The Peepshow – The Murders at 10 Rillington Place by Kate Summerscale has been on my TBR for a while and I’m SO glad I’ve now read it. It’s a brilliant and throughly researched account of a true crime that took place in 1953 in London. It felt like reading fiction in terms of its structure and the way the different elements of the crime are woven in.
Opening sentence: At about 8 o’clock one foggy night in March, Christina Maloney was soliciting for custom outside the cheap hotels and boarding houses in Sussex Gardens, a dilapidated stucco terrace in Paddington, when she was approached by a thin man in spectacles.
What happened at 10 Rillington Place?
While I hadn’t actually heard about this case before, its a highly publicised one, with lots of coverage and adaptations over the years, including the film, 10 Rillington Place with Richard Attenbourgh playing serial killer, Reg Christie.
So yes, this brings us to what The Peepshow is about. The hideous crimes of Reg Christie. A man who lured young women into his home, killed them and then hid their bodies behind the walls. The book not only covers the facts of the crime – how he was discovered, caught and his trial, but, importantly, builds the picture of the lives of the women and gives them a voice too.
The role of the media
The Peepshow also explores the media’s – specifically journalist Harry Procter‘s – role in manipulating the outcome of the court case and general public perception of what was happening. To keep things even more riveting, a second murder case is brought into the mix too.
Harry is a crime reporter but is so interested in Christie’s case as he’s trying to right a previous wrong, where another tenant in Reg Christie’s shared house was hanged for murder and Harry covered the case. He met Christie but didn’t – he feels – question him properly and missed what he now thinks is obvious. An innocent man hung for Christie’s crime.
By failing to suspect Reg Christie, harry might have let an innocent man hang – and left Christie free to find more victims. He cursed himself for not having questioned him more closely at Rillington Place that night.
Even more – there is another sub-plot about crime writer, Fryn Jesse pulling together her take on the case and her perspective on things. This all may sound like a lot but it truly adds so much depth and shows you how complex this case was, as well as how it caught everyone’s attention.
Commentary on society
The Peepshow is also a commentary on 1950s society both on how terribly women, especially if they made a living by selling sex, were treated and the racism that pulsed through – Reg Christie’s landlord was a Black man and this got a lot of media scrutiny – trying to link him to the crimes that were so definitely Christie’s.
10 Rillington Place – the whole road, in fact – has been renamed Ruston Close and the actual house demolished to keep away people trying to visit the grisly scene of the crime.
The Peepshow is one of the best true crime books I’ve read. It’s a really brilliant account that gives heart and dimension to such a dark side of human nature.
