Madeleine McCann: Adopted by Angelina Jolie, And The Changeling
MADDIE WATCH - Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann, Kate McCann and Gerry McCann
DAILY MAIL: “A mother leaves her child while she goes out - and returns to an empty house. No, not the McCann case but the true story behind a gripping new film”
Fact. Fiction. Can you spot the difference?
She was a devoted mother, hard-working, determined and tough. Then, one spring morning, Christine Collins kissed her little child goodbye (leaving him under the eye of neighbours), before returning in the evening to an empty house. Her beloved son had vanished without a trace.
A continent-wide hunt was launched and a shocked nation was kept agog by a string of leads - only for their hopes to be cruelly dashed as each clue led to a dead end.
The child was never seen again, the mother was heartbroken and the community was left divided by suspicion and mistrust.
Terrible. Just terrible. Does it work out in the end?
It could be the tragic story of Kate and Gerry McCann and their three-year-old daughter, Madeleine, who was abducted last year while on holiday in Portugal, and who remains missing to this day.
It could be, albeit with better lighting, a decent cast and a 15 certificate… Gone, Baby, Gone…
But, in fact, it is the plot of Clint Eastwood’s latest film, Changeling, which opens in Britain later this month.
But it’s all false, right? Angelina Jolie is only acting, right? Unless she adopted Madeleine?
It is all the more powerful because it is based on a horrific true story. The so-called ‘Wineville chicken coop murders’ took place on the outskirts of Los Angeles in 1928.
And while they happened 80 years before Maddie McCann disappeared, there are startling parallels between the two.
The McCanns’ grim experience in Praia de Luz - and how they were made suspects by bungling local police - was widely reported.
But Christine Collins suffered even worse treatment at the hands of the LA Police Department. As the investigation into her missing child failed to yield results, she was even locked up in a mental asylum.
It’s enough to drive you maaaaad. Maaaaad, I tell yer…
As in the McCann case, rumour followed rumour.
Each one recorded for posterity…
Posted: 8th, November 2008 | In: Madeleine McCann, Media Comments (853) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
Comments
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November 11th, 2008 at 12:24 am
My Dad wasn’t in the war… he was in the 1970s…
November 11th, 2008 at 12:23 am
Lovely to hear these shared memories. Godd night all. xx
November 11th, 2008 at 12:22 am
My father too was in the war. He was a fighter pilot, hence my avatar. Shortly after my son was born I asked him to write a little autobiography which he did. I am very glad I managed to persuaded him because he hardly ever mentioned the war. There are some very interesting tales in it, to say the least.
November 11th, 2008 at 12:15 am
JUNE, we saw the Alan Whicker doumentaries which brought a lot of memories back for my dad. is your dad on the film?
He wasn’t there at the same time, but in Whicker’s book there is a photo of the landing craft which my dad was on for the Naples landing, and in the documentary there is a photo of Whicker outside Pisciotta Station (southern Italy south of Salerno) My dad nearly jumped out of his seat when he saw it, because he was stationed in the actual station waiting room, for nearly a year keeping the lines open for the RAF. He was there so long, the only Englishman, that he had to learn Italian from the locals just to communicate. and recently he went back to visit and 4 of them still lived there!! a truely great reunion that was.
***************
No he wasn’t in the film , but he was mentioned, and he was in the RE’s who always went ahead, to build bridges etc. But he died before the film was made.
But dad used to talk about Salerno a lot
November 11th, 2008 at 12:06 am
My dad has started the same.
We realise there are millions of these stories, but they are, at the very least, important for family members to hand down through the generations. We wish we knew more about our family in WWI for example.
They are also of local interest, e.g. libraries often keep information of that kind relating to local people etc. local museums in any are he served would be interested too.
btw that generation often lived a long time, if they survived it was a relatively healthy life, rationed food, stimulating experiences and exercise etc
anyway, nice talking, and goodnight now.
November 11th, 2008 at 12:01 am
my father was in the RE’s and went from North Africa up through Italy. He did spend some hairy moments in a tank with a hand grenade with no pin in it, but lobbed it out.
