True Crime With Caledonian Kitty

(Peter Tobin. Picture credit: kentlive) 

Concluded from part one and two 

Please be aware that distressing details are included in this post.

In 2006, Peter Tobin who was now calling himself ''Pat Mclaughlin'' was now working as a maintenance man at St Patrick's church. Nobody there had any idea of the horrendous background of this man amongst them. He was polite, friendly and would help anyone without even being asked, he was also easy to talk to. 

Some of the people who've been interviewed over the years about Peter Tobin have mentioned his ability to manipulate people, convince them that he is this caring, loving person but then once he thought that he had you where he wanted you, the mask would fall off and the real him would be revealed. 

Angelika Kluk was a beautiful 23 year old woman from Poland who was studying in Glasgow. Over the summer holidays she stayed at St Patrick's church where she would do some cleaning and helping out as a way of earning some extra money to send back to her family. It was only supposed to be a temporary job over the holidays. 

The monster who was calling himself Pat McLaughlin spotted Angelika and tried to befriend her by turning on his usual routine. Angelika was polite towards him but wasn't interested in him in any other way. Being a 23 year old women and him approaching 60 may have made her view him as a father like figure or a nicer, vulnerable older man. Peter Tobin would always use his heart condition to gain sympathy from people and to look at him, he does look frail but appearances can be deceptive.

He admired Angelika from afar but became obsessed with her and on Sunday the 24th of September 2006, he saw her alone and took the opportunity to viciously attack the young woman, he hit her over the head violently with a table leg, she fell to the ground instantly but was still conscious.

He then tied her hands together above her head, gagged and raped her before stabbing her to death and wrapping her body in plastic bags and taking her from the scene of the murder to inside the church where he put her body under the floorboards.

Why did he place her there? Looking back at Peter's background, maybe he was placing her there temporarily and planned to remove her at some point and dismember her remains?

After he carried out this evil act, he went to the kitchen in the church and helped prepare the Sunday lunch for the church members. He was still wearing the same clothes which contained traces of Angelika's blood and his semen.

Angelika was popular at the church and everyone found it strange that she hadn't joined them for lunch, they couldn't find her in her room and all of her belongings were still there. The next day she was reported missing. 

The police and forensic team began searching every inch of the church and taking statements. They interviewed Peter who put on a performance of being sympathetic and that he had no idea what was going on. Throughout this time that he knew what he had done and that Angelika's body was underneath the floorboards, he remained calm, chilled out and his usual self.

As the police were searching the church, Peter was outside building a shed and unbeknown to him and the investigators at the time, little microscopic traces of Angelika's blood were splattered on pieces of the shed. Peter was still wearing the same clothes. 

Peter knew the police were searching the area where Angelika's body was hidden and he took off, everyone was wondering where he was and it didn't take long for him to become their number one suspect.

Everyone else at the church had been questioned and accounted for but now Peter (Pat McLaughlin) was nowhere to be seen. The police managed to get hold of a recent photograph of Peter Tobin and launched a nationwide appeal for the public to help find out his whereabouts.

One of Peter's previous neighbours saw the appeal on the news and called the police to tell them that Pat McLaughlin was actually Peter Tobin.

At this time, Peter was hiding out in Edinburgh but soon travelled to London where he checked into a hospital under another alias ''James Kelly'' complaining of heart trouble. 

A nurse recognised his face from the photograph on the news and the police were contacted. Peter as taken back to Scotland for questioning and he was still wearing the same clothes which the police took as evidence.

Peter denied murdering Angelika. Angelika was finally found and investigators said that her hands were tied together and covered in blood, her top had been pulled up to expose her breasts, her trousers were also unbuttoned. Peter Tobin's semen had been found on her body which forensics had confirmed on the Monday matched with his DNA on their database.

Peter Tobin had used over 40 different aliases and between the year 2005 and 2006, he used 30 different mobile phones. The police decided to look into his background due to the brutal nature of Angelika's murder and the feeling that this was not just a one-off killing, they felt that he had done this before.

The investigation was called ''Operation Anagram'' and specialist investigators went through files and files of missing persons cases to see if there was a link to Peter Tobin.

