Billie Jo Jenkins

[miss marple]

A friend of mine's daughter was a close friend of Billie Jo and was a witness in one of the trials. It was extremely traumatic for all concerned. All I will say is that the police don't need to look for another suspect.

Miss Marple

[caz]

Hello Caz,

Is that your subtle way of saying that Sion Jenkins is guilty?

Not really, Harry. It was my unsubtle way of saying he had a funny way of going about things if he knew someone else was guilty and could have helped bring that person to justice. Fingering a local tramp first, then some unidentified alleged policeman (with what possible motive?), is not the best way of getting the police onside and concentrating their enquiries in the most fruitful direction, is it?

Love,

Caz
X

[Harry D]

So Jenkins has tried to fit up a tramp and a smartly dressed unidentified police officer for the murder? One wonders why he didn't suggest his wife did it, unless of course her alibi was rock solid.

Talk about keeping the options wide open. He sounds like a fantasist to me, and someone who was desperate to put someone - anyone - else in the frame, rather than someone who genuinely wanted to see a very dangerous individual found and put away.

The case stinks to high heaven I'm afraid.

Love,

Caz
X

Hello Caz,

Is that your subtle way of saying that Sion Jenkins is guilty? I'm yet to be convinced. According to his defence, there would have been a three minute time frame for Jenkins to have gone to the patio, bludgeoned Billie Jo to death and cleaned himself up from the bloody crime scene, leaving only microscopic traces on his clothing. Not to mention that for some reason he also forced a piece of plastic inside Billie Jo's nostril.

You can call Jenkins a lot of things, he does project himself as an odious fellow, but I wouldn't be so quick to call him a murderer based on the evidence available to us.

[caz]

So Jenkins has tried to fit up a tramp and a smartly dressed unidentified police officer for the murder? One wonders why he didn't suggest his wife did it, unless of course her alibi was rock solid.

Talk about keeping the options wide open. He sounds like a fantasist to me, and someone who was desperate to put someone - anyone - else in the frame, rather than someone who genuinely wanted to see a very dangerous individual found and put away.

The case stinks to high heaven I'm afraid.

Love,

Caz
X

[Harry D]

Out of interest, did the wife have an alibi for that day? A lot of people are happy to roll with Sion Jenkins as this sexual predator who made advances on his foster daughter, and when she rebuffed him, he bludgeoned her to death. Well, is it not possible that the wife suspected something was going on between them and killed Billie Jo out of spite? Might also explain why she was so quick to turn on him once the police told her he was a suspect? Just a thought.

I was reading an interview with Sion Jenkins from a few years back, and this stood out to me:

Chillingly, Mr Jenkins now claims Billie-Jo’s murderer was still in the family home when he returned and that the man spoke to the distraught father calmly and concisely before vanishing.

Mr Jenkins says this man hid in the family’s dining room before he could emerge into the hallway, present himself to Mr Jenkins then walk out.

“I have stood face to face with him. I have spoken with him. I know what he looks like and I remember his mannerisms,” he says.

“He wore a dark navy or possibly dark olive overcoat and was smartly dressed. I could see he was wearing a tie. He had highly polished shoes. It was this fact that reassured me he was a police officer.

“This man was standing in the hall. I turned around and looked at him. He said, ‘She’s going to be okay.’

“He then left me staring at the door to the dining room.

“I honestly believe this man is responsible for my daughter’s murder. I believe he killed her in cold blood for reasons that I can only speculate and surmise.”

He pre-empts the issue of why it has taken him so long to reveal this glaring fact by pointing out that he refers to the man in his original witness statement in 1997.

Why would the murderer hide in the dining room? Wouldn't he have simply exited the way he came, from the side-gate instead of going through the house and risk getting caught? And why would he come out and talk to Sion Jenkins instead of sneaking out?

[Cogidubnus]

The stupid lazy "CV" culture, which has developed over the past 30 years or so, is responsible for more bullshit in job applications than was ever previously the case. Now as a matter of course, everyone lies or exagerates their qualifications...and every job is advertised requiring hugely exagerated qualifications...my job (at which I'm generally acknowledged more than competent) requires I'd say no more than five O levels as a prequalification, but somewhat more specialised thinking overall...instead they ask for a good (2.1) degree - which is nothing more than idle and stupid...

In the bad old good old days you handwrote a job application explaining why you wanted a job, why you felt you could do it competently, and what added bonuses you could offer as a trainee...as an appendix you listed your educational background, your paper qualifications and your other interests...if you claimed professional qualifications, you provided the certificates...then at interview (most importantly) you had to verbally convince the boss you'd be working for....

Nowdays you need to prove you've taken exams at degree level to demonstrate your competency to make tea...It's frigging stupid and exclusive...So Sion Jenkins lied on a CV...big deal...this to me means nothing in the context of a murder case...something far more serious and far-reaching...so let's keep things in perspective shall we?

All the best

Dave

[Harry D]

Evening all,

I've been reading up on this case recently and been through the thread. I remain unconvinced that it was Sion Jenkins who killed his foster daughter. From the sounds of it, Sion Jenkins isn't a particularly nice fella, but being an ******* does not make a murderer make. And what about the piece of bin liner that had been shoved up Billie Jo's nose? What was that all about? Is it coincidence that there was a local nutter nearby with a plastic bag fetish?

[louisa]

I, for one think he's guilty as hell. He's basically got away with murder.

