JOHN SAMUEL HUMBLE WEARSIDE JACK
August 21, 2010
It’s 12:00 at night and I’m sitting here listening to Nat King Cole on my record deck. I like old vinyl …even the feel of it. Today I bought an old Gene Vincent LP in town and that was my excitement for the day. I go into the record stores every day and wander around…… That’s about all I do. I often feel I should be ‘doing something’ – but what ? It’s strange really , the fact that I don’t know anybody. It is I suppose remarkable…. – It doesn’t bother me , at least no more than anything else but it is rather strange – sort of. But that’s neither here nor there. So what’s all this got to do with John Samuel Humble ? Well , nothing really ….nothing in particular.
He was on TV tonight , a programme about him that is and it got me thinking. He seems a rather tragic figure , a lonely man – a loser , to use a somewhat cruel phrase but for all that his hoax was a great success. If it wasn’t for DNA and modern science they never would have caught him. There was quite a lot of footage of him being interrogated and much of the time he did not look too well , his hands appeared to be shaking ….. His crime of course was serious but he looked more like a victim himself. I do like the man’s name ; John Samuel Humble has a certain ring to it - It would be a great name for a serial killer. He looked defeated , in fact every photo of the man I’ve seen reinforced the idea I have of him as a victim. But the actual hoax , the tape that is , sounded very convincing. Why he did it we just don’t know and it’s likely that he doesn’t know either. He was surprised and even frighted at the success of the whole thing and went so far as to phone the police to warn them that it was in fact a hoax. You could say he was a bit too clever for his own good.
But he’s famous now. He’s immortalised himself. He’s a celebrity of sorts. If he was a different kind of man he could ( when he get’s out of prison) probably make a good living out of being Wearside Jack. As it is a lot of other people will no doubt manage to capitalise on the whole thing. He seems to have had a sad and lonely life and there is no reason to belive that that will change when he gets out. He’ll go down in history as some sort of unfortunate / dimwit / fool …..or worse. There is a Wearside Jack on Facebook but it’s just some rock group ( they’re probably useless). Wearside Jack/ John S. Humble is famous. His name /names will outlive ours. He’s not quite ‘cool’ but he’s made his impression. So – so what. What’s the point ? What does all this prove ?
If all this had happened in the good old days Humble would have become a caution. Parents would be telling their children , ” If you don’t go asleep Wearside Jack will get you” or “If you don’t eat your greens I’ll have to tell Jack”. If it had occurred in the 30′s in the USA someone would probably have written a ballad about the man. Sonia Sutcliffe meanwhile has moved back into the home she shared with Peter Sutcliffe. She’s probably there right now all alone in one of the upstairs bedrooms looking out the window like some latter day Anthony Perkins. It’s strange that she should have become a stress councillor of all things, but there are a lot of strange people out there aren’t there.
CAMBRIDGE COURT RINGSEND NEW WEB SITE (WEBSITE)
July 30, 2009
A few weeks ago I wrote a short blog post about Cambridge Court Ringsend which is a small housing complex for senior citizens run by Dublin City Council. I had been a little critical of some of the living conditions there , the small (tiny) flats and the general noise level that one is subjected to. Since I wrote that piece there have been some developements that the you may be interested in.
I had not really given any thought to what other residents might or might not think of my comments and didn’t ( and still don’t ) care one way or the other but as it has transpired I seem to have hit a raw nerve or something like that. But whatever it was I ended up getting a bit of what the British I think call ‘ribbing’. It seems that everyone here had read my blog , including those who perhaps didn’t even know that such things as blogs existed prior to all this. The next thing was that someone had gone to the trouble of printing out a hard copy version of my blog and pined it up on the community hall notice board. Well , as the man said , “There’s no such thing as bad publicity” , so I’m quite happy about that. And last but not least , a Cambridge Court Website was launched on the WWW.
