the morning of 14 December 1952, Christie strangled Ethel in bed. She had last been seen in public two days earlier. Christie invented several stories to explain his wife's disappearance and to help mitigate the possibility of further inquiries being made. In reply to a letter from relatives in Sheffield, he wrote that Ethel had rheumatism and could not write herself; to one neighbour, he explained that she was visiting her relatives in Sheffield; to another, he said that she had gone to Birmingham. Christie had resigned from his job on 6 December and had been unemployed since then. To support himself, he sold Ethel's wedding ring and watch on 17 December for £2 10s and furniture on 8 January 1953 for which he received £11; he kept cutlery, two chairs, a mattress, and his kitchen table. From 23 January to 20 March, he received his weekly unemployment benefit of £3 12s. On 26 January 1953, Christie forged his wife's signature and emptied her bank account. On 27 February 1953, Christie sold some of his wife's clothing for £3 5s. He also received a cheque for £8 on 7 March from the Bradford Clothing and Supply Company. Further murders Between 19 January and 6 March 1953, Christie murdered three more women he invited back to 10 Rillington Place, Kathleen Maloney, Rita Nelson and Hectorina MacLennan. Maloney was a prostitute from the Ladbroke Grove area. Nelson was from Belfast and was visiting her sister in Ladbroke Grove; she was six months pregnant at the time she encountered Christie. Christie first met MacLennan, who was living in London with her boyfriend, Alex Baker, in a café. All three met on several occasions after this and Christie let MacLennan and Baker stay at Rillington Place while they were looking for accommodation. On another occasion, Christie met MacLennan on her own and persuaded her to come back to his flat, where he murdered her. Later he convinced Baker, who came to Rillington Place looking for MacLennan, that he had not seen her. Christie kept up the pretence for several days, meeting Baker regularly to see if he had news of MacLennan's whereabouts and to help him search for her. For the murders of his final three victims, Christie modified the gassing technique he had first used on Eady; he used a rubber tube connected to the gas pipe in the kitchen which he kept