Killer was fascinated with murder — both real and fictional

KILLER Mark Papazian had a fascination with murder — both real and imaginary.

Papazian was hooked on crime thriller writers such as PD James, Patricia Highsmith and John Connolly.

Such was his fascination with these writers that he even imagined he would become one himself.

In his diary he boldly states: “I am going to start some fiction about number 19,” he wrote, referring to the victim’s flat at 19 Pond Street.

He made references to his favourite writers, adding: “Always wanted to commit or, as I say, do a murder, ever since last summer, but lost my bottle and it’s a bit depressing.”

One novel Papazian would have been aware of is PD James’s bestseller The Murder Room, which is set in Hampstead and features a character who is fascinated by real-life murders.

The fictional character with a similar fascination was Conrad Ackroyd, a writer who lived in Swiss Cottage, a short distance from Papazian’s digs.

One real-life murder the novel mentions was committed in 1931 in the Anfield suburb of Liverpool. The victim was Julia Wallace, aged 52, who was found battered to death in her house. On the evening of her death her husband, William Wallace, had been on a business trip which turned out to be a hoax call.

Ackroyd is telling a modern-day detective about the case and says: “Eventually he (Wallace) gave up and went home.

“The next-door neighbours, the Johnstons, were getting ready to go out when they heard knocking at the back of the Wallace home.

“They went to investigate and saw Wallace, who said that he could not get in. While they were there he tried again and this time the door handle turned. The three of them went in.

“Julia Wallace’s body was in the front room lying face down on the hearth rug with Wallace’s bloodied mackintosh lying against her.

“She had been battered to death in a frenzied attack.

“The skull had been fractured by 11 blows delivered with terrific force.” Wallace was arrested, convicted of murder, but cleared on appeal.

Papazian bludgeoned his victim with a hammer but killed him by slitting his throat in his living room.

As well as the Wallace murder, the novel itself features fictional murders in Hampstead, dark sexual practices, Hampstead Heath, homo-sexuality.

One of the fictional murderers is inspired by the Wallace case.

PD James is 85 and an acknowledged master of the crime genre. Her works regularly appear TV dramas.

Her other novels include:

* A Taste for Death, which opens with the discovery of two bodies each with their throat slit, while a half-burnt diary is found at the scene.

* Devices and Desires, in which a serial killer called The Whistler stalks Norfolk women.

* A Mind to Murder, in which a woman is found murdered in a psychiatric hospital with a chisel through her heart.

In the 1970s Papazian left Ireland to train in a psychiatric hospital in Tooting Bec, East London. His only known writing was contained in his diaries. He also scribbled on A4 sheets thoughts he had about the compact discs he stole from his victim’s house.

The late Patricia Highsmith was another crime writer admired by Papazian. Her first novel, Strangers on a Train, was turned into a great Alfred Hitchcock movie. As well as the Mr Ripley series of novels, featuring a psychopathic serial killer, she also wrote A Suspension of Mercy, which features an aspiring English writer who imagines killing his wife, Alicia.