0:00

This episode contains disturbing

0:02

images of murder. Parental

0:04

discretion is advised. It's

0:16

early in the evening of Thursday,

0:19

February twenty second, nineteen

0:21

sixty eight. A few floors

0:23

up a tenement flat in the south of

0:25

Glasgow, twenty five year old Patricia

0:28

Docker sat in front of her bedroom

0:30

mirror. She applied the finishing

0:33

touches to her look for the evening after

0:36

a light dab of lipstick. She

0:38

regarded her reflection, pleased

0:41

with the favorite orange crocheted

0:43

dress and her nicely curled

0:45

hair. She couldn't help

0:47

thinking she looked a little tired, though,

0:50

but when wasn't she Between

0:53

the long shifts working as a nurse

0:55

at Glasgow's Victoria Infirmary

0:58

and being a single mother to her four year

1:00

old son, Sandy, it

1:02

was hard for her to imagine a time

1:04

when she wouldn't be tired. Only

1:07

the year before, Patricia's marriage

1:10

to her husband, a Royal Air Force

1:12

technician, had broken down.

1:15

The couple were living together with their son

1:17

in Cyprus, where Patricia's

1:19

husband was stationed. Now

1:22

she was in Glasgow, back living

1:24

with her parents, the sole career

1:26

to her son. It

1:28

had been a difficult transition but

1:31

slowly, Patricia had got herself

1:34

back on her feet. Things were

1:36

starting to look up, and

1:38

that night, as she sang her son

1:41

to sleep, staring down at

1:43

his sweet face, she felt

1:45

a swell of love and hope

1:47

for the future. Around

1:49

eight pm, she said good night to

1:51

her parents and headed out into

1:54

the cold. Spotting

1:56

a cab on the street, she asked

1:58

the driver to take her to the Majestic

2:00

Ballroom, where she'd arranged to meet

2:03

some friends to attend an

2:05

over twenty five's dance. One

2:07

of them had met her husband at a similar

2:09

event. Though meeting a

2:12

future husband was far from the

2:14

first thing on her mind, at the

2:16

very least, she was looking forward

2:18

to letting her hair down for the night. Inside

2:23

the ballroom was packed a

2:25

hot cauldron of noise and smoke.

2:28

Men and women in sharp suits and

2:31

colorful dresses threw each other

2:33

about on the dance floor, sweat

2:35

beating on their foreheads. Patricia

2:38

spotted her friends quickly and headed

2:41

over to join them, and for the

2:43

next few hours they drank and

2:45

danced, finding no end of suitors

2:48

to accompany them on the dance floor. At

2:51

some point, Patricia's friends

2:53

noticed that Patricia was no longer

2:55

with them. One remembered

2:57

her saying something about moving

2:59

on to the barrel Land Ballroom, a

3:02

couple of miles east. They

3:04

assumed she'd met someone

3:07

good for her. They thought she deserved

3:09

to have some fun after the terrible

3:11

year she'd had.

3:20

Early on the morning of February twenty

3:22

third, nineteen sixty eight, a

3:25

man left his house in the south side

3:27

of Glasgow to walk to work. As

3:30

he passed at garage only yards

3:32

away from Patricia Docker's flat,

3:35

he saw something strange out at

3:37

the corner of his eye. At

3:39

first, it looked like a discarded

3:41

mannikin from a clothing shop.

3:44

Then, with horror, he realized

3:46

it was the naked body of a

3:48

young woman. In

3:51

shock, the man stumbled

3:53

back to his house and phoned the police.

3:56

Later that day, the body would

3:58

be identified Patricia Docker.

