Jeremy's Alibi...

[maggie]

Well said Martin, I cannot understand why I allow myself to take any notice of steve's rubbish but it holds a strange fascination for me...maybe I have a hidden admiration for bad historical novels!!

I have heard rumours that the great Starryian is posting on this forum so that is interesting certainly with steve's definite assertions that Jeremy is a sociopath....psychopath. 

Great post Martin!!

[mertol22]

Julie Mugford was not out for all she could get. She first met Jeremy at a London bar in November 1983 where they were both working and they felt a mutual attraction. It wasn't until a few months later that she realized the farming connection,and at that time Jeremy didn't even have the cottage at Goldhanger. Here is Jeremy back from his working holiday in New Zealand,not wanting to enter the farming way of life,feeling his way around maybe at a bit of a loss,whereupon he meets Julie.

Julie would stay at the cottage in Goldhanger during the holidays and it was then that she would come to meet June Bamber. Again the atmosphere would have been tense whenever June called,sometimes with Sheila and the twins but mostly alone. Again Julie sensed June's disapproval of her relationship with Jeremy and June made it clear that biblically they were living in sin together and that Julie was a harlot. June's hypocrisy is manifested because Sheila is not good enough to marry her son,a view she would have imparted to Jeremy,but again Julie is not in this relationship for short-term gain as she rejects June's offer of buying them a flat if they would leave the village and thereby stop the rumours flowing at the Queen's Head,which were damaging to Ralph's status as the local magistrate.

Jeremy had a strange view of relationships which he had learnt from his parents having employed farm staff: people were used for what they could offer and in return they received payment. There was no emotion involved and Jeremy accepted this as normal;when he one time visited Julie's relations he couldn't understand the tactile nature and the feeling of benevolence in the family was quite alien to him. It was this feeling of warmth and loyalty which kept him in the relationship with an older woman,Suzette Ford for a number of years.

Julie was also learning fast in Thatcherite Britain;the lesson that money talks. Why,she inquired,did Jeremy not just cut loose,leave his family behind and move on? Because,retorted Jeremy,he had too much to lose. It was in this atmosphere that Julie became cocooned,and it is one explanation that inured her to Jeremy's unpleasant and cruel streak.

At the turn of the year 1985 Jeremy had been harbouring thoughts about harming his family. The farming lifestyle didn't suit,Sheila was living it up in London whilst the agricultural life was hard physical labour,June was unreliable and might easily change her will and leave money to the Church. Jeremy was a disappointment to Ralph who wanted an heir to take over the managerial responsibility the farm as a business entailed. Jeremy wasn't a natural leader,he didn't inspire confidence around him,and Jeremy was restless. If only his family would disappear Jeremy could receive his inheritance and move on. Spurred by a chance conversation with Colin Caffell that the twins were "a millstone round my neck" Jeremy began to conceive ways that his family might disappear. He made hints to Julie,who busy with the fatigue of teaching practice and giving of herself in a way not demanded by other jobs,did not take him seriously and preoccupied herself with her immediate future gaining the necessary qualifications to make something of her life. Jeremy himself had never looked far ahead in a constructive way,having failed his first attempt at gaining qualifications. As a product of a public school it was others who occupied themselves with the menial tasks and as long as Jeremy had a cheque book he felt security thereby.

It was this callous disregard for people over money which set Jeremy on his evil course. He at first borrowed some of Julie's sleeping pills and drugged his parents' bedtime drinks one night but upon inquiring the following morning as to their slumber realized that they had experienced no detrimental effects. Jeremy was becoming desperate,especially when he saw the bills for Sheila's psychiatric care in March 1985 which were running into thousands of pounds and cutting into his inheritance. He discussed burning the house down with Julie but was talked out of this when he discovered the house was underinsured and many valuable heirlooms would be irreparably lost. It was then that he realized the solution that had been in the back of his mind all along,but even callous Jeremy had rejected it as an extreme solution for one so squeamish about guns. He would have to personally execute the family and make it look as if Sheila had killed them all.

Julie's primary school experience and training kicked in. How could he possibly kill the twins? And here,reader,how could a prospective teacher of small children who must have seen children like them on a regular basis in an educational setting sitting on those tiny plywood chairs with their uncorrupted faces not recoil at such a wicked scheme? Did Julie plead with Jeremy to save the twins,to spare them from this murder ritual,as frightening as any religious ritual that June had made her children and now her grandchildren endure at church and at the farm? No,replied Jeremy heartlessly,the twins would have to go,they were stopping Colin from obtaining regular employment and he would be able to move on with a life and make a fresh start,just as he,Jeremy was planning to do.

