26:41.800
<v Speaker 1>found linking him to Patricia's, Jemima's or Helen's murder. He

0:26:41.880 --> 0:26:47.439
<v Speaker 1>died in prison in twenty twenty two. Another theory was

0:26:47.480 --> 0:26:51.440
<v Speaker 1>that the killer was a man named John Irvin McInnis,

0:26:52.040 --> 0:26:56.399
<v Speaker 1>and that his identity was deliberately covered up because McInnis

0:26:56.480 --> 0:27:00.800
<v Speaker 1>was the cousin of a very senior police officer. In

0:27:00.920 --> 0:27:05.960
<v Speaker 1>nineteen ninety six, Helen Puttock's body was exhumed so forensic

0:27:06.000 --> 0:27:10.560
<v Speaker 1>investigators could take a DNA sample from her tights and

0:27:10.720 --> 0:27:16.440
<v Speaker 1>compare it to McInnis. Given all the advances in DNA technology,

0:27:16.920 --> 0:27:22.720
<v Speaker 1>hopes were high, but the analysis was inconclusive. The sample

0:27:22.880 --> 0:27:26.560
<v Speaker 1>was also compared against the DNA of a number of

0:27:26.600 --> 0:27:32.119
<v Speaker 1>other high profile British killers, including Tobin, the Yorkshire Ripper,

0:27:32.320 --> 0:27:37.280
<v Speaker 1>Peter Sutcliffe and Fred West. None of them were a match.

0:27:38.840 --> 0:27:43.119
<v Speaker 1>Just recently, however, this cold case is warming up again

0:27:44.080 --> 0:27:49.040
<v Speaker 1>in response to allegations of police corruption during the original investigation,

0:27:49.680 --> 0:27:53.960
<v Speaker 1>which were made public in a BBC podcast titled Bible

0:27:54.080 --> 0:27:58.840
<v Speaker 1>John Creation of a Serial Killer. Police Scotland announced in

0:27:58.960 --> 0:28:02.359
<v Speaker 1>twenty twenty two that it was taking a fresh look

0:28:02.520 --> 0:28:07.040
<v Speaker 1>at the case. But for now, more than fifty years

0:28:07.080 --> 0:28:11.639
<v Speaker 1>on from the tragic events, there remains no justice for

0:28:11.800 --> 0:28:18.320
<v Speaker 1>Patricia Docker, Jemima MacDonald and Helen Puttock, and no closure

0:28:18.760 --> 0:28:27.480
<v Speaker 1>for their families. This episode was written by Emma Dibden

0:28:27.920 --> 0:28:32.640
<v Speaker 1>and Richard mclin Smith. Unexplained as an Avy Club Productions

0:28:32.680 --> 0:28:37.240
<v Speaker 1>podcast created by Richard McClain Smith. All other elements of

0:28:37.280 --> 0:28:40.680
<v Speaker 1>the podcast, including the music, are also produced by me

0:28:40.960 --> 0:28:46.040
<v Speaker 1>Richard McClain smith. Unexplained. The book and audiobook, with stories

0:28:46.120 --> 0:28:49.040
<v Speaker 1>never before featured on the show, is now available to

0:28:49.080 --> 0:28:53.320
<v Speaker 1>buy worldwide. You can purchase from Amazon, Barnes and Noble,

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<v Speaker 1>Waterstones and other bookstores. Please subscribe to and rate the

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0:29:01.320 --> 0:29:04.440
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0:29:04.480 --> 0:29:07.160
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0:29:07.200 --> 0:29:10.200
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