Sunday 3 March 2019
07.18 pm – Today, I discovered something about some of my grandchildren which has caused me to think a bit – a lot. You see, there is a difference between parenting and grand-parenting, and never the twain shall meet, as they say. I can order my children but can only request my children do something when it comes to how they raise their children. It’s never a good idea to interfere. My mother was always interfering about my children but it’s not how things are done today. So, I must just remain in splendid isolation – see no one and just sit it out and wait.
07.22 pm – Please can you all have a look online – ‘the final speech of Clarence Darrow in the Leopold and Loeb Trial.’ If possible, watch the film ‘Compulsions’ and what a great final speech. Darrow and F. Lee Bailey (whom I had the pleasure of meeting several times) are two of my favourite lawyers as is F.E. Smith, later, Lord Birkenhead. Watch the film ‘The Winslow Boy’ and the lawyer there is F.E. Smith. Another great was Ivan Lawrence QC who defended Dr John Bodkin Adams. The then-Attorney General Manningham-Buller QC was against him. Funny because Manningham-Bullers’ daughter Eliza was head of Ml5, a great lady, believe you me.
Monday 4 March 2019
12.39 pm – Today I wrote to the President of the Republic of Indonesia about the 62-year-old Mrs Sandiford and I requested the application of clemency. I wrote and asked that her sentence be committed to life and repatriated back to the UK. You can get life for Class A drugs so the sentence can easily be administered in this country. Let’s see what happens. I mean honestly to hang or kill a grandmother of 62 is crazy. Still, as they say when in Rome do as the Romans do!!!
12.42 pm – I also wrote to Jean-Claude Junker of the European Commission about whether or not this country ever lawfully joined the EU, after all the European Communities Act 1972 refers to a country that does not exist!!! There is no ‘United Kingdom’ and whilst in conversation, you might get away with it not so in legal documents!!! We will see what blows!
12.44 pm – Last week the Governor found a size 38 short pair of grey jeans for me. I was never really a tracksuit person so the past year and more I’m back to wearing what I call proper clothes. However, I have not felt so happy as receiving a pair of trousers. You need to remember that I have had no clothes parcel and seen no one on visits for six years and two years respectively. No one’s fault – it’s just a fact.
Tuesday 5 March 2019
10.01 pm – Things look like they may well take a turn for the better. I just need to keep the faith. Healthwise seems OK but for some strange reason, I think that the whole situation may improve. My typewriter has broken so that is a pain in the neck but I will get over it. The weather is slightly better also, so, that improves the mood.
10.04 pm – Let’s make my diary a bit more interesting. OK! Rabbits? Before the First World War rabbits were an important food for the poor and to such an extent that they were even imported from Belgium called ‘Ostend Rabbits.’ At the outbreak of the War, of course, imports stopped so rabbit trapper were enlisted. There was even a Parliamentary Debate on rabbits as heated as Brexit is today and the price of rabbit meat was fixed by the Food Controller. By 1916 food rationing was introduced rabbits were ‘off rationing.’ The Government promoted keeping rabbits and there was even a rabbit club at Buckingham Palace. However, feeding rabbits was hard because hay and oats were scarce. That was needed for the horses in France. The law said that under the Defence of the Realm Act it was a crime to feed animals food that a human could eat. Frozen rabbit meat was imported from Australia to feed the troops. ‘An Army marches on its stomach’ it is said. The First World War saw that the army marched on rabbit food and rabbits helped win Britain the First World War, not bullets.