4:02

The police assumed she'd been raped,

4:05

although there was no clear evidence to

4:07

suggest this was the case. What

4:09

was beyond doubt was that she'd been

4:12

strangled to death barely a stone's

4:14

throw from her home, while her parents

4:17

and her four year old son slept

4:19

soundly. Soon

4:22

after officers arrived at the grisly

4:24

scene, they began to search the surrounding

4:26

area Hoping to find some clues

4:29

as to who had murdered Patricia,

4:33

They interviewed dozens of people who'd

4:35

attended the dance at the Majestic Ballroom,

4:38

including several young men who

4:40

remembered dancing with Patricia that

4:42

evening, but the encounters

4:44

had all been brief and the men

4:46

had alibis for the night. Nobody

4:50

seemed exactly sure when Patricia

4:52

had left, or whether she'd been

4:54

alone at the time. The

4:56

male officer writing the report

4:58

on her death described Patricia

5:01

dismissively as a rather spoiled

5:03

woman who appeared to enjoy the

5:06

company of men. Divorce

5:09

had only been legal in the UK for

5:11

a decade and still carried

5:13

a heavy stigma. Divorced

5:15

women in particular were shunned,

5:18

and divorced single mothers all

5:21

the more so, And despite

5:24

it all, Patricia also had

5:26

the gall to go out and enjoy

5:28

herself at the end of a long

5:30

week. The

5:32

trail went cold soon after, and

5:35

no arrests were made.

5:38

The brutal murder made headlines

5:41

and terrified Glasgow's residents.

5:45

Just as scary as the crime itself

5:47

was the reality that the killer

5:50

was still on the loose. But

5:52

as the months went by people

5:54

began to move on. They

5:56

chalked up what had happened to Patricia

5:59

as a bizarre, tragic, one off,

6:01

something that happens to people who

6:04

don't know any better. Instead,

6:07

it was the beginning of a nightmare that

6:10

would haunt the city for decades

6:12

to come. You're

6:14

listening to Unexplained and I'm

6:17

Richard McLain Smith. On

6:26

the evening of Saturday, August

6:28

sixteenth, nineteen sixty

6:30

nine, Jemimah MacDonald

6:33

left the house she shared with her

6:35

sister on the East side of Glasgow.

6:38

Jemima or Mima to her

6:40

friends and family, was thirty

6:43

two and a single mother to

6:45

three children. She loved

6:47

to dance, and that night she

6:50

was going to the Barreland Ballroom,

6:52

one of her favorite venues. She

6:55

still had her curlers in when she left

6:57

the house, and not by mistake. This

7:00

was her trick. She'd keep them in

7:02

until the last possible moment, concealing

7:05

them under a headscarf until she arrived

7:07

at her destination. Once

7:09

there, she goes straight to the rest rooms

7:12

and take them out, ensuring that her

7:14

hair stayed bouncy or night.

7:18

Saturday evenings were always lively

7:20

at the ballroom, where a live band

7:22

played the pop hits of the day. The

7:25

following morning, Mima's sister,

7:28

Margaret, found that Mima's

7:30

bed was empty. After

7:32

searching the rest of the house, she

7:35

soon realized that Mima had

7:37

never come home. Margaret

7:40

tried not to panic. Maybe

7:42

Jemimah had just spent the night at a

7:44

friend's house, she thought. But deep

7:47

down, Margaret knew this didn't

7:49

make any sense. For one

7:52

thing, the Barreland Ballroom could

7:54

hardly be closer to their house. It

7:56

was less than a mile away, and

7:59

Mima had three children

8:01

at home. Mima would

8:03

never just go a war. At

8:05

the very least, she would have called

8:08

pulling on the first clothes she could find.

8:11

Margaret hurried outside onto

8:13

the street and began to walk. The

8:16

morning sunlight was painfully

8:18

bright in her eyes. She

8:21

wandered toward the end of her street and

8:23

took a right turn, heading north.

8:26

She had a vague, half formed plan

8:29

to walk to the ballroom, though

8:31

it would surely be closed at this time,

8:34

but she didn't know what else to do. As

8:46

Margaret made her way to the Baryland

8:49

Ballroom, she passed a derelict

8:51

house in her neighborhood where

8:53

she was startled by a sudden shriek.

8:56

A group of children burst out of the

8:58

house and hurled passed her, almost

9:01

knocking her over in their haste

9:03

to get away. Annoyed,

9:06

Margaret was about to shout after them

9:08

when she caught a snatch of the children's

9:11

frantic conversation, did

9:13

one of them just say a body?

