Long before Walter White dissolved bodies in bathtubs, John George Haigh used sulphuric acid to cover up his crimes.
YouTubeJohn George Haigh , also recognize as the “ Acid Bath liquidator . ”
In February of 1949 , law raided a warehouse on Leopold Road in West Sussex , owned by John George Haigh . deep down , they found several 40 - congius drums and container of concentrated sulphuric acid . Outside , they find 28 pounds of melted human body fat , part of a human groundwork , human gallstones , and part of a denture .
It was clear to investigators , from the acid inside , what had happened . Haigh had murdered someone and dissolved their body in acid to blot out his offence , Breaking Badstyle .
YouTubeJohn George Haigh, also known as the “Acid Bath Murderer.”
However , what would become more shocking over the course of the investigation was that he had done it before and had plan to do it again , had it not been for one small misstep .
John George Haigh had not started out a killer . He had been born into an affluent , cautious family in Yorkshire , grew up attending classical music concerts , and was award several scholarships throughout his academic liveliness .
His enthralled adolescence ended at the age of 25 when he was hold and jailed for faker , just months after marrying . Upon his imprisonment , his fresh bride allow for him , and his conservative relative determine they wanted nothing to do with him .
YouTubeInvestigators at the crime scene outside the warehouse where John George Haigh killed Olive Durand-Deacon.
YouTubeInvestigators at the crime aspect outside the storage warehouse where John George Haigh kill Olive Durand - Deacon .
After serving just two years , John Haigh was released from prison house and moved to London , where he became a chauffeur . However , despite assist time for fraud , he continue to swindle unsuspecting do - gooders out of their money .
He would make believe to be a solicitor named William Adamson . He would oftentimes sell fallacious gunstock shares from the estates of his drained “ guest ” at below - market rates . Eventually , he was caught when one of his client realized he had misspell his fictive name on a legal document .
Wikimedia CommonsJohn George Haigh during his trial.
In 1939 , he was arrested and imprisoned again , this clock time sentenced to four years for fraud . While in prison house , Haigh realized that his biggest downfall was that he had left his fraud victim alive to describe the crimes .
Haigh spent the remainder of his time in prison invent ways to dispose of any witnesses to the crimes that he fully specify to keep on committing upon his release .
He begin researching the Gallic murderer Georges - Alexandre Sarret , who ’s signature had been dissolving his victim in sulfuric superman . Using his complimentary time , he devised his own method of dissolving bodies in various forms of window pane by practise on black eye . Eventually , he chance that it took 30 minutes for a modest theater mouse to unfreeze , and was able to calculate how much acid and time he would need for a full grown man .
YouTubeOlive Durand-Deacon, John George Haigh’s last victim.
Four year afterward , free from prison and build up with his macabre knowledge , John George Haigh take a job at an engine room firm in the account department . Soon after , he ran into an old friend , named William McSwan , whom he had worked as a chauffeur for . McSwan order him about his new venture as a landlord , collecting rent from the tenant who last out in his parents ’ multiple properties .
Wikimedia CommonsJohn George Haigh during his trial .
Though he had a well - make up chore at the engineering business firm , Haigh became jealous of McSwan ’s apparently plush lifestyle and the small crusade he seemed to put into it . A few months after bumping into him , Haigh lured McSwan to an forsake cellar and hit him over the headway .
Using his newfound administration method , Haigh put McSwan ’s consistence into a 40 - congius drum and filled it with concentrated sulphuric dot . Two Day afterwards , McSwan was nothing more than a hundred or so pounds of gook , which Haigh pour down a manhole .
ride the senior high of his successful murder , Haigh contract over McSwan ’s landlord duty , telling McSwan ’s class that he had flow away to avoid being drafted . Eventually , when the elder McSwans became suspicious , as their son had not return home even after the swig was over , John George Haigh kill them as well .
leave with their money and their attribute , Haigh move into the Onslow Court Hotel in Kensington . However , the around $ 10,000 he had steal did n’t last long , as he shortly build up a gaming trouble . run through his John Cash fast than he expected , Haigh was impel to find another affluent couple to kill and rob .
After assume interest in a house that was for sale , Haigh hit the owner , Dr. Archibald Henderson and his married woman , Rose . Both Hendersons were disposed of at a storage warehouse in Gloucester , where the McSwan family had also been killed . The storage warehouse seemed to be the perfect piazza , as it was relatively remote and check a manhole where the human sludge could be easily disposed of .
YouTubeOlive Durand - Deacon , John George Haigh ’s last dupe .
After the five murders , John Haigh rent a larger storage warehouse on Leopold Road with more space for his drum and acid concoctions . Here , he would vote out and break up his concluding dupe .
Olive Durand - Deacon was a wealthy widow who hold out at the Onslow Court Hotel with Haigh . Olive thought herself something of an inventor , and , upon regain out that Haigh worked at an engineering firm , asked if she could talk to him about an idea she had for hokey fingernails . Haigh took the opportunity to lure her to his storage warehouse , and murder her there .
Olive Durand - Deacon was the soundbox that investigators discovered outside the Leopold Road storage warehouse . You see , unlike Haigh ’s previous disposal reason , the Leopold Road warehouse had no trading floor drain and no manhole access . Unable to pour the sludge quietly into the sewerage , Haigh had been forced to plunge it in a heap of debris behind the warehouse , where it was easily reveal by detective .
Upon the find of Olive Durand - Deacon ’s body , Haigh was contain and commit with execution . Now known in popular media as the Acid Bath Murderer , he plead insanity and claimed that drinking the blood of his victim had drive him mad , though there was no evidence that he had in fact consumed human blood .
After find out his insanity defense , one of the hold back officers mention to the prosecutors that Haigh had asked him what the chance were of being release from a psychiatrical infirmary , versus prison .
The jury then took only minutes to hark back a guilty verdict on Haigh , sentencing him to decease . On August 10 , 1949 , John George Haigh was execute for his crimes .
Now that you ’ve say about John George Haigh , the Acid Bath Murderer , say about the gruesome account ofserial killer Edmund Kemper . Then , check out the story ofCarl Panzram , the most cold - blooded slayer in history .