Wednesday 6 March 2019
(written 5 March at 10.15 pm) – I was thinking about Turkey because we have a few Turkish people here. So, I thought of the Ottoman Empire and remembered that Turkey once banned the printing press. Mass-produced books were possible in the 14th Century thanks to a German Goldsmith called Johanny Gutenberg who introduced typecasting. When his printing press spread through Europe it was not welcomed when it hit the Easter Mediterranean in 1492 which was controlled by the Ottoman Empire. Easy to see why Professional manufacturers who wrote by hand were against it – why? It would make them redundant. The French Franciscan Priest Andre Thevet said that in 1483 Sultan Bajazet II decreed anyone caught with a printing press would be executed. It was confirmed also by Selim I in 1515. However, not all agreed with Thevet. I’m not sure but if my history still sticks in my head, after 50 years Count Luigi Ferdinando Marsigli who dealt with the Ottomans for over 20 years wrote a book about the military. He said the reason the Ottomans did not print as many books was that books were not worthy of being printed. Well, not much changed since then. The Ottoman did not want Christians or Jews to profit from publishing en-masse. Jews fled to Turkey after King Ferdinand of Spain expelled all Jews in 1492. They were allowed to print books only sufficient to be read by their own race. Of course, today, wow! Publishing is so easy. You can do it yourself which has made the quality of content much lower. Jeez, I hope I got the dates and names right. It’s 50 years since I did this in history with Mr Blakes.
Thursday 6 March 2019
07.14 pm – Today I’m a bit sad because someone here has made a big mistake and has to pay for the consequences of pure folly. I know I should not give a damn about other people’s errors and only look at my own but I would not be human if I did not have some compassion.
07.14 pm – OK, now, here is an interesting fact: there are no moles in Ireland. That is correct no moles – the animal ones of course!!! The reason if I remember my geography/geology classes in 1969 are that when the last Ice Age ended about 12,000 years ago the World’s warm-blooded animals migrated north, following the retreating ice as new grass grew. Animals such as bison, deer, wild sheep and cattle were followed by predators such as bears and wolves. The mole took longer to migrate. Burrowing made their progress much slower and they had to wait for food, such as earthworms to move first. Remember – follow the food chain!!! Worms rely on soil to warm them and provide them with the energy to move. It would have taken several hundred years after the Ice Age for the soil to reach the temperature for worms to survive all year. The ice receded, the Irish sea was formed by breaking of the land bridge that connected N. Ireland to Scotland. The low-lying land further south flooded to form the sea. Ireland has no snakes or lizards as they are also cold-blooded creatures that rely on the suns warmth to give them energy. Funny old facts that I remember from school.
Friday 8 March 2019
(Written 07.03.2019 @ 07.28pm) – I remembered that I wrote an article in my book called ‘Of Mice and Men’ which was taken from the famous book. That made me remember at school about inventions that have never been improved. My father in law was a famous inventor of a top valve but I guess all of you will say that the wheel is the most obvious invention that has not been improved to date. The wheel was invented about 4,500 BC. However, the barbed wire which was invented in, I think, (jeez…) 1874 by Joseph Glidden from Illinois in the USA. That has never been improved upon. Now, here is where the ‘mice’ come into play. Let me test my blessed memory!!! I reckon it was in 1903 or 1904 (I think 1903) that a guy called John Mast improved the invention of the mousetrap by William Hooker by making it safer to load. That same mechanism is still used today. I just hope I got the names right. John Mast, I remembered because of the mast of ship and William Hooker – well, we might get to remember the names of people by word association. Absolutely what he was. I don’t know about you, but I had a heavy time at school and it was hard because I lacked the confidence because I was a foreigner, but I do miss those days.
Saturday 9 March 2019
07.24 pm – I received yesterday, such a lovely email from Dec Cluskey of the Bachelors. They were a group in the 1960s who were bigger than the Beatles and who nearly won San Remo! Those were the days. They are still recording and doing such a great job. Frankly, they should, and deserve to be greater than Status Quo, Rolling Stones and as I said in their time, they knocked the Beatles off their perch. Dec Cluskey has been my friend for a good few years and unlike many has not been a fair-weather friend. When I am back in Italy, I will name publicly those that have remained my friends and those who turned their backs on me. I know already the old excuses but it won’t wash at all. They will all seek to justify their position and stance and good luck to them, but they won’t be eating from my table again. It’s actually sad because for me loyalty and remaining friends are all-important. It’s all about a man’s word and honour. That is how I was raised and how as Shakespeare best put it.
