What crime did Erwin James commit?

Is his real name Chris Morris?

Proof, if proof be need be.

An archived segment of a BBC webpage suggests that he murdered his wife and daughter. The archived segment is incomplete though and I don't really know if this is true. He refuses to discuss the matter though so it does makes sense that it might be something so ghastly that he is concerned that it will, even now, affect people's acceptance of him. The length of his sentence is also a good indication that it was no "spur of the moment" pub type bashing gone wrong.

If you use a library that subscribes to the Times online archives, you can find the relevant 1984 article with a bit of nous.

this thread is creepy.
slmost as creepy as the ask freud murder threads(s)

Why creepy? The guy has established a very public media career based on his experiences as a lifer. Surely a bit of curiosity as to what he did is not unreasonable?

it does makes sense that it might be something so ghastly that he is concerned that it will, even now, affect people's acceptance of him

i've gotta be honest, a single, double or whatever murder is pretty much doing this for me right now anyway.

circumstances would be interesting to hear. can't you just tell us zelda zonk?

I don't think it's creepy btw, I think it's understandable he doesn't want to talk about it but also understandable that people want to know.

I just did a keyword search of the Times archives and came up with this:

"28 August 1984
Man questioned about two London killings
The French police have detained a British deserter from the French Foreign Legion for questioning about..."

Unless there were two ex-legionnaire double murderers in 1984, that must be Erwin James. If you've got £4.95 worth of curiosity (or library access), you can go to http://archive.timesonline.co.uk and read the rest.

his name wasn't erwin james though was it?

im lazy. but if i can find what you found i'll post it here. i have a subscription. why so coy?!

i don't think it's partic creepy in a world where heave ho and dom passantino walk free.

Not coy - curious enough to search the archive, but unwilling to spend money to read the rest of the article! If you have a subscription, go to the archive, limit the time range to 1984, search for foreign legion.

Lexis Nexis has this from the Graun itself:

A British deserter from the French Foreign Legion is being held at Toulon in connection with two murders in London in 1982.
Scotland Yard said the extradition of the 27-year-old man was being sought.

A second unnamed man, serving a prison sentence in the North of England, has also been questioned over the killing of a theatrical agent, Mr Greville Scott Hallam, and a National Coal Board solicitor Mr Angus Cochrane.

The Legionnaire joined the Second Parachute Regiment, based at Calvi, in Corsica, and deserted on August 16, this year, French police said.

Mr Hallam aged 48, was strangled in September, 1982, at his flat in Haverstock Hill, north London, a television set and video recorder were stolen.

Mr Cochrane, 29, died from head injuries after being attacked in St James's Park, near Buckingham Palace. on December 4 the same year.

Mr Cochrane was section head of the coal board's legal department in Doncaster, and had been staying at an hotel in London. His wallet and personal documents were stolen.

I'd say that was definitely "Erwin James", who was born in 1957 hence was 27 in 1984.

I found his real name just now.

yeah, thought i'd leave that off the thread. pretty common name anyway.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Erwin James is a pseudonym used by a Guardian journalist. His real name has not been revealed but it is known that he was a former life sentence prisoner and served 20 years in prison for a double murder[1]before entering journalism.[2] The circumstances leading to his arrest and conviction and the identities of his victims have also not been revealed.

you are doing some pioneering work here fellows.
and i was not creeped out by your interest, but by the prospect that a double-murderer is out of jail and has a public life while choosing to keep his identity secret. also was creeped out by the prospect of a wife/child double murder. that's always sad.

It says that this person "received two life sentences".

Wikipedia has now been updated to show his full name and crime, i'm guessing someone here did it.

and now its back to how it was...

hmmmm

changed back by someone at Bristol Uni.

of course the name etc are still in the revision history.

if Muchness was actually Erwin James all along that might explain why he's such a dick about deleting funny shit from the Fluxblog entry

interesting that this muchness guy on wiki has completely deleted the revision that said erwin's real name. it's possibly right & decent that they're giving the guy a break (paid his debt to society etc), but should wiki be censoring things like this - has muchness given any reasons why?

Yeah he attached a link to the biographies of living persons guidelines, which say "caution should be applied when naming individuals who are discussed primarily in terms of a single event. When the name of a private individual has not been widely disseminated or has been intentionally concealed (such as in certain court cases or occupations), it is often preferable to omit it, especially when doing so does not result in a significant loss of context."

Can someone post his name and the text of the Times article? The suspense is killing me.

"An archived segment of a BBC webpage suggests that he murdered his wife and daughter. The archived segment is incomplete though and I don't really know if this is true." - I posted this above and have gone back and checked the archived content. The first segment is definitely referring to James but the middle segment is missing and then comes the reference to the murdered wife and daughter. There is nothing directly connecting the two.

