Interview with the Vampire

[izmeina]

Last month Izzie was listening to her favorite radio program when a guest appeared who just made Izzie's jaw drop in utter disbelief. The presenter was right when he said it was one of the most compelling and disturbing stories he has ever covered. The reaction was so great that due to public demand they replayed the story again one month after the original broadcast. Izzie was once again listening while walking to the Ministry. Izzie had already come to her own conclusions before hearing the background.

When you live in a graveyard, you cannot weep for everyone. When so many people are being killed in Iraq, why would anyone be interested to hear about a 26 year old student who died of a drug overdose way back in 1997? But this was no ordinary death and his killer was not your everyday murderer.

Iz wants to invite her fellow serpents to join the Pity Party of the Century.

Just a quick blurb to give the general idea of the background to the story

Joe Cinque is Dead
Summary
In 1997 a young man, Joe Cinque, was killed by his girlfriend, Anu Singh, with a massive overdose of Rohypnol and heroin. She had developed a bizarre plan to kill Joe, and herself - a plan that included a ‘send-off’ party at their Canberra flat.

Anu Singh was eventually found not guilty of murder, on the basis of diminished responsibility. The decision was made by a judge, rather than a jury, which is an option available under A.C.T. law.

Singh served 4 years of a 10-year sentence, for manslaughter, and during that time she completed a law degree and Masters in Criminology. She is now mentally healthy and ready to get on with her life.

Joe Cinque’s family remains devastated, their pain and anger heightened by their belief that Anu Singh was responsible for her actions in 1997.

The crime and the subsequent court proceedings are the subjects of a new book by Helen Garner, 'Joe Cinque's Consolation'. In this program Phillip Adams speaks with Anu Singh - who is now out of jail - and with Joe's parents, Maria and Nino Cinque, who have decided to speak for the first time since the book was published.

Guests on this program
Anu Singh
Convicted of killing her boyfriend, Joe Cinque.
Maria & Nino Cinque
Parents of Joe Cinque.

And here is a link to The Interview with the Vampire" The audio is available for about 2 weeks or so.

(Izzie would be intrigued to get folks' impressions about She who must not be named. Izzie thinks it is most interesting to hear what she has to say for herself before hearing or reading what others say about her)


And now a word from the writer herself - Helen Garner about her book Joe Cinque's Consolation

Comments

[acinonyxjubatus.livejournal.com]

Just to say....thank you for the postcard, and how did you get the addy? :-)

The Aci Owlery

[izmeina.livejournal.com]

Izzie's owl arrived! Oh and how she got the addy? Well - that's Secret Serpent Business. Suffice to say that a bit of slinking in Cyberia did the trick ;) So rest assured. None of your friendses betrayed you for a sack of 30 silver sickles.

Re: Boo, hissssss!

[izmeina.livejournal.com]

Actually, the boyfriend was not into drugs at all. He was a simple sort of green horn really who ended up keeping company with the likes of Lady McBeth.
What Iz found utterly astonishing was listening to our poor long suffering Anu Singh. Iz kept thinking - Is this for real? She seems to have a rather different impression from most people as to who exactly is the real victim in this 'tragedy' as she insists on calling it. This is what Izzie calls the pity party of the century.
Dolores really ought to give this poor girl a call and offer her a job in the Ministry. After all - everyone deserves a second chance;)
But then maybe Dolores does not like competition.
(Iz originally was going to use something like 'uberbitch' in the title but felt that would be prejudicing potential listeners a bit too much!)

Re: Boo, hissssss!

[izmeina.livejournal.com]

What peeved Izzie was this constant bleating and pity party games. She goes through the motions about responsibility for her actions and stuff but everything she says contradicts it. She is only ever concerned about herself and her own suffering and how this tragedy (as she likes to call it) has affected her own life and plans. And of course - hides behind the excuse of mental illness.

Izzie first heard the interview with her before reading the account from Helen Garner. So one would expect the Izzie sympathy to be with the first account of the story.
But Iz found that she oozed such a callous coldness and indifference to the consequences of her actions insofar as they affected anyone but her own pretty little self.

Helen Garner made a comment about this business of not even attempting to interview Anu. Let's hope copy and paste works because the quote keeps appearing at this nasty net cafe with Korean characters interspersed in the text

"Helen Garner: Yes. I should perhaps say, as many of you will know, Anu Singh is now out of jail and she maintained that I have never tried to contact her, and this in fact is not true. I have copies of the letters that I sent to her that she didn뭪 reply to, and I thought, 멟kay, well, it뭩 in the book, I뭢 not going to get out there and defend myself because the book covers this.?It뭩 all clearly set out in the book. But then when she was interviewed by The Sydney Morning Herald the journalist actually went to her house and Anu Singh was stating confidently that I had never contacted her since she had got out of jail, since she was paroled. She뭩 got a younger brother who obviously rather tactlessly said, 멊ut Anu, there was a letter, don뭪 you remember? I remember you talking about it. Yes, I saw the letter.?And so he said this to her in front of a journalist, and so that position kind of collapsed for her and she couldn뭪 maintain it. But I noticed that when she was speaking on Late Night Live the other night, she뭗 reverted to the position of saying that I had not tried to contact her since her release on parole, so I would like to say that I did, and that it뭩 in the book. So, this is about ?well, I뭠l just read it and you뭠l see what it뭩 about.
(seems this computer does not like apostrophes)

Iz also has the sneaking suspicion that as a law student, Anu knew exactly what to do in order to firstly get herself a judge only trial instead of a jury and to play the girlie charms and what sort of defence to use to get a homicide rather than murder charge. It's almost like - I did it to see if I could get away with it.
Apart from the book "Kommandant in Auschwitz" which was written by the boss of that Godforsaken place (Rudolf Hoess)- this was one of the few times ever that Iz has ever heard a murder story told from the point of view of the perpetrator. There's just something so fascinating and compelling but also chilling about this woman.