Daily News from New York, New York • 216

30 SUNDAY FEBRUARY 27, 1972 Bible John (artist's sketch at left) was known as a divine dancer at the Barrowland Ballroom In Glasgow. Although described as gentle with a cultivated accent, he had a deadly twist that proved fatal to three of his women dancing partners. f- liiilOiniiiimi iji mm CIV i A Justice Story Wiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiisiiuniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig 1 lit uf Bsbie John, the. Dancing SlTrangler By HENRY MAULE Glasgow IBLE JOHN has been described with the light red hair with whom the last waltz was liable to be the dance of death. They learned that he was undoubtedly well-spoken, with a pleasing Glasgow burr, he was nearly 6 feet tall and held himself well, and he had good, clean-cut features.

He was also obviously well-educated and from time to time dropped a brief Biblical quotation into his conversation. Yet he was a stranger to the district, because nobody seemed to know him or to have any personal point of contact. All they knew was that he said his name was John. Glasgow police put together an identikit picture of the young killer and it was widely published and displayed. But again the trail seemed to go cold.

Then, on Oct. 31, Halloween, the body of petite Helen Puttock, 29-year-old wife of a corporal in the British army and mother of two children, was found. She was sprawled in a puddled courtyard behind Earl Scotstoun, Glasgow, where she had been temporarily living with her mother. Her clothing had been ripped from her and her purse was missing. Within the hour, police had checked back Helen Puttock's movements on that fatal night back to the Barrowland Ballroom, and to the arms of a tall dance partner with light red hair.

Now the police knew for certain they had a sex killer at large in the city. The hunt was stepped up. three different men, but there was nothing outstanding about any of them except perhaps that one of them had light red hair and was rather good looking. But men with red hair are common in Scotland. Detectives of the city's Criminal Investigation Department devoted the usual amount of time they give to the investigation of a murder of this kind, and the customary methods were employed.

For there was nothing really unusual about this strangling of a pretty young woman after a dance or- a Thursday night. In a turbulent seaport city such as Glasgow, where young men's passions run high on popular dance nights, such things did happen. Doubtless in a sexually-motivated rage at being denied the ultimate pleasure he had promised himself with the girl he was seeing home, the killer had strangled on a wild impulse then fled the scene overcome by remorse. "The trail just went cold because of lack of witnesses," stated Glasgow's then CID chief, Detective Supt. James Binnie.

"We appealed for the driver of a light colored car into which a young woman was reported seen getting into in Lang-side Ave. on the night of the murder, but no one came forward." When they found the body of Jemima McDonald, 32, from McKeith SU Bridgeton, Glasgow, strangled in a derelict tenement not 20 yards from her home on Aug. 18, 1969, it was again a killing conforming to the sordid sexual pattern. The discovery had been made by her sister, who had been looking after Jemima's little girl and two little boys while she went dancing that evening. For the occasion, Jemima had worn her black pinafore dress with frilly blouse, which had been ripped.

Her underclothing had been torn as though in a frenzy and one article was missing, as was her handbag; but this also was not so unusual. As Glasgow detectives traced Jemima's last hours, they soon learned something that lifted the crime above the ordinary. Jemima McDonald had gone that night to the Barrowland Ballroom to an under-25s dance, and had been seen to leave with a young man with red hair. A team of detectives was now detailed to concentrate on the ballroom, and all who worked and regularly danced there. For two months, they were to track down dancers who had been present on the night of Aug.

18. They built up a picture of the young man such things, she had not only observed his light red hair (because that was obvious, anyway), and his cultured Glaswegian accent, but remembered that though his teeth were good and even, one front tooth overlapped another. As he offered round a pack "of cigarets she also noticed that they were of a brand called Embassy and, of even greater significance, that his hands were smooth and his fingernails well tended. In a predominantly manual working district, this was unusual. During their uncomplicated threesome conversation in the taxi he had revealed a comprehensive knowledge of the blue-train suburban services operating along the north bank of Glasgow'! river Clyde.

