Real People Magazine - True Life Crime: Volume 2. From the pages of the top UK weekly Real People magazine

Volume 2

Hearst Magazines UK

First published in Great Britain 2013

Copyright 2013 Hearst Magazines UK (The National Magazine Company Limited)

ISBN: 978-1-909748-00-2

Published by Hearst Magazines UK (The National Magazine Company Limited)

72 Broadwick Street, London W1F 9EP

All rights reserved. You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, printing, recording or otherwise), without the prior permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

Murder...Crime...Weapons....

Simply thinking of such things is enough to send shivers of terror into our hearts. Even the words are dark and scary.

We all like to imagine that we are safe, that the world is a rational and reasonable place.

But who knows what the person standing next to you is really capable of? And if pushed, how far would you go to protect someone you love or punish someone you hate?

As editor of Real People, one of Britain's leading true-life magazines, I see horrific details of hundreds of crimes every week. We search the length and breadth of the UK, and deal with reporters all over the world, to find the best true-life crimes for our pages, and those in our regular special Crime Confidential magazine.

From terrifying Russian cannibals to scorned lovers who will stop at nothing for revenge, its often hard to accept just how brutal and depraved some people can be.

The flip side of the coin is the remarkable resilience of the human spirit.

My staff and myself are regularly humbled by talking to and reading about amazing individuals who have been the victims of terrible crimes, yet they have rebuilt their lives, learned how to forgive and moved on.

Its this spine-chilling mix of horror and strength that makes crime such an addictive genre. True crime stories feature the full scope of human emotions, from anger to despair, from fear to relief. Suspects will wriggle and change their stories, but their arrogant confidence can crumble in the face of clues and police discoveries.

And most shockingly, true crime stories show just how easy it is for normal people to find themselves in a situation of utter despair, or utter madness.

Crime is not rational and theres only so far you can go to protect yourself. The people in our stories are just unlucky. Some are tricked or trapped by the evil intentions of others. Some are simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

As we go about our daily lives, shopping, working and meeting friends - crime is the fear that we all share. But we should all take comfort in the fact that violent crimes however terrible they may be are still incredibly rare. So, as they say on Crimewatch, dont have nightmares

Samm Taylor

EDITOR

Real People

NOTE

All of these real-life crime stories were taken from the pages of the top UK weekly Real People magazine. If you love reading gripping true-life crime stories, make sure to order your copy now. Published by Hearst Magazines UK, its available from all leading UK supermarkets and newsagents, and can be bought in 15 countries internationally. Alternatively, you can buy a digital version online at Apple Newsstand, or search for Real People UK at Google Play Store, Nook, Amazon, Samsung and Blackberry.

When Harry Jarvis met an heiress on the internet, his sick wife's fate was sealed.

Nervously fingering the envelope, the young woman read the words HM Prison. Psychology and philosophy student Kimberley Jarvis, 20, knew it could only be from one person: her dad, Harry Jarvis, 61.

Convicted at Edinburgh High Court in March, 2010 of the murder in September 2009 of Kimberleys bedridden mum, Carol, 47, Harry Jarvis had been jailed for life, with a minimum of 15 years. What on earth could he have to say now?

In his scrawly hand, he had written: 'Your mum said to me that she loved me so much she would let me go off with Rita rather than be unhappy.'

Rita Heyster, 57, was her father's mistress - a plain woman, with glasses, whom he called 'Princess Marguarita'. Despite her scruffy appearance, Heyster came from the wealthy family who once owned the Jus-Rol pastry brand. Bizarrely, for around two weeks before the murder, she'd been living in the dank garden shed of the semi in Bathgate, West Lothian, which Jarvis shared with Carol, his wife of 27 years. And in July 2010, at Edinburgh High Court, Heyster was convicted of defeating the ends of justice, after helping Jarvis to hide Carol's body. She was cleared of murder.

Now Kimberley and her siblings - Susan, 27, an optician's shop manager, Graham, 26, a sports science graduate and law student, Kevin, 25 - were struggling to come to terms with the deadly love triangle.

Kimberley, who confronted her father, after finding evidence that someone was sleeping in the shed, had also told her mum about Heyster. Her mother wasnt happy about it but she said he would come back.

I said she was crazy, said Kimberley, and she should have kicked him out.'

But for some reason Carol loved Jarvis so much that she had put up with his repeated liaisons. Heyster was merely the latest in a long line of other women.

So, why was Jarvis - a bottle-of-whisky-a-day drunk - so irresistible he could share a bed with one woman and persuade an heiress, once worth 2.5 million, to live in his shed, without running water or a loo?

Harry met Carol when she was just 15 and, despite her parents objections to the 14 year age gap, married her in 1982. Sadly, Carol developed the debilitating joint condition fibromyalgia, which, as the years went by, left her bedridden.

At first, Harry quit his bus driver's job to care for her. But, soon, bored and frustrated, he squandered her disability benefit on booze and clocked up convictions for fraud and embezzlement. And, despite being responsible for administering her medication, he often disappeared with women he met on the internet.

Their daughter Kimberley told Edinburgh High Court that she found her fathers mistress's living arrangements 'weird and creepy, and said, Sometimes he'd go away for a couple of days and sometimesfor a couple of months.'

Besotted, however, poor Carol always forgave him.

Then, in 2004, Harry met Rita Heyster online. Rita was a cut above his previous conquests. Friends said she always had the best gold jewellery and fancy cars, and was forever getting her hair done. She'd lived in a plush white mansion on top of a hill at Creetown, Kirkcudbrightshire, with her previous husband Robert Heyster and her three children - Kaye, now 37, Jason, 35 and Jamie, 31. But when Robert had died of cancer in 2004, she'd sold up.

Smelling cash, Jarvis had boasted to a local barmaid that Heyster was going to keep him in luxury and he was going to bleed her dry. But in truth, little remained of Ritas 2.5 million inheritance, because she had wasted it on luxury cars, houses and men.

But Jarvis wanted his 'Princess Marguarita' to be more than just a meal ticket. He wanted her to replace his ailing wife. And he wanted even more: rather than divorcing Carol and splitting their assets, he wanted Carols money, too. This left him with just one option: murder.