JOHN HAIGH: THE ACID BATH MURDERER

In the late 1930's, a man named John George Haigh was sitting in jail on a sentence for fraud. During this time, he had a vision. His main invention being what he considered as the perfect murder. He was sure that it could be executed in such a way if one would be able to dissolve the body of a victim in acid – not a trace to use as evidence.

His ghastly idea led him to experiment with mice, it took only 30 minutes for the body to disappear.

Haigh was born in Yorkshire. His parents were members of the Plymouth Brethren - something which provoked peculiar behavior in his mother and father, allowing for his childhood to be very antisocial. His father confined the family with a 10 foot fence locking out the rest of the world. He believed that the world itself was “evil”, and that it was crucial for them to keep from being tainted. Such religious extremes were claimed by John to have caused him blood filled nightmares – and possibly were what influenced John’s psyche in unexpected and negative ways.

A bright young boy, he had accumulated a scholarship to Queen Elizabeth Grammar School in Wakefield, and later another as his parents switched beliefs and he became a choirboy at Wakefield Cathedral. John went through a few jobs before working with insurance and advertising, which only lasted so long before he was fired after being suspected of stealing cash. By 1934, John Haigh put an end to his attendance at his parents' church, and would end up soon getting married.

Unfortunately this was not a marriage that lasted long, and as their partnership crumbled he was jailed for fraud. By 1936 he was back on his feet, working as a chauffeur to William McSwann who was an owner of an amusement park, and Mcswann's parents - who all were very fond of Haigh. Unable to keep out of criminal ventures, John would be yet again jailed for related issues of his first sentence, fraud. This would give him time to wrap his mind around sinister possibilities…

On September 6, 1944, McSwann disappeared. This was the first victim of the acid bath murderer.

John Haigh had bumped into him at a pub in Kensington after becoming an accountant with an engineering firm. That night, Haigh had also met with McSwann's parents who had mentioned to Haigh their investment in property.

What happened so suddenly to William McSwann? The answer was gruesome. Unknown at this point to his family, he had not simply "disappeared", but he had been murdered. William had been lured into a basement at Gloucester Road in London (a ‘workshop’ otherwise used as a deathtrap), and then struck over the head. His body was then placed into a 40-gallon drum of sulfuric   acid, where it turned to sludge within two days...and was disposed of. An unbelievable event to some, but if one understood John Haigh's methods - it was just right. Understanding at that moment that he had killed another human being, and was able to remove all traces of them, brought on a feeling of power and euphoria.

An expert liar, Haigh was easily able to convince McSwann’s family that he had simply gone away to Scotland in order to avoid conscription. It was now time to work at getting where he originally wanted to be, this meant acquiring McSwann’s assets. Continuing with his eerie and simple plans of eliminating those in his way, he made additions to his workshop of horrors; such as tin face masks, a pump, and a bathtub made of steel intricately set to be resistant to the corrosion that his victims would be inflicted with.
The next to be brought to his workshop were the parents of McSwann, who disappeared in July of 1945 where they met their demise in like ways to their son. John Haigh later claimed to have drunk their blood, a symbol creating new nicknames in the press for him such as “the vampire killer”. At this point Haigh was able to effectively rob the McSwann’s of everything they had, and he followed up by moving into the Onslow Court Hotel in Kensington.

Although he had accumulated a hearty sum of cash and means of collecting more cash from the deaths he had brought, he could not sustain such wealth and gambled most of it away in a short time. In 1947 he had chosen another couple to murder and rob, in order to increase cash flow. The victims were Dr. Archibald Henderson and his wife, whom he met after showing interest in a house they were selling at the time. Again he rented a ‘workshop’ in order to execute his crimes effectively and in the way he liked best, this time it was in West Sussex. His materials were brought there, and before long he was ready to lure another victim into his trap, which would be Henderson under the assumption that he was to be shown an invention of Haigh’s. He had shot both of the Henderson’s that day. He disposed of the bodies in acid; however the act did not erase all traces of the victims this time. Mr Henderson’s foot had been left intact. Feeling immune of being captured at this point, Haigh did not fret about the issue and simply dumped off everything including the foot.

Haigh was eager to maintain the impression that the Henderson’s were still alive, which was a time-consuming process which he felt necessary. His methodical acts to prevent the truth from arising included forging letters. This however only resulted in Mrs Henderson’s brother to become suspicious of her whereabouts, at which point Haigh exercised his skill of lying and was able to convince him that the couple had emigrated to South Africa due to the fact Dr Henderson had carried out an illegal abortion. Haigh sold off the belongings and properties of the Henderson’s, and in contempt for those he had eliminated, not only gave his girlfriend some of Mrs. Henderson’s clothes to wear, but kept their dog as his own pet.

Had he stopped now, and been satisfied with what he had accumulated, he might have gotten away with his crimes for a little longer – however, this certainly was not the end of the acid bath murders.

In February of 1949, Haigh invited a 69 year old widow and fellow resident of Onslow Court, Olive Durand-Deacon, to his workshop. He shot her in the back of the head, and quickly stripped her of her valuables. At the time, Haigh had not paid his bills for months and was desperate for more money, in killing off this woman, he could potentially alleviate his current problems. Haigh later described his murder of Olive in ghastly detail, stating that after he had shot her, he “went out to the car and fetched a drinking glass and made an incision” in the side of her throat, collecting a glass of blood – which he drank. It took quite a few trips to make certain that her body was dissolved, and in the meantime, his latest victim had been reported missing – and police had questioned guests at the hotel which included Haigh himself. Acting strangely towards one detective led to his background being checked, which revealed his history of fraud-related crimes. This was enough to have Haigh arrested and provoke him to confess, but was something he had no trouble with as he was still under the naïve impression that no traces could be found of the bodies and therefore he could not be convicted of the crimes. Much to John Haigh’s dismay, the bodies had not been entirely dissolved as he had hoped, and many identifiable traces including a gallstone and set of false teeth were uncovered amidst the human sludge near Haigh’s workshop.

As the trial was forced upon Haigh, many instances arose where it was applicable to question his mental health. He himself used his restraining religious background and the nightmares and mindset conducted by it as an excuse for the way he had acted. He also brought up his claimed habit of blood-drinking, which lawyers added to the list of traits that seemed to scream insanity. These things were not enough to convince the judge and jury, who could not accept that his unsettling habits would be enough to label him insane. And so despite the long debated ideas of potential mental issues and other facts that had been applied to him, John Haigh was sentenced to death in a matter of minutes for the murder of Mrs. Durand-Deacon.

John Haigh’s crimes were a unique and surreal element of history; the way in which he killed each victim has given him a place in the midst of many other serial killers that cannot easily be topped in grotesque nature. It is overwhelming to think, with those facts, that his motivation was such a simple one. Money. One can argue that it’s more complicated than it sounds, money being the reason for most crimes in today’s society and of the past. With the idea that the most hedonistic thing coming from these murders was the possible consumption of blood in a few cases, it still strikes one as a little more than shocking concerning the length someone will go to bring themselves financial comfort. Another element that brings wonder to this case is the time period in which it ensued, a grizzly reminder that there have never been any limits to the human mind in terms of capability. He shows us this as a representation of the era, just like others before him representing the 1800’s and as early as documentation goes. Haigh was under the mistaken belief that he could get away with his crimes, get married, and live a life with substantial sums of money in his possession – but forensic evidence was able to do it’s job just as well in his time, and it found him guilty of murder which had been reserved for those that trusted him and provided him with friendship. The acid bath murderer suffered his sentence of death on August 10, 1949.