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John Reginald Halliday Christie (8 April 1899 – 15 July 1953) was an English serial killer active during 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 during March 1953, and soon afterward 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 Northowram near Halifax in Yorkshire. While serving as an infantryman during World War I, he was apparently injured by a gas attack, which he claimed left him permanently unable to speak loudly. Following his discharge from the army, he was imprisoned several times for offenses including theft and assault. On the outbreak of World War II in 1939, he was accepted for service with the War Reserve Police, when the authorities failed to check his criminal record. He committed his murders between 1943 and 1953, usually by strangling his victims after he had rendered them unconscious with domestic gas; some, he raped as they lay unconscious. Two of Christie's victims were Beryl Evans and her daughter Geraldine, who, along with Beryl's husband Timothy, were tenants at 10 Rillington Place during 1948-49. This case sparked huge controversy after Timothy Evans was charged with both murders, found guilty of the murder of his daughter, and hanged in 1950. Christie was a major prosecution witness; but, when his own crimes were discovered three years later, serious doubts were raised about the integrity of Evans's conviction. Christie himself subsequently admitted killing Beryl Evans, but not Geraldine. It is now generally accepted that Christie murdered both Beryl and Geraldine and that police mishandling of the original enquiry, as well as their incompetence in searches at the house, allowed Christie to escape detection and enabled him to murder four more women. The High Court, when dismissing an appeal in the Evans case during the 2000s, accepted that Evans did not murder either his wife or his child, so a miscarriage of justice occurred when Timothy Evans was hanged.〔. It includes a segment from the Hansard transcript of Jenkins's decision to recommend a pardon in the House of Commons.〕 In an official inquiry conducted in 1965–66, Mr Justice (Sir Daniel) Brabin concluded that it was "more probable than not" that Evans killed his wife but that he did not kill his daughter Geraldine.〔Brabin, ''Rillington Place'', p. 269.〕 This finding, challenged in subsequent legal processes, enabled the Home Secretary to grant Evans a posthumous pardon for the murder of his daughter during October 1966. The case contributed to the suspension of capital punishment for murder in the United Kingdom during 1965.〔Marston, ''John Christie'', p. 108.〕 Christie's story was dramatised in the 1971 film ''10 Rillington Place'', in which he was portrayed by Richard Attenborough. ==Early life== Christie was the sixth in a family of seven children. He had a troubled relationship with his father, carpet designer Ernest John Christie, an austere and uncommunicative man who displayed little emotion towards his children and would punish them for trivial offenses. Christie was also dominated by his five sisters, causing his mother, Mary Hannah Halliday, to overprotect him, all experiences that undermined his self-confidence. During later life, Christie's childhood peers described him as "a queer lad" who "kept himself to himself" and "was not very popular".〔Kennedy, ''Ten Rillington Place'', pp. 23–24.〕 As an adult, Christie spoke of seeing at the age of eight the open coffin of his maternal grandfather, and how profound an experience it had been to see the dead body of a man who had previously frightened him.〔Kennedy, ''Ten Rillington Place'', p. 24.〕 At the age of 11 Christie won a scholarship to Halifax Secondary School, where his favourite subject was mathematics, particularly algebra.〔Kennedy, ''Ten Rillington Place'', p. 22.〕 It was later found he had an IQ of 128.〔Kennedy, ''Ten Rillington Place'', p. 225.〕 Christie sang in the church choir and was a Boy Scout. After leaving school aged 15, he began a job as an assistant movie projectionist.〔Kennedy, ''Ten Rillington Place'', p. 23 and p. 26.〕 During September 1916 Christie enlisted in the army and during the next April he was called up to join the 52nd Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment. During April 1918 Christie's regiment was despatched to France, where he was seconded to the Duke of Wellington's (West Riding) Regiment as a signalman. That June, Christie was injured in a mustard gas attack and spent a month in a military hospital in Calais. Later in life, Christie claimed to have been blinded and rendered mute for three and a half years by the attack.〔Kennedy, ''Ten Rillington Place'', p. 29.〕 Christie's period of muteness was the alleged reason for his inability to talk much louder than a whisper for the rest of his life. Ludovic Kennedy points out that no record of his blindness has been traced and that, while Christie may have lost his voice when he was admitted to hospital, he would not have been discharged as fit for duty had he remained a mute.〔 His inability to talk loudly, Kennedy argues, was a psychological reaction to the gassing rather than a lasting toxic effect of the gas.〔Kennedy, ''Ten Rillington Place'', pp. 30–32.〕 That reaction, and Christie's exaggeration of the effects of the attack, stemmed from an underlying personality disorder that caused him to exaggerate or feign illness as a ploy to get attention and sympathy.〔Kennedy, ''Ten Rillington Place'', p. 33.〕 Christie had a lifelong problem with impotence; his first attempts at sex were failures, branding him throughout adolescence as "Reggie-No-Dick" and "Can't-Do-It-Christie".〔Marston, ''John Christie'', p. 7.〕 (Nevertheless, a post-mortem report confirmed Christie's genitals were normal physically.) His difficulties with sex remained throughout his life, and most of the time he could only perform with prostitutes.〔Kennedy (p. 34) reports that even with his wife, Christie's sexual activity was sporadic. He says that because prostitutes offered a service, they were undemanding and did not become emotionally involved with their clients, which could appease sexually dysfunctional people such as Christie.〕 On 10 May 1920 Christie married Ethel Simpson from Sheffield, at Halifax Register Office, but his problems with impotence remained, and he continued to use prostitutes.〔Kennedy, ''Ten Rillington Place'', p. 35.〕 The couple moved to Sheffield, but separated after four years of marriage. Christie moved to London, and Ethel remained in Sheffield with her relatives.〔Kennedy, ''Ten Rillington Place'', p. 36.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「John Christie (murderer)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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