Publisher: Little, Brown & Company (23 Jun 1994). 'The Two Killers of Rillington Place'. Definitive. Conclusive. Recommended! *****
ISBN-10: 0316909467
ISBN-13: 978-0316909464
ISBN-13: 978-0316909464
John Eddowes, an independent investigator, has done his homework and discovered that Evans was an extremely violent character who tried to kill his wife not long before the murder [in 1951.] He cites medical evidence to show that Evans was, technically speaking, a psychopath who was always losing control.
But, above all, he performs a ruthless dissection of Ludovic Kennedy’s book, highlighting its ‘errors, omissions and alterations’ and producing a brilliant and totally damning account of Kennedy’s arguments. He points out that when Kennedy was asked, at the Brabin inquiry of 1968, about some particularly misleading attack on the police, he admitted: “Yes, that is wrong.” Yet in a paperback edition of 10 Rillington Place, 20 years later, the same incorrect statement has been left unchanged.
But there is one enormous obstacle to believing that Evans was innocent: at Notting Hill police station, he confessed to the murder of his wife and baby, not once but three times. It was only after talking to the murderer Donald Hume in jail — who advised him to change his story then stick to it — that Evans accused Christie of the murders.
If Evans was innocent, why did he confess in such circumstantial detail to the murders? According to Kennedy, because he was virtually ‘brainwashed’ by shock, and said whatever the police wanted to hear. But anyone who reads Evans’s confessions can see that this is just not on. No one could sound so precise and circumstantial if he was innocent.
Christie had no reason whatever to kill the baby even if he had murdered Beryl Evans. And if he hadn’t killed her then it would have been sheer madness to kill the baby.
But the case he presents is nevertheless, quite overwhelming. After this book, it should be impossible for any sensible person to believe in the innocence of Timothy Evans.
Colin Wilson.
Evening Standard.
Blogger: Hume also later admitted that Evans had confessed the crimes to him.
The question is begged as to why this absurd 'pardon' ever came about at all. The answer is simple. Abolitionists have always desperately presented 'innocent people executed' as being 'the most heinous thing imaginable' - and ironically, however feeble that argument may be (accidents happen in cars, hospitals etc, but nobody suggests banning those) it is the only thing which has truly resonated with some members of the public.
Abolitionists had the power to grant this nauseating 'pardon' - and were all too happy and delighted so to do.
John Eddowes was, however, rather less 'independent' than Wilson supposed. He had actually witnessed his own father working, hand-in-glove, with Ludovic Kennedy to manufacture this alleged innocence of Evans. Disgusted by what this dubious pair had conspired to achieve - he possessed the inside knowledge to publicise and destroy their shameful actions.
Evans, Hanratty, Ellis and Bentley - all guilty as charged! - Wrongful use of the death penalty? - Worthless arguments with no honest foundation whatsoever. Yet - still the films and dishonest, abolitionist documentaries are rolled out ad nauseam.
