True Crime With Caledonian Kitty

If you follow my blog or social media you'll know that I have done a lot of research into true crime cases and serial killers. I have an interest in Criminology and you may or may not know that I studied the subject at University. 

My interest in true crime has continued through the years and I guess it's just something I'm always going to be fascinated by, why some people do the things they do and the psychology behind it.

I was thinking the other day about my time at University and my experience on a particular course. I wasn't sure if I should share this story or not because I didn't know if anyone would be interested in reading it and I was a bit concerned that the person who it involves would be able to find it and to be honest, this isn't the type of person that I want to get on the wrong side of.

I've decided to share this post because I think it's an interesting (and a bit creepy) story and it's a reminder that you never know who's sat across from you at the train station or in a cafe or what people are really capable of.

I have to be very careful about what I say in this post because this person is easily recognisable and has been interviewed on TV and written a book so I've had to change a couple of little details but it's more or less the same story, so here goes...

My first course at University was Psychology and Criminology (don't let the glam image fool you, I'm a bit of a nerd lol) and I remember my first day, I was nervous, University was a big thing for me especially as I had worked really hard to get onto the course. It was a new chapter in my life and I had studied psychology and various courses at college so this was the next step. I was excited!

The first day I met people of all ages and some were professionals who had worked in the police force and it was really interesting to chat with people from all different backgrounds, everyone seemed so friendly.

My psychology professor was awesome and we became close (that's a story for another post lol), she wasn't what some people assume a psychology professor to be, she was heavily into all things Goth and she had the coolest office which looked more like a teenage Goth's bedroom. 

It was lunchtime and we all headed into the cafeteria, some students had arrived late and we were all sat around on different tables. I was sat near the window with a cappuccino and a sandwich whilst some of my new friends were buying their lunch. This tall, broad shouldered guy appeared out of nowhere and asked if he could sit down next to me.

He had some psychology books with him and I said it was fine for him to sit next to me. He asked if I was on the same course as him to which I replied yes and he asked my name. I told him and he said "Nice to meet you Jo, I'm "Mark", I battered my ''relative'' to death with a hammer''. As he said this he had a smile on his face and I was in a mix of shock and wondering if this was just a joke, a strange joke at that.

I don't know if it was the reaction he wanted because I just sat there stunned thinking it was a really crap joke and not really funny but he proceeded to tell me that he murdered his relative, been in prison and wrote a book about it. His book is on Amazon and it all turned out to be true.

When it comes to people who commit murder, there's all kinds of different circumstances involved. Someone could be a victim of domestic abuse and act out in self defence, others do it for pleasure and some do it as an act of revenge or just random killing.

This guy ''Mark'' wouldn't stop telling everyone in the class about his story and some of the other students thought it was fascinating, like he was some kind of celebrity. I felt a lot of bad vibes. I wanted to have sympathy for him because he had told us that his ''relative'' had abused him and his family when they were children but I just couldn't get my head around the laughing, the smiling and the constant bragging.

It didn't help either that he was trying to hang around the females of the class as well as trying to chat up the professor but she was having none of it. He told me and my other female friends that if we ever had any trouble with boyfriends we were to tell him and he would ''sort them out''. Some of the girls in my class were younger and seemed to hang on his every word, getting excited because he gave them a signed copy of his book.

He gave me a signed copy of his book and I noticed that some of the details didn't add up to what he had told me and previously spoken about in the class. I felt really bad about it, like I was being a bad person because I felt suspicious of him. He told us he had a young daughter and showed us her picture. She was around the same age as the girls on my course and he made some comments that were a bit uncomfortable to me such as ''She's got curves in all the right places'' (whilst making hand gestures towards his chest) and ''The boys are always wanting a piece of her''.

I think he felt uncomfortable with me because I didn't give him the same attention that the others did. I wasn't impressed by him. I just got on with my work and wanted to carry on with the topics we were covering. 

He'd walk into class and make a big entrance like he was a celebrity, sometimes he was late and we'd be in the middle of a discussion and he would walk in and start talking and announcing that he was there. He told us that he didn't really need to do that course as he knew a lot about psychology and he had made a lot of money from his book.

As time went on, there was a bit of an atmosphere between him and I. I wasn't rude to him or anything, I just didn't feel comfortable around him and he noticed that I was the only one not falling all over him.

One day in class we were talking about abuse in childhood and I spoke about my personal experience. I mentioned about the fear that some children go through everyday and everyone was listening to what I was saying. Suddenly, he got up and stormed out of the room.

He didn't come back for the rest of the afternoon and everyone was talking about him. I felt that maybe I had said something that had triggered him and I did feel bad about that but planned to have a quiet word with him.

He didn't come back for a few days and we thought he had left the course. I was left feeling that I had said something and felt a mixture of emotions about it.

He returned to class and everyone was asking where he had been and that they were worried, he looked towards me and said ''YOU UPSET ME WITH WHAT YOU SAID ABOUT BEING SCARED EVERYDAY''. I just sat there sinking in my chair as he went on about how my story really upset him and had put him in a deep depression. Everyone was looking at me in shock and it was awkward as hell, he was really angry with his face all red and I thought he was going to jump out of the chair and lunge for me at any moment.

I didn't know what to say back, I couldn't apologise (I can't remember if I did or not) because I hadn't said anything wrong in the first place. It was almost as if he was just looking for any tiny little thing to have a go at me.

You're probably wondering what this guy's story was, well he told us that he and his siblings had been abused as children by a relative and that he went on to criminal behaviour himself. He had spent a lot of years in and out of prison and when he got to his 40s he said that he started to have flashbacks to his childhood and when he got out of prison (again, I have to be careful with the details) the final time he decided that the reason his life had gone the way it had was because of this relative. He tracked this relative down who was now an elderly man and battered the man to death. Another disturbing aspect of this was that when he told me about the killing he smiled as he mentioned the brains all over the carpet.

After having a go at me in class, he announced that he was going to leave the course as it was reminding him of group therapy and he said goodbye to everyone but me. I was left feeling strange, I didn't know whether I was supposed to feel guilty or what cause I couldn't understand what I had done.

What I really thought it was about was that I hadn't acted like the other students, he knew that I had sussed him out (that's my opinion). 

I haven't looked him up in years but the last time I did, I heard him on a radio interview and the difference in him on there to how he is in real life was quite something. I don't know what he was in prison for the other times but I do know that he did have a bit of a strange attitude towards women especially towards me, like an aggression. I was just a young, tiny Scottish girl and he was this big built guy in his 40s screaming at me so he didn't seem to have an issue shouting at women.

Anyway, this was a bizarre experience and I don't know if you've found this interesting at all but yes, that's my experience meeting a killer. It's strange and to this day I still don't know what to make of it all. What do you think you would have done in my shoes?

Was I wrong to feel bad vibes about him? Do you think he sensed that from me and that's why he acted hostile? who knows, let me know in your comments below.

I have some other stories I'm thinking of sharing at some point, let me know if you're interested in reading them. One of the stories involves childhood friends who went on to kill someone, let me know if you would like me to talk about that.

See you in the next post x