Crime Immemorial

Twenty-six-year-old Jacqueline Gallagher lived on Glen Allan Way in Paisley, Scotland, and made her living as a sex worker around Glasgow. On June 23rd, 1996, she was spotted there in the city center, but it was the last time she was seen alive.

Not long after, her body was found partially concealed on a roadside near a bus stop on Dumbarton Road in Bowling. She had been bludgeoned to death.

The investigation went on for many years, but finally, in 2004, an arrest was made. Forty-three-year-old kitchen fitter George Johnstone, a regular client of Jacqueline’s, was charged with her murder and placed on trial.

Johnstone admitted that he had started frequenting sex workers after his wife left him in 1993, and was on friendly terms with all of them. Jacqueline, he said, was a particular favorite, and he claimed he had established quite a close relationship with her, paying her for sex at least twice a week and sometimes even picking her up in his van after work so the two could simply have a chat.

Traces of his DNA were discovered on Jacqueline’s clothing when her body was found, but Johnstone stated that was not surprising, as he had just had sex with her at his rented flat on Newlands Road the night before she was killed. He told the court that the last time he had seen her on the morning of June 23rd, he had dropped her off at the Glasgow city center and she had been alive and well. He also expressed feeling shock when he heard of Jacqueline’s murder, calling her a “nice lassie” and lamenting that something so awful had happened to someone he considered a friend.

A jury found the charges against George Johnstone unproven, and he was released.

Since then, there have been no new developments in the case, and the brutal murder of Jacqueline Gallagher is still unsolved as of August 2024.