Fred Dinenage: Murder Casebook - Season 1, Episode 1 - The Acid Bath Murderer | Forensic Files

John George Haigh was the serial killer from middle England who killed the middle class we had no compunction and
no conscience whatsoever about killing people to attain his ends the sludge at the bottom of the barrels in which he's
dissolved these poor people is poured down the drains you know he's literally obliterating an
entire family I was just a young boy in the late 1940s but I can remember the name John George Haigh as if it were
yesterday the newspaper headlines were sensationalist from vampire horror to modern-day Dracula but the one that was
to stick was the acid bath murder so was John George Haigh a callous fraudster or
a killer out for blood [Music] [Music] I'm Fred Danish and I've been reporting serious crimes for more than 40 years
now as a journalist and a television reporter as the official biographer to the Kray twins I know that when it comes
to crime the myth can actually take over from the reality of what actually happened John George Haigh crimes were
some of the most shocking ever seen in Britain driven by greed he killed six people disposing of their bodies in an
appalling manner plunging the victims into vats of acid he left no trace of their remains John
George Haigh was born in 1909 in Stamford Lincolnshire he was well-loved by his parents and was an only child he
had a relatively isolated upbringing well I'm keen to talk to experts and key witnesses with an in-depth knowledge of
the HEI case sadly of course many of the key characters have now passed away but
I have managed to track down a man with a keen interest in Haig David breathitt in the 1980s David spent a lot of time
interviewing key witnesses and wrote a book about Hague's atrocities David this is amazing because this is
the very courtroom in which Hague was tried and convicted what turn this apparently well-educated and religious
man do you think to crime well I have a theory about Mr Hague and I'm pretty sure that he wanted to assume the
lifestyle of other people that he admired and the reason for that can be traced right back to his very strange
childhood his parents were members of the Plymouth Brethren and he was deprived of many things they didn't
celebrate Christmas and eventually when he discovered the outside world he rather liked it and he wanted to be part
of it and he was prepared to go to more or less any lengths to obtain that better lifestyle at the age of 10 Hague
won a musical scholarship to a Catholic school in Wakefield even at such a young
age he was described by his teachers as mischievous what led him then into a life of crime well there's evidence to
show that when he was at school he was very secretive he enjoyed playing tricks on people and he learned very early that
he could forge people's signatures and he used to forge the signatures of teachers and he got a lot of pleasure
out of that having any secrets and then he gradually moved into petty crime and into forgery I want to know how Hague's
early life of crime led him to become a killer professor David Wilson is a leading
criminologist and he's taken an in-depth look at the crimes he committed so tell
us about the fraud I mean how did he get into that what was his motivation there
well he left school aged 17 and worked for a little while in a blue-collar job but very quickly transferred into
white-collar work and he first comes to the attention of the courts or to the police because he tries to fraudulently
sell cars that don't belong to him so the motivation psychologist criminologist would say his motivations
were extrinsic they were outside of his own personality his motivation in other words was simply to make money but of
course he had the most convincing manner and he could talk anyone round to do anything he was a wonderful salesman he
could charm the birds out of the trees he always dressed very well he liked the best suits
[Music] he had broke reamed here that was flat but he had the most penetrating sparkling blue eyes which many many
people noticed in 1934 Haig used his charming manner to persuade people to purchase vehicles that didn't exist it
wasn't long before the money was rolling in Haig wrote many letters documenting his early life and his atrocities Haig
said I discovered there were easier ways to make a living than to work long hours
in an office I did not ask myself whether I was doing right or wrong that seemed to be irrelevant I merely said
this is what I wish to do he always I think reading through the lines felt slightly outside of the culture to which
he belonged and so a lot of his life it would seem was about playing a part so he always wanted to add dry fast cars to
look the part to be fashionable to have money he often gives the impression of trying to live above his means Haig
quickly discovered that crime didn't pay his car scam was uncovered he was imprisoned for 15 months of leads
Assizes on his release he was soon back to what he considered to be his profession fraud one of his major frauds
was committed in Surrey and in Sussex in fact he opened three offices as a solicitor he never was a solicitor of
course but he opened three offices one in Chancery Lane in London one in Guildford in Surrey and one in Hastings
in Sussex and he called himself William Katt Oh Adamson and he had some wonderful headed note paper printed and
then he began placing advertisements in local newspapers offering shares for sale shares that supposedly had come
from the estates of deceased persons and he was offering them at slightly below the market rate and of course people
