21 Feb 2008

GOLF FANATIC, BIG DEBTS, IN DENIAL ABOUT HIS OFFENDING!

Seems clear this serial killer who grew up with an abusive father was pretty good at keeping just how evil he is all to himself but had a nasty angry streak, debts and no personality...
If the psychiatrists can get him to engage it will interesting to hear what they make of him but there are echoes of Shipman here, I think, profoundly disturbed at the loss of his mom...and terrified of his disciplinarian father.
Viv x
From Times Online
February 21, 2008
Profile: Steve Wright, taciturn golfer with deadly secret
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Steve Wright: those who were close to him have no clue as to what drove the former publican to kill to not show enlarge option -->
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Sean O'Neill, Crime Editor of The Times
The handful of people who regarded Steve Wright as a friend thought of him as quiet, a little awkward in company – taciturn except when the conversation turned to golf about which he was almost obsessive.
He seemed devoted to Pamela Goodman, his latest partner, and was a bit unlucky when it came to finding and holding down a decent job.
Only after he was arrested did they start to find other words and unearth memories of incidents that didn't seem quite right. The social awkwardness became stand-offishness, the quiet demeanour seemed secretive, and the devotion to Ms Goodman now appeared domineering.
As they started to deny that they had ever been friends, indeed only really knew him to say "hello" to, they recalled incidents when Wright had been suddenly rude or inexplicably aggressive.
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Related Links
Text: letter from Steve Wright to his father
Ipswich prostitute: 'Noise saved me from Wright'
How prostitute search became hunt for a serial killer
Multimedia
Pictures: Ipswich murders-->
But no-one had him marked down as the serial killer who had carried out the most intensive killing spree in British criminal history – murdering five street prostitutes over six weeks and dumping their bodies in streams and on wasteland around the outskirts of Ipswich.
All of their bodies were found in the first ten days of December 2006, a frightening period when short, wintry days and long, dark nights heightened the sense of insecurity in the Suffolk town.
For the psychiatrists who will now assess him in prison, Wright will prove a fascinating subject.
In his early months in prison, it will be their job to prepare a detailed assessment of his mental condition, literacy and family background before planning how and where he will spend his sentence.
But it will be left to him to decide when he wants to “engage” with the psychiatrists.
To date, there has been little to suggest Wright is prepared to reveal his motives. At trial he mounted a stubborn defence, despite the presence of evidence linking him directly to all five murders.
Letters from prison to Ms Goodman revealed his state of denial. "Please believe me when I say I'm not capable of those crimes," he wrote in January last year.
He professed his dedication to Ms Goodman, yet he betrayed her repeatedly – dropping her off at the call centre where she worked before cruising the red light area of Ipswich for sex and victims.
An examination of Wright’s life reveals a contempt for women that may stem from a lengthy separation from his mother, a dislike of his stepmother, two brief marriages and years of paying strangers for sex.
Wright was born on April 24, 1958, in Erpingham, Norfolk and grew up with parents who were on a collision course for separation. His mother, Patricia, married his father, Conrad, when she was aged just 16 and pregnant.
She lived in the shadow of a husband who worked as a police officer in the RAF, then at Felixstowe docks and showed a ruthless disciplinarian streak in both his professional and family lives.
His mother walked out on the marriage and her children abruptly when Wright was just eight. His father remarried a short time later but Wright never warmed to his stepmother, Valerie.
In interviews since his arrest, Patricia has claimed that the son she left was the "apple of her eye" and never showed any inclination towards violence when she was around.
“Steve was shy, especially in a crowd, but he was such a love when he was a kid,” she said. “I never saw any violence there. He definitely didn’t have it in him when he was a little boy.
“Steve was withdrawn. He was afraid of his dad if I wasn’t there. He would actually hold his breath and pass out if he thought his dad was going to smack him."
Patricia claims she was prevented legally from taking her four children with her and they grew up subject to their father's strict rules.
She was fleetingly reunited with Wright when she visited Britain over Christmas 1992. But as she left to fly home, he made it clear in a foul-mouthed tirade that he did not want to see her again.
Wright left school at 16 with no qualifications and took a job at a hotel in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, where he received “silver service” training.
A friend suggested they join the Merchant Navy together and the pair went to Sea School in Gravesend with a view to joining at 17.
His first job was as a dishwasher in the kitchen of a ferry operating out of the port of Felixstowe.
In 1978 he married for the first time to Angela O’Donovan in Milford Haven, West Wales in 1978 and she bore him a son. Wright also has a daughter.
Wright and his first wife divorced and she has since remarried. Speaking of her ex-husband’s notoriety shortly after his arrest, she said the news of his crimes had "come as a complete bolt out of the blue."
