John George Haigh
Disclaimer: readers discretion advised. This post includes discussion of violence, sexual assault and murder that some people may find offensive.
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| John George Haigh |
Friendship is something very dear to our hearts, a friend someone we trust with all our secrets. But picture being in a condition were none of this holds true. A friend who befriended you just to cheat on you, to fish out money from you and kill you. Here we have a story of a Serial killer who preyed on people, his friends by using their trust just to benefit his luxurious lifestyle.
This post we are discussing the gruesome crimes of John George Haigh also known as the acid bath murderer. John George Haigh was an English serial killer who was convicted for the murders of six people, although he claimed to have killed nine between the years 1944 and 1949.This week we will discuss Haigh's hyper religious upbringing, his 10 years as con artist and his plans for what he believed to be the perfect crime.
Childhood:John George Haigh was born on 24th July 1909 in Stamford, Lincolnshire. His parents were John, an engineer, and Emily. The family moved to Outwood, West Riding of Yorkshire when John was younger, and were members of the Protestant church, Plymouth Brethren. He grew up in an very orthodox family, he was asked to strictly follow the words of the bible. His father demanded obedience and got it by instilling the fear of god in him, he spun up a story of being marked by the devil(as he had a black scar on his face) and told Haigh not to deviate from the gods path. He forbade Haigh from enjoying anything he loved, one of his favorite precept was
"it is a sin to be happy in this world". He had to spend hours at church each week and the rest of the time was closely supervised by his parents.
In 1916, 7 yr old Haigh was enrolled in a strict elementary school, and from there he moved to a prestigious private middle school. Everywhere he went Haigh was expected to excel. Haigh couldn't handle the overbearing nature of his family and started to act out. He would act in weird ways, he stated that he would consume his own urine the same year he started his private school. This could have been the first indication of Haighs' interest in sadomasochism. His delight didn't just involve urine, he claimed that he had these terrible nightmares of him running in a forest of crucifixes with a heavy downpour of blood, and a human approaching him urged Haigh to drink from a glass of blood. This one showcased how Haighs' religion both terrified him and dominated his thoughts. Every Sunday he took communion at the church and was told that the wine he drank was the blood of Jesus Christ. It seems that this prospect terrified the young boy at the same time it connected blood with the concept of gods love in his mind.
With time Haigh grew nifty at keeping his nightmares and innermost evil thoughts to himself. He learnt the art of deception of being a gentlemen on the outside and a devious nefarious person in the inside. Lies felt comforting to Haigh as he realized that his parents gave more importance to their external appearance than actual morality. He took pans to always look his best, hoping to make up in style and personal hygiene for what he lacked in morality.
Into a con man:
In 1926,at the age of 17 Haigh graduated and began training as a mechanic. He hated it, he would always slack off as his only concern was to appear to work than actually performing manual labor. In no time Haigh abandoned his training and took a job in insurance sales. Haighs well kept appearance and proficiency in fast talking made him a natural. In 1930, 21 yr old Haigh was successful enough to earn a broker job at larger company. He wasn't satisfied, he mostly craved the benefits of working without putting in any effort. After sometime he figured out that the most logical way for him to get more money while doing less work was to simply steal it. He began stealing money from cash box at work. Soon his pilfering couldn't be hidden anymore and was fired.
Haigh always resented having a boss, so he decided he was better off opening his own company. He founded an Advertisement company called Northern Electric Newspapers. Haigh didn't have enough money to stay on his own, so he was forced to stay at his parents home and had to attend regular church services for years.
In July of 1934, 25 yr old Haigh married Beatrice Hamer (21 yrs). By now he had moved out of his parents house and completely stopped attending weekly
church services. His parents
were thoroughly disappointed and it meant that their son had chosen hell over the path of eternal salvation
.His need for money increased as he had a new home and a wife to care for.
On the look for a quick money making venture Haigh stumbled upon an article in the newspaper about a car thief. The man had recently been arrested for conning a dealership out of a fleet of vehicles. The report gave Haigh an idea for his own scam. He combed through the phone book and forged documents using the random names inside, then he approached a struggling auto shop and used the documents to purchase vehicles on credit in other peoples names. He made a couple of payments on the car so that the shop believed real people other than Haigh owned the vehicles, then Haigh turned around and resold them for a huge profit. The auto shop still expected regular payments from the fake names Haigh had used to buy the cars. Once the vehicles were resold the payments stopped coming and nearly impossible to track them down.
Over the course of several months he conned thousands through this scam, but he couldn't keep it up forever. He was arrested four months later for car fraud and was sentenced to 15 months in prison. Whilst in prison, Betty gave birth to a daughter. She left Haigh and gave the child up for adoption. Now single Haigh was released from prison in December of 1935 and once again he returned to his parents house and played the part of the god fearing son.