It was interesting for us that he knew Alan Whicker who followed the RE’s progress up through Italy, and later a documentary was made, which brought it all alive for us.
Sadly, Dad died in 1985
November 10th, 2008 at 11:46 pm
In the last years of his life my father [91] started writing his memoirs, many of them war-time stories. Amazing what he had experienced, being a prisoner in Germany et al, and he had never told us before. I have all of his writings and am thinking of making a booklet out of it.
November 10th, 2008 at 11:40 pm
Yes, Montaillou , I think the War defined that generation, and nothing after it was ever that intense for them.
my dad has always told us his war stories, the funny ones were our bedtime stories as small children - tell us about the beautiful French lady dad, tell us about how you were made to dig for your rifle in the trench when you knew it had already been stolen, tell us how you were nearly court marshalled for not saluting to a general, tell us how Air Field Marshall Tedder asked you to mend his scramble phone and you hadn’t a clue until you realised it just needed putting back in the socket! He thought you were soooo clever, tell us how you lied saying yes, you could drive a lorry, just so you could drive back to your old unit and be sent to Italy with them. tell us how you phoned mum in England to proposed (he cut off a line used by some big -wig calling his mistress, and told him the line was down at Milan) etc etc
He always knew his best friend was killed in his first flight for the RAF. But more recently he has found that 1/3 of his class mates at school were killed and he often sheds tears for them - and so do I, even though I’ve only ever seen the one class photo, their stories must be kept alive.
November 10th, 2008 at 11:38 pm
Weird, indeed. And one of the many reasons for our doubts.
Fits in with the “wider agenda” maybe …?
Good night, Montaillou and Thatpoorpriest [& lurkers].
It’s time for my silken sheets.
Yampster ?
November 10th, 2008 at 11:34 pm
Chatelaine much of what they say and how they phrase it is a sort of management speak or marketing speak, quite weird.
November 10th, 2008 at 11:23 pm
thatpoorpriest Says:
November 10th, 2008 at 11:12 pm
Châtelaine
interesting blog
In my experience, when people talk about a family member being “taken from us” they mean being taken to heaven where they can be treated like a princess/prince.
The expression cleverly avoids any possible untruths.
*****
We have been going over this from time to time over the past year and a half. They use the “taken away” and “taken from us” since the very beginning.
They have more of that kind of expressions like regretting that they were not there “when” she was taken.
Also this latest blog has the very strange “unlock this frustratingly difficult and painful situation”, instead of “finding our girl” or “finding out what happened”.
November 10th, 2008 at 11:20 pm
now now moderators stop being silly like me eh
November 10th, 2008 at 11:13 pm
Thatpoorpriest - a good diversion on this particular day. My dad, sadly no longer with us, was also in the war, came down through Holland and Beligum after the landings. In his latter days he talked about the war constantly, I think it was the most intense part of his life and he had to talk it out in order to try to make sense of it all. Needless to say he lost many close comrades. xx
November 10th, 2008 at 11:12 pm
Châtelaine Says:
November 10th, 2008 at 10:24 pm
———————————————————————————————————
interesting blog
In my experience, when people talk about a family member being “taken from us” they mean being taken to heaven where they can be treated like a princess/prince.
The expression cleverly avoids any possible untruths.
November 10th, 2008 at 10:55 pm
Good Night everybody - I’ve been banned and unbanned; banned and unbanned. I’ve been on and off like a virgin’s knickers. Gawd knows what will happen the next time I log in. Anyway - love you all, if I don’t come back you’ll know it’s not for want of trying.
November 10th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
brandon flours Says:
November 10th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
thatpoor priest
my dad served in egypt , africa and italy in the 2nd world war
Was he at the battle of……. gawd ive forgotten
———————————————————————————————————–
BRANDON FLOURS — He says he wasn’t at the battle of “gawd i’ve forgotten” as far as he can recall. probably because he was lucky, and working for Air Formation Signals he wasn’t on any front lines.
