Jimmy Savile’s ‘Mrs Fix-it’ Janet Cope reveals the callous laughing man she knew
IN “MY 32 YEARS WITH SAVILE”, the Daily Mirror looks to have a scoop. Did Sir James Savile have a lover? Did he fancy older women and underage girls and boys? Dunno. All we get is Janet Cope, 70, Jimmy Savile’s former PA. Jimmy Savile gave her away at her wedding. She’d asked him to. She said of the big day:
“It was a super day, absolutely lovely. Jim always had to be the centre of attention, but I was happy to let him enjoy it. I thought it was funny.”
Janet Cope spoke with the Daily Mail in 2011. The paper says Cope and Savile worked together for 28 years, a relationship began in 1971. Highlights are:
Janet Cope: “I’m a better person because of Jimmy. He taught me so much about how to fight for what you believe in, because that’s what he always did. He helped so many people in his life, and I’m proud to have been part of that.”
JC: “I thought he was a great laugh.”
JC: “He never talked about women and nobody asked. People knew he was a bit different.”
JC: “I could tell that I annoyed him sometimes but he never lost his temper with me.”
The Mail: “Janet’s role with Jimmy ended in 1999, by which point his workload had dwindled.”
The Mirror bills her, ominously, as Savile’s “Mrs Fix-it”. We are told that she was one of his closest confidantes. How close? Did she know he was a predatory paedophile, as the paper says?Says Janet Cole:
“He told me, ‘Never risk being caught out. Always ensure that you’re in total control of any situation’. Sadly, the evidence against Jim does seem a bit overwhelming and, really, I’m at a loss for words.”
Scoop that. Woman lost for words!
The Mirror adds:
But she also declared that if Savile were alive today he would have somehow “wriggled out of it”.
Of course, were Savile alive he’d still be being feted by the media, the political elite, the head of the Catholic church and the Royals. It was his death that triggered the allegations. He would not needed to have wriggled out of anything. He’d have just made a few phone calls.
Janet adds:
“That’s what he did. He thought he was untouchable because he was hand in glove with the hospitals, royalty and the Prime Minister.”
He was right. No-one testified against him. The police never charged him. He operated above the law. She goes on:
“On the face of it, Jim led a celibate, nomadic and simple life which may have disguised a more sordid double life. I don’t know, but he was clever enough to believe he’d get away with it, and if he did, he fooled me and many others… He was a very, very clever man and if he could keep something like that covered up he was even more clever than I gave him credit for.”
Yeah. Credit due.
“And it bothers me now because we rubbed along together for so many years, getting things done together.”
It must do. Is this why she is talking to the Mirror, to explain that she knew nothing of Savile’s liking for underage sex? 2011 was another life for Jimmy Savile and those who knew him.
She adds:
“He was eccentric, manipulative, controlling. I was frightened to death of him and I wasn’t the only one. He loved the power he had over other people. Power was important to him. He didn’t care if he upset people. Jim had no feeling, no emotions at all. He was a little bit distressed when his mother died but that was the only time I ever saw any emotion. Nothing could hurt him.”
No emotions or some emotions? She was frighted to death of the man of whom she told the Mail, “I did everything because I wanted to”.
Just how callous was he, the brute? The Mirror has an example:
To illustrate his controlling ways, Janet told how Savile lit up a cigar in her newly-painted front room despite her asking him not to so the smell he knew she despised would linger.
The brute! Or as the Mail out it one year earlier, before Jimmy Savile was exhumed and beaten with sticks:
He seems to have enjoyed provoking her mischievously. On one occasion, she eagerly showed him her brand-new Rover, and when she opened the door for him to peer in, he deliberately blew cigar smoke inside. When she mentioned how much she hated the smell of smoke, which permeated every room he had been in, he left a bulb of garlic to fester under her desk.
Was Janet – the confidant – there til the end? The Mail, as we have heard, says work just ended in 1999. Now we hear:
And Janet revealed how she was humiliated when Savile publicly sacked her during a packed meeting with doctors and administrators at Stoke Mandeville in 2001, with two terse words. As she sat at a table preparing to take notes, he blurted out: “She’s out.”
The last words from the confidant are:
“All this has tarnished the memories I have. But I am a woman who requires proof and until the proof is shown to me, I will always keep an open mind.”
The memories of him being an emotionless bully? Or the memories of him being a great laugh and an inspiration? Maybe it depends what the allegations are.
Posted: 17th, October 2012 | In: Celebrities, Key Posts Comments (6) | TrackBack | Permalink
