Timothy Evans
Timothy Evans stands as a testament to the unfortunate situation of people with mental illness in the legal system. Evans was always slow to meet his developmental milestones growing up and he suffered from tubercular sore on his right foot. The sore never healed and would often keep him out of school. By the time he left school, he was still completely illiterate. As an adult, he struggled to find work, finding that his foot prevented him from working in the coal mines. In 1947 he was living in London when he and his wife Beryl had a daughter, Geraldine Evans.
The couple had a relationship that was fraught with arguments and violence. They struggled to make ends meet, and in 1949, Beryl became pregnant again. Without enough money to support themselves, much less another child, they believed that their only option was an abortion. On November 30, 1949, Evans showed up at the police station and said that he had given Beryl a mixture to abort the baby and had accidentally killed her. He said that he placed her body in a drainage ditch. Police never found the body, which prompted Evans to change his story. He said that a man named John Christie had agreed to perform the abortion and that Beryl had died during the procedure.
The Evans’ lived on the top floor of 10 Rillington Place and John Christie and his wife lived on the bottom floor. When police searched the home, they found the bodies of both Beryl and Geraldine. They had been strangled. The trial against Evans took 3 days, and a jury found him guilty in 40 minutes. He was executed on March 9, 1950. Three years later, police found numerous bodies at 10 Rillington Place. All of the women that had been killed and abused by John Christie.
These bodies were missed in the original search for Beryl and Geraldine, including the human thigh bone that was used to prop open a fence. It wasn’t until 1965 that an inquiry found that John Christie was the likely murderer of Beryl and Geraldine. Timothy Evans was granted a pardon in 1966.
Where Did We Find This Stuff? Some Sources and Further Reading
The Guardian – George Stinney Was Executed At 14. Can His Family Now Clear His Name?
The Guardian – ‘He Died In Agony’: How Mistaken Identity Led To A Man’s Execution
The Guardian – £1.4m Award for Family Of Wrongfully Hanged Man
Sun Sentinel – Witness To Tafero Execution Has One Overriding Thought: The Horror Of It All
Irish Legal – President Michael D Higgins Signs First Posthumous Pardon In Irish History
Radio Times – Rillington Place: The Tragic Real-Life Story Of The Trial Of Timothy Evans