And, occasionally but appropriately, he had dropped in a brief Bible quotation. Jean's overall impression was that he was a nice-mannered young man who would see her sister straight home. It was after her revelation that the man called himself John and quoted from the Bible that the Glasgow Daily Record nicknamed him Bible John. There were also a number of men and women who had danced at Barrowland, that same night for the who remembered things about Bible John. He was, for instance, stylishly dressed in a brownish flecked suit with a single-breasted jacket that had high lapels.

He had worn a blue shirt with a dark tie and when it was time to leave he had collected a brownish short overcoat from the cloakroom. Perhaps even more significant, his wrist-watch was on a broad strap with a narrow strap threaded through it, a sturdy non-slip type much favored by servicemen. Inevitably, others had noticed his habit of dropping Bible quotes into his conversation, though nobody really remembered what they actually were. Sometimes he had prefaced such remarks with "As the Bible says Into such detail were some of tha witnesses able to go that the police learned of a certain dog, often seen in a certain Glasgow street, which had hair exactly the same color as that of the suspected murderer. Police sent a squad car round to lie in wait in that street.

When the dog appeared, two burly policemen cornered it Some hairs were extracted and taken back to the station. These hairs were then passed on to a talented local artist. Lennox Paterson, who, from various descriptions, painted a portrait of the man they now called Bible John. Hundreds of colored posters were dia- as a tall and personable young man with light red hair who dances divinely. Some people who have talked to him say he speaks with a gentle and cultivated accent and appears well-educated.

One psychiatrist theorizes that he's a "sweet young boy" in the eyes of his devoted mother. However, Bible John, the most hunted man in Scotland, is said by the the police to possess a strange and deadly quirk a desire to strangle the pretty young women with whom he dances, all the while lulling them with Biblical quotations. Blaming Bible John for the pitiless killing of at least three women, Glasgow police have issued warnings to the vivacious girls who gather weekly at this tough and bustling seaport's glittering Barrowland Ballroom. The ballroom is Bible John's favorite base of operations. Precisely what scriptural gems he has whispered to his dancing partners in the intimate moments before he switches from loving to liquidating nobody yet knows.

The three women who experienced his routine were very dead when found. But it is known from others with whom Bible John came into contact at the ballroom that he likes to slip comforting little extracts from the Bible into his social conversation. Bibie John's first victim, police say, was Pat Docker, 25, the mother of a young son, whose husband was away from home in the Royal Air Fcrce. She was found strangled on Feb. 23, 1968.

in Carmichael Lane, Langside, Glasgow, only a little way from her homt in Lang-side Place. Her killer had ripped away part of her clothing. Later, it was established, her grey duffel coat with a. blue fur collar, and the yellow knitted dress she had worn underneath, were missing. So was her brown handbag and the purse inside.

Police inquiries among Pat Docker's immediate neighbors and folk living nearby, and at the Mearnskirk hospital in Renfrewshire, where she had worked as a part-time nurse, all drew blanks. So did the questioning of staff and regular dancers at the Barrowland Ballroom, where it was established she had spent the last few hours of her life that remained to her that fateful Thursday "over-25s" dance night. Several persons thought they had seen Pat Docker dancing with two or HIS TIME, Glasgow CID had a lucky break, because there were actually witnesses who recollected talking at length with the killer. One of them was the victim's sister, Jean Langford, also married, who had accompanied her to the dance, leaving Helen's husband, George, at home looking after the children. After the dance, Jean actually sat in the back of the same taxi with her sister and the man until Jean was dropped off at her home, leaving Helen to be escorted back to Earl St.

by her good-looking companion. That they did get out at Earl St. together and pay off the taxi was soon verified by the driver, but in the darkness he had neither seen nor heard anything significant. Jean Langford, however, could remember a lot about that fated night, and the young man who had said his name was John in whose company her sister had been so happy, and who afterward had so brutally done her to death. With a woman's flair for noticing.