However, he was buried alive in Algiers by a stray bomber and all 50+ Americans in the same trench were killed, He was also in the Naples landings where they expected stiff opposition and were told to fill their rifles (apparently they were all sh**ing themselves), but the Germans had scarpered luckily.
I’m proud of my dad’s war service, as I expect you are of yours. A very small part of me envies that generation for the fact that every single person had to do their bit, even if it meant giving up your son or husband to serve. And most people lost at least one family member - but they were all in it together. (whatever side they were on) I often wonder what I would have done. On the whole I think that the following generations have been far more selfish.
Just to be clear, I am in no way anti German - or any other nationality. I’ve heard personal stories about how good the German people were, and I adore one German fighter pilot - who flew low over my dad while he was on his own, on an airstrip, and did not fire at him - but just waved ! We’d love to know why, but it was early on in the War, so he probably did not survive to the end, and it’s no doubt too late now to find out!
apologies to everyone else for this nostalgic diversion
November 10th, 2008 at 10:29 pm
Pamela
Congratulations on your new President - I think you’ve got a good guy.
It is strange that we all can see the same reports, interpretations, summaries
and translations, yet come to completely opposite conclusions.
I know that in my case I started off with an open mind yet now am firmly
convinced of doubts about the parents.
The point you make is that if such a thing happened to any of us, we would move
heaven and earth to recover our child. This is not reflected in the McCann’s
behaviour and their interest in cash is surely the opposite priority most of us would have.
When in Alabama, I was based in Huntsville .
November 10th, 2008 at 10:24 pm
It’s my understanding that the police wasn’t notified until 10:45pm. Someone at the Foreign Office must have gotten the news around the same time and passed it on straight away to the press, or at least the Telegraph. At that time, she [Madeleine] could have surfaced at any time, as she was only missing after being left alone… I do find that strange, yes.
B.t.w. you may have seen it already, but there’s a new blog [9/11] from Gerry. Seems that money still lifts the spirits…
A difficult week for Kate and me ended on a positive note last night. Monday was the 3rd of November- 18 months since Madeleine was so cruelly taken from us. We do not usually put a lot of store in specific milestones - these being just another day without Madeleine. This week was unusual in that both Kate and I were feeling low at the same time, which is an uncommon occurrence, and we can usually rely on one of us lifting the other.
We continue to work very hard behind the scenes. Our support team has been expanded as we try to identify what has been done, what has not been done and what can still be done to help find Madeleine. We are not yet halfway through the Portuguese files but there is less information within the files than we were expecting. As I have stated many times, someone has a key bit of information that can unlock this frustratingly difficult and painful situation.
Yesterday we went through to Liverpool for a Race Night organised by the Greenhills Taverners Society- a group who organise fundraising events for local good causes- along with family and friends. On this occasion all proceeds were going towards Madeleines Fund. Around 200 people turned up and everyone enjoyed a good night. Liverpool and Everton donated signed shirts which were auctioned and with tickets and a raffle around £2000 has been raised. A taxi driver, taking home some of our friends, even got in to the spirit of things by donating his fare to the fund. Well done everyone and thanks for all the messages of support prayers- we left Liverpool in much better spirits than when we arrived!
November 10th, 2008 at 10:19 pm
Yes, it WAS quick!
And isn’t that fabulous?
God forbid anything ever happened to my child or the nieces and nephews, I would certainly hope for the same response.
November 10th, 2008 at 10:17 pm
I believe they have “admitted” reporting the disappearance right away: to their friends, to the staff of the resort, to the local police, and to their consulate. Statements of all involved parties seem to confirm in that order.
Are you suggesting this wasn’t an appropriate response?
November 10th, 2008 at 10:13 pm
The Real Stig Says:
November 10th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
Châtelaine
Define ‘right away’. He is talking about the British Consulate being informed rapidly, not Sky News.
***
The only thing I’m defining is that 2 [two] hours after Madeleine was found missing, hardly one hour after the police arrived, the Telegraph was already reporting it as they got word from a Foreign Office spokesman… That’s very quick, no?
