This episode may contain content of a graphic nature, including descriptions of physical and
sexual violence against adults, children, and animals. Listener discretion is advised.
Hi everyone, I'm Talia and I'm Tanya, and together we are Crimes and
Consequences, a true crime podcast. Hi Taliah, how are you today?
I'm splendid. That's good. Thank you for asking. How are you?
I'm doing pretty good? Really? Yeah, you know, I'd like to
welcome everyone back to another episode of Crimes and Consequences. Or maybe this is
your first time watching us on YouTube on the True Crime Daily YouTube channel,
But either way, well, welcome, welcome. Are you ready for some
true crime? I can never get enough true crime? Well, this is
an older story, you know, I love I love the old ones.
Yeah. I love the old ones because they're crazy and people do weird shit
and it's fascinating. Yeah. I don't know why. I just like them.
So have you ever heard of John George Haig? No? All right,
well I'm gonna tell you all about him. Horrible? Oh yeah,
he's horrible. Is this gruesome? It's a little gruesome, absolutely, because
we have a gruesome scale. Yes, what would it be on their scale?
It's pretty high up there because he's nasty. Eight yeah, probably at
eight eight nine eight nine, eight and a half eight and a half.
Okay, okay, And we in case you guys don't know, we like
to drop a bombs a lot, and we're not actually that politically correct.
We try, but we do, do we. I don't know, I
don't know, all right, let's chat. So John George Haig. He
was born to parents. His dad's name was John Robert and his mom was
Emily. He was born July twenty fourth, nineteen oh nine in Stamford,
Lincolnshire, England, Lincolnshire. I don't know, I don't know. You
know, we mispronounce everything, we always do. It's fine, it's it's
fine. You don't want to pronounce it either unless you live there. It
is so. They had been married for eleven years before John was born,
and he was their only child. John's father worked in a coal mine as
a foreman, and his mom was a stay at home mother and homemaker.
John Robert and Emily were members of the Plymouth Brethren, which is a very
old school, very conservative, very religious, very anti modern Protestant religious school.
What the hell is that? Well, I mean, I got an
idea. They promoted a very secluded and strict way of life. Oh shit,
so John wasn't allowed to socialize with other children his age. The Haigue
family did not like the outside world, the modern world, and they how
modern was it? It's like nineteen o nine for dad's sakes, I know,
right. They didn't want the outside world coming in, so they built
a ten foot tall fence all around their home so that nobody could see them,
and they couldn't see anyone. So John was confined to the house.
It's like a prisoner. Yeah, absolutely. And because of this, he
taught himself to play the piano. He got pretty good at it. I
mean, what else is he gonna do? There's no TV. I mean
this was and you, I mean I could possibly be well, yeah,
it had to be horrible. Religion, obviously, was the most important thing
to the Hague family, and John's parents often told him religious stories or parables,
and if he ever misbehaved, his father would say to him, quote,
do not grieve the lord behaving. So end quote. So he's always
you know, do not grieve the lord behavings. So what does that mean,
Like, don't do that to upset the Lord? Okay, if you
ever wanted to go out and try to meet a friend, as dad would
say, it wouldn't please the Lord. His father had like one of these
religious I'll give you an example. His father had like a blue colored birthmark
on his forehead and it happened to be shaped kind of like a distorted cross.
And he told John that he had been branded by Satan as a sort
of punishment for his past sins and in discretions. I don't even know what
to say about that. He also told his son that if he committed sins
that he was going to be branded like in the same fashion. So this
kept John in Lyne up to a point. He decided to put this theory
of being branded though to the task of me. He's a kid. He's
like, let's see if this really works. So he played pranks on people,
and he committed minor crimes, and then when he looked in the mirror,
I saw he wasn't branded, Like hey, yeah, He was like,
no, I guess I can do whatever I want and not have any
consequences to it. He then noticed that his mother didn't have a mark on
her forehead, and when he asked Emily about it, she told him,
well, she couldn't be branded because she was an angel. That was gonna
say, I would say that I didn't do anything. I didn't do anything
right, So and guess what happened. John later found out that that blue
mark that distorted cross was actually caused from a flying piece of coal and the
coal mine when his dad was down there working. So it wasn't from Satan.
No surprise, surprise, it wasn't from Satan. John's father was constantly
preoccupied with dying and the afterlife, and he would like by God to take
him like he just wanted to go to heaven really bad. He hated life.