What they found was shocking. They managed to link him to the murder of a young girl called Vicky Hamilton. Vicky had been visiting her sister in 1991 and was last seen waiting for a bus but seemed to have just vanished. It was the biggest missing persons case in Scotland and over 7,000 people were interviewed and the police took over 3,000 statements. 

The police obtained a warrant to search his house in Margate and they found a knife in the attic which contained a piece of Vicky's skin and DNA. They decided to dig up the back garden and on the 13th of November 2007 the police confirmed that they found the remains of Vicky Hamilton. 

Peter had abducted Vicky drugged and strangled her before cutting her body in half. He drove her remains 500 miles to Margate and buried her in his garden. 

On the 16th of November 2007, the police found the remains of Dinah McNicol, she had also been drugged and strangled. She had gone missing 6 months after Vicky and she was just 18 years old.

Dinah's body had been dismembered and her remains placed in 20 different plastic bags before being buried in the garden. Investigators found Peter Tobin's fingerprints on and in the bags.

Peter Tobin was already serving time in prison for the rape and murder of Angelika Kluk but now the police had charged him for the kidnap and murder of Vicky Hamilton. 

On the 3rd of November 2008 he went on trial for Vicky's murder, 21 days later he was found guilty. Just 30 weeks after this he went to trial for the murder of Dinah McNicol and was also found guilty. 

During the search of his house, the police found a huge collection of women's jewelry. The police believe this to be ''trophies'' from some of Peter Tobin's victims and because of the way he carried out the murders and disposed of the bodies whilst keeping up the appearance of being calm and collected, it is believed that he may have been responsible for many more deaths and quite possibly be the worst serial killer the UK has ever seen.

Because of his ability to move around the UK, the different addresses, over 40 aliases and his constant forgery of documents, it's hard for investigators to track his full background but they are still looking into him.

Professor David Wilson, who I greatly admire has gone into detail about Peter Tobin many times and has written a book with Paul Harrison titled The Lost British Serial Killer 

David Wilson's theory is that Peter Tobin is Bible John the unidentified serial killer who murdered three women in Glasgow in the 1960s. The Bible John case has a Jack The Ripper vibe to it because for decades people have had theories about who this man was and where he could be now or when he could have possibly died. Like Jack The Ripper, it's a conversation that could go on and on with people having their various opinions.

Do I believe that Peter Tobin was Bible John? I don't want to make an opinion until I have read David Wilson and Paul Harrison's book, I'm interested to know how they've made the connection.

I also think it's important to include these pieces of information I found whilst doing my research. Margaret, Peter's first wife who he had abused so terribly mentioned in an interview that Peter would not allow her to use sanitary protection whilst she was on her period. Peter would force Margaret to have sex on her period. Bible John's victims had all been on their periods the time of their murders.

Peter Tobin also claimed in prison that he has murdered at least 48 people but has refused to give the police any further information.

Going by Peter Tobin's methods, I believe David Wilson's belief that Peter is responsible for far more deaths than we know of. 

Peter Tobin will never be released from prison and is now 73 years old. He has been reported in the press to have cancer and rarely leaves his prison cell because he is so frail. It's also been reported that he has a romantic relationship with a cross-dressing paedophile.

My heart goes out to the families of Angelika, Vicky, Dinah. I also think about Angelika, Vicky and Dinah, wondering what would have became of them if they had not had their lives cruelly stolen by such a monster.

I think about the unknown victims and the families out there who are still searching for answers.

If you have any information about Peter Tobin, no matter how small, contact your local police station.

RIP Angelika, Vicky and Dinah,

Thank you for reading my three part series on Peter Tobin, if you have any thoughts you would like to share on this case, please leave a comment below or come and chat to me about it on social media 

UPDATE: Peter Tobin passed away in an Edinburgh hospital on the 8th of October 2022.  As I previously mentioned, he'd had a history of health problems especially to do with his heart. He was 76 years old. There was no funeral and his remains were cremated and scattered at sea with no family members in attendance. Peter Tobin died taking many of his dark secrets to the grave. 

