John Haigh: The Acid Bath

John Haigh: The Acid Bath Murderer

For decades, John Haigh has been regarded one of the most popular English serial killers. His popularity largely stems from the rather unconventional method he used to dispose off his victim's bodies. Haigh according to Wier "was born in Lincolnshire on 24th July 1909…" (157). As Wier further notes, Haigh's parents were staunch members of an Evangelical Christian movement known as the Plymouth Brethren. This movement regarded biblical stories as the only ideal form of entertainment and in that regard, any other kind of entertainment was regarded a sin. According to Wier, other activities regarded sinful in this case included reading of magazines or comics, musical shows, watching movies, etc. (157). As Newton points out, Haigh's parents subjected the young boy to the movement's rather strict regimen (108). Indeed, Haigh's father, John Robert, was convinced that the outside world was evil. It would hence be reasonable to note that due to this seclusion, Haigh's early youth was rather isolated.

Young Haigh would later on display significant choral aptitude that saw him win a scholarship to attend Wakefield Grammar School (Newton 108). According to the author, Haigh's joining of the Grammar school saw him participate in the Anglican services choir as a choirboy. As Newton further points out, the contrast of sorts between the Plymouth Brethren rituals Haigh was accustomed to and the Anglican services confused the young Haigh, "allegedly prompting bizarre visions of forests with trees sprouting blood" (108). As I will point out later on in this text, during his conviction, Haigh pleaded insanity claiming that he had also drunk the blood of his victims. Newton seems to support this claim with his assertion that Haigh had from an early stage displayed a strange obsession with blood (108). This obsession in the author's opinion could have haunted Haigh for the most part of his life.

Haigh's criminal tendencies stared to show immediately he left school. He was fired from his second job on suspicion of petty cash theft. Later on, Haigh met and fell in love with Beatrice Hammer who according to Wier had been his long-term girlfriend (158). The marriage did not last long. Several months after settling with Beatrice, Haigh was arrested for fraud, convicted and promptly sent to prison (Wier 158). As the author points out, while Haigh was still in prison, Beatrice gave birth to his child and after giving up on Haigh, gave the child up for adoption. On being released from prison, Haigh landed a job as Mr. William McSwan's chauffeur. However, Haigh in the opinion of Wier could not stay far away from trouble for long (159). Soon, he quit working for Mr. McSwan and chose to start out on his own as a bogus solicitor. Soon, he was arrested again for fraud. Many would have thought this was his last stint in prison having learnt from his previous mistakes. This was not to be. After his second jail term, Haigh continued as a fraudster and for this, he was arrested severally. This saw him serve a series of prison terms.

Body disposal remains one of the greatest problems murderers face. In the words of Lyle, "destroying the body is no easy task" (58). It was during one of his stints in prison that Haigh 'discovered' an ideal and perhaps 'foolproof' method of body disposal. He came to the realization that sulphuric acid was capable of dissolving a body immersed in it. Soon, he started experimenting with mice and to his amazement; the mice he used in his 'experiment' would disappear approximately half an hour after being immersed in the acid (Wier 159). In many ways, it was this 'discovery' that set the ground for the killings that came to be christened 'acid bath' murders.

Haigh believed that an individual could not be convicted for murder if the body of the victim could not be traced. As Lyle points out, there are criminals who harbor the mistaken belief that convictions when it comes to homicides are solely hinged on the finding of the body (58). Such criminals go to great lengths in an attempt to totally destroy a body. However, as Lyle points out, there are quite a number of cases where convictions have been obtained even when the body could not be found (58).

On being released, Haigh soon set out to commit what would later on lead to his trial and eventual execution. According to Newton, Haigh started looking for a basement workplace soon after moving into one of the most prestigious hotels in South Kensington -- the Onslow Court Hotel (108). In the author's opinion, it is in this basement room where Haigh planned to perfect the 'inventions' he claimed to be working on.

McSwan was Haigh's first victim. As I have already pointed out elsewhere in this text, Haigh had earlier on worked for McSwan and soon after Haigh was released from prison, the two rekindled their friendship. Their friendship this time round bloomed further and soon, McSwan deemed it fit to introduce Haigh to his parents. In early September 1944, Haigh according to Newton killed McSwan after luring him to his basement workshop (108). As Newton further points out, Haigh also drunk his victims blood after slashing his throat open (Newton 108). Haigh then set about to repeat what he had already experimented on back in prison, that is, use sulphuric acid as an agent for the dissolution of animal tissue. Only this time, the animal tissue being dissolved was that of a human being as opposed to that of a rat. Later on, Haigh returned (after two days) to find that McSwan's body had already turned into sludge upon which he disposed off the same in a manhole (Wier 160). This murder brought Haigh some financial gain as he was able to take over a nearby pinball arcade owned by McSwan (Newton 108). Haigh waded of questions from McSwan's parents over the disappearance of their son by claiming that he had run away to avoid conscription in the military (Newton 108).

Haigh's next victims were McSwan's parents. According to Newton, Haigh bludgeoned the couple to death and using the same procedure he had used to dispose off the body of their son, disposed off their remains (108). The author further points out that after this incident, Haigh usurped the couple's estate using forged documents. However, all the money he had raked in began to dwindle as a result of his lavish lifestyle, unsuccessful investments and gambling habits (Newton 109).

Soon, Haigh befriended yet another couple -- the Hendersons. At this point, it is important to note that before killing his victims, Haigh would first befriend them thus winning their trust and confidence. It is this trust and confidence that he exploited by inviting such individuals to his workshop. In the Hendersons case for instance, the approach adopted by Haigh was no different. As Wier points out, Haigh first sought to befriend the couple by claiming he could buy their house which they had put up for sale (162). He even set about to negotiate for the purchase of the said house despite knowing only too well that he did not have even a penny. By this time, he had already lost most of his money to gambling. Haigh soon told Dr. Henderson that he had an invention he was interested in showing him. By this time, Haigh had already rented a medium sized workshop at Crawley, West Sussex. It is this new address that now housed Haigh's 'acid bath' drums. It is also in this new address that the said 'invention' was purportedly under development. However, when both Henderson and Haigh arrived at the workshop, Haigh aimed his revolver at Henderson killing him instantly with a direct shot in the head. Soon after, he also shot and killed Mrs. Henderson after luring her to the workshop under the pretext that her husband was unwell (Wier 162). After disposing off their bodies using his preferred mode of body disposal, Haigh went ahead and made "forgeries that netted him $12,000 from the dead couple's estate" (Newton 109). Even after netting such a huge sum, Haigh could not keep his spending under control. As Wier points out, a year after killing the Hendersons, Haigh was yet again broke (163).

Haigh then moved on to his next and last victim who according to official records was Olive Durand-Bacon. According to Gunn, most of the evidence that led to the conviction of Haigh came from his final act (34). After luring her to his workshop just as he had done with his other victims, Haigh killed and stripped her of a number of valuables. He then disposed off her body in one of the 'acid bath' drums. Haigh later on confessed to drinking Durand-Deacon's blood soon after killing her (Newton 109). Detectives started looking for Durand-Deacon soon after she was reported missing by one of her friends (Wier 164). According to Newton, as detectives were responding to the missing-person report, they took note of not only Haigh's too-helpful attitude but also his glib answers (109). Detectives did not take long to discover Haigh's criminal past mainly involving instances of fraud and theft. After obtaining a search warrant, detectives descended on Haigh's workshop in search of any trace that could help them unravel Durand-Deacon's sudden disappearance (Newton 109). What they ended up finding was shocking.