Yeah, he just wanted like that. Yeah, he wanted to meet
He wanted to go to heaven. He considered it a sin to be happy
with the world that you were living in. I guess she needed to be
miserable in order to earn your spot in heaven. I don't know, I'm
gonna end up getting there real quick then. Regardless though of their religious beliefs
and John's eventual criminal cases, John was incredibly loved by his parents, and
they never turn their back on him or disowned him, even though I'm gonna
tell you these horrible, horrible crimes that he did. So they didn't like
whip him in the name of God or not. He loved him, and
you know they had high hopes for him that he would make something of his
life. Oh remember told you, like he wasn't allowed to do anything like
in the modern world or whatever. He wasn't allowed to take pardon any secular
secular activities and secular as like non religious like boy Scouts or whatever, nineteen
twenty or whatever. We're exactly, he said. The best my rais of
his childhood where when he would go visit his maternal aunt. Because when he
got out he could read the newspaper. He was exposed to other things he
loved to see, like the comic strip in the newspaper. I mean,
I'm sure it was a prone, right, I mean I liked it when
I was young. Yeah, but I don't have the Internet. There's no
Instagram with Facebook exactly. And when he came back home and asked his dad,
why why don't we get the newspaper? As dad said out, you
know, it's a thing of the world. It's evil. You know,
you need to read your Bible instead. If you've got time to read the
newspaper. You have time to read your Bible, and that's really what you
should be focusing on. Okay, So during his childhood, John got really
good at stealing. He had plenty of practice at the local candy shop.
How'd you get out to get candy? I don't know. Maybe you had
to run errands. I'm thinking for like his parents, and you know,
maybe go to the store and he's rebelling, he's gonna he's tested the sin
theory exactly, passed it. Yeah, and he passed it and he's not
getting caught. When he was stealing things at the candy shop, he's like,
oh, I can you know. He had this attitude like I can
do whatever I want, and he would kind of like his friends would help
him at the candy store too, so like they would distract the shop owner
and he would just steal candy and conspirators. Yeah exactly, candy shop exactly.
So they had this whole like little you know, scheme going on.
Yeah, yeah, to reprise the candy store. In addition to thievery,
John learned how to forge documents at an early age. Yeah, he practiced
forgery in school. What he would he would write school reports in a school
record, like in the headmaster's writing. So he learned the headmaster's writing,
and so he faked his grades. I mean, wow, I faked my
grades too, way back when I don't even I don't know what to say
about that. I didn't know that it is handwritten stuff. You could be
so disappointed in you though, you could fake him so smart, you didn't
have bad grades? You yes, geometry. Oh you're talking to high school.
I mean, I have to fake them in college. Now, I
didn't do it. I faked him in high school, and I did get
busted because they would send the report card home and it would have your last
semester's grades on it. Yea, And yeah, yeah, I got an
idiot. What can I say? I was probably like fifteen. I mean,
well, you know I didn't get away with it. So he's practicing
forgery his you know, he's got this headmaster's writing under you know, he's
got it down pat and not surprising. His teachers described him as mischievous,
and he did do well in school, but he hated going to school because
he hated the idea of having to like put the work in to get the
good grades. He just wanted like things to come easy to him. Yeah,
he he wanted to cut corners in any way that he possibly could.
He finished school at the age of seventeen, and he became an apprentice to
a firm of engineers and they worked on vehicles like this is when cars I
think are new. So they the engineers would work on the motors and things
like that. And John really loved cars. But you know, he loved
looking at them and riding in them. But he yeah, working and getting
dirty, like eating, like the oil and the grease that came with the
job of working on the engines. So due to this dislike, he chose
to wear gloves to avoid getting his hands dirty. Well, it doesn't made
fun of, I mean, because he was like real men, you know,
get their hands right right, go home with dirty fingernails. That ship,
right, He's made fun of and but that didn't stop him from doing
it. But it did cause him to quit that job early in the apprentice
in the apprentice ship because he wore gloves and was made fun of. Yeah,
he stay their boy a year and then he left to take a job
selling insurance, oh, in advertisements. When he was twenty one, he
was fired and that's because his boss suspected him of stealing money from the cash
box. Like probably was, Oh, he definitely probably was, And because
of that they had him arrested. Oh good. He was later released and
never charged. And he wasn't charged because his father paid the amount that was
stolen. Oh yeah, And but he's a big disappointment to his parents.
He's the only child. Yeah, I mean sending all over the place exactly.
They I'm sure they were devastated. You know, they just wanted a
godly child, right. But regardless, this is when his criminal career began
to take off because he got away with this. I think of all the
candy and now he's stealing money. Yeah, stealing money, got away with
him things in between. Oh, I'm sure still hasn't been branded by Satan.
Nope, he still hasn't been into by Satan. So he's going to
keep doing it, keep going man. On July sixth, nineteen thirty four,
John got married to a woman named Betty Hammer. She was twenty one
and I'm guessing he's about twenty five. And she was described as a good
time girl. What whatever that means? Oh yeah, I'm just saying I
don't know. I don't know. I don't know her. Yes, his
parents obviously disliked her and John Robert Dumbley. They did allow Betty and John
to live with them though when they first got married, even though they really
didn't like her. They thought, you know, she's just running around doing
whatever. They thought that her religious views were the same as theirs, but
they soon found out it was very different, very very different. According to
the Haigs, Betty lacked both morals and religion. She never had a job,
and she stopped going to school when she finished elementary school because her plan
was just to marry rich. Oh well, then why did she marry this
guy? Okay, I don't know. She figured I don't need an education.
