Nexus - 1305 - New Times Magazine-pages

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Jamie: Had to get a rifle. McCarthy: Oh I see, right, so you, you, you were standing on the road, they drove up and you pointed... Jamie: Yeah. McCarthy: ...the rifle at them and they stopped. Jamie: Oh yes. McCarthy: Is that right? Jamie: Yes, that's correct. McCarthy: Okay, an, and what did you...you were planning on taking these people hostage? Jamie: That's right. McCarthy: Right. Why, why Jamie? Do you want to tell me why? Jamie: Oh man, ya [inaudible]... You, that's what you're getting paid for, I me... McCarthy: Well, I'd like to hear it from you. Jamie: No, na, na, no. McCarthy: Is there any...reason why you took these particular people? Jamie: Had to get a rifle. When the conversation returned to Rick—who Jamie told McCarthy: Oh I see, right, so you, you, you were standing on McCarthy was a lawyer—Jamie launched into the most bizarre the road, they drove up and you pointed... statements, one of which implies that Jamie actually knew Rick's Jamie: Yeah. wife: McCarthy: ...the rifle at them and they stopped. McCarthy: ...we're having problems locating Rick's wife. Jamie: Oh yes. Jamie: Where is she? McCarthy: Is that right? McCarthy: Well, we don't know because we're not real sure Jamie: Yes, that's correct. who Rick is. McCarthy: Okay, an, and what did you...you were planning on Jamie: Oh I don't know, she went round to, um, to Fortescue taking these people hostage? Bay. Jamie: That's right. McCarthy: How do you know that, er, Jamie? McCarthy: Right. Why, why Jamie? Do you want to tell me Jamie: She headed round that way. why? McCarthy: She headed around that way? Jamie: Oh man, ya [inaudible]... You, that's what you're Jamie: Yeah. Couldn't get... getting paid for, I me... McCarthy: Right. Well (cough) McCarthy: Well, I'd like to hear it from you. Jamie: ...away quick enough. Jamie: No, na, na, no. McCarthy: Well (cough), if, if, um, if Rick's there, would you McCarthy: Is there any...reason why you took these particular mind asking... people? Jamie: Well... McCarthy: ...him what his surname is if you don't know? Although we never learn the reason, it is subsequently Jamie: ...apparently, um, she's had a pretty hard life until she established that the name of the male hostage was Rick, a 34-year- met, um, thingamabob... old man from (Fort) Lauderdale, McCarthy: She... Florida, that his wife was a very highly Jamie: ...here. educated woman with a good job, and McCarthy: Yeah. that the child was only a year old: . 9 Jamie: Rick and, um, he's great, McCarthy: Now Jamie, we were Bryant very largely imagined she's a great lady, they're “both talking earlier on about, ar, Rick and his own participation in professional people. the fact that you kidnapped him from . . McCarthy: Right. What do, what Fortescue Bay. a scenario whose outlines does, ah, what does she do? Jamie: That's correct. Yeah. he could only have learned Jamie: Um, well, I can't tell you McCarthy: Do you want to tell me that. about that? about from others. McCarthy: Why not? Jamie: Not really, no. Jamie: Cause I don't know. McCarthy: Well, you talked about, you talked about, ah, his wife and, er, Whatever we think about the his child and, um, we're having astounding number of bizarre things difficulties locating his wife and child. Jamie told Sgt McCarthy over the phone on the evening of 28 Jamie: Yes, she's only 12 months old, the little child, I found April, the above excerpts establish that the incident cannot be out from him. connected with the massacre at Port Arthur. For Jamie—whether McCarthy: Right. What, from him? he was Bryant or not—clearly cannot have been hijacking the Jamie: Umm. Nixons’ gold BMW or taking Glenn Pears hostage near the Port McCarthy: Right. What about his wife? Do you know Arthur General Store at the same time that he was hijacking a anything about his wife? BMW and taking "Rick" hostage at the Fortescue Bay turnoff. Jamie: Um, sh, yeah, I do. McCarthy: Right. Did the Fortescue Bay turnoff carjacking really take Jamie: I know... place? McCarthy: Can you tell me something about it? Given that the incident at the Fortescue Bay turnoff is described Jamie: I know how high up in things she is. Yeah. by both "Jamie" (on 28 April) and Martin Bryant (on 4 July), it is McCarthy: I'm sorry? striking that there is no record anywhere of a 34-year-old man Jamie: I know how high up she is in the different areas. from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and his family being the victims of McCarthy: How, how high up? What do you mean by that, a carjacking that day. The likelihood, therefore, is that the incident Jamie? never took place and that Bryant very largely imagined his own Jamie: In work, higher than what you are... participation in a scenario whose outlines he could only have McCarthy: The... learned about from others. Jamie: ...the intelligence and everything, university and Most people are aware, due to the unprecedented wave of false everything. accusations of rape and child abuse that swept the United States in McCarthy: Oh right, is she, she's only, she, er, a university, the 1980s, of the existence of false memory syndrome. s Dr ae Dlianhath T afters Den sf De at tha TInd Bryant very largely imagined his own participation in a scenario whose outlines he could only have learned about from others. Did the Fortescue Bay turnoff carjacking really take place? Given that the incident at the Fortescue Bay turnoff is described by both "Jamie" (on 28 April) and Martin Bryant (on 4 July), it is striking that there is no record anywhere of a 34-year-old man from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and his family being the victims of a carjacking that day. The likelihood, therefore, is that the incident never took place and that Bryant very largely imagined his own participation in a scenario whose outlines he could only have learned about from others. Most people are aware, due to the unprecedented wave of false accusations of rape and child abuse that swept the United States in the 1980s, of the existence of false memory syndrome. As Dr Elizabeth Loftus, Professor of Psychology at the University of Washington, writes in The Myth of Repressed Memory (1994): "We can easily distort memories for the details of an event that you did experience. And we can also go so far as to plant entirely false 14 = NEXUS www.nexusmagazine.com AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2006