by Patrick H. Moore
In Henry IV, Part I, Shakespeare has his protagonist Prince Hal describe his rival Harry “Hotspur” as follows:
I’m not yet like Percy, the Hotspur of the North. He kills six or seven dozen Scotsmen before breakfast, washes his hands, and then says to his wife, “To hell with this boring life! I need something to do!” “Oh, my sweet Harry,” she says, “How many have you killed today?” “Give my brown horse a dose of medicine,” he says. And then about an hour later, he answers her: “About fourteen.”
Henry IV
Back in those distant and apparently incredibly violent times, men of honor and station had little compunction about killing; in fact, even the Elizabethan playwrights walked the streets of London with swords strapped to their sides just in case they needed to use them.
Now it’s true that Prince Hal is casting aspersions on Harry Hotspur, but it’s because he finds Hotspur a bit thick and stupid, not because he sees anything particularly wrong with Hotspur’s excessively violent nature.
Statue of the Mighty Harry Hotspur
Today, of course, there are few societally sanctioned outlets for extreme violence. Sure, you can join the military but even if you take that path, there are few chances to wade into battle with a broadsword and bath yourself in blood. And if there is fighting to be done, as likely as not it will be handled by silent, stealthy drones rather than boisterous violent men.
According to unofficial reports, today’s England is still a violent land; in fact, some reports suggest that man for man and woman for woman it even more violent than the United States.
Now among these violent lads and lassies there are some who like the sanguine Hotspur will kill purely for the fun of it. One of these lassies is Joanna Dennehy, 31, who pleaded guilty in November to murdering three men by stabbing them in the heart with a long knife and dumping their bodies in ditches in Cambridgeshire.
It’s unclear why Dennehy has chosen to plead out rather than going to trial, but it may just be because the evidence against her is so overwhelming.
Dennehy’s alleged accomplices, Leslie Layton, 36, and a giant of a man: 7’2” Gary “Big Stretch” Richards, 47, are now on trial. Testifying for the Crown is Dennehy’s friend, Georgina Page. According to BBC, Ms. Page has stated that the confessed killer Dennehy likened herself and Big Stretch to Bonnie and Clyde, and “jumped around like a schoolgirl” in a state of pure glee when she discovered that her vile deeds were getting considerable press coverage.
During the days following the triple murder, Dennehy and Big Stretch took a series of rather offensive “selfies” in which they stuck their tongues out, exposed their bellies, flipped people off and generally acted as obnoxious as possible. In one image, Dennehy poses with a large knife and handcuffs while sitting in a chair. In another, she flashes her bra and shows apparent self-harm scars on her belly.
Crown witness Mark Lloyd was in the same car as Dennehy and Richards when they allegedly pulled over and randomly attacked two men on the street last April. At this point, Dennehy and Big Stretch were already wanted for the three Cambridgeshire murders.
Lloyd stated that Dennehy, who incidentally is the mother of two, flirted with him before he got in the car with her and Big Stretch. Once he was riding with them, Dennehy boasted about killing three men, and Lloyd said he had no choice but to join them in their quest for what Dennehy called her “fun.”
In court on Monday, Lloyd said Dennehy told Big Stretch who was driving, “I want my fun. I need you to get my fun.”
Dennehy’s murder victims include her landlord and two other men. Lloyd described the victims in the April attacks as dog walkers chosen at random:
“She [Dennehy] takes a knife out of her left pocket with her right hand. She strikes him like in the film Psycho, just like that. Thrusting and putting her whole weight behind it… Gary (Big Stretch) is seeing exactly what I’m seeing and there’s just no emotion from him at all.”
Although it’s a bit unclear, it appears that the dog walkers survived the “Psycho” attack.
According to the Mirror, at one point, Dennehy allegedly bragged to her accomplices that she’d killed eight people, glibly echoing her alter-ego Brittany Spears, “Oops, I did it again.”
Dennehy is in custody awaiting sentencing for the murders, which took place in March of 2013. Big Stretch Richards has pleaded not guilty to three counts of preventing a lawful and decent burial and two counts of attempted murder in Hereford. Dennehy’s other accomplice, Leslie Layton has pleaded not guilty to two counts of preventing a lawful and decent burial and one count of perverting the course of justice.
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My response to this is to thank the powers that Dennehy and Big Stretch are on the other side of the Atlantic where the lassie will wile away the rest of her life in an English prison. And although I’m not sure how Prince Hal would respond to this level of senseless violence, I suspect that he would find it less acceptable than Hotspur’s enthusiastic killing of the Scotsmen.