I'm going to find a rich man or just a man right to support
her. She grew up in a very poverty stricken, very large family,
and both her parents had to work, and you know, it was uncommon
for both parents work. Yeah, they rarely worked out. Women rarely worked
outside the home. Neither of John's nor Beatty's parents attended their their wedding,
and the reason behind it was because neither side of the family was even informed
that the wedding was going to take place. So no, save the dates
went out. I guess John seemed like a very good husband like to Betty,
but that would shortly come to an end. The idea of working under
someone of authority really didn't appeal to John much. Where he were going now,
well, he just he just started his own business so that way he
wouldn't have to work for someone, and he could also do his crime shit.
Because he was like, yeah, our crime shit and do our crime
shit, don't have to work for somebody. Yeah, that's totally get it,
totally get it. But this one he was forging vehicle documentation, So
he's putting those skills to work, all right, And he made good money
and Betty loved that. But she later admitted, you know, she had
no clue of what he was doing to get that money. Like the crime
shit, you know, the job he said he was doing, you know,
would never make that much money, and I'm not sure exactly what it
was. Yeah, she was just clueless. He later start care just bringing
in that paycheck right in the cash exactly, That's all she really cared about.
John later said that he didn't marry Betty out of love. He married
her because his home life was not something he could tolerate alone anymore. Oh,
just kind of, And the consummation of the marriage was what John really
looked forward to. I'm I'm sure, why didn't you just move out?
Why did he have to live with his parents if he didn't stand there?
Maybe he's like twenty something years old. I don't know, Lily didn't move
out? Did job move out? Maybe? Yeah? And he wanted to
get laid yes, and he's getting laid in his parents house though, well
that have you not? I never mind going to answer that. Yeah,
I'm not keep going so surely after starting this new business, he was arrested,
charged and sentenced to fifteen months in jail. Betty followed him in the
patrol car back to the police station when he got arrested, and when she
arrived, he was already behind bars. John said to her, Oh,
it's nothing, darling. I've only broken the eleventh commandment, which he said
was thou shalt not be found out. I'm sorry. I do like that.
I know, don't get caught, don't get caught, not be found
out. That should not be found out a commandment. He was only in
jail for five months after getting married, so Betty decided this would be a
good time to separate herself from him. She left because he ain't making no
money, right, No money's coming in. She's living with these highly religious
people and she's not of the same thing, so she's like to get out
here. In prison, John seemed to enjoy himself, yeah, because he
was now part of the outside world, something he had never really been a
part of. Ok but he's actually ironically in an inside world, I know,
right, inside world in the outside world. Right, what is that?
The upside down and what is that? It just seems odd, but
Okay. He worked as a tailor when he was in jail. Yeah.
Prison, he's got to be in jail, right, Yeah, probably in
jail. Yeah. And he would write to his parents about how good he
was at being a tailor, and then if he started his own business,
he was going to be best Taylor out there brought his adult life. John
kept a very superficial relationship with his parents, kept his distance. I mean,
he's doing things that they don't approve of, clearly. Yeah. And
he did tell his parents at one point that he didn't tend to repair his
reputation and you know, I'm gonna get my morals bank country, right right,
you know, when I get out of jail changed, Yeah, this
is all going to change. But as we're soon going to find out,
Yeah, that was bullshit. And what's the name of this. Oh,
the name of this is the acid bath murderer. Okay, so he changed.
Oh yeah, he changed for the worse. Once he was finally released,
and he got out due to good behavior, he got out early.
John learned that his parents had moved from their city and his wife left him,
and his wife left him, and you know, originally his parents said,
well, we moved because his father had retired from the coal mines.
But they were embarrassed. Yeah, I'm guessing. Yeah, they got out
because they tarnished their names exactly exactly. You know, they just couldn't stay
in that town anymore. And he had disgraced them. But he really didn't
care, you know, And he really didn't care about Betty leaving him,
because no, because he didn't care. No, he didn't care about Betty
leaving him. But while he was in prison, she gave birth to a
baby girl. Oh and she named the baby girl Pauline Mary. After giving
birth, though, she stayed with the Haig family, but struggled to make
ends meet, and she eventually put Pauline up for adoption, all while he
was in jail. Well, he was in five months after hearing about the
birth of his daughter. John didn't get that chance to meet Pauline, but
he really didn't put any effort into seeing her before she was put up for
adoption. You know, I mean times of change. You can't really be
married to have a baby and just place your child for adoption and the husband
has no say right, no, then we've done adopt adoptions attorneys, but
we won't talk about that. And he actually denied that he was even Pauline's
father, So okay, here we go exactly. So maybe he just didn't
care. In case you haven't realized it, John's really self centered. No,
he's shallow. And after Betty moved out of the hay come, John
and she only saw each other once and it was an accident. They ran
into each other while they were both just walking down the street like they wanted
aw awkward. John's like, hey, how are you doing? And Buddy
says, you know what, I didn't want anything to do with you,
like leave me alone. So then John went on to insult her by saying
that, you know, we were never even legally married and I have another
wife actually, which is bullshit. But he's trying to say like their marriage
wasn't valid, and so Betty threw her wedding ring away. But she felt
relieved. She was like, good, he's out of my life and whatever.
