THIS sombre group of felt-hatted gentlemen are members of Glasgow CID, who that morning were unaware they were starting a murder investigation that would haunt the city for decades.
It is the morning of February 23, 1968, when the naked body of strangled 25-year-old nurse Patricia Docker was found by a man on his way to work in a lane behind Carmichael Place, Langside. It was only yards from her home.
Patricia, who lived with her four-year-old son and her parents, was simply having a night out with girlfriends. Her husband was away in the army.
She went to the Majestic Ballroom in Hope Street, and then on to the over-25s night at the Barrowland Ballroom. She was not seen alive again.
In the group of detectives was the formidable pairing of CID boss Tom Goodall and his deputy, the splendidly-named Elphinstone Dalglish, who cleared up much of the city’s crime.
But this case stumped even them. All leads came to naught, and when two more young women who had been at the Barrowland Ballroom were murdered the following year, the police said they were looking for a man who may have been named John, and who may have quoted from the Bible.
He was immediately dubbed Bible John by the Evening Times, and the search to uncover his identity has continued to this day. Serial killer Peter Tobin was one suspect, but no charges were ever brought.
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