Lost at Sea: The Jon Ronson Mysteries

by Jon Ronson

  “Genesis,” he once said, “would have become accountants and lawyers if I hadn’t heard their concealed and budding musical talent when they were fifteen years old.”

  He is at once seen to be the quintessential Broadway Danny Rose—the buffoonish loser who was forever nearly making it—and also a powerful multimillionaire whose influence is as incalculable as it is overlooked. He’s hosted radio shows in New York and London, presented the successful and long-running Entertainment USA TV series for the BBC, written two novels, created a political party—the Royalists—and published The Tip Sheet, an influential online industry magazine that, he claims, is responsible for bringing the Spice Girls, Oasis, Blur, The Prodigy, R. Kelly, and others “exploding on to musical success. We find and help break new stars around the world.”

  In 1997, he was honored with a lifetime achievement award by the Music Industry Trust. In a letter read out at the ceremony, Tony Blair acknowledged King’s “important contribution to one of this country’s great success stories.”

  A galaxy of stars—Peter Gabriel, Ozzy Osbourne, Simon Bates—came out to praise him, although no galaxy of stars is willing to do the same now that he’s been accused of pedophilia.

  Nonetheless, he seems to delight in being the man we love to hate (theatrically speaking; he is mortified when he thinks his arresting officers really do hate him).

  “I love to infuriate,” Jonathan told me over coffee in his office, shortly before the trial began. “I deliberately set out to irritate.”

  “Of course,” I said, “should you be convicted, people will hate you in a very different way. This is not a good climate in which to be accused of pedophilia.”

  “Well,” he said with a shrug, “it’s not as though I’m sitting here thinking, ‘Oh, I’m such a nice person. Will everybody please be nice to me.’ I know I tend to provoke extreme reactions, so I’m not at all surprised when they arrive.”

  “So you see what’s happening now as a continuation of your public image?” I asked him.

  “Absolutely,” said Jonathan. “And it is so. And it would be absurd not to regard it as so.”

  “But there’s a difference between bringing out a novelty record that nobody likes and being accused of buggering an underage boy,” I said.

  There was silence. “Let’s not discuss it further,” he said.

  September 11, 2001, day two of the trial, and things are already looking hopeless for him. The first victim—now a painter and decorator from the suburbs of North London—takes the stand. I’ll call him David. Jonathan approached David in Leicester Square when David was fourteen or fifteen. Although David had no idea who Jonathan was, Jonathan quickly told him he was famous.

  “It was exciting,” says David.

  Jonathan gave David the questionnaire, the one that ranked boys’ hobbies in order of preference. He filled it out. Jonathan invited him back to his house and asked him if he and his friends masturbated together. Jonathan showed him pornographic movies on a cine projector.

  “We were talking about masturbation,” says David. “He told me to relax. He undid my trousers. He tried to masturbate me, which didn’t arouse me at all. He told me to do it myself, which I proceeded to do. I felt very awkward.”

  David returned to King’s house on three occasions. Similar indecent assaults occurred each time. Later, Jonathan wrote David a series of letters.

  “He made it sound like I would be famous,” says David.

  The prosecuting barrister asks David to read one of these letters to the jury.

  “‘Maybe you will go on to be a megastar. Now I am in New York. I will call you when I next hit town. In the meantime, keep tuning in on Wednesday at 9pm for Entertainment USA, the greatest TV show in the world.’”

  David says that Jonathan King has emotionally scarred him for life. He says he cannot hold children. He says it makes him scared and uncomfortable to hold and play with his girlfriend’s little boy.

  After lunch, Ron Thwaites, Jonathan’s defense barrister, begins his cross-examination of David. His tone is breathtakingly abrasive.

  “We are going back sixteen years because you decided not to make the complaint until nine months ago,” he says. “You’re not asking for sympathy for that, are you?”

  “I was the one that was assaulted,” David replies, shakily.

  “Do you think it’s easy for a man to be accused of a crime after twenty years,” says Thwaites. And then: “Are you interested in money?”

  “I am nervous up here,” says David. “You are putting me under pressure. I was sexually assaulted by that man over there.”

  “You must have been fairly grown up to go to London on your own,” says Ron Thwaites. “You can’t have been a boy in short trousers, mewling for your mother.”

  And so on. We are unaware that, during this cross-examination, New York and Washington, D.C., are under attack.

  That night, I receive an e-mail from Jonathan: “Makes whether or not I put my hand on a teenager’s knee 15 years ago seem rather trivial, doesn’t it? Are you dropping KING for the World Trade Center? Boo hoo! What do you think of the jury? A lot of ethnic variation which, I think, is probably a good thing. Not Ron’s best day, but not terminal! See you tomorrow. Love JK.”