She went on to marry a man named Adam. But she never divorced
John officially, but married officially or whatever. I mean. It was largely
frowned upon back then for a woman to get divorced, and the process was
really expensive, so she just never bothered. Her second husband was killed while
overseas in World War Two. There's this bad luck. Yeah, but she
got remarried again to a man named Dennis, and I don't know what happened
to her. They lived happily ever after, hopefully. Upon his release from
jail, John started a dry cleaning business with a friend. His name was
Major Plackett, Like his name was major. His name was Major. Major
had defended John during his trial in nineteen thirty four, and he was friends
with John's father like a lawyer defended them no like to other people. Oh
oh yeah. Since John had a lot of experience working as a tailor,
are well locked up? Like I told you this dry cleaning business perfect.
Yeah, they figured it was going to be a success. Yeah, and
the business did take off. It was booming until Major was killed tragically in
a car accident, and John didn't really want to put in the work right
to run a business, so he shut it down. And Major's widow was
given the option like, well, you can take it and continue on the
dry cleaning business. She didn't want to do that. I'm sure it was
a ton of work. Yeah, I mean no. So now John's going
to figure out how to make some money. Well, I think he's figured
that out already before exactly. So we're gonna go to a life of swindling
people, right, swindling, swindler, the scammer, oh yeah, scamm
artist you know. And that time when he was in jail, he got
out on good behavior, so he didn't even service full sentence. So he's
like, I'm just gonna startling ship and swindling. Yeah, there's really no
consequences of crimes, and consequences are but do you know if I go to
jail, it's probably not going to be long. I'll just be good and
you know, I'll get out. So he figures there's got to be this
easier way. Yeah, you know, I don't have to toil away at
some office or toil away at my own business. So we're gonna do this.
And he decided he was going to go after older, rich women.
Oh he's a jigglow. Yeah, kind of sort of looks like Clark Gable.
You know what, Clark Gable. He was handsome. Yeah, he
was handsome, like John's kind of like the Wish version of Clark Gable,
or like the Dollars store version of Clark Gable. I mean you'll see a
picture here, You'll see a picture, yea engineering Clark Gable like Clark Gable
was much more. No, but he was kind of like that, like
you, a mustache and dark hair and sort of it. I could see
maybe how women would find him attractive. Okay, Oh what are you trying
to say. I'm just saying maybe, maybe, maybe. Before I tell
you more, we're going to take a break. John moved to London in
nineteen thirty six, and he was able to get a job as a chauffeur
for a high rolling amusement park owning family known as the mc swains or mic
swans, I'm sorry, mc swains mixed swans and John became close with William
mc swan, so their son. The downside, you know, is that
he actually had to do work, damn it, you know. There again,
I know. But he was around rich people, so that was the
upside. He was originally employed at the amusement park for a few months in
nineteen thirty seven. And while he was employed doing that, like before he
started doing the chauffeuring and stuff like that, he was able to persuade William
to install jukeboxes in the arcades. High technology. Yeah, and then what
they did was they hired a lot of pretty women, okay, to lure
young men into the arcade to spend money, like on the jukebox. Yeah
really, I know. I mean there's not a lot of entertainments back then.
Wow, I know. Genius exactly, I guess. So so fucking
weird. Yeah, he was posing while he's doing this, he's posing as
a lawyer. As a lawyer, he's got all kinds of ship going.
I read it every day. So do you I'm a lawyer and I'm actually
a lawyer. Yes, me too. So he's posing as a lawyer named
William Adamson, and he's selling fake stock shares. When lawyers sell shares,
trusting, right, you say, I'm a lawyer, and people trust you.
They think you're like smarmy as lawyer. They trust you any lawyers because
you know, you know too many of them. He was caught, Okay,
so he's selling these fake stock shares. He got caught because one of
his clients noticed that he misspelled Guildford, which is where he said his office
was allegedly located, like on his letterhead. It was misspelled. And that's
how he got caught being a dumbass. Stupid spelling must say. When people
get cut, they open their mouth and their dumb asses, you know,
you just shut your mouth. The smallest little mistakes people get caught in,
right, And that's a good thing, I guess. So he ended up
going to prison for four years, four years broad charges. Yeah, and
when he got out it was right at the beginning of World War two and
after his second release in August of nineteen forty. So this is you know,
he had the first jail term, so this is the month and now
he's doing four years. Yeah, and from then on he realized, like
I don't want I don't want to go back. I don't want to go
back. I don't want to Plus, I really don't want to have a
legit job. He decides he's going to still do crime, but he's just
gonna be a lot more careful. Okay at it, Okay, okay,
it's gonna get better at it. Gotta get better at it. When he
was in prison that time, he spent a lot of time researching and studying
a French murderer who got rid of his victims in a really really grewesome way.
If you say an acid bath. Yep, he said, this is
going to make the perfect murder. Except if he's reading about someone doing that,
doesn't it mean that person probably got caught. I'm just pointing that out,
just right. Yeah, you're right, it's what he What he read
was, so you dissolve these corpses in acid. You know, that's what
you get rid of your witnesses, you get rid of the victims. So
easy. Sounds so easy? I mean, really, could it be easy?
