|
More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
|
Rillington Place
|
|
A cul-de-sac in London's Notting Hill district, now demolished, which became notorious because of a succession of murders in no. 10. There was relatively little national attention in 1949 when Timothy Evans, the mentally retarded occupant of an upstairs flat, was hanged after confessing to the murder of his wife and baby girl, whose bodies had been found in the garden shed. The sensation came in 1953 with the discovery of the decaying remains of three young women, hidden in the ground-floor flat of John Christie; his wife's body was then found under the kitchen floorboards and there were skeletons of other female victims in the garden.
|
|
|
|
Christie, a necrophiliac, confessed to these murders and to that of Mrs Evans. Timothy Evans was granted a posthumous pardon in 1966, after his case (taken up by Ludovic Kennedy) had played a persuasive part in the campaign leading to the abolition of *capital punishment in the previous year.
|
|
|
|