INTRODUCTION
2013; Routledge; Volume: 14; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/1461670x.2013.810897
ISSN1469-9699
Autores Tópico(s)Irish and British Studies
ResumoFrank Stewart had arranged a meeting with the editor of the Kent Evening Echo. While thedetails of their discussion and subsequent contractual arrangements went unrecorded,Stewart agreed ‘‘to send him news items from France’’. Soon after, the editor received areport that ‘‘John . . . O’Connor . . . had been arrested in Lille for the alleged murder ofNurse Daniels’’. It had been over a year since May Daniels had disappeared while visitingBoulogne with a friend on a day trip from Brighton. Despite the best efforts of the Frenchand British authorities, it was five months until her body was found in woods north of thecity. Even then the sensational case remained unsolved and continued to draw theattention of ‘‘many London and Paris newspapers (who) have sent correspondents toBoulogne to deal with the mystery’’ (Sydney Morning Herald, March 14, 1927). As rivaljournalists and ‘‘special correspondents’’ scrambled to be first with the news, Stewart’s on-the-spot revelation seemed like a dramatic and profitable scoop. Yet events were to take asurprising turn: John O’Connor and Frank Stewart were the same person, and this was a‘‘bogus news item’’. When the Evening News published the report of O’Connor’s arrestwithout verifying it, the interpreter ‘‘sued for libel he wrote of himself’’, claiming £750 indamages from the Associated Press. After the Press’s solicitor investigated, O’Connor wasarrested for a series of earlier thefts. Even then he convinced the Liverpool magistrate thathe was about to receive compensation as a victim of libel and was bound over rather thanimprisoned after promising to reimburse his victims (Guardian, December 20, 1927; DailyMirror, December 20, 1927; The Times, December 20, 1927).
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