were very attracted to that and began sending in cheques to this solicitor how you lived very well off the cheques
however was called out because on one of his head he note papers he had misspelled
the word Guilford and he had left out the D in the middle and one of the prospective purchasers spotted that went
to the police didn't think her solicitor would make a basic error like that and how he was arrested as a result of that
error well according to court records Hague was imprisoned three times between 1934 and 1943 for theft and fraud but
prison life didn't dampen his desire to make money he knew if he was to become a
part of high society then he'd have to learn how to commit the perfect crime Hague's time in prison was far removed
from the lavish lifestyle he aspired to he thought himself a class above the petty criminals that he was now rubbing
shoulders with I'm about to meet a man who knows what life is like in Britain's toughest prisons Bobbie Cummins was
convicted of armed robbery and manslaughter he now runs a charity called unlock which helps ex-offenders
and he knows at firsthand the experiences you pick up from being around hardened criminals if you're in
prison and you want to leave crime behind it can be a great place for rehabilitation if like hey then you were
a prolific offender if you like you had to India you wanted to learn about crime
greatest University in the world is prison because there you can network there's dead people there with different
skills so he would have been planning his next move in prison Hague learned about the crimes committed in France in
1925 by the double murderous array to avoid capture surae disposed of the bodies in sulfuric acid I'd learned a
great deal about the British legal system when I was in prison thanks to books from the prison library brought in
by the Padre but more importantly he learned about the uses of sulfuric acid from the prison library books too so he
learned a great deal about crime and a great deal about assets it would have been told the weakest link is your
victim because it's officially fraud your face is going up it's not like if you're an armed robber and you're
putting a mask over your face and if you might have bit fraud its front on so therefore the victim can identify you
in ID parades in photographs that sort of thing so if you're at the fraud game there's nine out of ten odds that you're
actually going to get nicked for the offense so they would have said to him the weakest link is your victims and in
any criminality what you've got to do is eliminate the weakest link Hague began formulating a sinister plan one he would
put into action on the day of his release but to prepare he needed the assistance of fellow prisoners and
access to sulfuric acid it was during his time in Lincoln prison that he was given a position in the tinsmith Factory
there he gained access to sulfuric acid he wanted to discover if like sarey he could dissolve bone and tissue he used
to bribe other prisoners with small amounts of tobacco these prisoners were allowed outside the prison walls during
the day and they would bring dead field mice back into the prison for Haig and have also stole small amounts of
sulfuric acid from the stores and obviously while the waters weren't watching he would line up the jars on a
work bench fill each jar with a small amount of acid and then drop a mouse into each jar and then very patiently
would sit and watch to see how long it would take a mouse to disintegrate in a certain amount of sulfuric acid so in
other words he worked out a scientific formula which he thought maybe later he could apply to a human being and all he
wanted was the opportunity [Music] I'm Fred dine inch and I'm examining the life of John George Haigh he was known
as the acid bath murderer because of the horrific way he disposed of his victims
in 1941 John George Haigh was serving a sentence for theft in Lincoln prison it was his third spell in prison but Haig
was determined that when he was released he would make money from a life of crime
no one would stand in his way but it's still quite a leap isn't it from from fraud to murder it is a big leap
but again the motivation for Haig simply seems to be an extension of the frauds that he committed earlier in the 1930s
and earlier in the 1940s but essentially he wants to make money hey left prison and began looking for a wealthy victim
to exploit a chance meeting at the goat pub in Kensington presented him with the
opportunity he'd been looking for william max wan had employed hague as his chauffeur back in the 1930s they'd
become friends but lost touch when Haig went looking for other work how close was Haig them too much Swann and
vice-versa well John Haeger William at Swann were both the same age and they got on very
well I'm for a period they became quite close friends Haig certainly admired young looks Juan's lifestyle because he
used to collect the rents of the six-month-long properties in West London and I think I watched him do this job
and realized that he was obtaining quite a nice sum of money every week that his
family lived on and he wanted that lifestyle hey Greg ailed his old boss with tales of his own recent business
ventures although he'd actually been in prison over the next few days they would
meet several more times Haig was just waiting for the perfect moment to put the plans he'd hatched in prison into
action Haig said he had an engineering workshop look Swann said he had some pinball machines that he wanted repaired
and they said he would do the work and he invited muck Swann down to the basement no one truly knows what