9:17

Margaret walked towards the

9:19

abandoned house, her stomach

9:21

coiling with dread. The

9:24

front windows had all been smashed,

9:27

and the front door, hanging off

9:29

its hinges, rattled in the

9:31

breeze. Margaret

9:33

stepped inside the property, ignoring

9:36

every instinct in her body telling

9:39

her to turn back. It

9:42

was cold and damp, and

9:44

as she turned a corner into what would

9:46

once have been a living room, she

9:49

came upon a sight that would haunt

9:51

her for the rest of her life.

9:54

Her dear sister Mima was

9:56

crumpled in the corner of the room,

9:58

her open eyes staring

10:00

blankly up at the dusty ceiling.

10:04

Bruises covered her face and neck,

10:06

and she was fully clothed except

10:09

for her stockings, which were wrapped

10:11

tightly around her pale

10:13

throat. Eighteen

10:16

months on from Patricia Docker's

10:18

unsold murder, another young

10:20

woman had died of violent death

10:22

in Glasgow. Unlike

10:24

Patricia, Jemima mac donald

10:27

was confirmed to have been raped, but

10:30

both had been beaten and strangled

10:32

to death at the end of a night out.

10:35

Their bodies found less than two

10:37

miles apart. The

10:40

only significant difference between

10:42

the crimes was that Jemima's body

10:44

was fully clothed, while her handbag

10:47

and other possessions were missing. The

10:50

male officer writing the report

10:53

felt it pertinent note that

10:55

Mima received benefits as a

10:57

single mother, that she often

11:00

frequented the dance halls of Glasgow,

11:02

and that she quote appeared

11:05

to be extremely fond of male

11:07

company.

11:15

Whatever judgments may have been made

11:17

about Jemima's personal life, her

11:19

murder could not just be swept

11:22

under the carpet. The nightmarish

11:24

story of Margaret discovering

11:26

her own sister's body drew

11:28

sympathetic press coverage across

11:30

the country. The pressure

11:33

to identify a suspect was

11:35

intense. As the

11:37

police began to piece together a

11:39

picture of Mima's evening, They

11:41

soon discovered that she'd last

11:43

been seen at the Barreland Ballroom

11:47

on Tuesday evening, three days

11:49

after her disappearance. Punters

11:51

at the ballroom were greeted by a startling

11:54

sight. A crowd of some

11:56

twenty uniformed police officers

11:59

gathered at the entrance, each

12:01

of them holding up a large photograph

12:03

of Jemima's face. Some

12:06

knew immediately who this young woman

12:09

was. Others were confused,

12:11

having missed the news, But soon

12:13

enough everybody there was

12:16

brought up to speed. Early

12:18

in the evening, the music came

12:21

to an abrupt halt. Then a

12:23

detective stepped onto the stage

12:25

at the front of the dance hall. He

12:28

briefly recapped the known facts

12:30

about Mima's death and urged

12:32

anybody with information to come forward.

12:36

In particular, he said they were

12:38

eager to talk to any barrel and regulars

12:41

in the crowd that had been roughly

12:43

two thousand people at the ballroom

12:46

on the night Jemima disappeared. Somebody

12:49

had to have seen something. Over

12:52

the next few days, numerous people

12:54

came forward to tell the police

12:57

that they remembered seeing Mima on

12:59

that set Satday evening. Several

13:02

of them had seen her leaving the

13:04

ballroom around midnight accompanied

13:06

by a man. Based

13:09

on several of these eyewitness statements,

13:12

the police put together a description

13:14

of the man Mima had left

13:16

with He was tall

13:19

and slim, between twenty

13:21

five and thirty five years old,

13:24

with reddish hair. He'd

13:26

been dressed in a smart blue suit,

13:28

looking like a perfectly respectable

13:31

young man. Nothing about

13:33

him had rung alarm bells to anyone,

13:36

including Jemima, who,

13:38

by all accounts, had left with

13:40

him willingly. The

13:43

police also figured out roughly

13:45

what route the couple had taken

13:47

after leaving the ballroom, thanks

13:49

to various bystanders who'd seen

13:51

them together on the streets. They'd

13:54

taken a short cut towards Mima's

13:56

house, walking for about fifteen

13:59

minutes until they reached

14:01

a secluded lane.

