Chris Ellis - The Mammoth Book of Celebrity Murder: Murder Played Out in the Spotlight of Maximum Publicity

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Constable & Robinson Ltd
3 The Lanchesters
162 Fulham Palace Road
London W6 9ER
www.constablerobinson.com

First published in the UK by Robinson,
an imprint of Constable & Robinson Ltd 2005

Copyright Chris Ellis and Julie Ellis 2005

All right reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

A copy of the British Library Cataloguing in Publication data is available from the British Library.

ISBN 1-84529-154-9
eISBN 978-1-78033-409-7

Printed and bound in the EU

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

The world of the celebrity would appear to be a complex one. Never short on material wealth or the trappings of success, the celebrity leads a busy, often nomadic lifestyle, travelling, socializing and of course making the money that allows them to maintain their star status. Celebrity is a tag shared by an ever-increasing range of people. The stars of film, television and sport are now joined by those men and women famous for being the offspring of those in the first category. There are those who are famous for being rich, whose entrepreneurial skills have made them household names. And there is a more recent addition to this exclusive club, the it girl, famous for being seen in all the right places, with all the right people but without any other generally required qualification. Yet once we, the watching and reading public, get to know someone, we want to continue our media-driven relationship with them.

They are generally familiar to the public, either through newspaper commentary, the television or the gossip magazines. So if they commit a crime or are the victim of one, we tend to feel it as though it was a member of our own family. The shock value comes from the perception that they have so much more to lose, therefore their lives and lifestyles are more worthy of protection. When O. J. Simpson was arrested for the murder of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown-Simpson, the world held its breath while this famous football player had his day in court, watched by millions of television viewers around the world. At times the evidence seemed overwhelming, yet Simpson was exonerated and many people wondered at the way justice had been dispensed in the cosmic glow of his celebrity, enriched further by the glare of unprecedented publicity.

Within these pages you will find many tales of celebrities who have been accused of murder, but who have walked free, and tales of famous people who have been murdered, often resulting in the perpetrator becoming more famous than the victim. Typical of this scenario is the murder of Sharon Tate and her house guests by members of the Charles Manson gang. Since his imprisonment more than thirty years ago Charles Manson has become a cult figure, more infamous than most Hollywood A-listers are famous. He still receives more mail than any other convict in the US penal system.

Mark Chapman sought to find his own place in the history books when he gunned down John Lennon outside the Dakota Building in New York City. Hated by millions for an act that deprived the world of a musical genius, Chapmans name is synonymous with premeditated celebrity murder, geared to ensuring ones own notoriety.

Yet there are other anomalies associated with celebrity crime, beyond the celebrities ability to buy the best justice. When a celebrity is murdered the Establishment appear to make additional efforts to catch the criminal, thus proving their additional worth in society. When popular television presenter Jill Dando was shot outside her London home, the police authority attached fifty officers to the investigation and a reward of 250,000 was offered for information leading to an arrest.

The media play a significant part in maintaining the publics interest in the lives of the rich and famous, often running stories day after day, affording the case in question significant advance trial publicity. The advance publicity can be good or bad depending on the spin the media wishes to give it. In many cases the presiding judge has had to enforce a media-gagging order to help ensure the trial is carried out without the pressure of media prejudices.

The media can be a force for good one minute and fickle the next. Following the conviction of Barry George for the slaying of Jill Dando, the press, having doubts about the legality of the conviction, sought to present new information in a bid to reopen the case. George remains in prison still hoping for a retrial. However, when gangster rapper Tupac Shakur was gunned down in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas, the headlines told a different story. No longer prepared to use the power of the press to secure a conviction, they sought instead to simply draw the publics attention to the drug-cultured gang warfare that existed on the mean streets of Americas many cities.