What happened at 10 Rilllington Place was so shocking and gruesome that even today everyone over a certain age still remembers the case with a shudder. In 1950, Timothy Evans was hanged for the violent murder of his baby daughter; he was also assumed to have murdered his wife. Then, less than three years later, another tenant, John Christie, was found to have killed at least six women, hiding their bodies in the garden, under floorboards and in a concealed kitchen alcove. Christie followed Evans to the gallows. It seemed unlikely that two murderers were living at 10 Rillington Place, and the evidence that emerged in the Christie case eventually led to Evans receiving a pardon. But there was also circumstantial evidence that Evans had indeed killed his wife and child. Crime student Edna Gammon firmly believes that Evans was guilty. In A House To Remember, she explains why.
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About the Author
Edna Gammon was born in Liverpool, the youngest of six children of a dock labourer; her father was killed in an accident on the docks in 1930 when she was a little girl. From the age of nine she attended Notre Dame Convent, where the nuns praised her for her English compositions and told her her skill with words would come in useful one day. After taking an office job with Woolworths, Edna worked for many years as a secretary. She and her mother shared a fascination for true crime stories and followed each case with great interest. The two women studied every detail of the 10 Rillington Place murders at the time and kept newspaper cuttings from the period. Her mother s idea of writing a book about the case never saw fruition, but after her death Edna decided to write her own book on the subject, in her mother s memory. She says her mother was always in her thoughts while she was working on the book.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By lester5
Format:Paperback
This must be the weakest coverage of a very famous and significant case, of which nothing factually can now be added to the long list of previous books and articles on it. No evidence of research, or even secondary reading, as there is no biography.
Far too brief and lacking in any substantive detail.
Far too brief and lacking in any substantive detail.
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful
By honeybunny
Format:Paperback
I have read many books on true crime and most of them have been exceedingly well written and comprehensively researched.They have been detailed,balanced,gripping and insightful.This is not one of them.It is very weak in its construction,the author has an amateur, unsophisticated writing style,the account has very little depth, and little evidence of any real research,the books content added nothing to the my already limited understanding of the case.
The author proposes the 'radical' suggestion that Evan's killed his wife but shows no original or new substantive evidence to back this claim up,its already been claimed before.The author is not up to the challenges of writing this particular genre,and I was very annoyed at spending,what I think is a significant amount of money, for a book I had finished over two nights.The author needs to hone her skills on 'properly'crafted true crime books like the excellent Gordon Burns and indeed the original 10 Rillington place.
I don't like to be so negative but the book was a serious let down and waste of money.
The author proposes the 'radical' suggestion that Evan's killed his wife but shows no original or new substantive evidence to back this claim up,its already been claimed before.The author is not up to the challenges of writing this particular genre,and I was very annoyed at spending,what I think is a significant amount of money, for a book I had finished over two nights.The author needs to hone her skills on 'properly'crafted true crime books like the excellent Gordon Burns and indeed the original 10 Rillington place.
I don't like to be so negative but the book was a serious let down and waste of money.
5 of 8 people found the following review helpful
By Junius
Format:Paperback
I may well be being over critical with this book, which I have read twice this weekend, given that I am having a rather weughty tome published on the topic next year. However, I really don't think much of this one and will explain why.
Brevity. The book is a mere 68 pages long, so does not represent good value for money and at that length cannot hope to give much detail on a case already covered by other authors.
Factual inaccuracy. I counted 25 errors of fact in the first chapter, and though the error rate in later chapters is lesser it is still there. For example, Rita Nelson was killed in January 1953, not February and was not drunk at the time. Hectorina McLennan returned to 10 Rillington Place in the afternoon, not evening; Baker returned that evening not the next day. I could continue at length. It is true that most previous authors have made many of the errors made here, but that's no excuse.
Lack of originality. The thesis that Evans killed his wife and daughter has been made before, notably by John Eddowes who rips apart Kennedy's thesis and has not seriously been challenged since. This does not advance on this thesis and indeed misses out information which would have strengthened the case.
The writing style is simplistic and to state that Christie was a 'monster' smacks of tabloid journalism, for he was a human being after all. There is no index, bibliography or footnotes, so comments about Christie acting as rent collector and Ethel as childminder, which might be true, are unverifiable.
Are there any good points? Well the picture of Beryl Evans and the reproduction of the Daily Mirror of 1953 reproduced here are not well known, as are a few details about Beryl's parentage anbd birth, though the author is wrong to state that her mother was still alive in 1949 as the death certificate clearly states 1947. The author is surely right to remind us that two unborn babies were killed in this whole sorry saga.
Brevity. The book is a mere 68 pages long, so does not represent good value for money and at that length cannot hope to give much detail on a case already covered by other authors.
Factual inaccuracy. I counted 25 errors of fact in the first chapter, and though the error rate in later chapters is lesser it is still there. For example, Rita Nelson was killed in January 1953, not February and was not drunk at the time. Hectorina McLennan returned to 10 Rillington Place in the afternoon, not evening; Baker returned that evening not the next day. I could continue at length. It is true that most previous authors have made many of the errors made here, but that's no excuse.
Lack of originality. The thesis that Evans killed his wife and daughter has been made before, notably by John Eddowes who rips apart Kennedy's thesis and has not seriously been challenged since. This does not advance on this thesis and indeed misses out information which would have strengthened the case.
The writing style is simplistic and to state that Christie was a 'monster' smacks of tabloid journalism, for he was a human being after all. There is no index, bibliography or footnotes, so comments about Christie acting as rent collector and Ethel as childminder, which might be true, are unverifiable.
Are there any good points? Well the picture of Beryl Evans and the reproduction of the Daily Mirror of 1953 reproduced here are not well known, as are a few details about Beryl's parentage anbd birth, though the author is wrong to state that her mother was still alive in 1949 as the death certificate clearly states 1947. The author is surely right to remind us that two unborn babies were killed in this whole sorry saga.
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