  A week later, Jonathan posts a message on his website, kingofhits.com: “Well, it’s been a fascinating couple of weeks. Not many people are fortunate to discover first hand exactly what Oscar Wilde went through! This week is the crucial one for me—keep praying. And just one oblique thought . . . when you look at the teenagers from 15 years ago who grew up to be terrorists who killed thousands in America, wonder what changed them into mass murderers. Then wonder what turns other decent teenagers into mass liars.”

  King’s demeanor remains cheerful throughout our time together. “I am living in clouds and happy flowers and love and beauty,” he tells me one day. “And if I go to prison, I shall enjoy myself.”

  Even on the one occasion that Jonathan all but confesses to me—“I’m sure you’ve got skeletons in your own closet, Jon. ‘Honest, guv! I thought she was sixteen!’”—he says it with a spirited laugh.

  When the Guardian’s photographer takes Jonathan’s portrait early one morning before a day in court, he is frustrated to report that during almost every shot Jonathan stuck his thumbs up—as if he was doing a Radio 1 publicity session—or grinned his famous, funny, lopsided grin into the camera. This was not the image anyone wanted. We were hoping for something more revealing, sadder, perhaps, or even something that said “child sex,” or “guilty.” But Jonathan wouldn’t oblige.

  One day during the trial, I hear a story about Larry Parnes, Britain’s first pop mogul. He discovered Tommy Steele and Marty Wilde. Like many of the great British impresarios back then, he based his business judgments on his sexual tastes.

  “If I am attracted to Tommy Steele,” he would tell his associates, “teenage girls will be too.”

  Parnes’s West End flat was often full of teenage boys hoping to be chosen as his next stars. If he liked the look of them, he’d give them a clean white T-shirt. Once he’d had sex with them, he’d make them take off the white T-shirt and put on a black one.

  Wham!’s manager Simon Napier-Bell—who was once invited by Parnes to put on a white T-shirt—has said that the great difference between the British and American pop industries is this: The American impresarios are traditionally driven by money, while their British counterparts were historically driven by gay sex, usually with younger boys—and that British pop was conceived as a canvas upon which older gay Svengalis could paint their sexual fantasies, knowing their tastes would be shared by the teenage girls who bought the records.

  Deniz Corday is desperately worried that the Walton Hop, his life’s work, is about to become famous for something terrible.

  “Jonathan didn’t want me to talk to you,” he says, “but I must defend the Hop with all my life.”

  Deniz is immensely proud of the Hop. There is Hop memora
bilia all over his flat, including a poster from a Brooklands Museum exhibition, “The Happy Hop Years 1958–1990. An Exhibition About Britain’s First Disco: The Walton Hop.”

  “Every day, someone comes up to me in the supermarket,” says Deniz, “and says, ‘Thank you, Deniz, for making my childhood special.’ Some say the Hop was the first disco in Great Britain. It was terribly influential. Oh dear . . .” Deniz sighs. “This kind of thing can happen in any disco. The manager can’t control everything.”

  Deniz says he knows it looks bad. Yes, an unusually large number of convicted celebrity pedophiles used to hang around backstage at the Walton Hop. But, he says, they weren’t there to pick up boys. They were there to conduct market research.

  “Tam Paton would play all the latest Roller acetates and say, ‘Clap for the one you like the best.’ Same as Jonathan and Chris Denning. It helped them in their work.”

  Deniz turns out the lights and gets out the Super 8 films he shot over the years at his club. Here’s the Hop in 1958. Billy Fury played there. The teenagers are all in suits, dancing the hokey pokey.

  “Suits!” laughs Deniz, sadly. The years tumble by on the Super 8 films. Now it’s the mid-seventies. Here’s Jonathan at the turntables. He’s playing disco records, announcing the raffle winners, and grinning his lopsided grin into Deniz’s Super 8 camera. He’s wearing his famous multicolored Afro wig. Now, on the Super 8, two young girls are on stage at the Hop, miming to King’s song “Johnny Reggae.” “These were the days before karaoke,” explains Deniz.

  For a while, we watch the girls on the stage mime to “Johnny Reggae.” It turns out that Jonathan wrote it about a boy called John he met at the Walton Hop who was locally famous for his reggae obsession. David Jeremy, the prosecutor at the Old Bailey, says that Jonathan’s “market research” was simply a ploy, his real motive being to engage the boys in conversations about sex. But I imagine that the two endeavors were, in Jonathan’s mind, indistinguishable. I picture Jonathan in the shadows, backstage at the Hop, taking all he could from the teenagers he scrutinized—consuming their ideas, their energy, their tastes, and then everything else.

