A chilling letter by the wife of serial killer John Christie saying she was desperate to move out of 10 Rillington Place before he murdered her has emerged.
Ethel Christie was married to the bespectacled monster, who killed her and at least seven other women by strangling them at his flat in Notting Hill, West London.
She told her sister Lily Bartle in a June 1952 letter: ‘I wish we could get out of here as I think we should both be better in health’.
She added that they were ‘always expecting something to happen here’.
Christie’s home was later dubbed the ‘Murder House’ in the media after his crimes were revealed.
Ethel was unaware her husband had already killed four people and that two of his victims were buried in the back garden of their home.
Six months after she wrote the letter, she became one of his victims.
Christie, a former policeman, strangled Ethel in December 1952 and buried her under the floorboards of their home.
A chilling letter by the wife of serial killer John Christie saying she was desperate to move out of 10 Rillington Place before he murdered her has emerged. Ethel Christie was married to the bespectacled monster, who killed her and at least seven others
The bodies of other victims were later found in a wallpaper-covered kitchen alcove and in the garden.
In the previously unseen letter Ethel wrote: ‘Reg is not better yet & he has to go into hospital again next week for another thorough examination & Xrays.
‘I wish we could get out of here as I think we should both be better in health.
‘You know, we are always expecting something to happen here.’
Christie is also believed to have murdered the wife and baby daughter of his neighbour Timothy Evans.
Evans briefly accused Christie of killing his wife, Beryl, but then confessed to strangling both her and their baby, Geraldine.
At his trial, he again accused Christie, who was the chief prosecution witness. But the jury did not believe him and so he was convicted of his daughter’s murder.
At the time, suspects could only be charged for one murder at a time.
Ethel wrote to her sister in July 1952. Above: The first page of the letter that has emerged for sale
The second page of the letter sent by the wife of serial killer John Christie to her sister
The third page of the letter sent by the wife of serial killer John Christie to her sister
The fourth page of the letter, where Ethel Christie said: ‘I wish we could get out of here as I think we should both be better in health’
In March 1950, the 25-year-old Evans was hanged. Three years later, the bodies of Ethel and three more of Christie’s victims were found at Rillington place.
Christie had moved out shortly before the remains were discovered.
When Rillington Place was dismantled, the bodies of two more women were found by police.
On March 31, 1953, after a week-long manhunt, Christie, who was known as Reg, was arrested.
During interrogations, Christie confessed to the murder of Beryl Evans.
He was tried at the Old Bailey for the killing of his wife in June. The Attorney General himself, then Sir Lionel Heald QC, was prosecuting.
The killer pleaded insanity and was described by his own lawyer as being ‘Mad as a March hare’.
But the jury rejected his plea and he was found guilty.
Christie’s home was later dubbed the ‘Murder House’ in the media after his crimes were revealed
Timothy Evans was framed for the murder of his wife by the real killer John Christie. Above: Evans in police custody
He was executed by Britain’s chief hangman Albert Pierrepoint, who had put to death Evans three years earlier.
The death penalty in Britain would go on to be abolished in 1969, four years after it was suspended.
Evans’ execution, as well as that of Ruth Ellis – the last woman to be hanged in Britain – played a significant role in persuading MPs to change the law.
Legendary actor Richard Attenborough portrayed Christie in 1971 film 10 Rillington Place.
Attenborough later said: ‘I do not like playing the part, but I accepted it at once without seeing the script.
‘I have never felt so totally involved in any part as this. It is a most devastating statement on capital punishment.’
Rillington Place and the street it stood on were demolished in the early 1970s.
