Bradford serial killer

[jmenges]

He used to write some book reviews on Amazon.co.uk (as well as buy parts for his crossbow) under the name Ven Pariah. One such review was for Women and the Noose: A History of Female Crime and Execution. Amazon has removed all of his historical true crime book reviews.

http://tinyurl.com/2v3xl3s

and his amazon wish list

http://www.amazon.co.uk/registry/wishlist/2FEJ1YZ8AOP7M/ref=cm_pdp_wish_all_itms

JM

[Phil Carter]

Hello JM,

I wonder if Casbook will be contacted by the authorities to do the same thing, should he have been here and posted?

best wishes

Phil

[jmenges]

The police are doing an examination of his computer. I doubt that the authorities will criticize Casebook (if he was a member) or the podcast (if he was a subscriber), tho they might contact Casebook about such matters. What I am concerned about is IF his interest in JtR extends to the Casebook/podcast/magazines etc and the media gets wind of it, we could be in for a stressful summer.

JM

[Ally]

I don't think they will contact Casebook. I mean he's pretty much toast. They caught him on CCTV and he as good as confessed calling himself that ridiculous name. I have a feeling this will be fairly open and shut and tangents like his websurfing interests will be of less value evidence-wise than realities of him purchasing crossbows and the like from amazon.

[Chris]

What I am concerned about is IF his interest in JtR extends to the Casebook/podcast/magazines etc and the media gets wind of it, we could be in for a stressful summer.

Despite certain newspaper reports, I'm inclined to think his interest in JTR must have been pretty tangential. Otherwise, considering that he was studying for a Ph.D. at a bona fide UK university, I think someone here would have been aware of that interest.

In any case, I'm not sure the British media are best placed to start a crusade against interest in Jack the Ripper in particular, or serial murders in general. Especially considering how prurient their coverage of this case is likely to be (and indeed has already been).

[Garry Wroe]

I don't envisage this site coming under too much press or police scrutiny. Apart from putting Griffith's life under the microscope, the press will doubtless busy itself with establishing potential links with other murders and missing persons' cases - Claudia Lawrence, for example, who disappeared in York a little over a year ago.

Interestingly enough, the BBC reported this evening that Griffiths has engaged Peter Sutcliffe's defence team. With any luck, the two of them will get to share many a decade together rotting away in Broadmoor.

Garry Wroe.

[Archaic]

Isn't it interesting that this Griffiths guy was a PhD student Criminology student and had gone so far as to give himself a dramatic SK nick-name,
yet apparently didn't realize that his own apartment building was monitored by closed-circuit camera?

Thank God someone actually reviewed the footage.

Best regards,
Archaic

[Monty]

I vote that we agree to never give this man the satisfaction of calling him by the very Hollywood-esque serial killer epithet he chose for himself.

Best regards,
Archaic

I vote we dont talk about the inadequate failure full stop.

He'd relish this.

Monty

[Limehouse]

I vote that we agree to never give this man the satisfaction of calling him by the very Hollywood-esque serial killer epithet he chose for himself.

Best regards,
Archaic

I was thinking exactly this yesterday and hoping that the press would agree collectively not to refer to him by this self-label. It's unlikely that the press will decide to do so though as a killer actually handing them his own subriquet is a real gift for them.

[tnb]

I don't think we need worry about all the 'Steve's or 'SG's or even 'Griffin's that posted a few times and seemed to disappear, as his 'Ven Pariah' alter ego seems to have been pretty exclusively on the internet. I think 'Steve G' or anything similar would have been too boringly normal for him.

The whole 'let's not discuss it' argument is a difficult one, because let's face it we - and others - are happy enough to discuss many other serial killers, modern-day and historical, and to refer to Richard Ramirez for example as 'the Night Stalker'. It's a bit like Rigby's reply to NugNug's point earlier - when IS the right-time then?

However, in this case there does seem to be something altogether more sinister going on. To my mind the whole thing SINCE his arrest has the air of a well-planned perfomance. I hate to say it, but is almost as if the murders were nothing more (to him) than the prologue, the means to an end - that end being this, now (in the media, not just here). I completely agree that the fact that a phd student, of anything but especially criminology, would not consider the possibility of CCTV seems unbelievable - and for my money it is literally unbelievable, in that I don't believe it. I also find it extremely unlikely that, with the opportunity to get the victim into his flat either without attacking her (she was a prostitute, after all) or even by dragging her once knocked to the ground into at least the entrance hall, that he would choose to leave and return with, of all things, a crossbow, and commit the murder in plain sight of anyone passing. Even for a 'disorganised' offender that beggars belief. The only conclusion you can come to (for my money) is that he KNEW he would be caught, and that was the whole point. 'Crossbow murder caught on CCTV' - it would be, and has proved, a media sensation.

What we seem to have is a new kind of 'big brother' serial killer, not killing for killing's sake (bad enough) but in anticipation of the furore it would cause.

For that reason I support Monty's statement, at least up until the sick individual is locked up safely away from his so-called 'fame'.

[Stephen Thomas]

I vote that we agree to never give this man the satisfaction of calling him by the very Hollywood-esque serial killer epithet he chose for himself.

The name was invented by the Sun newspaper and he was being sardonic.

Gallows humour, I suppose

[anna]

Blimey!...just what I was going to type,Trevor.

Everything you've put is 100%..how on earth could he not have known he was on CCCTV...unless the residents take it for granted that it never gets viewed unless something happens like a break in..and that it just gets wiped every day or so.

I think therefore your conclusion is correct..that it was meant to be seen.

The other bit of gallows humour,being when he was asked his address,and he said,"this one..I suppose".

[Suzi]

Was this guy a member of Casebook or Forums I wonder........ as allegedly he was 'specialising in JTR'........hmmmmmmm

AND he went to the same school as Haigh- Mr Acid Bath!!! (Not at the same time hehe)
Hmmmmmmm another thing to blame teachers for!!!

[Suzi]

I vote we dont talk about the inadequate failure full stop.

He'd relish this.

Monty

I agree- allegedly there's a possibility of a 'gagging order' for the press to avoid the case dissolving in a media frenzy of sensationalism...bring it on I say

[Rigby]

I know the British Press and at some stage it's going to be pointed out that this is not the most ringing endorsement of Bradford University's Psychology/Criminology Department and/or of the subject area itself. I mean if high-level academics can't spot the serial killer they are tutoring (one-to-one in his case) then what does it say about their expertise blah-di-blah. But I guess it just goes to illustrate how well certain individuals can conceal their other selves - though I don't doubt that much of this guy's persona will be pored over by other "experts" now and they'll point out how "the signs were there" etc.