“10 Rillington Place” and “Let Him Have It”

The following sample essay on “10 Rillington Place and Let Him Have It” обсуждается a number of similarities and differences between the two crime cases of John Christie/Timothy Evans and Derek Bentley/Christopher Craig, on which the two films, “10 Rillington Place” and “Let Him Have It” were based on.

To begin with, I will state the similarities. The most obvious similarity between the two cases is the fact that the use of ambiguity led both Derek Bentley and Timothy Evans to a fatal death sentence, even though they did not commit murder.

They both were completely innocent of murder, but were sentenced to death by hanging, whilst the actual murderers still escaped the death sentence (Christie at first got away, but as he confessed his murders later, he too was too hung.)

The second similarity is that in the end, both John Christie and Chris Craig confessed their murders. Another similarity is that Timothy Evans’ name was cleared after he died (13 years later), just as did Derek Bentley’s (Bentley’s name was cleared only just a few years ago).

The two killers both had a criminal ‘track’ record and a history of crime had also run in both their families. Bentley and Evans both had no criminal records and their families were also totally clear of any criminal activity.

Derek was an epileptic (a disorder of nervous system); John Christie also had some other sort of mental illness which is perhaps one reason why he had become a serial killer. The judges in both films were biased against Derek Bentley and Timothy Evans when they were being tried.

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The two were then unfortunately executed due to the judges’ bias.

Also, both the cases consisted of one older person being involved, and one younger. In “10 Rillington Place”, Christie was the older one and Evans the younger, whereas in “Let Him Have It”, Derek Bentley was the older one and Chris Craig the younger. However, in “Let Him Have It”, Derek Bentley, the older defendant, had been sentenced to death, whereas in “10 Rillington Place”, Timothy Evans, the younger one, had been sentenced. This is one of the many notable differences, which I will explain.

An apparent difference is that in “Let Him Have It”, Craig, the murderer, survives as he’s only 16, even though he confessed all his criminal offences. This is so as he is under-age to be sentenced to death. None of the killers in the other film/case survived. Craig was sentenced to 10 years, Christie to death (As Christie was old enough to be hung, as was Derek Bentley).

One other difference is that whilst Craig confessed all his crimes and murders, and didn’t leave any out, Christie still denied the charge of murdering the baby, maybe simply because it was too embarrassing and devastating to admit to killing an innocent child.

Christie’s first and only intentions were murder; Craig’s weren’t, although Craig was carrying a revolver which he used to try and protect himself from the police. He had brought it along incase he was spotted that night, so he could use it as some sort of threat to get away or even fire it, if need be.

Christie was also a well-known criminal who’d come out of jail, and was a mad serial killer, whereas Craig had committed other offences, less major than murder. There is a distinct difference between the two characters’s who committed the murders; One is a grown man who has some sort of psychiatric problem (John Christie), and the other is a teenager who carried weapons around, stole and got into all sorts of trouble with the law, simply just because he wanted to emulate the role of an American gangster.

In conclusion, the cases of the four main characters in the films “Let Him Have It” and “10 Rillington Place” do consist of several major significant similarities, as well as differences. Although both the number of differences and the number of similarities are about equal, I still personally think that both films’/case’s main concept is the same, and that they are more alike than different. However, there are differences that appear to separate them into two different categories/genres; “Let Him Have It” is portrayed as more of an action gangster film, and the actual case and story was more dramatic than “10 Rillington Place”, which is portrayed as more of a thriller and mystery case/film.