The Angry Exile: Rumour has it...

The Hangman

Into our town the Hangman came,
Smelling of gold and blood and flame.
And he paced our bricks with a diffident air,
And built his frame in the courthouse square.
The scaffold stood by the courthouse side,
Only as wide as the door was wide;
A frame as tall, or little more,
Than the capping sill of the courthouse door.
And we wondered, whenever we had the time,
Who the criminal, what the crime
That the Hangman judged with the yellow twist
of knotted hemp in his busy fist.
And innocent though we were, with dread,
We passed those eyes of buckshot lead --
Till one cried: "Hangman, who is he
For whom you raised the gallows-tree?"
Then a twinkle grew in the buckshot eye,
And he gave us a riddle instead of reply:
"He who serves me best," said he,
"Shall earn the rope of the gallows-tree."
And he stepped down, and laid his hand
On a man who came from another land.
And we breathed again, for another's grief
At the Hangman's hand was our relief
And the gallows-frame on the courthouse lawn
By tomorrow's sun would be struck and gone.
So we gave him way, and no one spoke,
Out of respect for his Hangman's cloak.
The next day's sun looked mildly down
On roof and street in our quiet town,
And stark and black in the morning air
Was the gallows-tree in the courthouse square.
And the Hangman stood at his usual stand
With the yellow hemp in his busy hand;
With his buckshot eye and his jaw like a pike
And his air so knowing and business-like.
And we cried, "Hangman, have you not done
Yesterday, with the foreign one?"
Then we fell silent, and stood amazed,
"Oh, not for him was the gallows raised."
He laughed a laugh as he looked at us:
"Did you think I'd gone to all this fuss
To hang one man? That's a thing I do
To stretch a rope when the rope is new."
Then one cried "Murder!" and one cried "Shame!"
And into our midst the Hangman came
To that man's place. "Do you hold," said he,
"with him that was meant for the gallows-tree?"
And he laid his hand on that one's arm.
And we shrank back in quick alarm!
And we gave him way, and no one spoke
Out of fear of his Hangman's cloak.
That night we saw with dread surprise
The Hangman's scaffold had grown in size.
Fed by the blood beneath the chute,
The gallows-tree had taken root;
Now as wide, or a little more,
Than the steps that led to the courthouse door,
As tall as the writing, or nearly as tall,
Halfway up on the courthouse wall.
The third he took -- we had all heard tell --
Was a usurer, and an infidel.
"What," said the Hangman "have you to do
With the gallows-bound, and he a Jew?"
And we cried out, "Is this one he
Who has served you well and faithfully?"
The Hangman smiled: "It's a clever scheme
to try the strength of the gallows-beam."
The fourth man's dark, accusing song
Had scratched our comfort hard and long;
"And what concern," he gave us back.
"Have you for the doomed -- the doomed and Black?"
The fifth. The sixth. And we cried again,
"Hangman, Hangman, is this the man?"
"It's a trick," he said. "that we hangmen know
For easing the trap when the trap springs slow."
And so we ceased, and asked no more,
As the Hangman tallied his bloody score.
And sun by sun, and night by night,
The gallows grew to monstrous height.
The wings of the scaffold opened wide
Till they covered the square from side to side;
And the monster cross-beam, looking down,
Cast its shadow across the town.
Then through the town the Hangman came,
Through the empty streets, and called my name --
And I looked at the gallows soaring tall,
And thought, "There is no one left at all
For hanging, and so he calls to me
To help pull down the gallows-tree."
So I went out with right good hope
To the Hangman's tree and the Hangman's rope.
He smiled at me as I came down
To the courthouse square through the silent town.
And supple and stretched in his busy hand
Was the yellow twist of the hempen strand.
And he whistled his tune as he tried the trap,
And it sprang down with a ready snap --
And then with a smile of awful command
He laid his hand upon my hand.
"You tricked me. Hangman!," I shouted then,
"That your scaffold was built for other men...
And I no henchman of yours," I cried,
"You lied to me, Hangman. Foully lied!"
Then a twinkle grew in the buckshot eye,
"Lied to you? Tricked you?" he said. "Not I.
For I answered straight and I told you true --
The scaffold was raised for none but you.
For who has served me more faithfully
Then you with your coward's hope?" said he,
"And where are the others who might have stood
Side by your side in the common good?"
"Dead," I whispered. And amiably
"Murdered," the Hangman corrected me:
"First the foreigner, then the Jew...
I did no more than you let me do."
Beneath the beam that blocked the sky
None had stood so alone as I.
The Hangman noosed me, and no voice there
Cried "Stop!" for me in the empty square.

Maurice Ogden

Wednesday 3 March 2010

Rumour has it...

For a long time there's been a persistent rumour that Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, who murdered Jamie Bulger back in 1993, were given new identities and a new life each here in Australia after their release. Having done only eight years inside it was fairly predictable that this didn't go down well with an awful lot of people in either country, and it also shouldn't surprise anyone that there's been at least one case of mistaken identity in Western Australia. Yes, that guy is also a convicted murderer* so no great loss, and if he hadn't been charged with a horrible crime involving the sexual abuse and murder of a child the assumption that he was Thompson might never have been made. I mean you don't go round looking at random strangers and considering if their appearance and age might mean they're a released killer with a new identity, do you? There has to be something else that creates the association. Still, the point is that despite the fact that Arthurs clearly isn't Venables or Thompson people thought he might have been. And it turns out that after all that the bastards are probably still in the UK anyway. Venables has been returned to prison for breaching the conditions of his release and I can't see how that would be possible if he was anywhere but the UK. Aside from the highly remote possibility Australia would have let the bastard in in the first place (having been through the Aussie immigration system myself I know a little about this sort of thing - being married to an Aussie didn't excuse me from having to satisfy them that I was a law abiding sort and of good character) how the hell would the Probation Service be able to monitor him half a world away? And are we supposed to think they jumped on a plane to come over here and nick him for whatever he's supposed to have done now?Clearly bullshit, and arguably a failure of the authorities in both countries (but mainly the UK) to call bullshit loudly and clearly when the rumours began. Unfortunately the air of secrecy is being maintained and whatever Venables has done to earn a trip back to the nick is being kept quiet. I'm not suggesting that they publish the fuckers' addresses but can't they see that all this 'we're not saying, we don't trust you all' stuff is just going to fuel future rumours? Just fucking be honest about what country the fuckers are in and make it crystal clear that vigilantism will be prosecuted to the full extent of law. Obviously the best option would have been not to let the bastards out in the first place, but barn doors and bolted horses being what they are that's no longer an option.

3 comments:

JuliaM said...: I suppose it's possible he was in Australia, and the reason he's now back in chokey is that he returned to the UK and THEN breached his license conditions?; 4 March 2010 at 02:15
Angry Exile said...: Okay, it is a possibility, but pretty remote. If he's living in Australia - difficult to monitor from the UK - and inclined to do something that would land him back inside why return to the UK to do it? Actually why return to the UK at all? For all it's faults it's still a more free country than the UK and that would apply doubly to someone who'd been convicted for murder and was out on licence. Why on earth would he return to the UK? That brings us back around to my other point: why on earth would Australia let him in? People are regularly refused entry to Australia for less.; 4 March 2010 at 09:54
JuliaM said...: There's a lot of speculation that the breach involves him contacting either the Bulger family or his partner in crime.

If true, both would require him to return to the UK.

"That brings us back around to my other point: why on earth would Australia let him in? "

Diplomatic pressure behind the scenes?; 4 March 2010 at 14:51