14:03

They believed the couple had spent

14:05

some time in that lane winching

14:08

Scottish slang for kissing before

14:11

Mima was killed. But

14:14

despite all of these details about

14:16

Jemima's final moments and

14:18

a solid description of the man

14:21

who had almost certainly murdered her,

14:23

the police was still no closer to

14:26

finding their suspect. Soon

14:29

they turned to more unorthodox methods.

14:39

On Saturday, August twenty

14:41

third, exactly a week after

14:44

Jemimah MacDonald's murder, a

14:46

woman was seen walking down the street

14:49

wearing a black pinafore dress,

14:52

high heels and a brown woolen

14:54

coat, exactly what Jemima

14:57

had worn on the night of her murder.

15:00

The woman walked steadily from the Baryland

15:03

Ballroom to the derelict house

15:05

located on mc keith Street where

15:08

Jemima was killed. To

15:10

anyone who had seen Jemima on the

15:12

final night of her life, it

15:15

would have felt like seeing a ghost,

15:17

and that was the point. The

15:20

woman was, in fact a police officer

15:22

orchestrating an elaborate re enactment

15:25

in the hope of jogging anybody's

15:28

memory about the time leading

15:30

up to Jemima's death. Some

15:33

witnesses did come forward with new

15:35

information, but there was still

15:37

nothing concrete, nothing

15:40

they could use to identify a

15:42

suspect, and the pressure

15:44

was mounting because now investigators

15:48

were confident that Patricia

15:50

Docker and Jemima MacDonald

15:53

had been killed by the same person.

15:56

At the time, very few people

15:59

used the phrase serial killer. It

16:02

would be another five years before that term

16:04

became widely known, when the FBI

16:07

established its Behavioral Science

16:09

Unit and pioneered the practice

16:12

of criminal profiling. But

16:14

though the terminology was new, the

16:16

terrifying notion of a lone nightmarish

16:19

monster stalking the streets was

16:22

not. It was just over

16:24

a decade since Glasgow was

16:27

terrorized by the specter of Peter

16:29

Manuel, a vicious murderer

16:32

who'd killed at least seven people

16:34

and is still known as Scotland's

16:37

worst ever serial killer. Though

16:40

Manuel was hanged in nineteen fifty

16:42

eight, its crimes cast a

16:44

shadow over the city and haunted

16:47

its police force. They

16:49

were determined to do whatever it

16:51

took to stop this latest killer

16:53

before he claimed any more victims,

16:57

and so, for the first time in

16:59

Scottish history, the police

17:01

commissioned a facial composite sketch

17:04

of their suspect based on the

17:06

eyewitness descriptions. They

17:08

printed this sketch onto thousands

17:11

of leaflets and posters and

17:13

distributed them all across the country.

17:16

Their goal was twofold first

17:18

and foremost. They wanted to cast

17:21

as wide a net as possible, encouraging

17:23

the wider public to come forward with

17:26

any information about the suspect.

17:29

But they also hoped that seeing

17:31

his likeness on wanted posters

17:33

would deter the killer from striking

17:36

again, but it did

17:38

no such thing. On

17:49

the evening of October thirtieth,

17:51

nineteen sixty nine, twenty

17:53

nine year old Helen Puttock left

17:56

her house with her older sister Jeanne.

17:59

All day had been debating whether

18:01

to go through with their night out. Three

18:05

months after Jemima MacDonald's murder

18:07

and unease had settled over the

18:09

city and many women stopped

18:12

going out after dark, but

18:14

Helen and jean were determined

18:16

not to let fear rule their lives.

18:20

As long as they stuck together, they thought

18:22

they'd be all right. Helen

18:25

had recently split up with her husband,

18:27

George, and although the breakup

18:30

was her decision, it had been a hard

18:32

few weeks. She was sorely

18:34

in need of a night out, and there

18:36

were few better places for it than

18:38

the Barreland Ballroom. On

18:41

that Thursday evening, the dance

18:43

hall was once again packed with

18:46

energy and excitement, and Helen

18:48

soon began to forget her troubles.

18:51

At some point, she told her sister

18:54

she was heading off to buy some cigarettes.

