A Capital Crime
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Neither of the reports reached the conclusion that the police in the Evans case had acted improperly. After examining the evidence, Brabin made the following statement about the murders of Beryl and Geraldine Evans:
… it would now be impossible for me to come to a conclusion in respect of the guilt of Evans beyond reasonable doubt.
The warrant under which I was appointed to hold this Inquiry does not call only for a conclusion reached with that degree of certainty, for I am called upon to report such conclusions as I may find it possible to form. If the evidence permits me to come to a conclusion on the balance of probability, I must do so.
I have come to the conclusion that it is more probable than not that Evans killed Beryl Evans. I have come to the conclusion that it is more probable than not that Evans did not kill Geraldine.
As Evans had been tried only for the murder of his daughter – the one crime, incidentally, to which Christie never confessed – the then Home Secretary Roy Jenkins recommended a posthumous pardon for Evans, which was granted in October 1966.
Although Evans had been declared not guilty of the crime of which he was convicted, there was still the matter of Brabin’s refusal to accept Christie’s confession to the murder of Beryl and his decision that Evans was responsible for her death. Leading pathologist Professor Keith Simpson, who had assisted with the exhumation of Beryl Evans, agreed. In his book Forty Years of Murder (1978), he stated: . . . the Brabin report upheld the coincidence [of there being two stranglers of women living in the same house], and it never seemed to me very far-fetched. Coincidences are far more common in life than in fiction. Books by Rupert Furneaux (published in 1961) and John Eddowes (1994) also argued the case for Evans’s guilt. However, the version of events that has become generally accepted is Ludovic Kennedy’s. His book, 10 Rillington Place, was made into a film of the same name in 1970. Directed by Richard Fleischer and starring Richard Attenborough, Judy Geeson, Pat Heywood and John Hurt, it gives a vivid and persuasive account of Evans’s innocence and wrongful conviction.
A pardon does not formally erase a conviction, and in 2003 Evans’s family applied to the Criminal Cases Review Commission for his conviction to be re-examined. The Commission decided that, although there was what it termed a ‘real possibility’ that the Court of Appeal would not uphold the conviction, it would not refer the case. The Commission’s report stated that the free pardon, with its attendant publicity, was sufficient to establish Evans’s innocence in the eyes of the public and that the formal quashing of the conviction would bring no tangible benefit to his family and was not in the public interest. An ex gratia payment was, however, made to the family by way of compensation for the miscarriage of justice.
In the months I spent researching this book, I read everything about both cases that I could lay my hands on, including the files of the Metropolitan Police, the records of the Director of Public Prosecutions, the trial transcripts and correspondence, and the Prison Commission and Home Office files, all of which may be found in the National Archives. What do I think happened? The honest answer is that I just don’t know. The forensic evidence, such as it is, doesn’t point conclusively to either man. There is also the fact that, in the words of the Brabin report, One fact which is not in dispute and which has hampered all efforts to find the truth is that both Evans and Christie were liars. They lied about each other, they lied about themselves.
As Professor Simpson says, coincidences are far more common in life than in fiction. It seems to me to be pretty unlikely that Evans killed his wife and child, but it isn’t actually impossible. My heart doesn’t believe it, but in the course of writing this book, my head has told me time and again that one cannot entirely discount the possibility that that is, in fact, what happened. There are many things unaccounted for, such as the dog, the timing, and why, if Beryl Evans’s body was in the tiny washhouse for several days while the workmen were constantly in and out, they did not notice it. There is also the fact that baby Geraldine, unattended for two days in a very small house, wasn’t heard to cry – even, apparently, by Ethel Christie, who was used to listening out for her on the occasions when Beryl left her by herself. All these are mysteries that cannot now be unravelled.
It is, however, an extraordinary story, and it’s certainly true that controversy surrounding the Evans case and a number of others from the same period contributed to the abolition of capital punishment in Britain. That, I believe, can only be a good thing.
Acknowledgements
I am very grateful to Tim Donnelly, Claire Foster, Stephanie Glencross, Jane Gregory, Liz Hatherell, William Howells of Ceredigion Libraries, Trudy Howson, Maya Jacobs, Jemma McDonagh, Claire Morris, Lucy Ramsey, Manda Scott, June and William Wilson, Jane Wood, Sue and Alan Young, the staff at the National Archives and Florence Mabel Basset Hound for their enthusiasm, advice and support during the writing of this book.
Table of Contents
Cover Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
1950
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
1951
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
1953
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Three
Chapter Forty-Four
Chapter Forty-Five
Chapter Forty-Six
Chapter Forty-Seven
Chapter Forty-Eight
Chapter Forty-Nine
Chapter Fifty
Chapter Fifty-One
Chapter Fifty-Two
Chapter Fifty-Three
Chapter Fifty-Four
Chapter Fifty-Five
Chapter Fifty-Six
Chapter Fifty-Seven
Chapter Fifty-Eight
Chapter Fifty-Nine
Chapter Sixty
Chapter Sixty-One
Chapter Sixty-Two
Chapter Sixty-Three
Chapter Sixty-Four
Chapter Sixty-Five
Chapter Sixty-Six
Chapter Sixty-Seven
Chapter Sixty-Eight
Chapter Sixty-Nine
Chapter Seventy
Chapter Seventy-One
Chapter Seventy-Two
Chapter Seventy-Three
Chapter Seventy-Four
Chapter Seventy-Five
Chapter Seventy-Six
Chapter Seventy-Seven
Chapter Seventy-Eight
THREE MONTHS LATER
Chapter Seventy-Nine
A NOTE ON HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Acknowledgements
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