November 10th, 2008 at 10:10 pm
Yep, I’m in the northwest corner of Alabama, equidistant from the Tennessee and Mississippi state lines. If you’re a history buff, I will say I live in Tuscumbia, but if you’re more a music fan, I live in Muscle Shoals! Trends that start in California usually reach us via TV within the hour and become a part of our practice in about twenty years.
I got in trouble once for responding to the sedation thing; I believe the charge was that I was “inciting libel.” I think, though, that I am safe in saying that my response to that is not unlike my earlier email. It would have been both difficult and unlikely; given non-Tapas witness statements, it would have by necessity occurred, been discovered, been dealt with on a medical basis, and been dealt with on a cover-up basis in an impossibly compressed period of time; it would have required the material assistance and ongoing silence of numerous accomplices; and, again, to what ends would the parents continue this very public charade? They will have escaped judgement months ago; who would continue to risk his or her neck?
I just don’t buy it.
November 10th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
Clive like you I started off with an open mind and inlined towards to parents, but like you found it wasn’t a tenable position.
Bon soir Chatelaine.
It’s good to see some other intelligent sane posters around.
November 10th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
Châtelaine
Define ‘right away’. He is talking about the British Consulate being informed rapidly, not Sky News.
November 10th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
The Real Stig Says:
November 10th, 2008 at 9:11 pm
[...] One of the dirty lies peddled by the Portuguese press was that the McCann’s contacted Sky News before contacting the PJ. This is not true. [....]
****
It was the TELEGRAPH that featured the story on May 4 at 12:01 a.m.:
“Three year-old feared abducted in Portugal
By staff and agencies
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 04/05/2007
A three-year-old British girl has gone missing while on a family holiday in Portugal, the Foreign Office said today.
Portuguese police are investigating the disappearance from a holiday complex in Praia da Luz in the western Algarve.
A Foreign Office spokesman said that he understood the girl’s parents had gone to have dinner once their children were asleep last night, but returned to check on them only to find the girl had gone missing
“They reported it straight away,” he said, adding that consular assistance was being offered.
The link is still there:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/global/main.jhtml;jsessionid=4GNG2FXFS1YSDQFIQMFCFFWAVCBQYIV0?xml=/global/2007/05/04/nportugal104.xml
November 10th, 2008 at 9:46 pm
Pamela, appreciate your comments and I too regret the derogatory comments some
mailers spit out at each other.
I also became interested in the case with a totally open mind. One of the first things
that began to make me suspicious was what I considered the strange behaviour
evidenced by the McCanns. I used to live in California some ten years ago and it
was common behaviour amongst acquaintances I had in the medical profession to
heavily sedate their young children so as to alllow them to party. You know what
they say about California, trends start there and after five years become widespread throughout USA and then a further five years ro reach Europe.
After this first seed of doubt arose I then became aware of anomolies in stories and
evidence which, in my opinion, did not support abduction. That is why I am now
of the opinion that there is more to come from this but whatever, it can not be
disputed that it all arose through parental neglect.
Hope I have clarified my position.
When in US I also spent time in Alabama and Louisiana - are you near either ?
November 10th, 2008 at 9:35 pm
Any news from WTF?
November 10th, 2008 at 9:30 pm
Clive, you must not spend much time here.
I am a.) female, b.) 51 years of age, and c.) located in the American deep south.
While I am COMPLETELY open-minded about what could have happened to Madeleine McCann, I tend to favor her parents, simply because I cannot imagine the logistics required to pull off the kind of air-tight and flawless conspiracy that would have been necessary otherwise and because her parents’ behavior post-disappearance seems absolutely the opposite that of criminals trying to slip quietly away.
Despite the former and because of the latter, I have been charged here as a “knob-headed” “fukwit” “c*nt” in the EMPLOY of the McCanns. Even if Anorak wasn’t a satirical site, how could you expect me to take such people seriously?
November 10th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
Garth, from your various comments, it is clear you are a sanctimonious shit
and gullible to boot.
Gandolf, who I have picked up as a fellow Scot, is like G McCann = an embarassment
to our nation.
