THE viewers held its breath as “serial killer knowledgeable” Paul Harrison relived the tense second when Ted Bundy confronted him in an FBI interview room.
The packed theatre then full of gasps as he advised of a stand-off he had in Broadmoor with the Yorkshire Ripper.
And the group marvelled on the means the FBI begged the previous British cop to assist them unlock the minds of the world’s most deranged murderers.
It was one other profitable evening on one of many many nationwide excursions that — along with the true-crime books he wrote — have helped make Harrison an estimated £100,000.
The issue, unbeknown to the sell-out crowd, was that it was all made up.
Harrison, who additionally appeared on CBS Actuality TV as a legal knowledgeable, constructed up a loyal on-line following, in addition to that small fortune, by falsely claiming to have spent a decade interviewing America’s worst serial killers.
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And he would nonetheless be raking it in if the viewers on the Tyne Theatre in Newcastle on that evening in Could 2019 had not included a sceptical Solar reporter.
I attended the present after my spouse purchased me a ticket, and left satisfied that Harrison was a conman and his anecdotes had been a tissue of lies.
It could take greater than six weeks to show my suspicions, with the assistance of an unlikely forged of characters.
A string of ex-FBI brokers, the widow of Leeds United legend Billy Bremner and former Kray twins enforcer all helped expose him as a charlatan.
An actual knowledgeable, main criminologist Professor David Wilson, is now exploring the unusual case of Paul Harrison, in his new BBC sequence Crime Information: Scams And Scandals.
Prof Wilson says within the present: “Paul has by no means been charged with any crime, by no means been arrested.
“For me, he was pretending to be one thing he wasn’t and the lies that he advised had been the idea on which he bought his books and bought these theatre tickets.
“So, so far as I’m involved, that’s fraud — morally if not legally.”
Harrison was born in Cumbria in 1959 to dad John, a army police officer, and mum Mary.
After rising up close to Carlisle he launched into a profession within the police.
What is understood is that by the point he retired from the power in 1999, he was PC1060, a beat bobby based mostly close to Kettering with Northants Police.
He would later declare in his reveals and books that in his police profession the FBI invited him to its analysis centre at Quantico after he wrote to them about his curiosity in profiling.
He reckoned he was given entry to America’s most notorious killers together with Ted Bundy, Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy and Amityville Horror assassin Ronald DeFeo Jr.
He additionally claimed to have quizzed Aileen Wuornos, who was executed in 2002 for the homicide of seven males and who was portrayed by Charlize Theron within the movie Monster.
Of Bundy, who raped and murdered dozens of younger ladies within the Seventies, Jaguar-driving dad Harrison advised audiences: “Ted Bundy walked in like Liam Gallagher.
“He had a glance of contempt on his face.
“He slowly walked behind me and stopped proper behind me.
“Each a part of my physique was telling me to look spherical since you’ve obtained Ted Bundy behind you.
“I sensed him transfer ahead, I felt his body-heat on me.
“Then he bent down. He sniffed me and I assumed, that is going to be horrific, however he mentioned, ‘I can scent your cologne’.”
Cult chief Charles Manson’s followers dedicated 9 murders in California in 1969, together with that of pregnant actress Sharon Tate.
Harrison, 64, mentioned of his “interview” with Manson: “He was looking at me straight with chilly, darkish eyes and he launched into this tirade of abuse. He damned all the pieces about me.
“I obtained up and walked out, telling him, ‘I’m not going to take this from you, who the hell do you assume you might be?’ ”
Harrison mentioned the scariest individual he ever interviewed was John Wayne Gacy, the “killer clown” mentioned to have impressed Stephen King’s horror thriller It.
Gacy, who dressed up as Pogo the Clown whereas working as a youngsters’ entertainer, murdered a minimum of 33 boys and younger males within the Seventies in Illinois.
He was executed in 1994.
In certainly one of a sequence of supposed interviews with Gacy, Harrison claimed: “I used to be wanting into his eyes and thought, ‘Is there any regret or remorse?’ I noticed nothing.”
