John Christie

Who was John Christie?

John Reginald Halliday Christie was a notorious English serial killer active in the 1940s and early 1950s. He murdered at least eight women – including his wife Ethel – by strangling them in his flat at 10 Rillington Place, Notting Hill, London. Christie moved out of Rillington Place in March 1953, and shortly afterwards the bodies of three of his victims were discovered hidden in an alcove in the kitchen. His wife's body was found beneath the floorboards of the front room. Christie was arrested and convicted of his wife's murder, for which he was hanged.

Christie was born in Halifax, West Riding of Yorkshire. While serving as an infantryman during World War I, he was apparently injured in a gas attack, which he claimed left him permanently unable to speak loudly. He turned to crime following his discharge from the army and was imprisoned several times, for offences including theft and assault. On the outbreak of World War II in 1939 he was accepted for service in the War Reserve Police, when the authorities failed to check his criminal record.