John Darwin And Anne Darwin Want To Be Seen
FOR the first time since the Queen Mother died, a non-blonde hogs the front-page headlines: Anne Darwin is everywhere.
(The only blonde on a newspaper’s front page, apart from the Star’s ubiquitous picture of Madeleine McCann, is the Scotsman’s lead image of tsunami-haired Donald Trump. And then the blonde is closer to the hue of irradiated instant custard.)
Grey John Darwin and his greyer wife Anne illustrate the Sun’s front-page headline: “The liar, the witch and the wardrobe – HE LIVED NEXT DOOR AND CREPT THROUGH HOLE IN WALL.”
A “Liar”? Indeed. As the Mail announces on its cover “I CONFESS”, Anne Darwin tells all about the plot that saw her husband fake his death.
In “WHY WE DID IT”, “CANOE WIFE” Anne Darwin tells Mirror readers all.
Eleven moths after John set out in his canoe, Anne opens the door: “I didn’t even recognise him at first. He had a beard and looked dirty – like he had been living rough. He was so thin and he smelt dreadful. His hair looked like he had probably cut it himself with scissors.
“When he went out he would disguise himself sometimes by taking a walking stick and walking with a limp. When it was cold, he would put on a wooly [sic] hat and pull his collar upwards. But during the summer he could barely get out”
Mr Darwin is a middle-aged man. Were he younger and blonder, chances are the tabloid press would have long ago embarked on a campaign to have him found.
The Express’s “Dear John…” campaign would have seen celebrities writing letters to the missing man, pleas to anyone who had taken him.
But John Darwin is balding and grey. He is in the hearing-aid beige years. He is invisible, and thus someone entirely suited to pretending he was dead for five years.
It is odd that he felt any need to disguise himself, and that Anne Darwin didn’t just move to London and get lost in the crowds, or else relocate to Hove or any other of God’s waiting rooms.
Instead he wears a disguise. He pulls his collar up, in a style beloved by Teddy Boys. And then in a bid not to be seen and be invisible English John and Anne move to Panama.
Anyone might suppose they wanted to be caught out, and were just desperate to be noticed…
John Darwin: The story so far – More here, here, here , here and here
Posted: 8th, December 2007 | In: Tabloids Comments (3) | TrackBack | Permalink
