The first time I did this was nearly a year ago, but the random Google search is back, and today’s word is “custody.” The most interesting hit on the first page of results is the story of Graham Young, the St. Albans Poisoner, a man who poisoned more than 70 people in his life, three of them fatally, beginning when he was just 15. Young was seen to be a generally creepy young man, unnverving those around him before and after he was finally caught by the police:
Young clearly enjoyed conveying such a chilling impression. When the press asked for a picture of the defendant, he insisted they use one in which he looked particularly cold-eyed and sinister. As it happened, the glowering photograph actually came about by accident. Holden explains that Young was scowling because he thought he had been cheated out of some money by the coin-operated photo booth where the picture was taken.
Young’s story was the basis for a film called The Young Poisoner’s Handbook, which, incidentally, I saw in October of 1995, with the director, Ben Ross, in person at the Cambridge Arts Cinema in England. Fascinating, I’m sure. I wonder if the photobooth photo made an appearance in the film…