busker

Mark Chapman Parole Hearing

I love the thought of some over-wrought Lennon fan wreaking vengeance on Mark Chapman. the man who murdered John Lennon, could be released from jail next month in a move that has sparked fears of retribution from Beatles fans.

But you know? I'm not that confident any more in the power of the Net to deliver vigilante justice. Yonks back, I felt certain that killers Robert Thompson and Jon Venables would be traced in a trice ... but zilch.

Those are the two lads - just 10 back in Feb '93 - who abducted two-year-old James Bulger from the Strand shopping precinct in Bootle, Merseyside, tortured him and then battered him to death on a railway line.

Oodles of articles, of course, and a good reference page in the Grauniad, including the yawny subject of rehab, but no actual running of the villains down, which is surely the whole point of the much-vaunted Internet sleutherie?

How old would they be now? Perfect age - what? - to be on the run? Waking with a start at the 4AM brush of branch on window; checking reflections in shop windows; all that sort of thing.

I would assume they now have savvy trades and cast-iron histories, no foolish carelessness such as search engines tuned to pages like this. But surely someone has had half a suspicion??

Not much use, I know, but the least folks like I can do is at least keep the memory alive with ongoing updated entries and aides-memoire.

For me, this is the acid test of the WWW. I'll believe it's all it's cut out to be the day I read in some gutter tabloid that T and V have finally been run to earth by some alert webista.

Til then, keep the tale alive.