Further reading & sources:

- Peter Tobin - Wikipedia

Much Love, see you in my next case x

(Peter Tobin. Picture credit: scotsman.com) 

Continued from part one 

Please be aware in this post that I will be sharing some disturbing details. 

As I mentioned in part one, Peter Tobin had a history of violence towards women and a troubled background. Looking back it's clear to see that the red flags were always there, that a pattern was emerging and the feeling that he'd carried out his sadistic and cruel acts a number of times but somehow managed to get away with it.

He had already drugged, raped, murdered, dismembered & buried two girls in his back garden in 1991 but we weren't to discover this fact until years later when investigators started to delve thoroughly into his background. Around 1993, all we knew was that he had a history of extreme violence towards women. 

It was in 1993 that two teenage girls almost died at the hands of Peter Tobin. He'd moved to a flat to be closer to his son Daniel. His ex wife, Cathy felt that Peter had the right to visit their son and have him stay overnights at his flat as she said that he never laid a hand on his son. Cathy's feeling was that she had a bad childhood without a father and she didn't want that to be the same situation for her son.

On the night of the 4th of August 1993, Daniel was staying at his father's flat. This would be a regular arrangement and sometimes Peter would have babysitters around to look after Daniel if he fancied going out for a couple of drinks.

On this night however, Peter had a plan. He had arranged for two teenage girls to come to the flat in the pretence that they would babysit Daniel. His plan was to have sex with the two girls.

When the the girls arrived, Peter didn't leave the house and instead told them that he wanted to hang out with them and have a few drinks. A few hours passed and the drinks flowed, Peter tried to flirt and come onto the girls, when that didn't work, he drugged their glasses of wine.

As the drugs began to take effect, Peter became sadistic and threatened the girls with a knife in some kind of sick cat and mouse game. 

The girls were becoming more drowsy and disorientated until they finally passed out on the sofa. Five year old Daniel was still awake and Peter wanted to get rid of the child so that he could carry out his sick plan for the girls. He called Cathy in the middle of the night and told her to come and collect Daniel because he was having heart trouble and was going to call an ambulance.

When Cathy arrived, Peter was already stood on the doorstep with Daniel. Cathy asked him if everything was ok and did he want her to wait with him until the ambulance arrived? Peter told her just to take Daniel and go home and that he would sort it all out himself.

Once Cathy had driven away, Peter went back inside the flat where he raped and sodomised the two girls before putting on the gas taps and fleeing the scene. 

It's unclear how the girls were found but luckily they were saved just in time and managed to survive the horrific attack. 

Cathy got a phone call the next morning from the police telling her to come down to the police station straight away and bring Daniel with her.

It was at the police station where she learnt the horror of what went on the night before and even more horrendous was that Daniel had told investigators that Peter had told him to get some ice out of the freezer and place it on one of the girls who was bleeding after Peter had stabbed her.

Peter Tobin was on the run and managed to hide for several weeks. He'd spent some time with a religious group whilst on the run and the police made several public appeals for information about him.

Peter had been hiding in Coventry but returned to the South Coast where he was spotted after his car had been recognised, he was swiftly arrested by the police.

After a plea bargain, he pleaded guilty to rape but the charge of attempted murder was dropped and on the 18th of May 1994, he was sentenced to 14 years.

In 2004 he was released back into the public and was now on the sex offenders register. The police were keeping a close eye on him. He was 58 years old at the time. 

At this point in his life, he was single, divorced, he had nowhere to go and his family had disowned him. His sister was reported to have told people that he had died.

He returned to Paisley where he grew up and decided to get a flat there. It wasn't long until he tried to use his manipulative ways to lure another young, vulnerable woman into his trap and this time he turned his attention to his upstairs neighbour.

They would visit each others flats for coffee and chats but soon the pair grew closer. The woman had no idea of Peter Tobin's past, he was very polite and caring towards her but the police soon discovered what was going on and warned the young woman to stay away from him.

When the woman confronted Peter about what the police had told her, he said that it was all lies and he was going to sue the police. The lady kept her distance from Peter and he gave up and decided to move to another flat in 2005.

