Stalkers
SOMEWHERE, SOMEONE IS WATCHING, WAITING …What is it like to suffer the attentions of an obsessive fan, to be haunted by the menace of a stalker? What changes devotion into something far more sinister and how do the stars cope with the pressure?And what about the not-so-famous, the ordinary people who suddenly find themselves living in fear, stalked by a shadowy presence that is all too real?Ancell Marshall’s wife was killed by a stalker – a murder he stood trial for. Theresa Saldana will never escape the memory of the moment her stalker attacked her and nearly stabbed her to death. Vicky Caldwell had a nervous breakdown, while Lauren Barnes was eventually driven to retaliation. These and many other case histories are compelling reading.Jean Ritchie talks to the victims and their families, the counsellors, the therapists, the security experts – and the stalkers themselves – in this detailed, fascinating, sometimes chilling account of a growing and frightening phenomenon.
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Fourth Estate
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Copyright © Jean Ritchie 1994
Jean Ritchie asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
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Source ISBN: 9780006383383
Ebook Edition © OCTOBER 2016 ISBN: 9780008226930
Version: 2016–11-08
CONTENTS
‘You Can Run, But You Can’t Hide’
‘The Benevolent Angel of Death’
PART TWO – YOU WILL SEE A STRANGER
PART THREE – WHEN FRIENDSHIP TURNS TO FEAR
‘Wherever I Went, He Followed’
‘I Didn’t Want to Hurt His Feelings’
PART FOUR – IN THE NAME OF LOVE
‘The Doors Are Locked, Aren’t They, Mummy?’
PART FIVE – THE STALKERS’ PERSPECTIVE
‘I Just Wanted to Take Care of Her’
‘IT’S THE NIGHTS that are the worst. I don’t know where he is, but my imagination tells me he is close at hand. In daylight I can keep the fears down; at night I am alone with the terror that he has created. If he rings me every ten minutes I think I will go mad with it; if he does not ring I worry that he is outside, watching me.’
The words of one stalking victim are echoed time and time again through the pages of this book. All stalking victims have different stories to tell, but all have one thing in common: fear. Stalking is a modern crime, a growing crime, a crime born out of loneliness and isolation. In America, where stalking has been studied and analysed far more than it has in Britain, there are an estimated 200,000 people who are being stalked, and the country’s greatest expert on the subject says that one in five women will at some time in their lives be the victim of unwanted pursuit.
In Hollywood, the most famous celebrities may have as many as five hundred people each writing ‘inappropriate’ letters to them, any one of whom may tip over the edge and become a dangerous stalker.
Pursuing celebrities is the type of stalking that makes the headlines, and for that reason it has defined the popular image of the problem. Nobody is surprised to find that a sexy young film starlet gets a barrage of kinky letters from lonely men. But stalking is not just about obsessional fans who turn up outside Hollywood mansions with knives or loaded guns in their pockets: stalking exists in all walks of life, it crosses all age and gender barriers, it knows no class distinctions. Even in California, the capital of the film industry, where the problems for celebrities are much greater than they are anywhere else in the world, celebrity stalking accounts for fewer than half of all cases. Elsewhere in America it is less than ten per cent, a figure that is probably consistent with British experience, although no comparable research has been carried out.
The dictionary definition of stalking is ‘to pursue prey stealthily’, and that is exactly what the human stalker does. His technique may be to make endless phone calls, or to send unwanted taxis and pizza deliveries, or to mail a stream of obscene letters. He may threaten violence, and he may even carry out his threats. Or he may simply, boringly, repetitively, to the point of persecution, try to insinuate himself in someone else’s life. However he does it, he is the hunter and his victim is the prey: he is a stalker.
Not all stalkers, of course, are male, there are some female stalkers about. More women become involved in celebrity stalking – pursuing an unattainable figure from a distance – than any other kind. But the majority of stalkers, more than eighty-five per cent, are men, according to American statistics. For them, stalking is connected with control; they want power over their victims and they can achieve this by frightening them, or – more simply – by knowing everything about their lives.