happened to William max wan pegs own account recalls that his old friend asked him to look at a pinball machine
with his head bent he pulled out a metal bar and killed William buck Swann with several heavy blows hey was left with
the body of his murdered friend using the skills he'd learned in prison he dumped his first victim in acid he'd
stolen our old rum from an old wartime bomb site and he got the body of Knox Wan into the oil drum and then he began
the macabre business of filling it with acids in order to protect Haig from the acids he developed a very sophisticated
uniform which consisted of a large rubber raincoat rubber gloves that came up to his elbows long thigh length wader
boots or on top of that he had an old letters butcher's apron and to protect his nose in his eyes of his mouth from
the fumes of the acid he stole a wartime gas mask so you can imagine this figure
must have been a very very sinister sight indeed not easy to lift people and put them in vats of acid is it you know
it it isn't easy at all and so there's obviously some physiological strength that he needs as well as the
psychological strength to be able to go through the process that he would go through and that does seem to me to take
a certain type of mentality a certain type of psychology to be able to do so that ability to compartmentalize his
life seems to me to be quite extraordinary and in Hague's case is one of the consistent features of his
behavior the first murder momentous would then have been for him and difficult what you're talking about
there's a calm man who's glib tongue suave sophisticated knows his trade now you're going into murder totally
different ballgame killing another human being it's one thing being able to dispose of the body is another and be
able to come to terms with that now if you can come to terms of that once you've done one offer doesn't mean too
many Hague had successfully killed and disposed of his friend's body the problem he now faced was covering up max
Wong's disappearance he went and saw his victim's parents and told them their son
had fled to Scotland to avoid conscription naturally they were upset but they had no reason to disbelieve
Haigh story it was a mistake which was to cost them their lives Hague began to befriend William max wons parents his
trusting manner charmed the couple into employing him as a rent collector it was
the job that their son had been doing before his disappearance the money he made from them afforded him a good life
Hague's intention was to get hold of them look Swan properties and he obviously discovered that the deeds of
all the properties were in the names of the two senior mercs once and it was in 1945 that he invited Donald looks want
to come down to the basement and the story was that their son was making a surprise visit back from Scotland and
would be reunited with the father in the basement it was a dreadful trick to play on this
old man within a few minutes Donna looks one arriving in the basement he was killed with an iron bar across the back
of the head and only an hour or so later he then invites Amy looks want to come down to the basement and he kills her in
the same fashion and he had two oil drums standing side by side ready to dispose of a husband and wife in a
single weekend no one knows just what a mimics one saw when she walked into Hague's lair did
she see her husband dead in front of her perhaps she never made it that far whatever happened Haig left that
workshop alone we never ever discover what happens to the mix wands because the sludge at the
bottom of the barrels in which he's dissolved these poor people is poured down the drains of London and goes into
the Thames you know he's literally obliterating an entire family I find it hard to imagine
just how one man could not only kill a whole family but then also make them disappear
professor David Wilson has invited me to witness a simple experiment to replicate
just how effective Hague's process was David tell us what we're seeing here well for any murderer to be successful
he's got to get rid of the body and in controlled circumstances and using the lovely Gerry we're going to replicate
the kinds of behavior that Haig showed with his victims which were going to use concentrated sulfuric acid not the body
of a person but a piece of chicken and see how long it's going to take to dissolve which is of course what Haig
did with his victims [Music] and of course remember it's a microcosm so we've only got two liters of
concentrated sulfuric acid hey count three carboys of sulfuric acid which literally a carboy is 40 gallons so he
has a hundred and twenty gallons of this stuff because of course he's trying to get rid of a much bigger body than our
small piece of chicken the process of purchasing sulfuric acid is the same today as it was in the 1940s you can
only buy it from a licensed supplier and you need to give a clear reason for its
use not a problem for a frauds - like Hague he set himself up a bogus business called Union Group engineering
he hired a basement in the Gloucester Road in London which was supposedly his workshop but he began to stockpile
quantities of acids he bought these acids by sending off letters and when he signed a letter it was from liaison
officer John George Haigh and no questions were asked the delivery took place well the piece of chicken has been
in there what five minutes and already it's appearing too if you like cook yes well it's going to burn this is the this
is the process of how the body fat will disappear how difficult would it have been for him do you imagine to do this