This 'tramp in the area' is just nonsense. Whenever there's a murder of this type people seem to announce that 'there was a tramp lurking about for a few days' - it happened in the Croydon Poisonings case, the Jeannie Donald case and many others since.

Some members of the public are a bit too keen on getting in on the act and offering sightings that frankly put the police to a lot of extra trouble.

Even Jenkins ex-wife thought he was capable of the murder.

[Natalie Severn]

Hi Derrick,

The suggestion of wife and child beating has not been corroborated by anyone outside of Lois' circle

But it doesn"t need to be Derrick.It is so unlikely that Lois would have wanted her children to have a convicted murderer for their father, that it seems to me
she could no longer be in denial about him---the murder of Billie Joe was simply,it seems to me, the last straw---and she knew him far better than anyone else after all.

Moreover,it is not only Lois who knew of his violent leanings.He is known to hve searched out groups such as "Spare the Rod", who condone using violence against children.
Best,
Norma

[Natalie Severn]

Caz,
The more I hear of the mentally ill tramp the more I think of a "scapegoat".
Had a stranger arrived with a knife ready to kill and stabbed Billie with it a number of times,then yes,I would give such a person serious consideration .But given that three separate witnesses have this particular stranger in a local park at the time of the murder,not in the immediate vicinity of the Jenkins"s family home,and given the fact that no blood stains were ever found on his clothes,it seems to me its just a red herring.Lois knew that this man was capable of violent outbursts,she had suffered at his hands,
Best
Norma

[Rubyretro]

I unreservedly agree with you, Caz.

[caz]

Hi Norma,

Yes, the 'spare the rod' thing is a pile of poo. Not all kids need a heavy hand - literally or figuratively - to make them behave well. I know my own daughter never did and she may be an only child but she couldn't be less like a 'spoiled brat'.

The other thing I'd forgotten was the fact that Sion was seriously miffed at the time because he had just been turned down for the headmaster's job he had applied for. I have a feeling this was how his fake qualifications came to light, but at any rate he'd have been fearing this was the reason. Faked qualifications = an inability to face failure or rejection.

Anyway, it was in the immediate wake of this rejection that the mentally ill tramp was meant to have crept in, found Sion's foster daughter all alone and a handy murder weapon, done the deed and crept out again. Talk about having a bad day!

Love,

Caz
X

[Natalie Severn]

Thanks Caz,
I must return the compliment because your post impressed me a lot too.The point you make about " instinctively" understanding the predicament Lois was in , is an excellent one, I think, and so very relevant- whereas quite a few men seem to think its her word against his ,and prefer to give him the benefit of the doubt etc.
But even this business of him wanting to find a group of corporal punishers ,who would condone and sanction his need to use a stick to discipline his children ,"Spare the Rod" makes me wonder if that too was actually all about his deep seated need to inflict violence of one sort or another on his children.Talk about "control freak"!
Great to chat with you Caz,
Norma
xx

[caz]

Hi Derrick,
I think we are on opposite sides over the murder of Billie Jo.
I had a friend who volunteered her services in a battered wives refuge and I often had long discussions with her about what possessed women to stay with men who abused them physically.It seems that the truth about battered wives is that such women often live in a constant state of fear , anxiety and denial about their marital predicament as well as, paradoxically ,living in the hope that something may come along that will "change him" .Such wives are often long-suffering .It is often a case of "hope" triumphing over "experience " .If Sion decided they should foster,then Lois would have been very likely to have fallen into line,perhaps to avoid a scene, perhaps because she thought this may actually "change" him.The last thing she may have wanted was for her marriage to be exposed to all her neighbours and friends as the failure it actually was.So lots of factors are at play here. Morover with the provision of material comforts for her children,it takes guts for a woman to leave,especially when both are professional people,respected in the community etc.The unknown future can be full of uncertainty and far less economically secure, moreover Lois would know just how censorious people can be about wives leaving their husbands,especially with young children involved-the tendency is for people who dont know her true situation, often to side with the husband and look with some hostility at a wife abandoning him for no apparent reason - especially if the beatings were kept "secret" which is often the case. So rather than admit the failure of her marriage and her failure as a wife and the feelings of humiliation it could bring, she may have preferred to have just gone on putting up with being a battered wife.It is apparently a very ,very common syndrome .
Don"t forget it took this tragedy for Lois to up and leave and go to live as far away as possible from him.Its called "doing a geographical"--- !
Best,
Norma

Cracking post, Nats! It shows one hell of a lot of insight into wives in Lois's unenviable position.

In a situation where the husband may be far from perfect, but does his job as husband and father and sticks around, and does not get unreasonably angry with his family or abuse them physically or mentally, it would take an extremely cruel, uncaring or stupid wife - and mother - to go along with a suspicion that he could have upped and murdered a child they were fostering in an uncharacteristic fit of temper, while his other kids were nearby.

Typically it tends to go the other way, with the wife of a real control freak with anger management problems going into denial and standing by her man, rather than accepting that he could have done something genuinely horrific while under her roof and taking herself and her little ones as far away from him as possible.

I trust Lois's instincts in this case more than anyone else's.

The fake qualifications just demonstrate Sion's rotten-to-the-core "I'm taking authority here and nobody gets in way" attitude to life.

Love,

Caz
X

[Derrick]

I would just like to add that I don't find Sion Jenkins to be the most likeable individual from what I have seen of him, but it would be an extremely lonely planet if we could rid ourselves of those we don't like much.
Derrick