In 1987, Wright married again to Diane Cassell in a ceremony in Braintree, Essex. He met his second wife while working on the QE2 where one of his fellow crew members was Suzy Lamplugh, who was murdered while working as an estate agent in 1986.
Police are understood to have reviewed the Lamplugh murder file but ruled out Wright as a suspect.
Steve Adler, a former steward on the QE2, said in an interview: “Steve wasn’t really one of the lads and was on the periphery - but he liked the girls. He would sniff around all the girls and particularly the beauticians.”
Mr Adler claimed Wright visited prostitutes when they landed at Pattaya in Thailand.
He married Diane only because the brewery they wanted to work for demanded that couples were married if they were going to acquire the tenancy of a pub.
They took over the Ferry Boat Inn in Norwich but separated after less than a year of running the pub when he left her for another woman.
The pub was in the centre of Norwich’s red light district and a regular haunt of prostitutes. Natalie Pearman, 16, a prostitute who frequented the pub was murdered in 1992 and her body was found dumped in woodland. The murders of Kellie Pratt and Michelle Bettles, who also worked the streets of Norwich, are also unsolved.
The second Mrs Wright now lives in Hartlepool, and is known as Diane Cole. She said: “I couldn’t believe it when I first saw his name on the telly. Our marriage wasn’t good and I was glad when it ended.”
In the 1990s, beset with money problems, Wright went to live in Thailand. He is said to have married there but returned apparently in worse financial straits.
His experiences overseas made paying for sex with women a lifetime habit that probably contributed to his financial problems and two attempted suicides.
His half-brother, Keith, said: “He tried to do himself in a couple of times. In about 1995 or 1996 they found him in a car down some alleyway. He’d attached a hose to his exhaust.
“In about 2000, after coming back from Thailand, he took an overdose of pills. We went to pick him up from a bedsit in Ipswich.
“I think everything got to him. He went to Thailand and got with some girl who ended up scamming him for everything he had. He got himself into a lot of debt, I suppose he couldn’t find a way out. Everything got to him.”
Wright declared himself bankrupt with debts of £30,000, on his father’s advice, and tried to set his life right. He found work in a variety of short-lived jobs - as a labourer, fork lift truck driver and barman.
Money problems persisted – he was sacked for stealing £40 from a bar where he worked – and he continued to pay prostitutes for sex.
The street girls who continued to work in Ipswich during the dangerous nights of winter 2006 said Wright was a regular punter, cruising the streets in his Ford Mondeo while his partner worked the nightshift at a call centre. They knew him as Mondeo Man.
One prostitute, who gave her name as Lou, regarded Wright as “an average, normal punter” with whom she had sex two or three times a month.
He didn’t strike me as weird,” she said. “I can usually tell if someone is trustworthy and he always seemed all right with me and never gave any reason to believe I was in danger.
“You would often see him driving round looking for girls, even if he had picked you the night before."
Another girl described him as a “wham-bam-thank-you mam” punter who she never saw as a threat.
Wright was adept at keeping his nocturnal habits secret from his partner, Pam, his workmates and his fellow golfers.
He had been a member of Seckford Golf Club, Woodbridge, for five years, played off a handicap of 19 and would happily fill his day playing 36 holes of golf.
He joined the Brook Hotel Regulars Golf and Notbale Delinquents Society, set up by customers at the bar where he worked.
The Seckford club’s professional Simon Jay, 30, said: “We always knew Steve Wright as a quiet chap who was very unassuming. I used to say, ‘Morning Steve’ when he came in and that was it. He always played in black. His golfing gear was black trousers and a black jumper or roll neck.”
It is understood his membership was due to be suspended at about the time of his arrest because of failure to pay his monthly £47.50 subscription.
The other regular fixture in his life was enjoying a few pints at Uncle Tom's Cabin, a popular Ipswich pub.
Sheila Davis, the landlady, and her partner Eddie Roberts befriended the couple about four years ago and invited them to a holiday in Ireland.
Ms Davis said: “He was a very, very quiet man, hard to talk to, bordering on stand-offish. He was off-hand once when he just shoved me out of the way when I was sitting on a chair.
“It surprised me. I was talking to Pam and I had annoyed him but I didn’t know why. I couldn’t believe he would do a thing like that. It was a silly thing but it stuck in my head.”
“If you could speak to him about golf he would answer you. But you couldn’t talk to him one on one. There was an awkwardness about him. He never cracked a joke. He never contributed to any conversation.”
She added: “Pam and I would talk a lot, and according to her he would say how he hated tarty women.
“I was shocked when he was arrested but subsequently less so as I started to look back. Pamela had no idea he was sleeping with prostitutes.”
Ms Davis said she had received a letter from Wright. “It said ‘You must know in your heart I am not capable of doing this’ ... but I don’t know.
“He is a nice looking man, not slimey, nothing like that. But, as a personality - there is none. He had no personality."

