The Horrifying Double Life of Peter Tobin

On an ordinary day in 2006, if you’d walked past St. Patrick’s Church in Glasgow, nothing would have caught your eye. There, out back, was a wiry old handyman, head down, scraping paint, fixing gutters. Quiet. Unremarkable.
You wouldn’t have given him a second glance.What nobody knew – what nobody even imagined – was that beneath the church floorboards, hidden below the very place where people came to pray, lay a terrible secret: the body of a young girl.

This is the story of Peter Tobin. A serial killer who hid in plain sight for decades – posing as a handyman, a church volunteer, a good neighbour – all while leaving a trail of devastation across Britain.

The Vanishing of Vicky Hamilton

February, 2006. Fifteen‑year‑old Vicky Hamilton was on her way home from visiting her sister in Bathgate, West Lothian. The snow was thick on the ground. She waited for a bus, clutching a takeaway, but she never stepped on board. At first there was panic. Posters. Appeals. Volunteers searching canals and parks. Police combed CCTV, interviewed witnesses, set up roadblocks. Nothing.And slowly, the case began to fade – another girl swallowed up by the dark. Then, months later, in another city, another girl disappeared. And this time the man responsible made a mistake.

Angelika Kluk and the Crypt Beneath the Church

Angelika Kluk was 23. A Polish student who had come to Glasgow to study and work. She was bright, gentle, and quick to smile.She cleaned St. Patrick’s Church to earn extra money. And one day… she vanished.At first, there was no sign of a struggle. The church was locked. Everything in its place.But detectives trusted their instincts. They brought in sniffer dogs, cadaver dogs, and drills. And that’s when they found it: a trapdoor hidden in the floor.Beneath the boards was a narrow crawlspace, a place no one had seen in decades. And crammed into that suffocating dark was Angelika’s body – beaten, gagged, stabbed, and wrapped in plastic. It didn’t take long to find the man who had been helping out at the church. The one who called himself Pat McLaughlin. Only Pat wasn’t his real name.His real name was Peter Tobin.

The Past Catches Up

Tobin was born in 1946. A lifelong criminal. Burglary. Assault. Rape.In 1993, he lured two schoolgirls – just 14 – to his flat in Havant. He spiked their drinks, raped and beat them. This time, he was caught. Ten years in prison.When he got out, he disappeared.He had dozens of names. Kept on the move – Glasgow, Brighton, Bathgate, London – always working as a handyman. Always finding a way to get close to churches and community centres.But now, the police had something they’d never had before: his DNA.

DNA Never Lies

The DNA found on Angelika linked Tobin to another unsolved disappearance – Vicky Hamilton.

Detectives tracked his old addresses, and one in Margate, Kent, caught their attention. Behind the house was a small concrete patio, recently poured.They tore it up.Under the patio, buried in soil and wrapped in plastic, they found Vicky Hamilton. She had been drugged, sexually assaulted, and suffocated.But Vicky wasn’t alone.Next to her was the body of another young woman.

Dinah McNicol

Dinah McNicol was 18 when she vanished in 1991. She’d just finished her A‑levels and was hitchhiking home from a music festival. Her parents believed she’d run away to France, that one day she’d send a letter.She never did.Tobin had picked her up. Drugged her. Killed her. And buried her next to Vicky. Her body lay there for fifteen years.

Operation Anagram

With three bodies tied to Tobin, the police launched Operation Anagram, one of the largest manhunts in British history.They traced his movements over decades, following electricity bills, fake names, and scraps of paper across the country.Everywhere he’d lived, women had vanished. Some detectives believe he could be responsible for as many as 48 murders.There is even a theory – one that refuses to die – that Peter Tobin was Bible John, the faceless predator who killed women in Glasgow in the late 1960s.

Tobin never admitted to it. He never admitted to anything.

The End

Peter Tobin died in prison in 2022, alone and unrepentant.For decades, he hid in plain sight. A handyman. A church volunteer. A friendly neighbour.
But behind that mask was a predator who never stopped hunting.Even now, questions remain:How many more girls did he kill?
How many gardens, how many floorboards, still hide his secrets?The police may never know.But if you ever pass a small garden in Margate, or step inside a quiet church in Glasgow… listen closely.

The ground remembers.