The saying goes that if it sounds too good to be true, it very likely is. This refers to good things, bad things, and absurd things. The following case falls definitively under the too absurd to be true category.
Chrissie Gall was born the daughter of a shoemaker in Glasgow, Scotland around 1904 or so. (I couldn’t find an exact date, so I did some basic math and now here we are.) She was one of six children in a family barely making ends meet. In an effort to help their financial situation, Chrissie’s father made her leave school at 14 to look for work as a domestic. (I am not entirely sure what this means, but I assume something along the lines of live-in service? Please correct me if I’m wrong.) Chrissie easily found work among the affluent Glasgow families, and began sending money back to her family for the care of her parents and her siblings.
When she was 21, Chrissie’s life changed dramatically. She began working for the Queen family, a prominent family of bookmakers. It was through her employment there that she met the 24-year-old successor to the family, Peter Queen. Chrissie was absolutely smitten. It wasn’t long before she fell in love with Peter.
Peter had previously married young, but was separated from his wife. She was sent to an asylum when it proved that her alcohol addiction was too much for the family to bear. Peter was just as taken with Chrissie as she was with him. Smitten and separated from his wife, Peter reciprocated Chrissie’s feelings, falling head over heels for her.
Chrissie wasn’t in the employ of the Queen family for long. She had to leave in order to take care of her ailing mother. Peter took his chance, and decided to court Chrissie. He would often call on her and take her out on dates. After her mother’s passing, Chrissie stayed at her family home to then care for her father. Three years later, Chrissie’s father moved in with another one of his children, leaving Chrissie to pursue other ventures. And what she wanted was a future with Peter.
Peter placed her in a room at the home of James Burns, a personal family friend, and moved in soon after. Chrissie wanted desperately to live as husband and wife. As it was, she hadn’t informed her family of their relationship – she was ashamed. Peter was still married to his first wife, putting a damper on Chrissie’s dreams. The situation led her to drink to excess quite frequently.
Things came to a head in 1931, when Chrissie was 27 and Peter was 30. (See? Basic math.)
Chrissie’s drinking was getting out of hand – and Peter didn’t want to relive what he went through with his first wife. Chrissie would often promise to stop drinking, only to drink even harder the following evening. Her self-destructive, often suicidal, behaviour continued to escalate.
On one particular evening, Chrissie left the gas for the kitchen stove turned on, and wandered off to sleep away her drunken stupor. Thankfully, Mrs. Burns was there to turn it off just in time. Peter decided it was time for a change of scenery. He moved the couple into their own home on Dunbarton Rd. In Glasgow.
The move didn’t improve Chrissie’s addiction at all. “At the beginning of November, visitors to their house noticed that the coat peg behind the kitchen door was broken. Curious, they asked Queen about it and he said Chrissie had tried to hang herself.”
On November 19th, 1931, Chrissie and her brother, Bert, went on a pub crawl, drinking above and beyond their limits. When they got back to the house, Chrissie managed to catch Peter before Bert did. She begged him to tell Bert that the house was his aunt’s, and that Chrissie had gone back to work for the Queen family as a domestic. Against his better judgement, Peter followed Chrissie’s lead. Bert never saw his sister alive again.
“Chrissie was disturbed by her unmarried status, which she referred to as ‘living in sin’ and was upset about deceiving her family.” After her bender with Bert, Chrissie spent the entirety of the following day, the 20th, drinking herself into a state over her situation.
Friends of Peter and Chrissie, The Johnston’s, paid the couple a visit. They spent their visit watching Chrissie, laid up in bed, barely eating due to either too much to drink, or being too hungover. At around 10:45 PM, they left the house.
Four hours later, at 3 AM on the 21st, Peter ran to a police station and told officers that Chrissie was dead.
She was found by officers in bed, with the bedding pulled up. She had a rope around her neck, tied in a half-knot. It was determined that the rope was part of a clothesline. The bedroom showed absolutely no sign of a disturbance.
The autopsy later proved what police officers initially suspected – Chrissie had died by strangulation. Oddly enough, despite Peter telling officers of Chrissie’s inebriated state, no one took note of her blood alcohol levels.
In due course, Peter Queen was arrested and charged with the murder of Chrissie Gall.
The trial began on January 5th, 1932. A police officer testified for the Crown (the prosecution) that Peter had rushed into the station and said: “My wife is dead. I think I have killed her.” The Crown was set on proving that Chrissie was so drunk – so utterly helpless – that she couldn’t defend herself. That explained the lack of struggle in the bedroom.
Peter took the stand in his defence. He stated that Chrissie was inconsolable over whether or not Bert believed their tall tale of Chrissie working for Peter’s aunt. Peter did everything he could after the Johnston’s left, but Chrissie would not calm down. So, he left the room for fifteen minutes to have a cigarette. When he returned, he found her with the rope around her neck, and the bedcovers pulled up – as if she’d simply wanted to go to sleep.
He rushed to the police station, where he stated: “My wife is dead. Don’t think I’ve killed her” – a statement so similar, yet so very different than the police officer’s testimony. The defence hired Sir Bernard Spilsbury and Sir Sydney Smith – two brilliant pathologists – who concurred with Peter’s account. They determined that Chrissie had committed suicide – the rope texture was secure in that it would have stayed in place even after Chrissie’s hands would have fallen away as she fell unconscious. The Crown disagreed.
“The Crown believed Peter had wrapped the rope around Chrissie’s neck, thereby ridding himself of a woman suffering from both depression and alcoholism.” The jury deliberated for two hours, and returned with a guilty verdict. Peter Queen was sentenced to death – a sentence which was later commuted to life.
He spent over 20 years in prison before being released. He returned to work as a bookmaker, though he changed his name in order to distance himself from the nefarious affair.
Peter Queen died in 1958, leaving behind many people who are divided on his case. On the one hand, Peter very well could have murdered Chrissie, and serving only 20 years is a slap in the face of justice. On the other, he served 20 years for a crime he did not commit, which is a clear miscarriage of justice.
No matter which side of the fence you fall on, one thing can be agreed on by all. This tale is one that holds all the makings of something that is simply too absurd to be true.
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Sources:
Peter Queen – by Terry Hayden – murderuk.com
The Mammoth Book of Bizarre Crimes – Robin Odell
When world-class boozer Chrissie Gall was found dead, her boyfriend took the fall – Max Haines for The Western Star (This one doesn’t have a link, it was near impossible to save without creating an account on PressReader, which I didn’t want to do, but googling the title should lead to the link on PressReader.)