24 comments:

Cláudia said...

Hey, hun!
So, what do you make of this last development?

THE3ARGUIDOS said...

Hmmm....and?

ta ra said...

Hi again Viv,
I really must go! :-) Anyhoo...
Yes, like you, there were aspects of the Wright case that made me think of Maddie. Most importantly: the UKs smallest police force relied on 'old fashioned' methods*, according to the Det Chf Insp in charge, and the DNA just gave the investigation a turbo charge.
That's scary for modern day criminals who think that crime detection relies only on DNA :-)

*e.g.CCTV, and the keen observational skills of investigators, persisting with awkward questions. Hurrah!

Unknown said...

Hiya - I look forward to further information about the home circumstances of Gerry McCann. I thought it was interesting that so many people thought Wright was just a regular guy - that is the scary thing about psycopaths...they have an uncanny ability to con and deceive...people thought Dr Shipman was a lovely doctor...some people think Gerry McCann is just a really nice regular guy - take a closer look - 3 Arguidos!

Viv x

Anonymous said...

Where is docmac?

ta ra said...

Viv,
Posts go missing on DE tonight. Google a name, e.g bestrest daily express. See homepage. Click on the top few posts to whoever, and instead of seeing what s/he wrote, you will see an advertisement. So it looks like the homepage holds last 20 posts, but it doesn't. However, her/his earlier posts are hilarious, just because they cooly get to the point, bang on. Ab fab!
Interesting...
Criminal or libel trial for anyone who lied about missing Maddie. I'd bet the house on it :-) Hurrah!
Time tells all. Even in the case of snakes in the grass like Steve Wright convicted today against all the odds for murderring people the public don't care about: prostitutes, poor little drug addicted girls.So sad.

So: do we really think that the public and the criminal justice system is going to forsake Madeleine? I think not. I think liars best get ready for their trial, and penury, no matter how much they dreamt of freedom and riches over the body of one poor little mite, Madeleine Beth McCann...over the body politic: the PEOPLE who defend innocents without fear or favour, no matter how many times we are told that we are wasting our time.
xo

ta ra said...

Diego Garcia, Viv. Interesting politics, don't you think? Interesting how political 'friends' fall out when the electorate holds them to account; insists on answers to awkward questions.

If the UK Foreign Secretary is forced to make a humiliating statement today about missing information, then why does anyone doubt politicians will quickly discard convenient Mc Mafia...when it suits.

Gordon Brown has bigger fish to fry. Uh. To burn. Uh. To incinerate.

Unknown said...

Hiya Leigh

I googled Bestrest and got her posts although three are deleted and some are a little shorter than they were last night. However here is a good one:

Rosiepops
Published: Thursday February 21,2008 by bestrest
Here is what Lord Stevens say about Kate McCann claiming Cuddle Cat was placed on a high shelf in the News of the World:

Meanwhile, the police investigation that started so disastrously has turned to farce. Every apparent stream of evidence has been either missed, fatally compromised or is simply ludicrous.

For instance, Mrs McCann being allowed to hang on to Madeleine's favourite toy CuddleCat. Consoling for her, of course, but that's not the point —it had gone to bed with Madeleine, been taken from her and placed on a high shelf, presumably by the abductor.

CuddleCat was therefore vital evidence. Even a rookie detective should know it was highly likely an abductor's DNA would be on it.

But it was left for Mrs McCann to clutch, her other children to play with and spread Madeleine's DNA around.

---------

How strange he talks about "evidence" being missed or compromised, given that in October, in Vanity Fair (an interview Kate did not want to co-operate with) Gerry McCann confirms there was no high shelf for Cuddlecat to be placed on. What I think the PJ do not miss is that Kate and Gerry McCann are a couple of liars who contradict each other! Looking back on this we can see that it was Lord Stevens himself who was seeking to create "a farce". This man has a reputation for writing reports skewed not by the truth but by what his paymasters want him to write, as we can see hear!

This also raises the spectre of whether this couple really are supporting each other or stabbing in the back!!


Could not have put it better myself - simply fabulous, sweety:-)

Viv x

irina said...

