A new investigation into the Bible John murders has revealed that detectives were prejudiced towards the three women that were killed.
Investigative journalist Audrey Gillan has uncovered original police reports that described the victims as sexually promiscuous and heavy drinkers whose behaviour could be to blame for their deaths.
Patricia Docker, 25, Jemima McDonald, 32, and Helen Puttock, 29, were all murdered between 1968 and 1969 following night outs at the Barrowland Ballroom in the Glasgow’s Gallowgate.
All three mothers had been found near their homes after being strangled and sexually assaulted.
Patricia, the first victim is described in the typewritten notes as: “The deceased appears to enjoy the company of men and like the attention of men. She was an only child and apparently rather spoiled.”
“She appears on occasions to have had dates and dance hall escorts.” The papers also describe affairs that Patricia had with men while living in Cyprus with her RAF husband Alec Docker.
And they disclose that she had a daughter to an American serviceman in Edinburgh in the 1960s. A report on the second victim Jemima McDonald reads: “She appeared to be extremely fond of male company and highly promiscuous.
“She was in receipt of public funds plus maintenance from the fathers of her children.”
While a file on Helen Puttock, the third woman whose death prompted Scotland’s biggest hunt for a possible serial killer stated: ”Mrs Puttock was said to be fond of a good time. She could consume a good amount of liquor without affect on her.”
It also refers to the fact that Helen would go drinking with her sisters before heading to the Barrowland adding: “All three sisters are promiscuous and well known to a number of men who frequent the ballroom.”
Audrey said: “I can see no empathy anywhere. There is however the sense that their behaviours may very well have led to their deaths.
“These victims are being judged and blamed for what happened to them even. The reports also reveals the attitudes of the detectives who wrote them. Prejudices that may have blinded them in their investigations.
“It is time that prejudice was exposed.”
Patricia worked as a nurse at Mearnskirk Hospital in Newton Mearns. She lived with her parents and young son Alex in Langside Place, Glasgow, having split from her husband in 1967.
On February 22 1968, Patricia went to the Barrowland in the city’s Gallowgate. Her naked body was found the following morning in Carmichael Lane, just a few hundred yards from Langside Place.
Eighteen months later Jemima McDonald’s body was found near her home in a tenement close in MacKeith Street, Bridgeton in the east end of Glasgow. She was last seen alive at the Barrowland Ballroom where she had spent the night dancing.
On October 31, 1969 came the discovery of Helen Puttock in the back gardens of her tenement home in Earl Street, Scotstoun. She had also been had been at the Barrowland Ballroom that night and left with a mystery man.
But crucially Helen’s sister Jean Langford had shared a taxi home with her sibling and her admirer. Langford told Detective Superintendant Joe Beattie’s murder squad team that her sister’s companion had said that he didn’t drink and repeatedly quoted from the Old Testament.
Newspapers then coined the term Bible John from her description. But the case ground to a halt after about a year and officers were transferred to other duties.
In 1996, Audrey was working as a reporter when she revealed that police were looking at a new suspect. The body of former soldier John McInnes was later exhumed from Stonehouse Cemetery after a DNA review of Helen’s clothing. But tests done of McInnes failed to match semen found on Helen’s tights.
Her new BBC podcast Bible John: Creation of a Serial Killer she puts the dead woman’s stories first and concludes that the police’s misogynistic attitudes may have hampered the hunt for the killer or killers.
Best selling author Andrew O’Hagan said: “Those Glaswegian women were routinely described as promiscuous as heavy drinking. It was almost as if they shouldn’t have been in a dance hall.”
Patricia Docker’s son Alex, who now lives in England, also reveals he has little memory of his mother or his time living in Glasgow as a four-year-old. He said: “The few photographs of Pat I have only elicit a weak sense of recognition if any at all.
“I do remember bath time. It was always in the kitchen sink. I must have enjoyed these times as I have a clear memory of it.
“I can almost, but not quite, remember my mother’s laughing face.”
The Bible John inquiry remains Scotland’s biggest manhunt.
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