Christie's first known victim was a mistress, Ruth Fuerst, whom he impulsively strangled during sex in 1943. The following year, he murdered a neighbor, Muriel Eady, by promising to cure her bronchitis with a "special mixture," a gas he had concocted which contained carbon monoxide that would render a person unconscious; once Eady was knocked out, Christie strangled her to death, and raped her corpse. It was a ritual Christie would compulsively act out for the rest of his life.
Christie was the landlord of 10 Rillington Place in North Kensington, London, where he and his wife had lived since 1938. He buried both Fuerst and Eady in the building's communal garden plot. He took on new tenants in 1948: Timothy Evans and his wife, Beryl, who soon gave birth to a daughter, Geraldine. In November 1949, she became pregnant again, but feared that they could not afford another child. According to Christie's later confession, he promised the couple that he could abort the baby.
On November 8, he used his "special gas" to incapacitate Beryl, whom he strangled and raped. When Evans returned from work that night, Christie told him his wife had died during the procedure and that they had to hide the body to avoid prison, as abortion was, at the time, illegal in England. Christie then convinced Evans, whom Kennedy describes as a gullible man with an IQ of 70, to stay with a relative in Wales and leave Geraldine in his care. Evans later said that he returned to the flat several times to ask about Geraldine, but Christie had refused to let him see her, saying that it was too soon to take her back.
On November 30, Evans went to the police in Merthyr Tydfil and confessed to accidentally killing Beryl by giving her "abortion pills," and then disposing of her body in a sewer drain. He told the police that, after arranging for Geraldine to be looked after, he had gone to Wales. When police examined the drain, however, they found nothing. When re-questioned, Evans said that Christie had offered to provide an abortion for Beryl. Evans had returned home from work on November 7 to find Beryl dead. He said Christie then disposed of the body and made arrangements for some people to look after Geraldine while Evans laid low.
During a search of 10 Rillington Place, on December 2, 1949, the police found the bodies of Beryl and Geraldine hidden in the wash house in the back garden. Both had been strangled. When Evans was shown the clothing taken from the bodies of his wife and child, he was asked whether he was responsible for their deaths, and said “Yes.” He now confessed to having strangled Beryl during an argument over debts on November 8, 1949, and strangling Geraldine two days later, after which he left for Wales.
This confession, along with other, contradictory statements Evans made during the police interrogation, is often cited as proof of his guilt, although Kennedy writes that the interrogation he went under was brutal and manipulative. In any event, Evans recanted, and the case went to trial. Christie was a key witness for the prosecution, and was instrumental in Evans being found guilty. Evans was hanged on March 9, 1950.
Christie murdered four women over the next three years, including his wife. He moved out of 10 Rillington Place in 1953. Soon after, a maintenance man discovered the bodies in the cellar. A citywide manhunt ensued, ending weeks later when Christie was arrested while looking for dock work.
While in prison, Christie confessed to murdering all of the women found in the celler, as well as Beryl Evans. He was found guilty of murdering his wife and hanged in 1953. Evans was granted a posthumous pardon in 1966.
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