BOOK: Paperback; The Two Killers of Rillington Place by John Eddowes

Robin Blake
Sunday 22 January 1995 00:02 GMT
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

The Two Killers of Rillington Place by John Eddowes, Warner £5.99. Eddowes dares to question in this book the conclusions of the Blessed Ludovic Kennedy. The latter's 10 Rillington Place (published in 1961) was one of the most powerful broadsides in the ultimately successful campaign to have Timothy Evans postumously pardoned for the strangling of his baby daughter, a crime for which he was hanged in 1950. Eddowes argues, conversely, that the experts at the scene - pathologists, lawyers and police - were right in their original conclusion, and that

Evans killed not only the baby but also his wife Beryl, even though the necrophiliac serial killer John Christie, who was living in the same house as the un- fortunate Evanses, later confessed to strangling Beryl Evans and was also hanged. Eddowes's passionate and angry involvement comes from the fact that his own father wrote the first book to argue for Evans's innocence. But Eddowes Snr, so his son claims, was "mentally ill, a fantasist and a liar". So this falls into the category of - what? Filial blasphemy?

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in