An ex-detective who played a key role in the hunt for serial killer Bible John has called for the case to be reopened. It follows allegations that senior officers in the original 60s investigation orchestrated a “cover-up” on a suspect 48 hours after the last murder.
Ex-detective superintendent Robert Johnstone believes the Crown Office should order Police Scotland to carry out fresh inquiries.
Johnstone spent more than a year on the Bible John case, working with CID boss Joe Beattie at Partick police station in Glasgow. But two former detectives who reinvestigated the case in 1995 claim Beattie kept the name of prime suspect John Irvine McInnes out of the probe as he was the cousin of a close friend – police officer James McInnes.
Johnstone, now 86, said: “The Crown Office should instruct Police Scotland to carry out a proper new inquiry.
“If I was still a detective, I’d want to get to the bottom of this. I’d also want to know why the findings in the 1995 investigation – including allegations against Beattie – were not followed up and appear to have been abandoned halfway through.”
A BBC Radio Scotland podcast – Bible John: Creation of a Serial Killer – revealed the claims relate to the murder of Helen Puttock, 29, in 1969, one of three killings linked to Bible John. The murders of Jemima McDonald, 32, and Patricia Docker, 25, also remain unsolved.
Helen got a taxi from Glasgow’s Barrowland ballroom to her home in Scotstoun with her sister Jean and a man they met at the dancehall. He was called “John” and peppered his conversations with phrases from the Bible.
Former detective chief inspector Jim McEwan said they found detailed evidence that McInnes, who killed himself in 1980, was the Bible-quoting man in the taxi. McEwan and ex-detective constable Brian Hughes also claim a procurator fiscal told them had McInnes still been alive they would have been granted an arrest warrant.
Johnstone joined the Bible John team in 1969 but did not see or hear any reference to McInnes. One of his responsibilities was to take Jean to identity parades and on undercover work, posing as a dancer at the Barrowland. He said: “If Beattie had known that Bible John was John Irvine McInnes, he would not have ignored that.”
Following the 1995 review, McInnes’s body was exhumed from Stonehouse Cemetery in Lanarkshire so that a DNA sample could be tested against evidence found on Helen’s tights. But there was no conclusive match.
McEwan and Hughes found no mention of McInnes in the 1969 probe – even though detectives, including Beattie, went to Stonehouse, where McInnes lived, two days after Helen’s body was found. They quizzed him at Hamilton police station.
The ex-cops also talked to retired detective chief inspector James McInnes, who confirmed the
suspect seen by Beattie was his cousin.
In addition, the 1995 team claim a card from a furniture store, where McInnes worked, was found at the scene of Helen’s murder but was missing from original police files.
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