So he decided to like test out. So he's out of prison,
He's gonna get some acid. He's going to test out, Like, how
long does it really take to dissolve, like not a human being. But
he what he did was he experimented on mice first. So he's literally at
this time willing and able to kill as long as he can get away with
it. As long as he can get away with it. I don't think
he killed anyone before this. I think really it was just fraud and thievery
and you know those types like property crimes and whatever. So but he's quite
a jump. He's going to make quite the jump. He made these test
runs, he caught mice. The test results came back, and he discovered
that acid can make the body of a mouse completely disintegrate in thirty minutes.
Oh so there was nothing left once you put a mouse. But a mouse
is very small, very small, really long time for a human. I
mean, I don't know, I don't know. I'm just guessing basics exactly.
He has to set up what he's going to do, right, He's
got to set up his criminal scheme. So when he gets out of prison,
he gets a job, a legit job as a as an accountant and
an engineering from an accountant. I don't know, how do people get jobs.
You just already did prison for four years I don't need for fraud.
Why would you make someone your accountant who would be prison Well, they don't
know, right, You didn't really look anyone a lawyer too, is a
lawyer. Yeah, he's a fantastic guy, right. He One night after
getting out of work, he ran into his old friend William mcswan. They're
shooting shit at the bar. William brought us over his parents, who were
Donald and Amy mick swan, and introduced them. William bragged about how great
it was, you know, working for his parents as a landlord, because
William managed some properties at the mc swan's own, like some beautiful properties,
like all over London because they own an amusement park two. Right, Yeah,
they got a lot of money. And after hearing this, you know,
John's perking up because he's like, oh, they've got some money,
right, And he is checking him out and they're dressed really nice, and
he starts to get a little jealous, thinking, you know, they're rich
and they have this wonderful lifestyle. After John and William were done catching up
at the pub, John invited William into his basement of where he was living.
But what William didn't know was that John was about to kill him.
Hey, Johnny, want to come from my base. I don't know what
he said to him to entice them to get down there, because he needs
to try out this acid bath, right, he needs to see if it
really works. So, once John and William were in the basement, John
took a lead pipe and he bashed William over the head with it. Oh
shit, Yeah, And once he knew that William was dead, he placed
William's dead body into a forty five gallon metal drum that was filled with sulphuric
acid. Honey, not like I'm just curious. It's gonna seem so random,
but like you're dealing with all this asida and I accidentally like burn yourself.
I can't even I don't know. I can't bleach my clothes without getting
like bleach it. Like, oh, I know, I've never say problem.
Well, I don't know how to. I don't know. Yeah,
And isn't that a little suspicious? I just need a whole bunch of acids?
Acid? You might even even had more? Who knows? Puts William?
He puts William in the drum. I was wondering how a drum doesn't
dissolve either, But that's another question. That's chemistry, right, I don't
know. I never was good at I loved chemistry, but I don't know
anyway, I don't know. After two days, John came back to check
on the progress, and when he checked, he saw that William's body was
almost almost fully dissolved. The results now were sufficient enough for John to dump
the remains down a manhole like I don't know, I don't want to know
what the remain, what the condition was, but it was enough where they
were probably unrecognizable and he could just dump the liquid into the sewer. Well,
how do you even get that? You got? How you like?
You have forty five gallons? Have you moving that? He filled with acid?
Explained that to me. He got a dolly out and he was his
ascid too. Though, no, no, there's there's nobody's nobody noticed,
Nobody said shit. I mean, it's crazy. I know, I'll guess
what. There's a will there's a way. But he's in London. There
should be tons of people around, right, I guess not all right.
William's parents now realize that their son is missing. They ran into John said,
hey, have you seen William? Nope? No, no, no,
he made up some bullshit, and he said, well, William was
actually he took off to Scotland because he's trying to avoid the draft. Because
world was johns hold the parents. Yeah, okay, that's what John told
the mc swans. He said, well, you know, he ran off
to Scotland because he's trying to avoid the draft. He doesn't want to get
drafted into the army. And so they're like okay, and they didn't he
didn't tell his parents, but he told John. Yeah, right, Yeah,
he didn't tell his parents. He just took off, right, and
only told John. At this point, John pretty much takes William's place in
the family. Yes, he began living with Donald and Amy. He worked
for them, collecting the rents on their propertis William since will Is gone,
Yeah, we need someone to fill in. Let me fill in. Yeah,
and you know, come on, you can move into our mansion,
which I'm sure they had. Once the war was over and William hadn't returned
back to his family. This is when Donald and Amy became concerned. Ay,
something's fucked up. Yeah, but I'm surprised, like they didn't get
a letter, right, you would think like your son would write to them.
I don't know he was a false name and write a letter, ye
say, hey, well yeah, but anyway, Donald and Amy kept asking
about William. John knew, okay, something has to happen. So on
July second, nineteen forty five, John Lord Donald and Amy to the exact
same basement where he had lured William. He enticed them by telling them William
had returned for a surprise visit and that he was waiting for them in the
basement. Don't go to your parents' house. Makes sense, fucking sense?