Haigh tried a new business of a laundry shop using his parents money, but it didn't pan out well and Haigh had to move to London to make a living. He had tried to make a legitimate success but he was punished for it. He believed that there was no joy in the world and he wasn't going to let law get in his way ever again. Despite serving time for fraud, he continued to swindle unsuspecting do-gooders out of their money. To make ends meet in the mean while he started working as a secretary and chauffeur for the McSwans, a wealthy local family. No doubt trying to make powerful connections 27 yr old Haigh became good friends with his boss son William who was around the same age. But almost as soon as his friendship with William MacSwan began Haigh quit his job as their chauffeur. He made sure to keep in touch with the McSwans but he was in search of a bigger fish to fry.
He would pretend to be a solicitor named William Adamson. He would frequently sell fraudulent stock shares from the estates of his dead “clients” at below-market rates. Eventually, he was caught when one of his clients realized he had misspelled his false name on a legal document.
In 1939, he was arrested and imprisoned again, this time sentenced to four years for fraud. During the outbreak of world-war 2 in 1939 the government was desperate to conserve resources so it became more willing to release prisoners early. Haigh was let out a year in advance in August of 1940 at the age of 31.He found his country in desperate time. Young men were being marched off to war and the families left behind struggled to make ends meet. For a con man without a conscience, it was a golden opportunity. But Haigh knew that every good scheme began with the foundation of trust. To earn the respect of his neighbors he talked his way into the job as a fireman in the local community. Over the next few months Haigh played it straight searching for his next big score.
The Diabolical ploy:
The summer of 1941 he was arrested again this time for breaking and entering and was sent back to jail. While in prison, during the day he spent most of his time working at a tin shop, during down time he spent countless hours in his cell staring at the wall imagining new ways to get rich. The longer he spent dreaming up new criminal plans the darker Haigh's thoughts became. Haigh realized that his biggest downfall was that he had left his fraud victims alive to report the crimes. If he could get rid of someone permanently he would be free to write checks in their name, sell their assets and drain their bank accounts with none the wiser. The more he thought the more sure he became that his next plan would involve murder. He learnt the ways of killing from his inmates. He realized that the reason for their arrest was because they left some sort of evidence behind. He believed that if he could get rid of the body then he would be untouchable. No body no crime.
He began researching the French murderer Georges-Alexandre Sarret, who’s signature had been dissolving his victims in
sulphuric acid. Using his free time, he devised his own method of dissolving bodies in various forms of acid by practicing on mice. Eventually, he found that it took 30 minutes for a small field mouse to dissolve, and was able to calculate how much acid and time he would need for a full grown man.
After being released from the prison in the year 1943,34 yr old English conman John George Haigh was determined never to go back. He had spent the previous 2 years planning the perfect crime and it involved making people disappear without a trace. In September 1943, Haigh returned to live with his parents, promising he would be at his best behavior. His parents wanted to trust him badly so they gave him a second chance. By October he had milked his parents of all the possible money they could give.
The Murder:
His first order of business after moving to London was to find a base operation center. He rented a small apartment for himself and took a job of salesmen to raise some money. He was as smooth as ever and within weeks had earned enough on commission to rent a basement room in addition to his apartment. Strategically he chose a secluded spot in a completely different part of the city from his main flat. Then Haigh set to work renovating the basement. He installed a wooden work bench and bought a 40 gallon drum. Next using the skills he honed conning people for years, he posed as a scientist and an engineer in order to buy corrosive acid. Over the coarse of the next year he ordered the acid in small quantities until he had enough to dissolve a human corpse. Now feeling fully prepared to dispose of a body all Haigh needed was his first victim and he had the perfect one in mind. It was none other than his old friend William McSwan.
He approached William at a pub and became a beloved friend to William yet again. William confided in Haigh, he told his old friend that he was worried about being drafted into world war 2,he was afraid of going into combat and was desperate to dodge the draft. He begged Haigh to help him disappear. Haigh tells William that he has connections to help him lay low till the end of the war. In the meanwhile Haigh promised he would oversee Williams finances and take custody of his check book.
By the next month arrangements were made. William made sure that his parents knew he would be in hiding for an indeterminate amount of time and told them not to expect to hear from him for a while. It was an alibi better than Haigh could ever imagine. On the night of September 9,1944 William McSwan followed Haigh to his rented Basement room. William was looking over at Haigh's workbench when Haigh hit William over his head 3 times with a heavy blunt object. William crumbled to the floor dead. After a while Haigh combed through Williams pockets and stole his friends wallet and watch.
The feeling of exhilaration mingled with fear reminded Haigh of nightmares that plagued him as a child, he recalled the forest with the downpour of blood and a strange man asking him to drink from a cup of blood. At this point Haigh claimed that he used a knife to make a small cut in the back of Williams neck. Then just like in his dreams he filled a cupful of Williams blood and with an evil smile he downed it all. Using his newfound disposal method, Haigh put McSwan’s body into a 40-gallon drum and filled it with concentrated sulphuric acid. Two days later, McSwan was nothing more than a hundred or so pounds of sludge, which Haigh poured down a manhole.
He had finally done it. He was about to be very rich and all it had taken was a sprinkle of murder.
In part 2 we will explore the Height of the acid bath murderers killing spree.
Until next time,
Stay snoopy, Stay spooky
by the crime nut
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