The Face of Bible John: The search for a Scottish Serial Killer (Murder World: Scotland)

In the late 1960s, dance halls were still popular in Glasgow. At the Barrowland Ballroom in the Bridgeton area of the city, queues were long on Friday and Saturday nights and anything up to two thousand people would spend the evening dancing to music provided by the resident band.

Then, in February 1968, a woman who had spent the evening at the Barrowland Ballroom was found murdered. It seemed that she had met her killer while dancing but police were unable to find any clue as to his identity. In August 1969, another woman went dancing at the same ballroom and was seen leaving with a tall, slim, handsome young man. Her body was discovered the following day. The circumstances of the two murders were very similar and police began looking for a single killer. They even commissioned a local artist to produce a painting of the murderer based on witness descriptions.

In October 1969, it happened again. Another woman was murdered after meeting her killer at the Barrowland Ballroom. But this time, the killer was seen by a number of witnesses and one even shared a taxi with him and his victim. Surely, it was only a matter of time before this murderer, who newspapers had started calling Bible John, was caught?

Fifty years later, we still don't know the identity of this serial killer. There have been many theories and a number of potential suspects. Police cold-case reviews have used new technologies in the search for Bible John and several promising new leads have been identified. None have led to an arrest.

How can this be? How can a murderer select and spend time with his victims in a crowded public place where he was seen by large numbers of people and yet escape detection? The artist's depiction of the killer was also said to be a very good likeness, so we even know what he looked like.

This book is a fresh look at this fascinating case and an attempt to understand how Bible John managed to escape detection and has continued to elude investigators for fifty years.