P3THE HOLLOW WALL.P3 P1 The shabby ground-floor kitchen was finally going to be cleaned up. Bedford Brown, who lived in a room on the top floor, was delighted. The whole house has looked a mess ever since the war.P1 P1Number 10 RILLINGTON PLACE was situated in what is now London's wealthier district of north Kenslington. In march 1953, the terraced cul-de-sac, with crumbling stone doorways had turned into one of the most neglected streets around la- dbroke Grove.P1 Brown had seen all types of tenants moving in and out of the house. Many of then had been drifters, hardly caring how they lived. Everyone in the district had known about the dreadful business in 1949, when Timothy Evans killed his wife and baby. They Had Hanged Him.....P1 P1The last link with those days had gone, John Christie.The quiet,balding little man who lived on the ground floor had left. He seemed just to come and go, often bringing downat- heal women back for a few hours or a few days. But now he has gone for good. First his wife had left then he followed.......P1 P1Beresford Brown was cheery. The previous day,the landlord had called to find that christie had illegally rented his flat to two sub-tenants, a couple called Reilly. They had paid Christie £7.13s-three months rent in advance.P1 The landlord promptly told the couple to be out that morning and had given Brown permission to use the ground-floor kitchen. Here was a chance to use it as a home, not the rubbish filled slum Christie left behind. No one knew or cared where Christie had gone,He had left the same morning that Mr and Mrs Reilly arived. Borrowing one of there suitecases to pack some lady's things in,as well as some photographs and frames Christie had told them he was transferred to Birmingham and that his wife had gone ahead of him.P1 P1Brown warmed to his task, over the next few days, he carried piles of clothes,rubbish and filth into the tiny backyard. Alongside the wash-house. The kitchen had peeling walls, ageing paint and no aminities. Eventually he cleared the rubbish and was ready to make a start.P1 P1He found a place where he could put up some brackets to hold a radio set,then tapped what he thought was a rear wall. It sounded hollow,Brown tapped again and pulled away a strip of peeling wallpaper. There was no wall there at all but a papered over wooden door to an alcove.P1 P3Disbelief.P3 P1 Brown shone his torch into the opening, at first he could not believe what he saw. Throwing down the torch, he ran to the second floor to fetch another tenant, Ivan Williams, cautiously they went downstairs and shone the torch into the alcove. Sitting on a pile of rubbish was a partially clothed woman's body, she was wearing a white cotton pique jacket, held by a safety pin, a blue bra,stockings and a pink suspender belt. Brown raced off for the police... Detectives immediately discovered that 10 Rillington place concealed not one but several bodies. The first woman found in the alcove was attached by the bra straps to a blanket wrapped around a second body. Behind them was a third, covered in an old woollen blanket, tied at the ankles with a plastic flex. All three women had been strangled.P1 P1By the early hours of the next day, 25 March. a fourth dead woman had been found beneath some rubble in the front room. She was Ethel Christie. Police called a halt for the night. Officers were posted outside the house and a guard remained there for several weeks. In the press detectives announced the most brutal mass kill- ing known in London. There was one vital witness they believed could help them in their inquiries. His name was John Reginald Halliday Christie. A discription of the slight middle aged former tenant was circulated. Christies face appeared in every national newspaper. Excavation work in the tiny garden at Rillington Place revealed the skelingtons of two more women. Medical tests showed that they had been buried for approximately ten years A leading pathologist, Dr Francis Camps, stated that both had been strangled. The skull of one woman was missing.P1 P1The search went,long rods were put up the chimney. An old fashioned copper boiler was removed. Detectives and doctors came and went as crowds gathered at the entrance of the cul- de-sac.P1 P1There was no sign of Christie,police had not yet tracked him down,but the press knew where to find his former colleagues. During the war Christie had been a special constable with the Emergency Reserve at the Harrow Road police station in west London. One of his former workmates remembered Christie well, i worked with him on all kinds of crime investigations he was always secluded and reticent and never mixed with the boys. But he new his job. In his time he had brought to justice thieves,blackmailers, fraudsmen and men who were found guilty of sexual assaults on women.P1 P1The day he left Rillington Place, Christie had booked into Rowton House (now the mount pleasant hotel) in Kings Cross Road for seven nights, but he soon moved on. Wandering lost and uneasy across distant parts of London, sometimes he found himself in East Ham and Barking miles from home. Then he would make his way back to the north Kensington area Christie past much of these days in cafes. In one he met a woman called Margaret Wilson and offered to procure an abortion, when she confided that she was pregnant.Many women found Christie repulsive on sight, but an unfortunate few were strongly drawn by his air of authority. Christie gave boastful accounts of this power over women. I could hardly go anywhere , women would want to talk to me he would say later, dozens of them. On another occasion, Christie insisted, it wasn't me that did the chasing. Girls were attracted to me..P1 P3Unconfirmed Sightings.P3 P1 There was many sightings of Christie.He was seen sleeping in a van, he had boarded a north bound coach,he had gone abroad. Dozens of reports were received. A woman who lived in Rillington Place, Florence Newman, rep- orted that she had seen Christie hanging around the cul-de- sac. One newspaper carried a photofit picture of what he was believed to be wearing- a light brown trilby,double breasted overcoat with padded spiv shoulders, a belt with a black leather buckle, blue tie,pink striped shirt and brown shoes. When he was picked up in putney,he was wearing none of these things.P1 P1It was on 29 March 1953, at 11.20 in the evening,that Norman Rae,chef crime reporter on the News of the World, recieved a phone-call..."You recognize my voice?" the caller asked the reporter. Rae did,he would have known his gratee voice any- where,Rae had met Christie before in 1950 during the trial of Timothy Evans.P1 P3Close To Collapse.P3 P1 I can't stand anymore the voice said,They're hunting me like a dog and i'm cold and wet and i've nothing to change into. Christie told Rae that in return for a meal,a smoke and a warm place to sit, he would give The News of The World a story about himself. Rae warned him that afterwards he would have to call the police,Christie understood this. A meeting was arranged for 1.30 am that night outside Wood Green Town Hall in London. Rae parked his car away from the street lamp in front of the hall, opened the car door and waited. There was a rustle in the bushes,then by chance two policemen approached on there beat,unaware of the meeting. Thinking he had been set up, Christie fled.P1 P3Putney Arrest.P3 P1 Two days later, 31st March PC Thomas Ledger saw a man leaning over the embankment by Putney Bridge. What are you doing? he asked,Looking for work the short man said he was waiting for his unemployment cards. "Can you tell me who you are"? PC Ledger continued. "John Waddington, 35 Westbourne Grove" came the reply. The alert young officer studied the mans face, then asked him to remove his hat.The balding features confirmed Ledgers suspicion. The hunt for Christie was over. Inside the police van Christie was asked to empty his pocke- ts. Various bits and pieces were pulled out, including a newspaper cutting of Tomothy Evans trial in 1950.P1 P1BP3y P1sP3TP1UP3NP1TP3MP1AP3NP1/P3nP1FP3AP1.