He struck up a friendship with another young woman but this time the woman was a bit of a tomboy and had been in the Army so she could handle herself which proved to be the case when, after inviting her to his house for a coffee, he jumped on her with a knife.

The woman fought back and managed to grab the knife off him during which she was cut. She ran as fast as she could for the door with Peter grabbing the knife off the floor and charging after her.

She got to the door which was locked and Peter came right up behind her, she did her best to fight back and Peter gave up and pretended to have a heart attack.

Thinking on her feet, the woman tried to calm him down and he told her that he wasn't going to stab her, that it was all a joke. She played along and told him to open the door to let some fresh air in and she would help him.

As soon as Peter opened the door she ran as fast as she could with him soon following after. She managed to get away and was taken to the hospital.

After she'd reported the incident to the police, they went to Peter's house to find that he had fled the scene. 

Peter Tobin was on the run again, going from hostel to hostel and managed to stay under the radar for quite some time. He was now calling himself ''Pat McLaughlin'' and seven months after the attack on the young woman he began working as a maintenance man at St Patrick's church in Glasgow.

He had found the perfect hiding place or so he thought but it was to be where he would commit one of the most brutal and horrifying murders Scotland had ever seen and the real story of Peter Tobin would be revealed. It would also be the start of a journey into his background, who was he? Could he have been the notorious killer, ''Bible John'' who had murdered women in the 1960s in Glasgow? and who were the young women who were buried in his back garden in Margate? 

How many women did he kill and how did he manage to get away with it for so long? 

In part three I will talk about the horrific murder of Angelika Kluk, the murders of Vicky Hamilton and Dinah McNicol and what became of Peter Tobin. 

Continued in part three 

(Peter Tobin. Photo credit: kentlive.news) 

When I say the name Peter Tobin, those of you who are from the UK, particularly Scotland will probably recoil in disgust. This is a man (if you could even call him a man) who hit the headlines back in 2007 when he was sentenced to life with a minimum of 21 years for the rape and murder of a young Polish student by the name of Angelika Kluk.

Angelika's murder had shook Glasgow and no doubt the whole of Scotland. People were horrified when they read in the newspapers and saw on the news that this beautiful 23 year old had been so brutally attacked, sexually assaulted and then dumped under the floorboards of a well known church in Glasgow.

Angelika was living in Glasgow, studying and making some money at the church as a cleaner. She would send some of the money back home to Poland to help her family, she lived at the church and would often help out with other things. Unfortunately, the young woman came to the attention of the church maintenance man who was calling himself ''Pat McLaughlin'' and he would watch her from afar.

The church would have coffee mornings and suppers for lonely and homeless people in the community and Pat McLaughlin would often be seen helping out. Pat came across as a nice, polite man but there was always something about him that nobody could put their finger on, he seemed a bit shifty, like he was always nervous or hiding something.

(Left: Vicky Hamilton. Centre: Angelika Kluk. Right: Dinah McNicol. Photo cred: bbc.co.uk) 

The truth about Pat McLaughlin was that his real name was Peter Tobin and ''Pat McLaughlin'' was one of over 40 aliases he used. He had a very dark past and was a very dangerous, sick individual but to the onlooker, he just looked like a frail old man who had a heart condition. He did genuinely have a heart condition (which is probably one of the only things he was truthful about) and would often play on this fact to gain sympathy from others.

The murder of Angelika Kluk pushed Peter Tobin into the spot light but who was he? What was in his past?

As I always do, I will take you back to the start and delve into his background and how he came to be one of, if not the most prolific serial killer Scotland has ever seen.

Before I begin, I want to mention that I will be sharing some disturbing details in this case so please be warned.

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So, let's delve into Peter Tobin's background...

Peter Britton Tobin was born in Johnstone, Renfrewshire in Scotland on the 27th of August 1946 and from a young age something wasn't quite right about him. He was the youngest of eight siblings but because he was too much to handle and hard to control, he was sent to an Approved School (a place where delinquent children are often sent to stay as a way for them to learn rules and better behaviour) when he was just 7 years old.