Yeah. Well, they fell for it. They were so excited by the
idea of seeing William again. They they just followed whatever John wanted them.
He was good at manipulating, obviously, he's a scammer. Yeah. And
when they got into the basement, he bludgeoned them to death with the same
metal pipe, and he threw their bodies into drums filled with sophuric acid.
But wasn't finished with the mc swain. I'm sorry keep saying that, miss
Swan, Swan, I'm sorry. There's no eye in their name. Swan.
My bad. He posed his William and forged signatures, which gave him
power attorney to steal the MC Swain's. They did it again, the mc
swans Swans Swans. He then sold their properties for eight thousand pounds sterling,
which is the equivalent to a little over ten thousand dollars today. It's not
that Oh no, that was a little over ten thousand dollars then. Now
today it's worth one hundred and sixty nine five hundred and five dollars. Okay,
don't get me wrong, I would like that amount of money, but
I'm just saying I would think they'd be right. This was a lot of
money for post war Britain. Yeah, and he used the money to move
into the Onslow Court Hotel, which is in South Kensington. I guess this
was a really like swanky hotel, like you know, we're rich. People
all stayed and he stayed there like as a tenet. So he just kind
of moved into a hotel because he had the money to spend. But it
only lasted that money, that one hundred and sixty nine thousand dollars only lasted
him for two years until he made the last two years. Yeah, and
what did he do with their bodies? Like how long did what happened?
Like how long he dissolved? I don't know how long it took, but
it had to have taken just a few days. And he dumped him in
the same way. Yeah, what he did with William h fucking gross.
It's terrible. John had a severe gambling addiction. Of course he did,
and that's one of the other reasons why he pissed through that money so fast.
And now he needed more money. Well, what's he gonna do.
Well, he decides he's gonna get some new victims. Of course. John
met doctor Archibald Henderson and his wife Rose one day. He was pretending to
be interested in the house that they were selling. They have their house up
for sale, and he always dressed really nicely, so of course they have
a beautiful home. He shows up and he looks like he's a serious spuyer
for their house. Rose really liked John because he loved classical music. He
could play the piano. He probably bullshitted that they probably a piano. He
rebably sat down and played the piano for them, and they were just like,
oh, he's a lovely person. And she invited him to come back
to their house to perform at their housewarming party for their you know, when
they sell the house and when they move into their new house, like,
come to our housewarming party, you can play the piano. While he was
at their new home, John stole doctor Henderson's revolver and he uses it later
spoiler alert everyone, he's not using it. Yeah, it's not just loving
the body yet. Okay, yes, but John cited that his basement different
place. Yeah you know, we still had the basement and had the hotel.
Yeah yeah, and you know it kind of reminded me. Did you
watch Breaking Bad? Of course they had the whole lot. Yeah, yeah,
yes, yes, I've seen. He's like, okay, I can't
do this anymore in this basement. So he decided to relocate his murder drums,
these metal drums to a small workshop that he run it out, and
that was in West Sussex. On February twelfth, nineteen forty eight, John
drove doctor Henderson to his workshop. They told him, I'm working on a
new invention and I really want you to see it. But doctor Henderson's like
sure. They walk into the workshop and John shot doctor Henderson in the head.
Soon after they entered the workshop, you know, no hesitation. John
then called Rose and said you need to come immediately because your husband, Doctor
Henderson's gotten really sick and he needs your help. So Rose rushed over and
when she got into the workshop, she shot her immediately in the head,
killing her as well. He then forged their signatures on a letter that gave
him power of attorney. Of course, still forged and ship left and right,
you know back then, dis like, what'd you say forty eight?
Yeah, it's probably nineteen forty eight, right, nobody checks, nobody knows.
This allowed him to sell all of their possessions. He got about the
same amount of money that he received when he sold the Mixedwan's property. Does
it really work putting bodies and acid? God, this is a lot of
work. Is it really that hard to just go to work, go to
a job instead of like killing people and putting them in drones thinking the fumes.
I don't know. I don't have a lot of spuric acid. But
I'm just thinking a basement, I know, writing in it in and it
seems a lot of a lot of work. I guess, I don't know.
It would apparently has no conscience either, Clearly that was established. Where's
these swindling women? Oh, it comes right, hold tight. John sold
everything but their car and their dog, and he kept those for himself.
Lucky dog. Yeah, he loved still loved cars and dogs, and he
refused to get dirty. So for each murder he committed, he threw on
rubber gloves, a rubber apron, rubber boots, and a gas mask and
he used that when he poured the acid. Okay, okay, yeah he
was. Yeah, you were worried about his clothes. He wouldn't mess up
his nice clothes. He had this rubber apron and you can you can imagine
when you dissolve someone in acid. Yes, there is an intense heat.
Yeah, that would make sense. That raid by the reaction that human flesh,
you know, to acid, and that's what smells the bones. All
right, chemistry Clay, Sure I did, No, I didn't, Okay,
So it's just you know, liquefied yeah, I okay, Yeah,
it's nice. He has killed now five people, in case you weren't counting.
