After Helen Kane’s body was discovered, police launched a hunt for killer - and detectives in Glasgow questioned connections with ‘Bible John’.
To this day Bible John remains unidentified, and is believed to have murdered three young women between 1968 and 1969 in Glasgow. All of his victims were young brunette women between the ages of 25 and 32 - matching Helen Kane’s description.
The killer met his victims at the Barrowland Ballroom, and became known as Bible John having repeatedly quoted from the Bible while condemning adultery to young women. With police in Glasgow still hunting him down in 1970, they contacted their counterparts in the capital following the murder of Helen Kane.
With striking similarities in the cases, detectives were keen to determine whether there could be a link. Just two days after the discovery of Helen’s body, police in Glasgow had reached a conclusion.
The Aberdeen Press & Journal told readers on May 27, 1970: “Detectives in Glasgow said today that they were ‘reasonably satisfied’ that there was no link between the murder of an Edinburgh mother on Sunday and a Glasgow mother last October.
“Detectives searching for ‘Bible John’ the nickname of a man they wish to interview in connection with the murder of Mrs Helen Puttock in Glasgow were in touch with Edinburgh police after Mrs Helen Kane was found dead on Sunday.”
Another suspect who was questioned by police was Peter Tobin. A review team investigated whether the serial killer could have been the murderer, a man who is currently serving a life sentence at HM Prison Edinburgh.
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Convicted of the murder of three women between 1991 and 2006, Tobin also served ten years for a double rape committed in 1993 - for which he was released in 2004. Police even investigated the potential of Tobin being Bible John, though ruled him out of those murders.
Tobin was found to have murdered 15-year-old Vicky Hamilton, 18-year-old Dinah McNicol, and 23-year-old Angelina Kluk. He was ruled out of the Helen Kane case, after it was discovered that he had been jailed for four months on May 15, 1970 - a week before the murder.
Police decided that neither Bible John or Peter Tobin were connected with the murder of Helen Kane, and 52 years on no more answers have been given.
This is the third instalment in Edinburgh Live's four part Testimony series looking at the murder of Helen Kane.
The first looks into the night the night that Helen was killed, just days before her wedding anniversary.
The second investigated the police inquiry into the World's End killer Angus Sinclair and his potential connection to the murder.
We will also be looking into the modern DNA testing that could solve Helen Kane's murder 52 years on.
