THE HOUSE OF BLOOD

Evil McAlinden along with her son and his pal left three men brutally murdered and a scene straight out of horror movie in appalling Glasgow slayings

- BY JANE HAMILTON

THE FLAT on Dixon Avenue looked like any other in Glasgow's Crosshill district. Top floor, one bedroom and barely furnished.

But in October 2004, it would become the scene of one of the most frenzied and sadistic killing sprees in modern Scottish history.

Neighbours would later describe what they saw as something out of a horror film. The police gave it a name they rarely use publicly.

The House of Blood.

Inside, three men lay dead: stabbed, beaten, mutilated, scalded. One was beaten to death with a golf club. One had boiling water poured over him. Another's head had been stamped on.

Blood stained every surface, from the walls to the ceiling. Even hardened detectives were visibly shaken.

But the killers were not faceless strangers. The prime suspect was a woman known to police: Edith McAlinden. And the two who helped her? Her teenage son John and his friend Jamie Gray.

McAlinden, a 36-year-old thief, sex worker and homeless drifter, had been released from prison just weeks earlier, having served time for a violent attack on a former partner. She had nowhere to live and floated between the flats of acquaintances.

One of those was David Gillespie, a 42-year-old man who had offered her a place to stay.

But the relationship was volatile.

On October 17, 2004, the pair had been drinking heavily. By the early hours, it turned violent.

McAlinden flew into a rage, grabbed a knife and stabbed Gillespie repeatedly, striking a main artery in his leg. He bled to death on the living room floor.