10 Rillington Place

10 Rillington Place, Notting Hill, Notting Hill Gate, London, was the site of one of Britain's most notorious serial killers, and a miscarriage of justice which contributed towards the abolition of the death penalty in Britain. It is also the title of a book on the murder case by Ludovic Kennedy published in 1965, and a movie starring Richard Attenborough in 1970.

Summary

John Reginald Halliday Christie and his wife Ethel lived in the ground floor flat of 10 Rillington Place from 1938. At Easter 1948 Timothy Evans, a 24-year-old Welshman, and his wife Beryl moved in to the top floor flat, and shortly afterwards their daughter, Geraldine, was born. In the summer of 1949 Beryl fell pregnant again, but she could not afford to support another child and was desperate for an (illegal) abortion. Aware that her husband, a lapsed Catholic, would object to an abortion, Beryl made discreet enquiries and mentioned it to John Christie. This was a fatal mistake.

Related Topics:
John Reginald Halliday Christie - Ground floor - Flat - Timothy Evans - Abortion - Catholic

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Although he had no medical qualifications whatsoever, Christie persuaded her to let him carry out the abortion. On 8 November 1949, Evans returned home to be told by Christie that the abortion had gone wrong—Beryl was dead. Evans, a weak and gullible character, reacted strangely. Instead of reporting the death he agreed to help Christie move the body into the empty flat on the first floor and let his neighbour take care of the child.

Related Topics:
8 November - 1949

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Evans was trying to protect his neighbour, but it was not a favour that would be returned. Dazed and confused, Evans went to work the next day, and when he returned, Christie told him that Geraldine was being looked after by a family in nearby Acton, and he would dispose of Beryl's body down a manhole. He suggested that Evans leave London. Evans agreed, and stayed with an aunt in his native South Wales, but three weeks later, wracked by guilt, he went to the police station in Merthyr Tydfil. He told a detective that he had disposed of his wife's body, but implied that she had died after drinking an abortifacient concoction. When the police investigated the drains outside 10 Rillington Place they found nothing. Surprised and anxious, Evans began to suspect that Christie had double-crossed him, and he made another statement, this time implicating Christie as a bungling abortionist. Police made another search of 10 Rillington Place and found the bodies of Beryl and Geraldine hidden in a wash-house.

Related Topics:
Acton - Manhole - Wales - Merthyr Tydfil

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