Timothy Evans

Timothy John Evans (born November 20, 1924 - March 9, 1950 ) was most likely the victim of one of the most famous British legal errors . His execution by hanging for a murder likely committed by his neighbor John Christie caused considerable buzz in England and eventually led to the de facto abolition of the death penalty and legalization of abortion in Britain .

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Evans was born and raised in Wales. As a child, he cut his leg while bathing, which was inadequately treated and never healed completely. As a result, he could no longer attend school regularly. He may have been mentally retarded and also liked to make up absurd stories about his origins. He couldn't read or write any other words besides his own name. After school he found a job as a chauffeur. On September 20, 1947, he married Beryl Susanna Thorley, whom he had only met a few months earlier. In 1948 they both moved to the top floor of 10 Rillington Place in North Kensington, London. John Christie lived on the ground floor with his wife, on the middle floor a Mr. Kitchener, who was in a London hospital at the time of the murders. The house was relatively cramped, with two larger rooms per floor.

Timothy and Beryl's daughter Geraldine Evans was born on October 10, 1948. Economic problems soon arose after Evans was fired for telling lies. In this situation, Beryl Evans found that she was pregnant again. In the run-up to the event, there had been more and more arguments among the young couple. On November 10, Evans visited his mother and told her that his wife and daughter had gone to see Beryl's father in Brighton ; after a short time this story was questioned by relatives.

The Evans criminal case

On the afternoon of November 30, 1949, Evans filed a voluntary report at a police station. He killed his wife by giving her abortion drugs. Then he hid them in a canal. After he found her dead the next day, he sold the furnishings for the shared apartment to a furniture dealer for £ 40 and quit his job. However, police officers were unable to find his wife's body in the said channel. In addition, the heavy lid could only be opened with difficulty, even by several police officers.

When Evans was confronted with this, he retracted his confession and now stated that he had only wanted to cover Christie, who had performed the fatal abortion. After the unsuccessful abortion, Christie first placed the woman's body in the middle apartment and later told him that he had thrown her into the sewer. He wants to bring Evans' child to his (Christie's) mother until the matter has calmed down.

The house was searched again . The bodies of Beryl and Geraldine were found in a wash house in the garden, both strangled. Evans was confronted with this and asked if he did it. He replied, "Yes". He made another confession according to which he murdered his wife and daughter because of economic problems.

Trial, sentencing, execution

Since he may have been provoked by his wife - the arguments between the two often originated on her side - Evans was only charged with the murder of Geraldine. The trial began on January 11, 1950 at the Old Bailey . Evans pleaded not guilty and retracted earlier confessions. He now claimed that Christie had strangled his wife and daughter. Christie was the main witness. However, because of the frequently revoked confessions, Timothy Evans' credibility was badly degraded.

On January 13, 1950, Evans was found guilty by the jury and sentenced to death by the judge. The appeal was rejected. On March 9, 1950, Evans was hanged in Pentonville Prison by England's executioner Albert Pierrepoint .

The Christie criminal case

After Christie moved out of the lower apartment on March 20, 1953, the new tenant Beresford Brown carried out work in the kitchen. He came across a woman's body in an alcove in the wall. In a subsequent search by the police, four women's bodies were found in the house, including Christie's wife, as well as various skeletal parts and other human remains from various women. All were from Christie with coal gas stunned and then been strangled - both before Evans had lived in the house as well as afterwards. The Timothy Evans case, executed just a few years earlier, was immediately remembered. Christie also confessed to Beryl Evans' murder, but vehemently denied the murder of little Geraldine. After much discussion of the case and several debates in the House of Commons , Timothy Evans was rehabilitated in 1966.

Consequences of the Evans case

The public discussion of the criminal case contributed significantly to the abolition of the death penalty in Great Britain. The opponents of the death penalty see the Evans case as an example of a fatally wrong decision.

In 1969, ZDF filmed the story of the woman killer with the television play Grace for Timothy Evans . In the film, the court hearings were re-enacted and the events surrounding Christie's actions were shown in flashbacks. The framework plot was the rehabilitation of the innocent hanged Timothy Evans (played by Josef Fröhlich ). The documentary play, broadcast on August 20, 1969, was directed by Korbinian Köberle .

The 1971 film " John Christie, the strangler of London " (10 Rillington Place) goes back to this criminal case. Directed by Richard Fleischer , Richard Attenborough played the lead role of John Christie. Evans' role was played by the then rather unknown John Hurt . He received a nomination for the British Film Awards for his acting performance .

literature

• Erich Schwinge : Famous criminal trials. Spectacular cases in international criminal history. Special edition. Orbis Verlag, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-572-01242-2
• Christian Heermann : The Strangler of Notting Hill. Great London criminal cases. 6th edition. Verlag Das Neue Berlin, Berlin 1983, pp. 227–264
• Ludovic Kennedy : John Christie, the Rillington Place Woman Killer - The Story of a Justice Murder. Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich, 1964

Web links

• 10-rillington-place.co.uk (English)
• Crimelibrary.com about the case Christie / Evans (English)
• 10 Rillington Place in the Internet Movie Database (English)