 - SUSSEX, England: John Haigh was so over-confident of his plans that he visited the police station and reported his victim missing. Haigh's devious web of deceit and dishonesty began to unravel that day.
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The talkative suspect was taken into
- custody after police discovered a gun and a receipt for a fur coat in the two story brick warehouse he leased, along with the victim's jewelry which had been sold to an out-of-town jeweler. Like other killers before him, Haigh thought of himself as a jailhouse lawyer. He believed that if no body was found, no crime could be brought against him. And so, he confessed to destroying the existance of the victim. But the smug vampire was buried, not only by his own boasts, but also by the staggering amount of circomstantial evidence.
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He confessed to more victims, but when he realized that
- the absence of victims bodies would not save him, he told the detectives an incredible story. Blood, not money, was his motive. After each killing he would ingest a glass-full of his victim's blood to satisfy his insatiable thirst. From what he told the police, he was one of those rare killers who could ingest large quanities of blood without becoming physically sick. The detectives concluded that he was placing to much emphasis on the blood-drinking side of his personality, hoping that the fetish would be construed as insanity.
- His victims included, Donald McSwann, his parents, Dr.
- Archie and Rose Henderson, Mrs. Durand-Deacon, as well as three others never substantiated by the police. A London woman in her thirties, a man about the same age named Max, and a Welsh girl in Eastbourne, named Mary.
- Haigh was raised in a strict, God-fearing home, with most
- emphasis on religious ideals. He was in prison three times in his life prior to the murders, for finacial scams. When questioned about the blood fetish, he told police this:
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to the
Madness...
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In the early war-time years, he worked as a fire-watcher during the London blitz which alienated him from his God and religion in general. He told doctors that it was during this time that the lust for blood came upon him. Haigh was involved in an auto accident which caused his car to turn over after colliding with a truck. When he regained consciousness, he was blinded and put his hands to his face where he discovered a mass of blood pouring over his face and into his mouth. Since that episode, he was plagued with nightmares which he described in his diary:
In my dream I see before me a forest of crucifixes which gradually turn into trees. At first there appears to be dew or rain dripping from the branches, but as I approach I realize it is blood. Suddenly the whole forest begins to writhe. The trees, stark and erect, ooze blood.
A man goes to each tree catching the blood in a cup. When his cup is full he approaches me. "Drink," he says. But I am unable to move.
Haigh told psychiatrists that mysterious voices told him to drink blood. Under close observation while in prison, Haigh was observed several times to drink his own urine. Nine out of ten psychiatrists argued that Haigh was a sane, but diabolical schemer.
The jury returned with its verdict in seventeen minutes: Guilty.Haigh was hanged at Wandsworth Prison on 6 August, 1949.
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