‘To thyne own self be true.’
So, thank you Dec and your wonderful family. I hope we can do a song together soon.
Sunday 10 March 2019
07.30 pm – I feel as if I have been well and truly ‘sold down the river!’ I guess you know what that means don’t you? However, do you know how it came about, well, here goes, and again, this is thanks to my history teacher Mr Blakes? The term signified a kind of what I call profound betrayal. The term though comes from the slave trade. Yes, the slave trade. In the 19th century Kentucky in the USA that was the centre of slavery. The global demand for cotton required over 1 million slaves transported to the deep South between 1790 and 1860. They would be taken to Louisville to be ‘sold down the river.’ In other words, sent down to Ohio and Mississippi rivers and transported to cotton plantations. Mark Twain used the phrase in Huckleberry Finn when he says ‘he ain’t no slave. Old Miss Watson died two months ago, and she was ashamed she was ever going to sell him down the river and said so and she let him free in her will.’ (That part thanks to my English Literature teacher Mick Wright who died in the 1970s in a car crash God rest his soul.) The figurative use of the phrase meaning to deceive began in 1927 in P.G. Woodhouse ‘small bachelor states.’ When Sigsbee Waddington married for the second time, he to all intent and purposes sold himself down the river. Again, thanks to my wonderful English teacher RIP Mick Wright. Well, now you know.
Monday 11 March 2019
07.09 pm – I am hoping I can get you to understand cancer. The first-time cancer is mentioned is in the Edwin Smith Papyrus which was an ancient Egyptian medical text bought by Edwin Smith in, I think, 1862. It was Hippocrates (430-370 BC) who coined the word. He used the term carcinoma and carcinoma to describe ulcer forming and ulcer forming tumors. The word comes from ‘Karkinos’ meaning crab, and it was crabs that were used to be applied to the tumours because the swollen veins around them looked like limbs of crabs. Up to the 17th Century the word in English was canker when it was superseded by cancer. Galen (AD 130-200) also used the Onkos (Greek for swelling) to describe tumours. This now leads to what are today called Oncologists. Of course, those of you who know the star signs will know that the star sign Cancer (I am one 1 July) is named after the crab. Its use is traced to the well-known story of Hercules. Now ‘Karkinos’ was a giant crab dispatched by the Goddess Hera to aid Hydra in its battle with Hercules at Lerna. The hero crushed it with his foot. As a reward for its service, Hera placed it among the Stars as a constellation.
07.20 pm -Well, as I have cancer, I thought you would be interested (a) in the origin of the illness and (b) the star sign. Funny that I have cancer and was born on the 1 July making me of the star sign Cancer. By the way, at my school, all the above was necessary learning!!!
Tuesday 12 March 2019
08.05 pm – Well, the House of Commons has declined to exit the EU with the deal negotiated. How sad and that goes to show just how stupid the Houses of Parliament is. It would appear this country wants to leave but the Members of Parliament do not. So, there is a contrast between the elected and the electorate. That is why we Europeans want this country out!!!
Wednesday 13 March 2019
07.54 am – I was sad to hear that Odile Rubirosa the ex-wife (actually the widow of) of Porfirio Rubirosa has died. I had the pleasure of meeting her in 1973 in Rio De Janeiro, at Ipanima Club, the White Horse Club. She was blonde, scantily dressed but a true lady. Her husband at that time was Paulo Marinho, and the only reason I remember him is that this name is similar to Jose Mourinho the ‘special one.’ I got to tell you this – she danced on top of the piano that was in the middle of the room at the White Horse Club without wearing underwear. I was just over 18 years of age and, quite naive and, could not believe what I, and others, had seen!!! Then at the Club, I saw for example strip teasers which I could not figure out what they were doing in a Jazz Club. I guess Odile was trying to compete. In 1973 she was 37 and other than her public display, she really behaved as a lady in private. God bless her soul.
