Bible John - Suspect

Suspect

The suspect was described by Helen's sister Jean as being a well-dressed young man, tall, slim and with reddish/fair hair, and described as being polite, well-dressed and well-spoken. She said the stranger had given his name as "John Templeton" or "Sempleson" and that he had frequently quoted from the Bible during the taxi ride home. He was reported to have said: “I don’t drink at Hogmanay, I pray,” and to have referred to Moses and his father’s belief that dancehalls were “dens of iniquity”.

Although Helen's sister Jean said that Bible John was "slim, tall with reddish/fair hair", the bouncers at the Barrowland Ballroom dismissed this description and said that the man Helen had left with was "short, well-spoken and had jet black hair". Police at the time considered this to be a more reliable description as Jean was drunk the night of the murder and they had already discovered that the killer had not been quoting directly from the Bible, but had been referring to it, although he was overheard by one witness commenting that the Barrowland was a "den of iniquity".

The last possible sighting of Bible John was of a well-dressed young man in a dishevelled state with possible scratch marks on his face, getting off a bus at Grey Street at Sauchiehall Street around 1:30 am. He was last seen heading towards the public ferry to cross the River Clyde to the south side of the city.