Let’s hope the comments can now be more constructive and less personal
November 10th, 2008 at 9:11 pm
Petroneus said:
“Which brings us to the question as to why the McCanns have not gone to the UK police.”
I am continually astonished at the presumptuous British contempt for ‘Johnny foreigner’ that gets trotted out ad-nauseam in this thread. Why do the residents of Britain share this collective childish belief that British laws apply outside Britain?
If you have your pocket picked in Rome, do you report the incident to the Police back in Britain, or to the Italian Police?
The issue is that of jurisdiction. The UK Police do not have jurisdiction outside of the UK so there is no reason why they ’should’ be approached over an event that takes place in another country. They have no more legal backing to operate in a foreign country than do the Police of foreign countries to operate in Britain.
If a German family were the victims of a crime while on holiday in Britain and the UK Police investigated the crime but could not solve it, would you expect the victims to approach the Polizie to try and resolve it?
I will answer for you - NO! - because it is the only appropriate, valid and sane response.
“Watch them ignore this one and either insult or repeat the same lame point over and over again as if that works”
Are you happy now that I am not ignoring it?
Jurisdiction is not lame, it is a fact.
“If they were stitched up by the Portuguese police then why did they not go to the UK police and complain about the disappearence of a UK subject?Just one complaint from then and the whole Police machine goes into action with full EU cooperation.”
You are completely wrong, the Police ‘machine’ would politely explain the concept of Jurisdiction and would say it is up to the police in the country where the event took place to look into it - end of.
“Like citing the media influence, well, did they not court that in the first place? Did they not hope to make themselves some sort of celebrities for the parents of missing children before those dogs found what they did?”
No, actually they did not court the media initially, it was courted for them. Mark Warner were clients of a public relations company - Bell Pottinger. They flew one Alex Woolfall to PDL at the time to, on the face of it, act as a media interface and adviser to the McCanns. He has been described as a crisis management expert.
***************
Alex Woolfall, a public relations consultant who advised the couple,…
But PR consultant Alex Woolfall, who worked with the McCanns, hit out at these claims yesterday. He insisted the couple reacted exactly as he would expect…
Alex Woolfall was with them for two weeks after Madeleine went missing from their apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal. PR man Woolfall…
‘PEOPLE are frightened by the media, they don’t understand it. What do you do when you get 35 phone calls in the night and the pack arrives at dawn?” Lord Tim Bell, Margaret Thatcher’s favourite PR adviser and a legend within the industry, summarises the experience when ordinary people find themselves at the centre of a media storm.
That position has been illustrated by the plight of the McCann family in Portugal as they search for daughter Madeleine. It was one of Lord Bell’s employees, Alex Woolfall, who flew to the resort of Praia da Luz after the four-year-old was taken to h… (The Scotsman 24 May 07)
***************
Wake up you lot, it wasn’t the McCanns who had connections to, and friends in high places, it was Mark Warner.
No doubt the McCanns learned a bit about the media and how to deal with it from Mr Woolfall. Because their plight and story clicked with the British public, it was not a case of the McCann’s seeking out the media, the media were seeking them and were camped on their veritable doorstep anxious for any word or event to feed to the hungry media back in the UK which had seen a Diana moment and seized it with unshakeable teeth.
Later, the McCanns saw the Media as being able to publicise Madeleine’s plight and thought that if they publicised it widely and loudly there was a chance a member of the public might remember seeing something. They were right, too, it worked very well indeed.
One of the dirty lies peddled by the Portuguese press was that the McCann’s contacted Sky News before contacting the PJ. This is not true.
“Another assertion published several times last week is that, on the night that Madeleine disappeared, the McCanns phoned Sky TV before contacting the police ? another claim echoed by the uniformed cop.
Outside the Portimao courthouse, I asked Sky’s reporter Ashish Joshi if he thought this might be true.
He rolled his eyes wearily. “It’s just nonsense,” he said.
“The first anyone at Sky knew about Maddy was when the story appeared on the Press Association wire.
“I was asked about this just yesterday by a Portuguese reporter. I told him it was crap. And this morning, his paper printed it.”"
http://tinyurl.com/5j2jfl