18:57

Finding a cigarette machine by the bar, she

19:00

put in some coins and pressed the button,

19:03

but the pack got stuck. Elen

19:06

shook the machine as hard as she could,

19:08

but the packet refused to drop.

19:11

She was just about to give up when

19:14

a young man asked if she needed

19:16

help. The man was

19:18

about her age, well dressed

19:21

in a smart suit with a winning

19:23

smile. After

19:25

successfully unjamming the cigarette

19:28

machine for her, he introduced

19:30

himself as John. Ellen

19:33

and John hit it off immediately. He

19:35

was a good dancer and an even better

19:38

conversationalist. He

19:40

asked a lot of questions about her life

19:43

and seemed genuinely interested

19:45

in the answers. It had

19:47

been a while since Helen had met

19:49

anyone like him. After

19:52

some more time dancing, Ellen

19:54

and Jean decided to call it a night.

19:57

Why don't they all get a cab back together,

20:00

suggested John, since

20:02

he was heading in the same direction, and

20:05

so the trio left and piled

20:08

into the back of a cab together. In

20:17

the back of the cab, Ellen and Jean

20:19

lit cigarettes as they moved

20:21

west through the heart of the city. They

20:24

listened with interest as John began

20:27

to talk more about his own life.

20:30

He told the sisters that he'd been raised

20:32

by very strict, devoutly religious

20:35

parents who'd put the fear

20:37

of God in him from a young age.

20:40

They certainly wouldn't have approved of their

20:43

activities that night, he said, declaring

20:46

that dance halls are dens of iniquity.

20:50

He asked them if they knew what the Bible

20:52

said about adulterous women.

20:55

Ellen and Jean chuckled nervously.

20:59

No, they said that

21:01

they should be stoned to death, said

21:03

John, all emotion suddenly

21:07

gone from his face. Then,

21:09

unprompted, he began to recite

21:12

a passage from the Bible. The

21:14

transformation was unnerving.

21:17

As John spoke, his eyes

21:19

took on a glazed appearance, and

21:22

his voice changed, becoming deeper

21:25

and more forceful. It

21:27

was as if he'd suddenly been possessed,

21:30

And then just like that, John

21:34

snapped right back to his usual

21:36

charming self. Though

21:39

a little unnerved, Ellen and Jean

21:41

laughed off his strange behavior as

21:44

a joke. John

21:47

called through to the driver and instructed

21:49

him to drop Gene off first,

21:52

since he and Helen were both going

21:54

to the same neighborhood. A

21:57

short time later, Jeane climbed

21:59

out of the cab. She

22:02

watched Helen wave goodbye

22:04

through the window as the taxi

22:06

pulled back out into the road and

22:08

disappeared into the night. That

22:12

last mental image of her sister

22:15

would haunt her for the rest

22:17

of her life.

22:24

The next morning, a woman got

22:27

up early to take out her rubbish in

22:29

Scotsten, a neighborhood on the

22:31

bank of the River Clyde.

22:33

As she walked into the back court where

22:35

the bins were stored, she stopped

22:38

in her tracks. Helen

22:40

Puttock was lying, fully

22:42

clothed and face down

22:44

on the ground. She'd

22:46

been dead for hours. The

22:50

woman's screams soon attracted

22:53

a crowd of horrified passers.

22:55

By the fact that it

22:57

was Halloween made the night

22:59

Marrish seen all the morm

23:01

A cab. Helen

23:04

had been raped, beaten, and

23:06

then strangled to death. Glasgow's

23:09

serial killer, it seemed,

23:12

had struck again. When

23:14

the police arrived at the scene, they

23:16

were able to determine a few grim

23:18

details about Helen's final

23:21

moments. Grass stains

23:23

on her feet showed that she had tried

23:25

to escape her attacker by fleeing

23:28

up the side of a railway embankment,

23:31

and her injuries suggested

23:33

she'd fought for her life.

23:36

As the authorities began to look more

23:38

closely at the three murders, they

23:40

noticed another unnerving detail.

