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The Arrest

Crime Files

The Arrest

With the flat now empty, another Rillington Place tenant was permitted by the landlord to use the kitchen and, when he was renovating the space, he discovered the concealed cupboard and the bodies, and immediately notified the police. Given the previous murders that had been committed there, a thorough search was initiated, which revealed not only the three kitchen cupboard corpses, but also Ethel’s body under the parlour floorboards, and two further bodies in the garden.

The hunt for Christie began, and he was apprehended ten days later, on 31 March 1953, having run out of money. He made statements about four of the murders willingly, but had explanations for all. His wife’s had been a mercy killing, as she had been choking to death anyway when he strangled her; and the three prostitutes had been aggressive and taken advantage of him, driving him to defend himself. His confessions were riddled with lies and evasions. When confronted with the evidence of the garden corpses, he admitted those murders too and, at one point, also confessed to the murder of Beryl Evans, although he described it again as a mercy killing.