So there you are. The excitement here is terrific , up to now there was little to raise the pulse. If someone lost their house keys that was a talking point for the rest of the week but now …..God only know what might happen next. When I came here first I thought there would be wild parties and fornication all over the place , after all the tenants (inmates) are all within nodding distance of the grave- but no , Bingo is about as wild as it gets. Mind you , There may be things going on behind closed doors that I don’t know about.
Before now I don’t suppose anyone knew that Cambridge Court existed and now there’s two website spreading it fame to the four corners of the world. If there was only someone here who knew a bit about video broadcasting we could turn the whole place into a reality show. ….
Cambridge Court is situated about 3 minutes walk from The O2 in Dublin’s Docklands and within 10 minutes of Sandymount Strand. It’s in the heartland of Ringsend which ( if it wasn’t for the litter/dog dirt) is rather a nice place that retains the feeling of being an old Irish fishing village. It (Ringsend) boast one of the worst pieces of public sculpture in the country ( a monument to domestic violence ) which the local yobs have unfortunately not yet defaced. Public housing and Dockland “apartment’ sit side by side but that’s as far as it goes. The pubs in the village are exclusivly WORKING CLASS. It has one charity shop , Mrs Quinn’s which is always worth a visit. The whole place is , needless to say , a hotbed of blogging….OH , and if you happen to see a chap flying down the Ringsend Road on a Brompton bike thats me…….Since this last sentence was written my Brompton has been stolen so instead you’ll have to watch out for me riding my Mezzo through Ringsend. To read more news , moans about Cambridge Court just click on the Cambridge Court Tab on the right……
Cambridge Court Ringsend Dublin City Council
September 17, 2008
Cambridge Court in Ringsend is a housing complex for senior citizens run by Dublin City Council. I moved in there a few months ago as I was in substandard accommodation in the private sector before that and really had to get out.
Cambridge Court is not unlike a prison. My flat ( a one roomed one ) is more like a cell than anything else. It’s small and dark…..and it does not feel like home…. A man calls around to each flat every morning just to check the we are ‘alright’ ( not dead ). I had to almost have a stand up argument with him to get him to stop pounding on my door… At another time someone from the local health service came knocking and demanding to know all my health and medical history…..it took yet another argument to get rid of her. Yes , there is no question about it , if you live in a place like Cambridge Court ( if you can’t afford to own you own property that is ) you are treated like not so much a senior citizen but more like a second class one. It’s the new racism in Ireland based on class rather than colour or creed.
It may look pleasant enough…….you might think I’m almost ungrateful in my attitude but the harsh reality is that you are treated very much as a second class citizen here. You are subject to a regime that no home owner would tolerate for a minute… They call it sheltered housing but it’s no more than a sort of apartheid…..The whole concept of keeping older people segregated from the rest of the community is very much the norm now. In fact everyone seems to want to live in closed estates with gates and walls..but that of course does not make it right or desirable….
Still….It’s better than being homeless….
PS. One point that I should make here is to mention the noise. You would imagine that a complex such as this would , if nothing else , be quiet but in this you would be wrong. One of the reasons that I gave up my previous flat was that I couldn’t stand the noise but now I find myself in a worse position. It’s impossible to have a lie-in in the morning or to just write a letter or simple things like that as the noise from the next door radio or television is likely to be blaring through the wall….I find myself in the position that I have no choice but to spend hours every day just walking the street…..this is something you should consider if you are offered a flat here. There is a distinct possibility that your quality of life will be nonexistent…….So yes, it’s better than being homeless but that’s about it…..there is not a lot more that can be said for it.
22 July 09 Over a year here now and I still find myself having to go for walks just to get away from the noise. In the one year I’ve been here I still haven’t actually read a book in spite of the fact that I’m a fanatical reader and still buy a few each week. I have just found this piece about Ringsend in the good old days. If you want to read more about Cambridge Court just click on the Cambridge Court tab on the right…….