Thursday 14 March 2019
08.21 pm – You have to laugh. The Government Legal Department have ‘erred’ yet again. When will the Government and its professional advisors actually understand the law? One not only has to question whether anyone at the Treasury Solicitors is actually ‘qualified’ but also if so whether they have any legal experience? They quote Acts of Parliament that don’t exist and think that I would not check upon them? Incredible! I’m here for much less, by the way, soon, an update on what went on behind the scenes in my case.
Friday 15 March 2019
08.30 pm – Had a lovely email from Dec Cluskey and Caroline – boy does Caroline have it hard because of all the other stuff she has to do I must be also a hard task but boy oh boy what a great job she does with OPC Global. Some terrific news stories. On Wednesday and Thursday Pick TV showed the documentary I made with Fred Dinenage on Charlie Richardson. We don’t get the channel because of the absurd rules of the MOJ. When Grayling was Secretary of State. Did you know it costs the prison service money to block Freeview (what is free)? What the ‘bajaysus’ is that all about. What a crazy organisation funded by the public pays money to block what is free? Crazy – and thus everyone’s gone nuts!!!
Saturday 16 March 2019
05.53 pm – Nice to see that Caroline on TV is referred to as my ‘trusted and loyal friend.’ It’s the correct title and being a loyal friend is something one can be proud of. The problem is that there are few loyal and supportive friends, but Caroline is so, thank you to the TV programme. One thing my mother taught me but I never learned the lesson – when you win, try and keep your mouth shut. Well, a few people will soon be learning that lesson and will find that in 2013 they actually won nothing!!!
Sunday 17 March 2019
(written 16/3/2019 @ 09.01 pm) – There are some quite good songs I recorded – one song available on YouTube is ‘Last Night Was Made For Love’ a song by Billy Fury – my version I really liked. There is a great line:
‘No cloud could hide the moon from view.’
08.13 pm – I have to say publicly a big thank you to Wayne Stubbs and his family. Wayne from October 2017 – yes 2017 – Has arranged for me to receive the Daily Mail every day and the weekend which has the much sought after here – The TV Guide. There was no need for him to do anything for me and I did not know him well, other than he had been badly wronged by the system. Of all the so-called friends – professional, personal and family – only a few shining stars and Wayne is one. No point in me saying more but can I say I could fill several pages of names who have done nothing for me. No problem, because unlike many I don’t hold grudges at all. I just get on with life. However, of the few who betrayed the principles of their profession in their eagerness to put me down, well, destiny and karma will one day pay each a visit. I wish those well because the better those people do, the more they will realise what a mistake they made about me.
08.21 pm – My case is going back to the Court of Appeal and so we will see how things pan out. The Court of Appeal was formed in 1907 to right wrongs. To date, they have somewhat lost their way in the wilderness of the legal jungle. We need a David Livingstone and a Stanley to bring them back!!!
Tuesday 19 March 2019
08.56 pm – ‘The youth within a man will never die unless he murders it!!!!’
I thought that would attract your attention. It’s an old Chinese saying and how true it is. On a completely different note I want to mention Bernard L Madoff. I first met him in 1989 and again in 1990 in New York during my MGM days. I also heard his name from Credit Lyonnais Bank Nederland, and an Italian Bank but Florio Fionni was involved in it.
09.59pm – The trouble with Mr. Madoff was that he was looking for investment capital and we were looking for loans secured by our film library. So, it follows that nothing came of anything but he was a very polite and charismatic man. Move on to 2008 and, of course, we all know what happened to him, but he gave himself up; he pleaded guilty to all charges at the first instance and in the following years whilst serving a 150 years sentence (absurd sentence) both his sons died. What the eff is the matter with people. That man needs compassion and don’t anyone give me that clap trap about what compassion he should give to others. He has served 11 years and he should be pardoned in the sense his sentence remitted. So, I’m going to write to Donald Trump. I may be a solitary voice but it will be heard.
