Between 1968 and 1969 in Glasgow, Scotland, three young women were murdered after meeting a mysterious man at the Barrowland Ballroom.

Victims

25-year-old Patricia Docker was found strangled to death on February 23, 1968. She’d told her parents the night before she was going dancing at the Majestic Ballroom, but instead went to the Barrowland, a club catering exclusively to the over 25 crowd. By the time police found this out, her murder was eight weeks old and most of the patrons didn’t remember her.

Her handbag was later found in the River Clyde, leading authorities to speculate her killer may have been from that area of Glasgow.

Jemima McDonald, 32, disappeared on August 15, 1969. She’d also gone dancing at the Barrowland. Her body was discovered in an old tenement building by her sister after hearing rumors of a dead woman having been dumped. Jemima had been strangled, raped, and beaten to death.

This time, police were able to question witnesses at the Barrowland, and many stated they saw Jemima leaving at midnight with a tall, thin man with red hair. They also interviewed a woman who remembered screams coming from the building, but she couldn’t pin down the time.

A few months later, on Halloween, 29-year-old Helen Puttock was found murdered. She’d been the Barrowland Ballroom the night she was killed with her sister, and had met two different men named John. One said he was from the nearby town of Castlemilk. He later left to get a bus, while Helen, Jen, and John got a taxi. Jean got out and then the taxi continued to Earl Street where Helen lived. Her body was found the next morning in her back garden. Like the others, she’d been raped and strangled. Her handbag was missing. Grass stains on her feet indicated she’d tried to escape.

A bite mark and semen were left with Helen’s body and would later become the focus as DNA testing came into its own.

When Jean was questioned about the man her sister had been with, she clearly remembered his ability to quote scripture, leading the media to assign him the “Bible John” moniker.

There were several similarities between the victims: all three had been strangled with their own pantyhose, all were menstruating, and all three had sanitary napkins or tampons near the bodies. All three were also missing their handbags.

This, along with the killer’s mode of operation and pattern, made Peter Tobin, a (later) convicted Scottish serial killer and rapist who was known to have abducted in the Barrowland Ballroom area, a suspect.

Peter Tobin

Peter Tobin’s ex-wives all gave accounts of being beaten and raped by Tobin. There are also similarities between Tobin during the years when the crimes were committed and artist’s renditions of Bible John. He also met his first wife at the Barrowland. All three former wives said their menstrual cycles drove Tobin to violence, a suspected motive in the Bible John murders.

A man known only as John M. was another suspect and viewed by Helen’s sister for possible identification. He also bore remarkable resemblance to the police sketch and he continued to be a prime suspect even after his suicide in 1980.

In the 1990s, DNA results failed to link John M. to semen left with Helen’s body. When the news broke, Helen’s sister Jean told the media she’d always known John M. wasn’t the killer.

Police are actively collecting DNA and claim science will solve the killings.

What do you think? Will DNA eventually solve the case, or has too much time passed? Could Peter Tobin be the real killer?

For much more in depth information on the case, visit TruTV’s Crime Library.

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