He was just feeling invincible. As you can imagine. She feels fucking
gross. Yeah, he got away with these. Nobody suspected anything. He's
got money, and so he needed to update his acid bath workshop to a
full on warehouse. In this warehouse would be the spot where his sixth and
final victim would meet her fate. John was still residing at this hotel,
this Onslow Court Hotel, and one of his neighbors was sixty nine year old
Olive Durand Deacon. She caught his eye. Olive was very wealthy. She
was a widow, that's yeah, of a big time lawyer named John durand
Deacon. John needed to create a new facade to get Olive's attention, so
he posed as an engineer. You know, he's going to talk himself up
and impress her. They spoke for a while about his engineering career before she
told him she had an idea to make artificial fingernails. So I'm thinking maybe
there were no press on nails back then. Oh she had this idea,
right wow. She little did she know she'd make a ton of money now.
She kind of thought of herself as an inventor and she was really excited
because she thought that John would be able to help her with this new invention,
him being an engineer, right of course. Absolutely, He's like,
oh, absolutely, absolutely, I can help you with this new invention.
But we have to go back to our my warehouse because that's where all the
work gets done right. John invited Olive over to the new warehouse, and
once they were inside, he shot her in the back of the neck with
the revolver he had stolen from the Henderson's. John then robbed her of all
her jewelry that she had on and she had a fur coat before he submerged
her body in the drum filled with sulfuric acid. Olive was a well known
person around the hotel, though, so she her disappearance was. Oh,
it was immediately noticed, like when she didn't show up for breakfast the other
residents, where's Alive? Yeah, where's Olave? Fuck is alla? So
he ended up making a bad I mean, not that they all aren't bad
choices, but this one was like somebody actually like noticed right away when her
When her neighbors noticed that she wasn't there, they asked John where she was,
and he lied and he said that Olive had plans. Him and Olive
had plans to meet up later in the day, but she never showed up
and I don't know where so was he dating her? I don't know,
It's kind of unclear, kind of I think they more had a business relationship.
When Olive was still missing. The following day, it became obvious that
something was serious, really wrong. John had to keep to himself from being
suspected, so he just acted like a concerned neighbor, you know. He
just started asking around too, like have you have you heard? Have you
heard from Olive? You know, he's asking all the other residents if anybody's
heard from her. And he volunteered to even tag along with the police.
Hey, oh, you know, we hear about that all the time himself
involved in the investigation exactly. But when he got to the station, like
the police station, an officer whose name was Sergeant Lamborne, he really got
a weird feeling. Bet I bet you're getting weird fucking feeling around John.
I'm gonna listen to your intuition guessing. The next day, Sergeant Lamborn phoned
Scotland Yard, like their record office, and he found out all about John's
past criminal history. That same day, John made the drive over to the
warehouse to empty out alice acid drum because that's time too. He's got I
know, he's got it empty out like her melted body. And he kind
of fucked up because he poured some of it on the ground outside like it
was just kind of man the man hole, the man hole, and there's
some hour on the what I know, and be careful, Jo, be
careful, John, don't don't mess it up. At this point too,
he hadn't made any money off of Olive's murder yet, just some fur,
a cult and some jewelry. Yeah, so he made his way over to
a pawn shop to have the jewelry of praise. He made about one hundred
and ten pounds off of her belongings, which was about twenty three hundred dollars
in our money. When I get back to the hotel, there's a group
of officers waiting for him and John. Yeah, because he you know,
they knew who he was, because he had gone to the police station.
And John didn't change his story. He told them the exact same story he
told the neighbors, like we were supposed to meet up Olive and I had
plays and then she didn't show and I don't know, I don't know,
I don't know, John. John ended up dumping Olive's remains outside the warehouse
because there was no sewage drain or manhole access like the other places where he
was like remembers telling you was pouring them down Doctor Henderson. There, yeah,
this was this was that new warehouse. This was brand new. Doctor.
He didn't think this out very well, and he didn't what was he
thinking here? Where was he just dumped her remains like on the grass out
back? Yeah? I still want to know how he's moving these drums around.
But that's fine. He was forced to dump her remains into a pile
of debris right outside the warehouse, so he realized he really didn't do much
to hide it. He don't give a fuck now, no, And he
did tell police officers he was supposed to meet her at the warehouse. So
of course they show up. It's the stupidest day thing now. Oh,
so the cops show up. Of course they did, looking around, like
trying to find Olive. They're missing widow. What a dumbass. And while
there they find the receipt for the fur coat that he pawned, and they
found a piece of her foot. They found human body. Fair Oh that
didn't dissolve all the way quickly. I mean think that and that, but
you think we dissolved faster than bones or something. I don't know. And
they also found dentures that were confirmed to be Olive's. Upon this discovery,
John was immediately rested. Those poor police officers IgE minding that ship. You
know what, they don't pay enough. They don't pay them, they don't
pay them enough. No, he pleaded insanity because you know, it is
kind of fucked up to dissolve people's bodies and drums of acid. But there's
a difference between mental illness and crazy, and so he's just crazy, yeah,
exactly, fucking nuts exactly. He tried to make himself look even crazier
by telling investigators that he drank the blood of his victims and because I you
know, he said, because I drank the blood. It really kind of
just fucked up my brain. Have you get to the point, John,
you're drinking the blood? I know. And even though he said this,
there was never any proof that he actually did it. I'm just letting you
all know, I think it. I think you just said it to appear
a little more crazy, just a switch more right. Took a cherry on
top. Yeah, what the fuck is that? Literally at cherry on top
of the crazy Sunday. Okay, that's good crazy Sunday Like that. He
was questioned by Detective Inspector Albert Webb. While he was being questioned, he
asked, what are my chances? You know they're they're gonna send me the
crazy hospital? What are any chances that I'm going to get released like you
should have been? He would want the crazy hospital? Yeah, I would
think so, right, because that's where he'll go instead of prison. So
do I have any chance of being released? Was anybody ever released? Oh?
