MEDICAL and SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATIONS in the CHRISTIE CASE, by FRANCIS E. CAMPS, M.D. Lecturer in Forensic Medicine at the London Hospital Medical College.

Published by Medical Publications Limited, London and New York, 1953. First edition.

SIGNED and INSCRIBED by the author, Francis Camps, on the front free endpaper.

Copy of JOHN E. MURDOCK, noted Forensic Science Investigator, with his signature at the top of the front pastedown.

Hardcovers, green cloth covered boards, gilt titles to the spine, 6x9 inches, xxiii + 244 pages. ILLUSTRATED "With 47 Diagrams and Photographs and 6 Coloured Plates".

GOOD condition: The covers have some small white spots, there is a bit of wear to the spine ends and corner tips, and the spine gilt is faded but legible, otherwise the covers are solid and well bound. Internally the pages are very nice, tight, bright, clean, clear and unmarked.

SCARCE book, especially so with the Signature and Inscription of the author and forensic witness Francis Camps, and the association to criminologist John E. Murdock.

About FRANCIS CAMPS and the CHRISTIE MURDER CASE (from Wikipedia):

******Francis Edward Camps, b.1905 d.1972, was an English pathologist noted for his work on the cases of serial killers John Christie and John Bodkin Adams. He was professor of Forensic Medicine at the London Hospital Medical College, and President of the International Association of Forensic Scientists. He was the author of many papers on forensic medicine.

Camps gave critical evidence during the 1953 trial of John Christie, providing the court with a detailed report on the bodies found at 10 Rillington Place. Camps' report showed a consistent pattern of attack by Christie. His forensic evidence left little doubt that Christie murdered the victims and that Timothy Evans, who had been convicted and hanged for two of the murders, was innocent.

The Christie case was the most prominent of a series of miscarriages of justice which ultimately led to the abolition of capital punishment for murder in England, Wales and Scotland in 1965.******

About JOHN E. MURDOCK (from an online obituary):

******John E. Murdock, b.1938 d.2025, was Chief of the Contra Costa County Forensic Services Division (crime laboratory) for many years. He was an expert firearm and toolmark examiner. Though Murdock worked on many high profile criminal cases, he was most proud of his work on two cases for the Innocence Project, where his expertise helped secure the release of Patrick Pursley (who had spent 25 years in prison) and Bryan Foshay (who had spent 9 years in prison) following their wrongful convictions for murder based on misleading forensic evidence. The Pursley case was the first in the United States to allow post conviction firearms testing.******

About JOHN CHRISTIE - Serial Killer (from Wikipedia):

******John Reginald Halliday Christie, b1899 d.1953, was an English serial killer who murdered at least eight people - including his wife Ethel - by strangling them inside his flat at 10 Rillington Place, Notting Hill, London. The bodies of three of his victims were found in a wallpaper covered kitchen alcove soon after he had moved out of Rillington Place during March 1953. The remains of two more victims were discovered in the garden, and his wife's body was found beneath the floorboards in the front room. Christie was eventually arrested and convicted of murder, for which he was hanged.

Two of Christie's victims were Beryl Evans and her baby daughter Geraldine. In 1950 Timothy Evans was charged with those murders, found guilty and hanged. Christie was a key prosecution witness in the Evans trial. When his own crimes were discovered three years later, it became evident that Christie's murders included Beryl Evans and her daughter, and that the police mishandling of the original inquiry allowed an innocent man to be hanged and Christie to escape detection, enabling him to commit a further four murders.******