He added: “I’ve communicated with serial killers of every type, asking the sorts of probing questions that make them squirm.
“You’re in a room and it’s one on one . . . I at all times used to place myself close to a door.”
He claimed to have labored with the FBI’s pioneering Behavioural Science Unit, which featured within the movie The Silence Of The Lambs and the Netflix sequence Mindhunter.
Within the Eighties, particular agent Robert Ressler organised the interviewing of 36 killers to attempt to work out what made them tick.
Harrison mentioned of him: “A better mentor and tutor one couldn’t have wished for.”
However ex-FBI agent Mark Safarik, Ressler’s accomplice for six years, scoffed at Harrison’s claims.
He advised The Solar: “I’ve by no means heard of Paul Harrison.
“He’s making all this up. I’ve the transcripts of the Gacy interviews and Harrison isn’t talked about.
“The unit chief, who would have been the supervisor who authorized any exterior company accompanying an agent for an interview, has by no means heard of this man.
“He’s a fraud and a fantasist, unethical, unprofessional — a liar.”
A spokesman for Northants Police confirmed they’d no file of Harrison doing any police profiling work within the UK or America.
Others contacted by The Solar additionally dismissed his tall tales.
Harrison’s second spouse Elaina mocked the concept he used to journey to America to work with the FBI.
She mentioned: “He couldn’t have interviewed these killers in America within the Eighties and Nineties as a result of the primary time he ever went there was in 1999 to attend a Loch Ness Monster conference.”
Harrison additionally claimed infamous London gangster Reggie Kray needed him to jot down his life story, and that they grew to become such shut buddies he visited him on his loss of life mattress in 2000.
However former Krays henchman Freddie Foreman advised us: “Reggie Kray was not a pal of Paul Harrison.
“He wouldn’t entertain the police in his firm.”
Harrison additionally boasted he was shut pals with Leeds United legend Billy Bremner, and that they’d watch matches collectively earlier than the midfield terrier died in 1997, aged 54.
However Bremner’s widow Vicky mentioned: “I’ve by no means heard of this man.
“He’s not on my Christmas and birthday lists, and I nonetheless be in contact with Billy’s pals.”
Most embarrassingly for Harrison, even the Yorkshire Ripper questioned his integrity.
Harrison claimed Peter Sutcliffe invited him to Broadmoor to debate writing his life story, however that they didn’t hit it off.
Harrison claimed: “He mentioned, ‘Why are you so chilly in direction of me?’ I mentioned, ‘I don’t such as you’.”
Harrison retold the story so many occasions, it reached the ears of Sutcliffe, who said: “Paul Harrison is an absolute charlatan, a conman.
“He by no means corresponded with me, nor did he ever go to me in Broadmoor.
“He must be uncovered for the downright liar he’s. What a wazzock.”
Harrison, of Wakefield, West Yorks give up doing reside reveals when The Solar lastly uncovered his lies in 2019, and his third marriage collapsed within the fallout when his then spouse realised the total extent of his deception.
He has at all times declined to remark when approached by The Solar.
However when uncovered, he mentioned on his Fb web page: “I’ve determined to name it a day for now.
“No extra reveals or interplay on social media.
“All I needed to do was assist increase the profile of victims in all places.
“Now, it appears I’ve let everybody down, I’m sorry for that.”
Harrison tried accountable his deception on promoters:
“As a result of I’m weak and weak and totally ineffective at decision-making, I used to be launched into sensationalising occasions by promoters who usually despatched out deceptive blurbs — one thing I needed to reside as much as.”
Now the true consultants have analysed his unusual make-believe world for Prof Wilson’s new tv present, and concluded he had narcissistic tendencies.
Psychiatrist Dr Sohom Das can also be satisfied that Harrison cherished his function as a media knowledgeable a lot, he would by no means have stopped.
He mentioned: “He needed to type this identification as a media knowledgeable and continued his internet of deceit till he was came upon.
“It was nearly like an dependancy for him.”
- David Wilson’s Crime Information: Scams And Scandals is offered on BBC iPlayer. Harrison’s story options in Episode 3.