Very impressive documentary last night about the unsolved murder of paper boy Carl Bridgewater in 1978. He was shot in the head with a sawn of shot gun apparently after disturbing a burglary on his round.
Paul Foot campaigned for years for the release of the ‘bridgewater 4’ and wrote a book on the case, and was vocal about an alternative suspect ie Bert Spencer.
Spencer had been a suspect in the case originally and later went to prison for killing someone with a sawn off shotgun. Apparently the lags on the wing would chant ‘you don’t have to be in mensa to know it was Spencer’
The fascinating thing with the programme was being able to watch someone so creepy, who is clearly a pathological liar, and on permanent guard being slowly but surely unravelled by the interviewer, criminologist professor David Wilson.
It was a revelation to see someone so dangerous so up close.
I suspect this morning he may regret having asked for that interview …
Fascinating documentary and great work by Wilson. I’d read the Foot book many years ago and there was no doubt then that they’d imprisoned the wrong guys.
It was indeed fascinating. The banality of evil. I enjoy David Wilson’s work immensely, and not just because he’s a dead ringer for late-period Morrissey. If I was prime minister, I’d give him a blank cheque and say ‘find Fred West’s other burial sites’.
Spence is a ringer for a fat Corporal Jones.
‘Evil’ is a word I shy away from using as it has religious overtones for me. I think though when Spencer gave his speech for the audience to Carl Bridgewater stating his innocence and his ‘silent prayers’ to him over the years, it did make me uncomfortable in a way that normal ‘bad’ doesn’t quite reach.
Ian – yes, corporal Jones. Especially with his ‘loveable grandad’ schtick. Very creepy.
I’m always suspicious of people who laugh long and loud at their own ‘witticisms’. Also, who weep often when no reason to do so. Chilling mofo.
Anyone hear read ‘Happy like Murderers’? It’s supposedly brilliant, but not sure I really want to trawl through this dismal tale.
@ianess – I got about 100 pages into it, then abandoned it. Brilliantly researched (a bit too detailed in places perhaps), but as you suggest, I decided I didn’t want to spend any more time wading through such a grim story.
Thanks. Don’t think I’ll bother then. Just finished ‘In Plain Sight’ – excellent book on Savile, so have read more than enough about predatory, psychopathic paedos.
I read ‘in plain sight’ last year, a riveting read.
I remember that brilliant line where the author asks savile a question and he goes in to ‘that’s our Jimmy!’ mode recounting stories unrelated to the question: ‘he started to tell his anecdotes, piling them on top of each other like bricks until he was hidden behind a wall of his own mythology.’
Genius. That was exactly what he did. What Spencer tries to do. Pair of fucking psychopaths.
Title of doc., please.
Oh, wait … was it “Interview with a murderer”?
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/interview-with-a-murderer/on-demand/62882-001
Thank you.
Anyone else see The Jinx? It was a series of programmes about Robert Durst (no relation, bingo), a fabulously wealthy psycho with a string of suspicious deaths in his wake. It was fascinating.
Been following his story for years. “What did you do?” “I killed them all …”
What was this doc called, Ian?
The Jinx: The life and deaths of Robert Durst.
Not that one, this one, you terminal plonker!
WTF you on about? Whose story? ‘I killed them all’ – who, what, when, where?
That’s a Fred Durst quote – he forgot to take the mic off his lapel before going “to the bathroom” at the end of the interview, and in between the furious farting and splashing FX you can hear these words (IMS) clearly.
Robert. Him what killed them all. Millionaire. Not him out of Limp Bisquit.
Who’s on first? The Jinx series is brilliant. Compelling viewing.
Yes, it was unfortunate for Fred Durst who only ever kills with his beats and slays with his lines.
Spencer reminded me of Brian Clough.
Ah, in that case maybe there was an accomplice who was ultimately responsible.
Yes, me too.
Yes, fascinating stuff, though obviously frustrating in terms of lack of resolution… sad that all of the evidence, however numerous & compelling, was so circumstantial, and surely won’t lead to anything more after all this time…
But he’s clearly a psychopath is the most clinical sense (lack of empathy & remorse, narcissism etc.), even as an old man with 14 years in jail behind him – he must have been a horrific character when he was younger…
And how strange that he conveniently had no memory of murdering his friend, yet seemed to have perfect recall of every moment leading up to it…