Wednesday 20 March 2019
08.00pm – I don’t know if you have studied the history of London but from 1801 to 1851 the population grew from less than one million to 2.25 million. The biggest problem that London then faced was…well do you know? What do you think? OK – the dead. You see an increase in population = increase in the dead and how to dispose of the dead. Coffins were stacked in 20 foot shafts and often bones came out of the earth and coffins dug up and sold as firewood. In 1829 an architect called Willson (yes double l which is how I remembered his name) prepared a blueprint called Metropolitan sepulcher. He proposed – yes, it’s true, a pyramid at Giza which is 13 acres. It would be 94 stories’ high, four times the height of St. Paul’s Cathedral. He costed out the project of the pyramid. General Cemetery Company would sell shares to investors which would realise a profit of £11 million based on 40,000 bodies annually. It was however, never built. A lawyer called George Corden proposed cemeteries modelled on garden graveyards created in France. In 1832 Parliament passed a bill encouraging private cemeteries outside London. Over the next few years several were built. Although the pyramid cemetery did not go-ahead similar ideas actually took off in Israel and Brazil. Oslo is considering it. I’m being buried in Italy and won’t participate in any pyramid schemes….
Thursday 21 March 2019
07.51pm – I could not but write to Donald Trump about applying some compassion to Bernard Madoff. I don’t want to hear any shite from anyone about how evil he is and what he did -we all know what we do. At least he was a man and surrendered himself, pleaded guilty and was alienated by all. His two sons died – one committed suicide and the other got cancer. Is that not punishment enough? Is America not founded by the Founding Fathers on compassion? The two boys died without reconciling with their father. Is that not punishment enough. What the eff good does it do for Madoff to die in jail? And what part did the main banks play in his fraud? Jeez they were co-conspirators but of course you know the saying:
Give a man a gun
He will rob a bank
Give a man a bank
He will rob everyone
I publish my letter to President Trump. He has redeemed many mortgages so let’s see if he can redeem Madoff. I mean, if President Trump can try with the Chairman of N. Korea why cannot he try with Madoff. The man has done 11 years. He is old and, he is remorseful and, suffered enough.
Friday 22 March 2019
07.27pm – Another day with no nearer to what is happening. I do however, know one thing:- my case is going back to the Court of Appeal and another quite interesting fact:- my friend Karen Todner ranked as the top solicitor in the UK lives in a Stately home that was once the home of one of the wives of none other than Henry VIII!!! Incredible. I will have to tease her a little when I hear her again.
Saturday 23 March 2019
(written 22/03/2019 @ 09.35pm) I see with some interest that Lapo Elkann has taken my idea of inter branding and used if for his brand Garage Acacia. Well, I will be seeing him when I’m in Milan and I look forward to a good conversation.
06.06pm – E Tenebris Ad Lucem
Sunday 24 March 2019
07.42pm – I hope my family excuse me for my lack of contact. There is nothing new, and I’m now six years into a politically motivated prosecution and a sentence based on forged PNCs of which I’m certain that all, save ‘perhaps’ the Judge, knew. Certainly, David Aronberg QC knew as did Jerry Wolten, but who orchestrated it – still to find out.
Monday 25 March 2019
07.13pm – Do you ever get those grrr moments? Believe it or not, many years back when I was too young to legally sign a contract I was offered ‘The Naked Civil Servant’ by Phillip Mackie. The offer was an option for £500 which I could have obtained – don’t ask how though. But I refused because I thought who would want to see a play about homosexuals? I had not even had my first experience of sex hill!!! But I guess better than that what about Excite.com who refused to buy Google in 1999? Graduate students Sergey Brin and Larry Page who were at Stanford University wanted to sell Google as it was taking up too much of their time. They offered it to George Bell of Excite for one million dollars. Bell made a counter offer of $750,000 which was refused. The rest is history. Google is now worth $100 million and Excite is listed like 4,000 in the top companies!!! The other big eff up must be Russia selling Alaska to the USA. So, there you have it – I wonder if I had accepted the option the Naked Civil Servant my life would have been different? I guess it must be eh? Do you ever wonder if you had done this, that, or the other, how things would have worked out? Who know eh????