James Monahan

James Monahan's arrest, conviction and sentence for the murders of Scott Hallam and Angus Cochrane is publicly available information. This is surely relevant to the Wikipedia article on "Erwin James" and to consideration of his continuing public commentary on criminal justice issues. The Guardian originally argued that the pseudonym (Erwin James) was necessary to protect him because he was writing his column from his prison cell. This arrangement, however, ceased some years ago and Monahan has been released after completing his sentence.

So he didn't murder his wife and child then?

It looks like he murdered two guys in 1982

I've posted on Wikipedia under the discussion section of the Erwin James article. We'll see what the response is, if anything.

Could always create an article for James Monahan.

So he didn't murder his wife and child then?

bummer! ;)

wouldn't the guy have a different name right now? (not Erwin James, not Monahan)

no, i thought he would have changed it too, but apparently not. he mentions on his erwin james biography that he's a trustee of the prison reform trust, which lists "jim monahan" on its website.

If Erwin James is James Monahan, as it seems he almost certainly is, then he hasn't been totally honest about his past. He's obviously proud of his time in the Foreign Legion, but he's exaggerated it considerably. On his website he says he was in the Legion for "several years". In an interview he said it was four and a half years. Only last month in the Guardian he said he joined in 1981. But his last crime was in December 1982. Since he deserted in August 1984, then he could only have been a serving legionnaire for a bit over a year. In that short time, he claims he served in Lebanon, Chad and Cameroon, as well as spending months in Corsica. Possible, but I'm sceptical. Some tabloid journalist is sure to rake him over the coals one of these days.

By the way, his second victim, Greville Hallam, seems to have been quite an accomplished Shakespearian actor. Simon Callow mentions him in his autobiography. Callow also writes for the Guardian, I wonder whether he's met Erwin James?

I got the following response from Wikipedia ... Erwin James real name Wikipedia does not permit Original Research. Information which is not in any single source, but constructed by combining multiple sources or interpeting one in ways that are not obvious is considered Original Research. Do not post claims, either here or in the article, as to what James' real name is unless those claims (explicitly linking James and the alleged real name) have been published in a reliable source, such as a major newspaper. If you think you have such a case, exercise caution by posting here first, and merely linking to the source you want to include. (See policy on living persons for why are we are particularly careful in such cases.) Rd232 talk 13:01, 21 March 2009 (UTC) Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Erwin_James";

I guess that's actually fair enough. I mean, I don't feel fobbed off or anything like that. At the end of the day, I think it's only reasonable that soemone who wants to contribute to public debate does so transparently but good luck to James Monahan (Erwin James, whoever he wants to be today), he did his time, and I wish him the best for the future.

Well he's served his sentence. He's free to get on with his life, perhaps it's better his real name isn't used so the family of his victims dont see it (assuming they don't already know he uses this name)

Also if he has kids, they could get bullied at school if his real name was revealed.

In relation to the timeline above, Jim Monahan, James Monahan, Erwin James or Beau Geste could have committed the murder or murders of wives, daughters, shakespearian actors and Coal Board functionaries while serving with the Foreign Legion. Perhaps he did so while on leave back in the UK. It seems that he joined the Legion in 1980 or 1981 and then deserted in 1984 (probably because the police were already on his case as demonstrated by one of the articles suggested that he deserted from the Foreign Legion, was detained by French police and extradited to the UK in the same month - August 1984). Does anyone have the exact dates of the two murders?

Some tabloid journalist is sure to rake him over the coals one of these days

Why? It's not as if he's a public figure living a lie. He wrote a column under a pseudonym; the details are hazy; who, other than a handful of people on a message board with too much time on their hands, is going to care?

This:

good luck to James Monahan (Erwin James, whoever he wants to be today), he did his time, and I wish him the best for the future

is the attitude.

This:

If Erwin James is James Monahan, as it seems he almost certainly is, then he hasn't been totally honest about his past

is a bit daft.

(And by "is the attitude" I mean "is the right attitude", just in case there's any doubt!)

Cap'n Save-a-murderin-journo ;)

:)

Seriously, though: try ringing up the Sun with that one.

"See Erwin James? Well, he wasn't entirely honest about his time in the Foreign Legion ... No, Erwin. Erwin James ... What do you mean, who? ... Well, he had this column in the Guar ... Hello? Hello?"

his columns just slay me

no, grimly, it would be the daily mail, inside feature by i dunno geoffrey levy, with quotes from relatives of his victims and contrasting it with his life of comfort with his wife by the sea, with heavyhanded mentions to the amount of money he's earned as a guardian contributor and sneering references to anything liberal he's written about the prison system. the fudging of dates to obscure his identity would be the figleaf of moral justification to go after him.

bit suspicious about lukeybaby tbh, who has apparently never posted on any other thread.

http://www.headinjurytheater.com/phantom%20scooby%20doo%20unmask%201.jpg

'Erwin James' is just the name he uses for listening to funk on last.fm

lukeybaby's on fire
http://www.legalbanter.co.uk/uk-legal-legal-issues-uk/11319-erwin-james.html