Hello everybody.
So strange for last some days to not to have McCanns propaganda in our faces. So quiet. Like before the storm.
Anyway, what all the nasties are going to do, as DX have closed McCann's forums?

Here is a piece of article from DMail 12th August 2007 about cadly cat and a shelf:
According to a report in the Sunday Mirror, Kate McCann knew instantly that Madeleine had been abducted when she saw that the toy had been moved from her sleeping daughter's arms and placed on a ledge way beyond the four-year-old's reach.

The paper quotes a police source as saying: "When Kate tucked Madeleine up in bed earlier in the evening she had the toy tightly in her arms as she did every night.

"So Kate was terrified when she spotted it had been left in a place too high for her to reach.

"Kate also noticed the window was wide open and the shutters jammed up.

"It was because of these things that she had no doubt Madeleine had been kidnapped and she ran out to scream for help."

There was no sign of DNA or fingerprints left on the toy.

--------------------------------

irina said...

Viv, did you try to e-mail to the Home Office re: letters?
Interesting what would they say.
They did not reply to me, m.b. because I am not from UK.

Did you hear anything about interviews?

Anonymous said...

Fingerprints on a cuddly toy!
I hope you at least have the looks.

irina said...

Sorry it is so late(12:49pm), I think everybody off to bed.
See you tomorrow.

irina said...

Anonymous,
That was the quote from Daily Mail: not me. And I do not know if they have the looks, but certainly they do not have consciousness, as they are part of McCanns machene, so as you. Ta, ta, dear.

Unknown said...

Hi Irina

Not only was there no high shelf for Cuddlecat to be placed on there was no DNA either! If an intruder had picked this toy up, clearly there would have been.

Anon - you display a lack of understanding about DNA! Tiny fragments of a criminal's DNA will always be left at a crime scene that is how they get caught - it could just be a small flake of skin shed by the intruder or a hair, which humans are constantly shedding and there is nothing you can do to stop this, proving the hair has the follicle attached DNA can be extracted from this - anything at all e.g. body fluids that contains human cells. Likewise intruders, leave minute fragments of fibres from their clothing etc. How old are you if you think forensic science has not moved on from the days of simply looking for fingerprints!

The only response I ever got was to say my petition had been rejected. I accept the reasons for this - because it went to the heart of an ongoing criminal investigation. I am sure the government lawyers would advise they cannot comment about the McCanns for fear of giving their lawyers the opportunity to argue their right to a fair trial has been denied by even the government making adverse comments about them.

I thought this site had gone to bed for the night - hello fellow night owlers:-)

Viv x

Unknown said...

time 2 am ! viv x

2345 said...

Viv/Leigh 3,

There are stark parallels with Steven Wright and Shipman; in a documentary about the latter his killing, and illness, was linked to the death of his mother. Grief alone does not turn a person into a killer does it? It seems to me that both these killers had disorders stemming from their relationships with their mother.
A deep seated anger/grievance which is later vented on other women.

Studying Gerry's behaviour - his mother's last child - he's used to getting his own way; short fused when challenged. He's especially used to woman 'dancing to his tune'; interestingly, it was a glamours woman who asked the question "did you sedate your children" at which he leaped off his seat, ripped off his microphone and stormed off in temper.

This revealed a lot about his true character. In his job he's used to dealing with the public; he could have politely said 'no' even if they did sedate their children.
I think the reason he lost it was that he felt 'challenged' by a female. If so, how tolerant was he with his own daughter, Maddie?

To my mind, Kate has all the hallmarks of an emotionally suppressed/abused wife dragged around by her 'owner' - Gerry. Which reminds me of a vicious response from canthinkofaname on DE weeks ago when I posted this observation. It hit someone hard !!

From what I've seen, Gerry wants females in their place, meeting HIS needs and doing as they're told without question or argument. I doubt Maddie was as 'difficult' as she's been portrayed. She wasn't loved by her father, probably meant little more than a symbol of his 'manhood'. 11.40 p.m.

LittleGreyCell said...

12.25

Morning All,

I watched David Wilson, the well-known criminologist, on TV this morning - he said that people naturally think that serial killers have some sort of monster quality about them, when actually, they are quite conservative socially, often being policemen, nurses and doctors.

If you think about Harold Shipman, Beverley Allit, and that policeman guy who recently killed his ex-wife and her mother, there does seem to be a trend.

Given the above, isn't it funny that most people wouldn't dream of suspecting doctors, nurses and policemen? I'm sure many of the general public had a default position of it being inconceivable for K & G to be complicit in their daughter's disappearance before the many inconsistencies and odd facets of the case became so widely known.

