On the Dangers of Exposure to the Sun

[steepholm]

A day after the Attorney General warned newspapers against prejudicing a fair trial by publishing gossip about Chris Jefferies, The Sun leads with the story of a woman in her thirties who'd been bothered by him in a library and found him creepy. Indeed, 'creepy' is a word that comes up repeatedly in accounts from the various neighbours, acquaintances and ex-pupils the press have managed to dig out. For example, when he was an English teacher Jefferies used to have blue hair. That's creepy, apparently - although I can think of at least one Clifton-based, blue-haired teacher of English right here on my friends list who's not creepy in the least. Another pupil said that Jefferies was "obsessed with death" because he used to teach them about the Holocaust. If so, all English teachers are obsessed with death - at least, going by the school experience of my own children. (Jefferies was also "particularly fascinated by Victorian murder novel The Moonstone" - which certainly casts deep suspicion on anyone who enjoys detective fiction. Except that, er, it's been a while, but I don't remember there being a murder in it.)

I enjoyed Cracker as much as anyone, but neither the press nor the police have that great a record in the area of psychological profiling, and it doesn't take long for slightly 'odd' people to have their oddnesses (as opposed to evidence) used against them. Witness Stefan Kiszko and Colin Stagg, an obsession with whose oddness meant that the murderers of Lesley Molseed and Rachel Nickell took a combined total of 48 years to bring to justice. (Kiszko in particular could have been cleared very early if the police had taken the trouble to discover whether he was capable of producing sperm. As it was, he died in prison.) In the present case it's the press rather than the police doing the Robbie Coltrane act, but it's pretty unedifying. The days when we'd blame the local eccentric woman with a couple of cats for the latest murrain aren't so far behind us.

Comments

[sheenaghpugh]

Godfrey gets murdered at the end, and two Indians at the start (though that's in the aftermath of battle) but neither murder is really crucial to the plot. Was that in the Sun? Because I always assume none of their journos has ever read a book.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I'm reading Wilkie Collins at the moment. I guess I just ought to turn myself in.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the reminder. Yes, that was the Sun: meanwhile, the Mail has unearthed the following sinister clue: "the bachelor used to dye his hair blue and has an obsession with Christina Rossetti, a 19th-century poet who often wrote about death."

Take him down.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

You ought at least to be on some kind of register.

[briankeaney.livejournal.com]

I used to be an English teacher at a school that would like to have been privatw; I have ordered a kindle on which I intend to read The Moonstone; I used to henna my hair in the eighties; I once approached a woman on a tube whom I saw reading one of my books and tried to tell her that I was the author only to have her back away, the look on her face making it very clear that she thought me extremely creepy. Perhaps I'd better confess now.

[sheenaghpugh]

I wonder if they could locate any poet who didn't often write about death?

I should think the police will be more careful though, thinking of poor Colin Stagg (who didn't actually strike me as half as weird as some folk I knew). I must admit to thinking this one a likelier candidate, not because of his hair or reading but because he'd have had access to the flat and whoever did this presumably wasn't a total stranger. But the press really ought to stay out of it and stop speculating.

[sheenaghpugh]

In Britain, talking to a stranger on the train without having been introduced is a crime not far short of murder...

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

They won't, of course, as long as it sells papers.

Actually, one could almost write an algorithm for this kind of reporting.

IF "suspect has social life" = TRUE

THEN PRINT "Friends were shocked that such a pillar of the community was under suspicion."

ELSE PRINT "He was known as a bit of a loner..."

IF "suspect is married" = TRUE

THEN PRINT "It's his wife I feel sorry for"

ELSE (PRINT "bachelor") * 6

END ROUTINE

[gair.livejournal.com]

OMG I DID IT!!!*

(Also, I currently teach Dennis Cooper's My Loose Thread, which is way dodgier than The Moonstone or Rosetti.)

That is very, very spooky.

*for benefit of the police: I did not really do it.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

As you say, he is a likely candidate, though not due to any perceived "weirdness". He knew the victim and also would have known that her boyfriend was away. He would have had access to the flat and was in a perfect position to carry out the murder. Of course that doesn't mean he did it! I trust the police are keeping an open mind and exploring all the options.

With regard to the press, I wish they'd stop publishing speculation and stick to reporting facts, but that would actually be hard and require some effort on their part. It's much easier to make stuff up and it sells papers just as well, if not better.

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

I've got a pack of Tarot cards and a black cat. So burn me.