23:44

All three women had been menstruating

23:46

at the time they were killed. This

23:49

might have seemed like a coincidence, except

23:52

that a sanitary pad had been left

23:54

close to each of the bodies, indicating

23:57

that this was a twisted kind of signals

24:00

for the killer. This time

24:02

around, police were more optimistic

24:05

about their chances of catching the

24:07

killer. Unlike Patricia

24:09

and Jemima, Helen hadn't gone

24:11

out alone. Her sister

24:13

Jean had been with her for almost

24:16

the entire evening and was able

24:18

to give a detailed description of the

24:20

man. Helen had gone home with. Her

24:23

description matched the profile

24:26

the police already had from the Jemima

24:28

MacDonald eyewitnesses, and

24:30

with the additional information she provided,

24:33

they produced a new and more accurate

24:36

sketch of the suspect's face.

24:39

Unfortunately, John had been

24:41

evasive about where he lived

24:44

or what kind of work he did, but

24:46

the details he'd shared about his childhood

24:49

at least gave them something to work

24:51

with. That strange

24:54

behavior in the taxi, meanwhile,

24:56

would earn him the moniker Bible

24:59

John. Over

25:01

the next few months, the police

25:03

arrested and interviewed dozens

25:05

of potential suspects and followed

25:08

up on hundreds of leads. Determined

25:10

to leave no stone unturned, they

25:13

also took some more unusual steps,

25:16

like bringing in a psychic who was

25:18

confident he could locate Bible

25:20

John. This proved

25:22

to be an empty promise. The

25:25

police also hired a psychiatrist

25:28

to produce one of the first ever criminal

25:31

profiles, using the information

25:33

from Gene about John's childhood

25:36

and religious beliefs, along

25:38

with clues that might point

25:40

toward a preferred process

25:43

in the way he committed his murders.

25:46

But for all of this work, the

25:48

investigation was ultimately

25:50

fruitless. Nobody

25:53

was ever charged for any of the three

25:55

murders, and the case remains

25:58

unsolved to this day.

26:07

It's been widely speculated that Bible

26:09

John is in fact Peter

26:12

Tobin, a prolific killer

26:14

who was convicted of killing three women

26:16

in Glasgow during the nineteen nineties.

26:20

He would have been in his mid twenties during

26:22

the Bible John murders and once

26:24

boasted to a prison psychiatrist

26:27

that he'd killed more than forty people.

26:30

However, Tobin denied

26:32

that he was Bible John, and no

26:34

evidence was ever found linking

26:37

him to Patricia's, Jemima's

26:39

or Helen's murder. He

26:41

died in prison in twenty twenty

26:44

two. Another

26:46

theory was that the killer was

26:48

a man named John Irvin McInnis,

26:52

and that his identity was deliberately

26:54

covered up because McInnis

26:56

was the cousin of a very senior police

26:58

officer. In nineteen

27:01

ninety six, Helen Puttock's

27:03

body was exhumed so forensic

27:06

investigators could take a DNA

27:08

sample from her tights and

27:10

compare it to McInnis. Given

27:13

all the advances in DNA technology,

27:16

hopes were high, but the analysis

27:19

was inconclusive. The

27:22

sample was also compared against

27:24

the DNA of a number of other

27:27

high profile British killers,

27:29

including Tobin, the Yorkshire

27:31

Ripper, Peter Sutcliffe and

27:34

Fred West. None of

27:36

them were a match. Just

27:39

recently, however, this cold

27:41

case is warming up again in

27:44

response to allegations of police corruption

27:47

during the original investigation, which

27:49

were made public in a BBC podcast

27:52

titled Bible John Creation

27:55

of a Serial Killer. Police

27:57

Scotland announced in twenty twenty

27:59

two that it was taking a fresh

28:02

look at the case. But

28:04

for now, more than fifty

28:06

years on from the tragic events,

28:09

there remains no justice for

28:11

Patricia Docker, Jemima

28:14

MacDonald and Helen Puttock,

28:17

and no closure for their families.

28:25

This episode was written by Emma Dibden

28:27

and Richard mclin Smith. Unexplained

28:31

as an Avy Club Productions podcast

28:33

created by Richard McClain Smith. All

28:36

other elements of the podcast, including the

28:38

music, are also produced by me

28:40

Richard McClain smith. Unexplained.

28:43

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28:46

never before featured on the show, is

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now available to buy worldwide.

28:50

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