for the first time with up with a human body are incredibly difficult I'm most murderous when they start if you think
of murder almost as a skill you when you pick up a skill for the first time you're not very good at it and of course
most murderers are dealing with their range of emotions that they're going through when they have the control over
their victim some of them might be excited some of them might be frightened some of them might be anxious but of
course they're learning how to deal with somebody they've got in their complete and utter power as Haig did the only
people that kill in a spirited moment allow just sort of people domestic killers and we call that the red mist
it's done in anger they lose their faculties and they kill when you actually play murder is the systematic
shutting down of your only humanity if you like you know it's same as when you're doing violence when you're doing
violence for money well you've got a dough you've got to shut down every emotion every feeling everything the bet
and it's just that bit of work to be done and that's what he would have practiced while he was in prison he's
shutting off emotion you've got to be a self emotion of what you couldn't do it after murdering the muck swans Hague
forged their signatures and made people believe they emigrated to America he then successfully sold off their assets
allowing him to lead the lifestyle he aspired to nobody questioned the young charmer and he made himself just over
100 thousand pounds in today's money so now he's a wealthy man he was for a period of some three years he lived off
the muck Swan money and it amounted to several thousands of pounds which in today's money we think was probably
about a hundred thousand pounds and he had a wonderful life for about three years this was just what he was aiming
at this was the lifestyle he'd been seeking from the beginning and he had achieved it Hague was finally
living the lifestyle he craved staying in exclusive hotels buying expensive cars and entertaining the upper classes
with no other income his fortune quickly began to disappear he should have been able to survive comfortably on the money
that he got but he squandered it didn't it yeah because easy come easy go he's got eight thousand pounds this time and
he spent that well next time he'll get twelve thousand pounds there's a recklessness to his behavior it's not
that he's complacent it's more that once he hasn't been caught once that metaphoric hand on the shoulder didn't
appear he begins to feel himself quite invincible I suppose once you've got away with one murder and then a second
then a third how do you reverse how do you stop that behavior living the highlife
Haig's greed meant he needed to find another victim and kill again I'm Fred Dynegy and I'm investigating
the crimes of John George Haigh the man known as the acid bath murderer in 1946 he'd killed the three members of the Mac
Swann family and disposed of their bodies in acid their murders had netted him a small fortune but the money began
to disappear almost as quickly as his victims had Hanks very interesting as a serial killer he's not typical by any
means for one he's killing a very different group of people he's killing wealthy middle class upper
middle class people people who are going to be missed because that's not the common pattern of serial killing in
Britain by 1947 the thousands Hague had made from killing the muck swans had been blown on his lavish lifestyle
overdrawn and being chased by creditors he knew what he had to do he needed to find new victims but he had another
problem to deal with first he no longer rented the workshop in London where he carried out his previous
killings he was looking for a new quiet location that's exactly what he found here at Leopold road in Crawley he
rented the workshop and moved his acid rain coat gloves and gas masks into his new center of operations now Haig needed
to find particular types of victims to charm they had to be wealthy and crucially the sort of people who
wouldn't be missed I mean you've done time with fraudsters you've known a lot of fraudsters what's the technique that
someone like her uses to if you like Connie's victims its charm and also its I talked to a famous fraudster once my
conman and he was probably one of the best in the world when I was in in prison and millions of pounds was
involved and he said you can only kind of greedy person he fed their ego and and when you're talking about common
comment I got massive egos their self they really think that they can con the world and so to him he was feeding them
through they wanted I he was stroking their ego and in return he was robbing him Hague
answered an ad for the sale of a house in London he offered the wealthy owners the Hendersons more than the asking
price telling them it was undervalued he managed to get himself into the company
of a very fashionable London couple named the Hendersons archie henderson and rose henderson
they were quite wealthy they owned a block of flats and they owned a small shop called the dolls hospital in West
London and he considered these to be ideal victims for for the acid bath and for him to take over their lifestyles he
simply is very good at trying to identify suitable victims to bump off whom he will be able to use to gain more
and more income Haig led Archie Henderson to believe that he was a successful businessman with an
engineering company in Crawley he proposed a joint venture and Henderson agreed to visit Hague site on
Leopold Road on the 12th of February 1948 John Hay bought Archie Henderson to see his new workshop here in Crawley
