Theodore Johnson: Serial killer whose first wife died in fall from Wolverhampton balcony admits taking life of third lover
A violent and controlling serial killer who killed his wife in Wolverhampton by throwing her from a balcony and then went on to kill a second partner 12 years later, has now pleaded guilty to murdering a third girlfriend.
Theodore Johnson, 64, admitted killing mother-of-four and grandmother Angela Best, aged 51, by beating her with a claw hammer and throttling her with a dressing gown cord in north London.
After attacking her at his Islington home, he threw himself in front of an express train but survived.
Garage worker Johnson had previously been convicted of killing his first wife Yvonne Johnson by throwing her off a balcony in Blakenhall in 1981 and strangling another former partner in 1993.
The wheelchair-bound defendant had pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Ms Best and admitted her murder on the first day of his Old Bailey trial today.
Johnson killed Ms Best on December 15, 2016, after their relationship broke down and she started seeing another man.
The couple had met around 1995 after the victim moved to London from Manchester with her children.
It can now be reported that the defendant had a history of violence towards women, having been twice convicted of manslaughter before.
In November 1981, he was convicted by a jury at Stafford Crown Court of the manslaughter of his wife Yvonne Johnson.
Following an argument, he hit the mother-of-two with a vase before pushing her over the balcony of their ninth floor flat in Franchise House, Blakenhall Gardens, Wolverhampton.
He was convicted of manslaughter on the grounds of provocation and jailed for three years.
Soon after his release he met Yvonne Bennett and they lived together in Wolverhampton.
The couple, who had a daughter together, later moved to Finsbury Park in north London where Johnson strangled Ms Bennett with a belt after she had an affair with another man.
In March 1993, he was convicted at the Old Bailey of killing Ms Bennett by diminished responsibility.
Johnson went on to try to hang himself from a tree after the killing, the Old Bailey heard at the time and doctors agreed he was suffering from a depressive illness. He was sent to a secure hospital indefinitely after admitting her manslaughter.
Ms Best’s two sisters sat in court as Johnson entered his guilty plea as his murder trial was about to be opened to a jury by prosecutor Mark Heywood QC.
Judge Richard Marks QC remanded him into custody to be sentenced on Friday.