He also spent time in Borstal and his first taste of prison life was in 1970 when he was arrested for forgery and burglary.

Peter had been married three times, his first marriage in 1970 to 17 year old Margaret Mountney lasted a year but Margaret later stated that it was a living hell. Peter was a very jealous and controlling individual who could be very nice one minute and a nightmare the next. Margaret had a puppy that she adored and one day she came home to find that Peter had harmed the poor animal and threw it out of the window as he claimed the dog wouldn't stop yelping.

Margaret would suffer daily torment and sexual assaults and she felt that she couldn't escape. They were living in Brighton at the time and all her family was back home in Scotland. On one horrific occasion, Peter ordered Margaret to have sex with him and when she refused he raped her. After the horrendous assault, he returned to her brandishing a knife which he forced inside of her and sickeningly and sadistically twisted around trying to cause as much pain and suffering to Margaret as he could. He then left her there on the bed bleeding profusely and left the house in which he had kept Margaret as a prisoner.

Margaret lost so much blood that it's a miracle that she managed to survive. She was discovered by the neighbours who noticed the blood seeping through the floor boards. She was rushed to hospital and because of Peter's sick and disgusting act, he destroyed her ability to ever have children as he had damaged a lot of her internal organs. Being a frightened young woman under Peter's psychological control and not knowing anyone in Brighton, shockingly, Margaret was returned to Peter. She did eventually manage to escape from him and Peter told his friends another version of the story to make himself look innocent.

In 1973, he managed to strike up a friendship with a local nurse named Sylvia Jefferies. Sylvia was 30 years old and it wasn't long before a relationship developed which resulted in the pair getting married. It wasn't long before Peter changed from being the nice guy to turning violent and like Margaret before her, she would suffer at the hands of Peter Tobin. Despite the violent marriage, they managed to have two children, a daughter who died not long after birth and a son. It wasn't long before Sylvia managed to escape with her son.

He soon found another partner in the young teenage Cathy Wilson. Cathy had suffered a difficult childhood and was pretty much fending for herself at the age of 16. When she met Peter, she felt like he was a caring, almost father like figure. She later said in interviews that Peter had the ability to zoom in on vulnerable women and act like he was this knight in shining armour that was just there to love and protect them. Once he knew the girls and women's weaknesses, the real him would be revealed.

It wasn't long before Peter began abusing her, throwing her up against the walls and shouting at her. She would blame herself and make excuses for him. One of the heartbreaking things about Cathy's story is that she put up with Peter because she had been so used to being hurt and abused as a child that she had gotten to the point where it was like an everyday thing for her.

Despite the abuse that she suffered she said that there were moments when Peter could be kind and gentle. Cathy fell pregnant with their son in the December of 1987 and they got married in 1989. Like Margaret, Cathy didn't have a support network or anyone she felt she could reach out to for help, she was a frightened young woman who had suffered a tremendous amount of trauma in her short life before and during her time with Peter Tobin.

In 1990, Peter, Cathy and their son moved to Bathgate in West Lothian, Scotland. Shortly afterwards however, Cathy managed to take her son and get away from Peter. She moved back to Portsmouth, Hampshire.

From May 1991 to 1993, Peter lived in a terrace house in Margate, Kent. 

In 1993, Peter decided to move to Havant, Hampshire to be closer to his son. At this point, Cathy agreed that Peter should be allowed to see his son. She said that he was very gentle with his son and wouldn't see any harm come to him but with other people he was cold.

Unknown to anyone at this time, Peter Tobin had already drugged, sexually assaulted, murdered and dismembered two teenage girls who were reported missing in 1991 (I will talk more about them in my coming posts) and had buried their remains in the back garden of his terraced house in Kent (these remains would not be discovered until 16 years after they disappeared).

(A recent picture of Margaret and Cathy. Photo credit: dailyrecord.co.uk) 

Another sickening act would occur on the night of the 4th of August 1993 which led Peter Tobin to be sentenced to 14 years in prison before he was released in 2004 and then just three years later, taking the life of 23 year old Angelika Kluk in a cold hearted and sadistic way.

Continued in part two...