LGC

Unknown said...

Hiya - I agree grief alone does not turn these people into monsters. It seems to be a combination of circumstances, where, as a child, they feel overwhelmed by abusive domineering parents. They are little people and they have no power and control to change what is happening to them. Their survival mechanism is to become obsessed about having power and control over others. Their normal emotional development in childhood has been stifled by their fears over their treatment and sense of helplessness. Losing their mom, they were helpless again there was nothing they could do. It seems to be the last stage in the process of making a psycopath, a control freak, who will become a terrifying and dangerous adult. Needing power and control so badly for their sense of well-being such people will seek out jobs that give them this. I have known some very pushy probation officers who have not the slightest interest in the well - being of offenders or taking appropriate steps to control the risk they present to the public. All they want is a job where they are in control. They will push for promotion and rise above the rank of probation officer so that they are in charge of staff and in charge of what happens to offenders. Such people are also attracted to being nurses, doctors, police officers, teachers, they can transfer their own suffering to those they can control and thus boost their very low levels of self-esteem. Men like Gerry McCann may have had a tough and overpowering mom or they may have had a disciplinarian father who beat their mom.

Gerry McCann does seem to hate women - and does seem to get particularly angry when attractive women question his authority. It was an attractive young woman who caused him to take the mic off and stomp off and again it was an attractive young woman who said "and do you know Murat".

A friend of mine who has worked as both a probation officer and social worker (qualified for both) comments that Kate McCann presents as the typical battered wife, accustomed to doing exactly as she is told, or else. I entirely agree. Gerry McCann is a very dangerous man, only capable of loving himself...malignant self-love or narcissism. He does seem to have traits of this (grandiosity - the Whitehouse picture where he looks in raptures) in addition to fitting the basic psycopathic personality type. The real evil all stems from him IMO - but Kate is far from "normal". I think she may have become "emotionally numb" due to everything she has endured.

The pros get very angry about us discussing Kate's injuries - speaks for itself really - we are right!

Viv x

LittleGreyCell said...

13.20

P.S. to my comment above...David Wilson also said there are on average 2 serial killers operating in the UK each year, it's just their grisly crimes don't necessarily come to notice until quite some time later. They are responsible for an average of 7 deaths a year.

LGC

Unknown said...

Hiya LGC

Our discussion kind of comes full circle! The UN find UK are the most unhappy and abused chldren in the developed world. Those children can, but do not necessarily, grow up to be very abusive adults. So we always have a couple of serial killers on the loose. I think it is also mentioning that two women die every single week at the hands of their intimate partner or former partner. In fact it is often when women seek to break off the relatiosnhip they are actually killed because the man feels he is losing control over her or he may cut and scar her face " well no one else is having you".

There is a dangerous cycle of abuse and violence in British Society and the suffering of our children, knows no bounds, or what they may, in turn, grow up to become. We know many sex offenders were abused as children. There must be some way to try and better protect children from abuse and break the cycyle of violence. I say again, it is a social issue, not a legal one, putting more laws on the statute books that people are not even aware of is an absurd and impotent cheap political gimmick. We have had years of the labour and tories simply vying with each other to be tough on crime - when are they going to actually tackle the much more difficult issue of being tough on the causes of crime?

Viv x

Viv x

Anonymous said...

On 22 02 08 2345 posted:

To my mind, Kate has all the hallmarks of an emotionally suppressed/abused wife dragged around by her 'owner' - Gerry. Which reminds me of a vicious response from canthinkofaname on DE weeks ago when I posted this observation. It hit someone hard !!

As I have not posted or even read the DX Forum for many weeks and have always generally agreed with 2345 I doubt that I would have made a vicious response. I can only think that someone else was using my Identity.

ICantThinkOfAName the Chocolate Fireman.

ta ra said...

Choccy!
I agree with you. Poor Kate. Poor Madeleine.

Maybe this post won't turn up. doh!
Some others in other places do try to steal your name, and benefit from the respect others have for you, but you are inimitable. We know how you write. 'They' cannot fool us.

Justice for Madeleine, and every child, in time...
xo

ta ra said...

And finally:-
For the Troll/AnonyMOUSE chasing docmac...
Fetch! Chuck you a piece of cheese...a bit of Vanity Unfair...and you'll chase it.
Ne'er mind, dumpling provincial wannabe: you'll get your 15' of fame or infamy.
Such a bore and a chore, you all are: McCann Machine of minor mechanics.

Ta for the amusement you give us.
Leigh3

ICantThinkOfAName said...

Thank you Leigh3 for the support.

Time 0915 Sunday 24 Feb