Tuesday 26 March 2019
(written 25 March 2019 at 09.33pm) – For whatever reason I was thinking about Victoria Gotti and what she once said: “A lion is still a lion even if the lion is in a cage.” My so-called partner at MGM in 1990 had a kudos and got to know the Goth family but I know that many in the family did not like him but Victoria appreciated my viewpoint in life – namely that the role of a father is the protective circle around the family. I followed that but somewhere along the way must have lost my direction. I have realised why my family have behaved different from that of the Gotti family – my family is not a ‘crime’ family. Sometimes, though, I wish I had formed a criminal enterprise because I’m convicted of it – wrongly and falsely – so, why not be what was alleged? No better as I am – alone but with my head held high. My first headline in Yugoslavia in a magazine called Duga was Srpski Lav U Hollyvood – ‘a Serbian lion in Hollywood.’ Well, this lion has been in a cage for six years, and is hungry for space when the cage door is open!!!
08.05pm – I saw an Immigration Officer on the walkway today. I asked him “where’s my passport?” Reply: “Don’t know” well there you have it. So, I’m stuck here for a few more days/weeks who knows but future will prevail.
Wednesday 27 March 2019
08.34pm –
Today I have been in prison 6 fucking years for a crime I did not commit and the conviction was obtained using false testimony, false witnesses and a corrupt prosecutor using forged PNCs. Someone, sometime will get into a lot of trouble over this. Those responsible have already started making mistakes. The whole situation has not left me bitter. I have learned a lot in 6 years and the only real victims are my family not the liars, cheats, criminals that pretended to be aggrieved. No matter. They are all forgiven by me but by destiny and the power??????
Thursday 28 March 2019
09.00pm – Today its 6 years that by using false and forged evidence I was sent to prison. Well, the comeback – has started and all those who lied and forged documents to see me convicted will be exposed – you know who by? Themselves!!!! One has just happened. On another front, all OK, I miss my family but I will be much stronger when I’m back – remember Charles Endell Esquire? Ah, you need to be my age to know what I’m on about.
Friday 29 March 2019
06.42pm – This silly country has yet again voted not to endorse the withdrawal bill leaving the European Union. It is on a suicide mission and Great Britain has lost all its credibility that it had. It actually lost over the years much more but that, I guess, is how it is. What a pity. That leaves Germany now effectively the ‘boss’ of Europe. How Hitler would love what has happened. What he could not achieve by the murder of 70 million plus has actually come to be by the use of words and using the patrimony of plundered assets during the Second World War. This weekend I will write a paper on what actually happened that will amaze many. Anyway, I hope this country gets a grip on events quickly.
Saturday 30 March 2019
12.16pm –
‘So, here I am with pockets full of good intentions,
but none of them will comfort me tonight,
I’m wide awake at 4am without a friend in sight,
hanging on a hope I’ll be alright.’
Sunday 31 March 2019
(written 30.03.2019 @ 06.22 pm ) –
When you look at those who have caused you and your family harm and you see yourself;
At what price is mercy and forgiveness?
Who is my Neighbour? What has he done?
How many times do I forgive those who have injured me and my family?
What does it mean to love those who have harmed me?
What can a man give in exchange for his soul?
These and more are the questions I face in my prison cell.
The answers?
Will change my life, what there is left of it forever.
07.53pm – Today has sort of flown by and I can’t explain but I don’t remember much of what the eff has actually happened. Its been sunny so I have been out on the bench looking up at the sun and don’t know much else. Weird!!!!
GDS