they went inside the workshop and when the unsuspecting Henderson turned his back peg produced a revolver and shot
him in the head had actually belonged to Henderson himself and how he could stolen it from the Henderson's flat and
he taught himself how to use it and within a second or two he had shot Henderson dead he then went back to the
Metropole Hotel to tell Rose Henderson that her husband had been taken ill in Crawley in which he come up to see him
and without any question at all she jumped into the car and was brought up to Crawley supposedly to have a reunion
with her husband but within a few seconds of her walking into the workshop she was shot dead - and for the second
time in his career he had to oil drums standing side by side ready to get rid of a husband and wife
as with his other victims Hague place the bodies in the oil drums he then pumps in the sulfuric acid he went away
for the weekend and when he returned he was going to pour away the sludge that had formed but there was a problem the
basement in London had a convenient drain down which he could dispose of the residue the bodies when he moved to the
Leopold roading Crawley there was no drain and he had to wheel the drums out of the workshop into the
the yard and it was a builder's yard but it was full of rubble and he found a nice corner where he could empty the
drums into the rubble it's been an hour since professor Wilson began his experiment to replicate how Haig use
sulfuric acid to liquefy his victims bodies a murderer if he's organized unsuccessful gets rid of the body
he hides the body he buries the body in Haig's case he wants to completely obliterate the body now that's partly
because Hague misunderstands this legal term called corpus delicti which means the body of evidence Hague
misunderstands this and thinks if there's no body as in the body of evidence he can't be charged but of
course that's his misunderstanding of that phrase corpus delicti which simply means that there is evidence a body of
evidence to be able to convict the culprit and what should happen to this piece of chicken is what did happen to
Hague's victims yes well it's going to burn this is the this is the process of how that the body fat will disappear but
remember this is part of Hague's misunderstanding of the experiment Hague things everything is going to disappear
there's going to be literally nothing left for us in fact there is going to be a residue and it's that residue that's
going to be very important in bringing Hague to justice for now Hague was still at large he
pocketed over 200,000 pounds in today's money from the Henderson murders making people believe they'd emigrated to South
Africa once again he's in the money and once again he managed to spend the money
yes he made an another nice nest egg out of the Henderson's money but whereas the
muck swamp money lasted three years the Henderson money only lasted a year as if
his spending had accelerated at quite a rate and he's in the red yet again in 1949 and looking for another victim for
the acid bath for Crawley Haig had been a permanent resident at the Onslow Court
Hotel in Kensington for several years surrounded by a variety of wealthy targets
he just had to choose his next victim Flossie Franklin and her friend Sally were regular visitors to the hotel their
nephew Richard Franklin remembers how they came face to face with the killer tell us about your aunt's and their
relationship with the ONS Nicole well my Aunt Irene II known as Flossie and Sally
we're very typical country women they would come up to London once a fortnight to do their shopping at Harrods as you
do and have their hair done and they would spend the weekend at the Onslow Court Hotel which was very comfortable
they could feel at home and the sort of people who went there were similar people probably people who were living
on family trusts but I mean it is significant this because there the money that they would have was probably not as
much as they would like to have had so I think if a very smooth operator comes along and chats Martin tells them about
his wonderful business opportunity and I think they might have been thought it was that's rather rather exciting past
we can improve our income a little bit did your aunt ever say to you that she'd had conversations oh yes yes used to sit
down have tea with him he was charming he would go around and he was sussing out the field if serial
killers had horns on their heads if they looked like the devil you would avoid them but of course if they're charming
if they're plausible if they're entertaining then of course you're going to trust them a lot more and they can
gain access to you to potentially become their next victim your arms could easily
have been for all we know his next victim oh I think she undoubtedly was on the list I don't there's any question
about that I mean if he'd had tea with her once with them once and thought they were
sort of not what he was looking for he wouldn't have bothered to have a tea with him again and I think they had
quite a lot of truck with him would your arm do you think had he persisted in for
want of a better word chatting her up had he persisted would she have been gullible enough do you think - oh yes oh
yes I think so my aunt would rush into anything she would be easily duped I think if it had got to an actual
invitation to go to Sussex I think my Aunt Rose said oh how lovely yes shall we drive in your car or mine
bless her she was well named it's Lucy I think she would have been you know sort
of appended into the into the barrel of acid straightaway Richard Franklin's arms appears to have
