Bible John: Creation of a Serial Killer — a true-crime podcast that breaks the mould

Bible John: Creation of a Serial Killer, a new BBC Scotland podcast written and presented by the journalist Audrey Gillan, is about the murders of three women in the late 1960s in Glasgow. All of them were mothers who died following a night out at the Barrowland Ballroom; the killer was never caught. A Glasgow native, Gillan grew up hearing stories of Bible John — so-called because witnesses say they heard him quoting passages from the bible — and wrote a story on the case early in her career. Police had reopened the investigation in the mid-1990s, though nothing came of it, and Gillan was left with a feeling of unfinished business.

I had imagined that Gillan’s podcast would be a simple retread of the case, but the title is misleading. Bible John is resolutely not the story of a serial killer; it tells the stories of the women he killed — their names were Patricia Docker, Jemima McDonald and Helen Puttock. Gillan’s aim is not just to fill in the blanks of their stories but to right a terrible wrong. Because these women, tattered photographs of whom would appear in the news with every twist in the case, were posthumously shamed and stripped of all dignity. This is evident in the police reports, which observe how the three women “liked the company of men” and were “promiscuous”. One is described as “an only child and rather spoilt”.

In order to discover who these women were, Gillan sifts through archives, pieces together family trees and drives miles to knock on the doors of those who knew them. Most powerful here are her conversations with the victims’ children. In one episode, Alex Docker, son of Patricia, shares memories from his childhood including bathtime in the kitchen sink. In another, Gillan locates Jemima McDonald’s son, Allan Mottley, who was seven when his mother died, after which he was taken into care. He and his siblings have never spoken publicly about what happened; in fact, Mottley says, they have hardly spoken about it at all. But then he drives 260 miles to Glasgow to visit Gillan, with his wife and granddaughter in tow. Encouraged by Gillan’s gently probing questions, he starts talking and a lifetime of sadness comes tumbling out.

Bible John provides a vivid portrait of Glasgow in the 1960s, from the music and fashion to the derelict tenement buildings, soon to be pulled down, where children played and where McDonald’s body was found. The series also stands as a corrective to the scores of true-crime podcasts that sensationalise murder and casually overlook the impact on victims and their families. Gillan’s sensitive approach reaps clear rewards: the reason Mottley decides to talk, he tells her, is because she wanted “to do something different”. It’s a measure of his trust that, following their interview, he allows her to accompany him as, for the first time in years, he lays flowers on his mother’s grave.

bbc.co.uk/programmes