The Hunt for the World's End Killers

On 16 October 1977, the bodies of two young women, Christine Eadie and Helen Scott, were found six miles apart in East Lothian. Both women were bound, sexually assaulted, and strangled with their own clothing. Only the night before, the two childhood friends had gone out for drinks in the World's End pub on Edinburgh's famous Royal Mile. Witnesses recalled Christine and Helen speaking with two unknown men that night. The hunt for the killers became one of the biggest manhunts Scotland has ever seen, as fear gripped Scotland and the press began to link the murders of Christine and Helen with unsolved killings in Glasgow.

This two-part documentary series delves into the dark legacy the elusive killers left on the Scottish capital. With testimony from detectives and forensic scientists who worked on the investigation, journalists who reported on the case, and psychologists who studied the murders, this series follows the twists and turns of one of the most notorious double murders in Scottish criminal history.

This episode takes us back to 1977. Author Ian Rankin, then a 17-year-old student due to start at Edinburgh University, recalls how the capital was a grim, grey place where underage teenagers had no issues getting served in pubs. Despite its picturesque old town and tourist friendly centre, Edinburgh had a dark undercurrent. The law had not long changed to allow women to legally drink in bars, but they often had to tolerate questionable toilet facilities and unwanted attention from unrelenting men.

School friends Helen Scott and Christine Eadie went drinking with friends in Edinburgh, but did not return home. In a revealing interview, former Scotsman columnist Julie Davidson vividly recalls driving on the east coast near Gosford Bay on the morning of October 16th, when she came across a swarm of Lothian and Borders police. The body of 17-year-old Christine Eadie had been discovered by members of the public. Detective Sergeant Douglas Kerr of the murder squad was called out to the grisly scene. Sometime later, Helen's body was found a few miles away, and it was Douglas's task to deliver the awful news to Helen's parents.

Despite huge press attention, the trail soon went cold. But while the investigation faltered, the fear on the streets of Edinburgh only grew. The documentary reveals how sexist attitudes and widespread paranoia generated by the Yorkshire Ripper murders in England created a fearful, intimidating atmosphere for many women in Scotland. This was something further fuelled by the police, who repeatedly urged women to stay indoors.

In the months after the World's End murders, the press began to link the killings to several unsolved murders of women in Glasgow. However, despite similarities between the cases, detectives reveal that they were reluctant to combine the investigations. By the end of the 70s, the investigation into the World's End case had gone cold and it seemed like the killers had escaped justice.

In this episode, Ian Rankin explains that by the dawn of the 80s, the only hope for catching the World's End killers lay with the people developing new techniques in forensic science.

Astonishing archive footage reveals how policing underwent a revolution throughout the decade, fuelled by advances in forensic science, DNA fingerprinting and information technology. The programme also reveals how the FBI's pioneering advances in forensic psychology led to hopes that psychological profiles of the World's End killers could be created. Retired DCC Tom Wood reveals that he travelled to the FBI HQ with files on the unsolved murders from the late 70s in search of answers.
In the late 80s, advances in DNA fingerprinting technology also brought hope to the detectives on the case. Some biological evidence had been discovered on Helen Scott's coat, and forensic scientists succeeded in using it to obtain a clear DNA profile. However, when they tried to match it with existing DNA profiles held on police records across the UK, no match could be found.

Through the 90s, further advances in forensic science meant that DNA analysis became both more sensitive and more effective. A reanalysis of the stain on Helen's coat revealed that there was more than one person's DNA present. This second sample was examined and matched to notorious sexual offender Angus Sinclair, who was serving two life-sentences in Peterhead Prison.

Investigators then desperately try and discover which other murders might have been committed by Sinclair, and this episode reveals how the first trial against Sinclair would go on to controversially collapse. It would take a change of law and a new advance in forensic science to see him finally brought to justice.