had a lucky escape but the same can't be said for another resident of the Onslow
hotel mrs. olive Duran deacon even these names I'm wonderful don't they Fred the
honours Local Court Hotel mrs. Duran deacon you can tell that kind of character that Hague is attacking Hague
managed to sit at the same table as her in the dining room and they got chatting
about all sorts of things he must have discovered that she had quite a nice little nest egg tucked away
in the bank in fact she had 36,000 pounds worth of stocks and shares Hague befriended mrs. Duran deacon and over
several dinners she explained about her ambition to start a cosmetics business producing false nail
it was music to the fraudsters ears they agreed to become business partners and Hague suggested she visited his premises
in Leopold Road what you suppose her reaction would have been when she opened the door to this
ramshackle premises she must have been pretty horrified and very surprised because on that day it was a Friday in
February 1949 she was dressed in her best fur [ __ ] she had her best jewelry on a lovely handbag rings on her fingers
and a pearl necklace around her neck and Hague led her to this very grimy workshop in a builder's yard in Crawley
and it was a very stark place mrs. Durham Deakin didn't have much time to take in the surroundings Hague led her
to a work bench to show her some plans with her head lowered he pulled his revolver from under the counter and
placed it on the back of her head he shot her dead with one single bullet I'm Fred dine inch and I'm investigating the
real motive behind the horrific murders carried out by John George Haigh the acid bath murderer his thirst for money
compelled him to kill six people he thought he'd never be caught if he disposed of his victims bodies in acid
Hague six victim had been a wealthy widow olive Duran Deakin a fellow resident of the luxurious Onslow Court
Hotel he's running out of control Fred he doesn't know how to put the brakes on nor does he I think want to put the
brakes on he once he's on this journey he's going to continue on this journey until he's actually stopped Hague had to
dispose of mrs. Gibran deacons body as with his previous victims he placed her corpse into a bath of acid once she was
in the drum he took a tea break he came out of the yard he walked up the I Field Road and
he went to a cafe called the ancient priors and he ordered himself poached eggs on toast and he had a long friendly
chat with the of the cafe as if nothing had happened and then within half an hour he had
strolled back to the workshop to carry out the disposal of mrs. Durand iike hay poured the remains of the acid into a
corner of his yard he then returned to the Onslow Court Hotel to cover his tracks
however he hadn't accounted for the fact that unlike his previous victims mrs. Jaron deacon would be missed for a
couple of days he looked as though he got away with it but in fact whereas no one had reported the other five people
missing two days after mrs. Duran Deacon had failed to return to the Onslow Court
Hotel her best friend and Miss Constance Lane decided that she would go to Chelsea police to report her as a
missing person the police visited the Onslow Court Hotel to conduct inquiries one officer felt that 39 year old Hague
was out of place amongst the elderly residents checks revealed that Hague had a criminal record for fraud and the
police started to look into the business activities of this supposed gentleman the police quickly discovered Hanks
workshop here in Crawley but nothing could have prepared them for what they found it was like a scene from a Hammer
horror movie on the hunt to find evidence that would incriminate Hague Detective Sergeant Pat Heslin forced
entry into the Leopold Road workshop Heslin walked straight into Haig's workshop of death and discovered all his
implements Heslin recovered the revolver and the bullets he also recovered a small little bit of paper it was the
receipt for a dry cleaning shop in Reigate he went there on the Sunday and he recovered a fur coat
it was the fur coat belonging to mrs. Durand Deacon had realized that the game was up at that point so he changed his
tack and he decided to make a confession he confessed to killing mrs. Jaron deacon but then to this the astonishment
of the police he began telling them all about the other five killings and the disposals but he thought that they
couldn't touch him they believed the acid had dissolved his victims and if the police couldn't find a body then
there were no legal grounds to convict him he was wrong on both counts our experiment with Professor Wilson
reveals the error that brought Haig to justice so David is a chicken after just two hours in the sulfuric acid we can
see that the chicken is obviously diluted inside some of the body fats have been burnt off there's a change in
color and we used another piece of chicken in sulfuric acid which has been diluting for one day and here's the
result it's this sludge this type of sludge though that's going to be the beginning of his downfall in relation to
mrs. Durant ikan one of Britain's leading forensic pathologists professor Keith Simpson was brought in to examine
eggs premises in the corner of the yard he discovered 28 pounds of human body fat part of a human foot and a set of
dentures which was shown to belong to mrs. giraffe Deakin hey became desperate he had one last con
up his sleeve he believed might save him from the gallows a plea of insanity he claimed that all his crimes had been
committed to satisfy a lust for blood hey put this blood-drinking claim into his statement at a very early stage so