Is it this thought,the thought that she could have saved the family,the spectre of Sheila's boys which haunts Julie every day, the new day which dawns in the backdrop of that bleak Canadian landscape?  Sheila's boys,Jeremy's future rivals in the profit-driven culture of the time,were not to be spared. Julie's way of making amends is to put her life and soul into her own boys,her immediate family,to please her husband and to provide enrichment for other people's children,thousands of miles away, the geographical distance numbing somewhat the ramifications of those events twenty seven years ago,though the universality of childhood must bring the tears flooding back on occasion after the school bell has rung.

This post sounds like its from a book , i thought they saw each other in sloppy joes american diner in Colchester where they both worked.

[lookout]

No Jeremy used Julie;he used her for sex,he used her as an excuse to have a ladies' bicycle at Goldhanger,and he used her as a confidant,which was his undoing. Of course he may have had relationships with women in the past but he didn't understand their psychology unlike Brett who sensed what Julie was after when after the murders he proposed a toast to "Jeremy and his future bride". Jeremy had realized for several months that he didn't want to marry Julie;he felt awkward with her in the company of his parents possibly because she was not of their social class,and like a servant he paid her off with £400 and thought that he could keep her sweet in the future with his money and the threat of her being an accessory to murder.

" Used her for sex " ? Oh yes,,she must have run a mile when he mentioned sex.! I don't think.
On the contrary,,Jeremy was still wet behind the ears before he met JM. It was she,who taught Jeremy the error of his ways. This is why June didn't like her because poor woman must have seen a drastic change in him. Hardfaced,like she was.!
Because Jeremy must have realised that the friendship was causing friction and unpleasantness,,Jeremy was doing his best to make it  fizzle out. The same as I would if someone had put a pillow over my face. Who was the nutty one then.? A normal person doesn't do things like that.
I could imagine June telling him that he could do better,,,and rightly so.
JM knew also,that Jeremy was a pushover,,,that's why she used him.!
Jeremy used nobody.! Everyone used him though,good style.

[lookout]

Excellent post by the way,Martin.

[susan]

Morning lookout.  You post with such passion

[Jane]

WELL DONE MARTIN!!!!!  The only thing steve left out of that appalling piece of literary, I don't think so, drivvle is the part where "He clasped her to his manly bosom and smiled sardonically. She looked up at him, her innocent eyes liquid with hope and longing."!!!!!!!

[lookout]

Morning lookout.  You post with such passion

Good morning Susan. I really feel for Jeremy,,,like I'd do if it was my son. To think,just because of peoples' ignorance,that he's been festering for years,unnecessarily.
He isn't a danger to anyone at all. There are more dangerous criminals on the outside.

[Bridget]

Now you all know how I feel every time I read the myriad of 'Poor-Sheila-did-it-because-she-had-schizophrenia-the-relatives-are-all-greedy-bastards-and-Jeremy-is-a-nice-bloke' posts.

Petey has it right, such posts should clearly labelled 'IMO' IMO.

[susan]

Morning april  you are so funny but I agree with you regarding steve when I read some of his postings I have to read it again because I think my imagination is running wild but not so it is steve's

[Jane]

Morning april  you are so funny but I agree with you regarding steve when I read some of his postings I have to read it again because I think my imagination is running wild but not so it is steve's

Morning Susan. I know what you mean. It reminds me of how I used to hide "Lady C" inside a text book because I felt guilty about reading it openly. The only difference is, if I was caught reading steve's drivvle, I would feel STUPID!!!!!

[grahameb]

WELL DONE MARTIN!!!!!  The only thing steve left out of that appalling piece of literary, I don't think so, drivvle is the part where "He clasped her to his manly bosom and smiled sardonically. She looked up at him, her innocent eyes liquid with hope and longing."!!!!!!!

LOL Should sell it to Mills and Boon.

[grahameb]

Now you all know how I feel every time I read the myriad of 'Poor-Sheila-did-it-because-she-had-schizophrenia-the-relatives-are-all-greedy-bastards-and-Jeremy-is-a-nice-bloke' posts.

Petey has it right, such posts should clearly labelled 'IMO' IMO.

Well you won't get either "poor Sheila" or "Jeremy is a nice bloke" from me. I don't like him and I think Sheila was a rebel and caused her parents a lot of heartache.

[susan]

Morning Grahame  just interested to know why you don't like Jeremy I have heard such conflicting views on him probably a nicer guy now than he was when he was 24.

[grahameb]

Morning Grahame  just interested to know why you don't like Jeremy I have heard such conflicting views on him probably a nicer guy now than he was when he was 24.

He may be Susan. I suppose it is because of the way he has treated a few friends of mine. I know you can excuse him on several counts. But these friends have given their best for him. That is all I am preparared to say about it.

[OnceSaid]

Don't let anyone get you down,Grahame. Rise above it. We need you here.x

Here here!