John Haigh was known for using acid to desolve his victims.

Introduction

John George Haigh was born on July 24, 1909 and was later known as the “Acid Bath Murderer.” Haigh grew up with strict parents who were members of the Plymouth Brethren. His parents, John and Emily brought their son up in a house with a 10 ft. tall fence around it, which confined Haigh from the outside world. He was very intelligent which led to scholarships. He received one for the Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, then later to Wakefield Cathedral, where he became a choirboy. He had many friends and was soon an apprentice for a firm of moter engineers. He then left that job and took a few jobs in insurance and advertising, until he was suspected of stealing cash and was fired at age 21. He was married for a short time at age 25, and had no interest in sex after things didn’t work out. His wife did give birth while he was in prison but gave the baby up for adoption. For the next ten years he ended up in prison three times for fraud and being dishonest.

The Dreams

Some interesting things about his childhood might have led up to his murders later on in life. At the age of six he became fasinated with blood and would often hurt himself so that he could taste his blood. He was also interested in the Holy Communion and the Crucifixion. He also had some pretty intense dreams, most of his dreams were about railways accidents filled with bleeding people. These dreams stopped but then came back to him in 1944. When Haigh was 35, and out of prison, he injured his head and blood went into his mouth. He began to have the dreams with bloody people and would also have dreams about a forest filled with crucifixes that would turn into bleeding trees. He would taste the blood, when he would wake up he would crave the taste of blood. The dreams were in a weekly cycle increasing from Monday through Friday.

Covering up the Crimes

While he was in prison this gave him time to think. He thought the perfect way to get rid of bodies would be to destroy it with sulphuric acid. When he came back home in 1944, he rented a storeroom and bought vats of acid. He first experimented with mice and observed that it only took about a half an hour for the body to completely dissolve. Right after being freed from prison, he became an accountant at an engineering firm.

It Begins

One night he ran into his friend McSwan, where he introduced Haigh to his parents who told him they invested in property. On September 6, 1944, people had been searching for McSwan and he was no where to be found. Later, it was determined that Haigh hit him over the head, cut his neck open, and began collecting cup fulls of blood. Then to dispose of the body, he took McSwan to his basement. He put McSwan’s body in a 40-gallon drum and poured concentrated sulphuric acid all over top of him. He would then drink the blood which he said made him feel “relieved.” Two days later the body turned into a mud-like consistancy and was poured down a manhole. He told McSwan’s worried parents that their son went to Scotland to avoid being drafted into the military. He later went over to the McSwans’ house after frequent inquiries from his parents about why their son hasn’t come back yet when the war was about to end. He then took them to his house where he murdered them on July 2, 1945. He then stole the pension cheques and sold their properties and was left with a lot of money. He went along killing for the next 4 years (5 years in all). He then killed and robbed another couple acting like he was interested in a house they were selling.

Conclusion

He was arrested then put on trial. He could’ve been making up the blood-drinking in order for him to appear insane, but he would talk about his dreams before he would kill and about how he would crave blood. He was hanged in London in 1949 and claimed to have killed 9 people even though he was convicted of six murders.