if he was doing it he was acting very cleverly indeed but I think he was putting it in to perhaps try and show
that him he was insane and in fact that was the defense that his was given at his trial that he was
insane and therefore shouldn't hang in July 1949 a trial for murder began at Louis Crown Court now such a sinister
set of killings and generated huge public interest and the streets outside were packed with people curious to take
a look at the man the press had labeled the vampire Vernon Evershed remembers the trial as if it were yesterday if you
hadn't have known what he'd done was he the sort of bloke you could have passed in the street yeah yes he could be could
have been a bank manager that's what he looked like immaculate Vernon was a copy boy working
for the local newspaper he got to experience the atmosphere of a trial that remarkably only lasted for three
days there was a lot more interest in that sort of case because only - no TV it made it a sensational story and was
there was the talk of the day people talked about it at work what's happened today you know I've brought the oil
drums in today and all this sort of business there were 33 witnesses some of them virtually only said one or two
words like yes or no you know did you see mrs. - and he can come back into the hotel No
during the trial Haig's defense team didn't deny the murders instead they tried to portray their man as being
mentally ill and therefore unable to fully appreciate the let's see of his axe and his claims
Hague's claims that there were other victims who he killed because he wanted to drink them yeah well there was not
there was no other circumstantial evidence and the police never full of those up anyway blood drinking was
another part of a ploy because of the the fact that one of the doctors said in between the disposing of mrs. skewer and
deacon he went to the jolt hotel including a poached eggs on toast and then came back and had a pint of blood
the doctor said there's no way that would be possible without him absolutely and you know vomiting and being ill and
you know this was another sort of figment of his imagination the way he was a psychopath wasn't he he was clear
was cleverly criminal it took the jury just 15 minutes to come to a conclusion Hague was found guilty
and sentenced to death there was almost sort of that were a commenter clapping or anything that there was a sense of
just justice that will be done you know when when the sentence of death was pronounced they said to him after he was
sentenced have you anything to say and all he said was nothing at all the feeling was he deserved all he was
going to get from one's worth Prison Hague wrote letters to his family there were no signs of remorse
Faye's victims well in fact the insanity plea was never going to be really successful was it because we know that
he killed for money he was quite careful about trying to cover his tracks indeed we never discovered the
Hendersons that he murdered we never discovered the Mick's ones whom he murdered and clearly he was
benefiting financially from what he was doing on the 10th of August 1949 John George Haigh was marched the 15 steps to
the hangman's noose in the time it's taken me to recount this story the acid bath murderer was dead in the eyes of
the law justice had been served if he could look down now and he might be and see us talking about him how
would he feel about that he'd love it every serial killer I've worked with loves their public image loves their
media the media attention they're able to generate I think he'd be glorying in in all the adulation that still
surrounds him I mean we're talking about a case now that happened in 1949 and yet
here we are still talking about this extraordinary man and I think he would take a great deal of delight about even
though we're talking about Hague we're also talking about the circumstances that allows Hague to kill we're talking
about the victims of Hague were talking about those people who really matter we're talking about the circumstances
that some people can use to commit murder and that to me is far more important rather than giving celebrity
to the lengths of Hague even though Hague would have loved the celebrity I set out to discover what
could make a man murder six people and dispose of their bodies in such a callous manner from the evidence I've
heard he was a cold-hearted killer a man with no conscience who would do whatever it took to make
money and satisfy his aspirations to live the high life for John George Haigh though his crimes didn't pay
[Music] [Music] [Music]

Brief Summary

John George Haigh, the acid bath murderer, killed six people for money, using sulfuric acid to dispose of their bodies before being caught and executed.

Key points

A Life of Crime. Haigh's early life of petty crime evolved into a series of shocking murders driven by greed.
The Acid Bath Murderer. John George Haigh, infamous for his gruesome methods, became known as the acid bath murderer.
The Acid Bath Murders. John George Haigh, known as the acid bath murderer, killed six people for money.
Haigh's Downfall. Evidence of Haigh's crimes was discovered, leading to his confession.
The Trial of John George Haigh. Haigh's trial generated huge public interest, lasting only three days.
The Cold-Hearted Killer. Exploring the psyche of a man who murdered six people without remorse.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

He hasn't been caught once.

22:55WatchOct 4, 2019

Tension

75/ 100High tension

More from True Crime Files

Solve the Crime

Read a real case one clue at a time, then see how your call held up against the investigators.