CrimeCon 2023 – extraordinary cases, victims' stories and a little humour
Cops, robbers, victims, writers, experts and a lot of people interested in law-breaking made for a fascinating weekend at London's CrimeCon
This was my first London CrimeCon, a two-day get-together at the Leonardo Royal Hotel near London Bridge.
While true-crime is having a moment in terms of podcasts, TV channels and series, books and movies, it has attracted some criticism along the way. This New Statesman article, Abolish True Crime, is a taste of the ire directed at the more tasteless end of the genre.
So, before attending as a ‘Crime Contributor’ – aka an author there to sign copies of their book – I wondered what to expect. Hordes of Ted Bundy worshippers? Jack the Ripper obsessives? Fanboys and girls of the hangman Albert Pierrepoint?
No Ordinary Day
In the event, so to speak, I was really impressed by the seriousness and rigorous expertise of the panel sessions I attended.
The first was about a new book, No Ordinary Day. This is an account of ex-police officer John Murray’s insanely courageous attempts to find justice for his colleague, WPC Yvonne Fletcher, shot and killed outside the Libyan embassy in London in 1984.
The reason I went for this session was that it was chaired by Jackie Malton, former Flying Squad detective and role model for Jane Tennison in the groundbreaking TV drama Prime Suspect. Jackie is someone I’ve been lucky enough to work with on a couple of TV documentaries and agreed to be interviewed for my new book, The Real Ted Hastings.
Here, she was interviewing Murray and his co-author, the novelist and former policeman Matt Johnson. To be honest, I wasn’t that interested in the book because I didn’t think there was much more to case of Yvonne Fletcher. She was murdered and the killer got away with it. End of.
How wrong I was. Matt explained how John Le Carré, an admirer of his crime novels, had assisted him with research leads in writing John Murray’s extraordinary and moving account. The upshot of this appalling crime was for me totally unexpected – an unsavoury government betrayal.
I went straight out of the panel session and secured a copy of the book.
The Real Prime Suspect
Jackie herself was interviewed later in the day about her own incredible career. To become a high-ranking detective in London’s Met is an impressive achievement. To have done it as a woman in the 1970s and 80s must have taken incredible endurance and courage.
On introducing herself to her first partner in the Flying Squad, she was told by him, ‘F*** off, you c***, I’m not working with a woman.’
Jackie spoke of her battles in dealing with corruption and alcoholism with humour and candour. Her book, The Real Prime Suspect, is a engrossing read.
I admired ex-detective Colin Sutton’s books on the two epic investigations he conducted, against the appalling duo of the serial rapist Delroy Grant and serial killer Levi Bellfield.
His session with Professor Jim Fraser was fascinating and sprinkled with sharp humour – which was welcome in the company of such a grim subject.
A walk on the dark side
CrimeCon was abuzz with live podcast sessions, packed audiences and warm encounters between readers and authors. There were powerful accounts from the families of victims. On the lighter side, there was a quiz.
It raised my appreciation of just how skilful and dedicated are many of the people involved in explaining and retelling such crimes and investigations. Of course, there is a tacky side to true crime, but to denigrate it all as being disrespectful and prurient is an insult to the many, many people who read and view the genre.
The convention was thronging with attendees from around the world (to my eye, women made up at least 75 per cent of it).
What’s the fascination? My most simple view on that question is this: if a crime occurs, we want to know about it. What happened? How could someone do that? Will they be caught?
People have always been curious about such out-of-the-ordinary behaviour.
And having immersed ourselves in the dark side at CrimeCon, it’s nice to come out of a session, share a drink and feel reassured that most of us are not monsters.
I’ll be back for CrimeCon 2024.