John, you'res and it was a high security psychiatric hospital. And Inspector
Webb told him, I really can't say, and John replied by saying,
well, if I told you the truth, you wouldn't believe me. It
sounds too fantastic to believe. He then proceeded to confess everything to detective inspect
Yeah. He confessed to killing Olive, William Donald and Amy mcswan, and
to killing the Henderson's. John also elaborated some and told the officers that he
killed three more people, a little boy named Max What, a little girl
who lived in Eastbourne, and a woman who lived in Hammersmith. And although
he confessed to these additional three murders, none of them have ever been confirmed
that he did this. Why would he kill a kid? But how would
he benefit from that? I don't know, maybe to appear even crazier,
more insane. I don't know. Okay, he didn't. Thinking he's just
making that up. Yeah, I'm thinking he just made it up because there's
no confirmation that he ever did those crimes. His trial began July nineteenth,
nineteen forty nine, and it finished the next day. It was a quick
ass trial. Most is longer than that. He pleaded not guilty by reason
of insanity, and he told the chord of his vampire like tendencies, you
know, allegedly drinking the blood. He went on to say he definitely had
a reason to kill. His childhood dreams were completely controlled by blood. You
know, he's just trying to hype up. Okay, so what does he
get? He sorry, that's okay, death. No, he the trial
over. It takes the jury fifteen minutes to find him guilty. Guilty,
and after the verdice was read, the judges john, is there anything he
wanted to say for himself? He said, no, nothing at all.
He was unsentenced to be executed via hanging. Yeah. Yeah, while he
was waiting. I know they should have right. While he was awaiting his
execution in Wandsworth Prison, He thought it would be fun to give the execution
a test friend, so he asked one of the guards if he could have
this trial run to ensure that death would come. The day he made it
to the gallows, like made sure everything would go smoothly and okay, okay,
good, it was denying. In the meantime, he spoke with a
newspaper that financed his trial and told them his whole life story. He wrote
letters to his girlfriend because he had a girlfriend at the time, Barbara Stevens,
and his parents since they didn't come to see him before they was hanging.
Well, yeah, he mixed feelings if I was dumb, Yeah,
I know. Before the hanging, he was fitted for a death mask courtesy
of Madam two Sods, and on August tenth, nineteen forty nine, the
acid bath killer finally paid for his crimes. Yeah. The letter that he
wrote to Barbara was found and it read I'm gonna end our episode with this
quote. It is difficult to say farewell under these circumstances, but you will
understand that you will always be in my thoughts. You know, I've been
proud of our association. It has always been an honorable one. I shall
remember your great kindness and devotion. Now I must leave you. End quote.
How fucking sweet. You know what a bizarre little letter be like?
No, no, was probably like. So that's my episode about the acid
bath murderer. It's so gross. I think you hear this. It is
gross. I can't even imagine being real, Like, how gross. I
know those police officers show up and there's goo in the grass. Stop stop?
Thank you. Very human behavior and being in sensitive. Yeah, we
are being in sense, but we did more people were not all that politically
correct, but right right was. It was a tragedy. It's very sad
and he just did it without indiscriminately and he's an asshole and we hate him.
Put him on the I Hate him list. Well, thanks to Leo,
Well thanks Tanya, and thank everyone for listening and watching. Yes True
Crime Daily Usual channel. I got way too excited. If you would like
to hear more episodes, we do offer a free weekly episode, but we
also have one that we released to our Patreon members and also Apple. Oh
yes, their audio on our Apple podcast channel. And you say that you
can advertise, Yeah, I think so at Apple? Yeah, why not?
I don't know. I'm telling you where you can listen, You can
subscribe on the Apple podcast channel. You can subscribe at Patreon dot com slash
t nt Crimes. We release one additional episode a week, so if you
can't get an off of us, you can check us out. And those
are not released to the public for free. Yeah, but these are.
They're at free. Yeah. We let Android people and Samsung people whatever,
whatever phone you have, not exclusive. Our website is crimes that you can
go there, and I think that's everything. That's good enough for me until
our next episode, like us, right, like subc fine daily on YouTube,
and like us, please tell your friends with family, tell your neighbors.
Yeah, sorry, I forgot that part. Until our next episode.
Don't kill each other. Bye bye