  The Super 8s continue in Deniz’s living room. Here’s Jonathan again, in 1983, backstage at the Hop. He’s put on weight. He doesn’t know the camera is on him. He’s holding court to a group of young boys and girls on a sofa. You can just make out little snippets of conversation over the noise of the disco. He chews on a toothpick, looks down at a piece of paper, turns to a boy and says, “Whose phone number is this?”

  He spots the camera. “It’s Deniz Corday!” he yells. “Look who it is! Deniz Corday! Smile at the camera!” He lifts up his T-shirt and Deniz zooms in on his chest.

  “In thirty-two years,” says Deniz, “we never had one complaint about Jonathan and young boys, and suddenly, after thirty-two years, all these old men—grandfathers, some of them—come forward and say they’ve been sexually abused and it’s been bothering them all their lives. I think there’s something deeply suspicious about it. Jonathan’s a really nice guy and definitely not a pedophile. Anyway, I think it should be reworded. I think a pedophile should be someone who goes with someone under thirteen.”

  The clothes and hairstyles change as the decades roll past on the Super 8s, but the faces of the thirteen- to eighteen-year-olds remain the same. They are young and happy. Deniz says that, nowadays, we have an absurdly halcyon image of childhood. He says that the youngsters at the Walton Hop were not fragile little flowers. They were big and tough and they could look after themselves. He rifles through his drawer and produces some of the police evidence statements. He reads me some excerpts.

  “‘There was a crate of Coca-Cola kept backstage, and it was people like Jonathan King and Corday who hung around there. If you were invited back there you would get a free Coke with a shot of whisky.’”

  Deniz pauses. “Now, how ridiculous can you get? I’m going to give the kids of the Hop a shot of whisky with a Coke?”

  There is a silence.

  “Well,” he says quietly. “If I gave them a little bit of whisky once in a while, they’re not going to put me in jail for it. I used to call it ‘Coke with a kick.’ Anyway, we’re not talking about me. We’re talking about Jonathan. Have you heard of any charges against me?”

  “No,” I say.

  “Exactly,” says Deniz. “This is about Jonathan. Not about me.”

  Deniz continues to read. The victim making the statement describes life at the Walton Hop and how Jonathan once went out of his way to talk to him.

  “‘I was obviously excited to be talking to Jonathan King. He offered to give me a lift home, which I accepted. This was the first of many lifts King gave me, and I recall that he always drove me home in a white convertible Rolls-Royce. It was an automatic car and the number plate was JK9000. We talked about music, and he often told me that he needed a young person’s point of view. King drove me home on a couple of occasions before he eventually assaulted me. The first assault occurred at a car park, which was situated on the left-hand side of the Old Woking Road. Next to the car park was a field and a wooded area. King seemed familiar with the location. I believe he had been there before. I was sat in the front passenger seat and King was in the driver seat. I noticed that King had started shaking, and I presumed that he needed the toilet.’”

  Deniz laughs.

  “Well, you can laugh occasionally,” he says.

  He continues to read. “‘He then leaned over to where I was sat. To my horror he started pulling at my trousers. He wrenched my trousers open and he just went for it.’”

  Deniz reads the statement with mock, burlesque horror.

  “‘He had his face in my lap and he was performing oral sex on me by putting his mouth around my penis. I was so shocked.’”

  Deniz looks up. “He doesn’t say if he had an erection!” he laughs.

  “‘After a while he stopped performing oral sex on me, and although my penis was erect I did not ejaculate. I then noticed that King had his trousers undone with his penis exposed and he started masturbating himself. I remember looking out of the window and contemplating walking home. I did not because I just hoped that once he was done he would drop me home. King eventually came and he then drove me home. I didn’t want Jonathan to tell Deniz what had happened, because I thought he’d want to do the same thing.’”

  “No thanks, mate,” says Deniz, before carrying on with the statement.

  “‘I felt sick and ashamed about what he had done to me, and I remember looking in the mirror the next day and wondering if you could see what had happened in my face. The second assault on me by King took place near the car park which had been previously described. This time he buggered me. . . . Once at the location, we got out of the car and he then led me about fifteen yards to a dip in a wooded area. King led me by placing one hand on the back of my neck and the other on my arm. King was shaking. King then took my trousers and underwear down. He then forced his penis inside my anus and penetrated me. I would describe King as frantic at the time. He was totally uncaring. I honestly believe if I had said no, he would have forced me. King had his underwear and trousers down by his ankles and he used no lubrication. I can also say that he did not have a huge penis.’”

  Deniz laughs. “I’m glad to hear that, mate!” he says.

  “‘Although he was rough, it was not painful. I was in a state of shock. King eventually came inside of me and it was all very quick. Not only did I wash that night, but I constantly washed myself that week. I hated what he had done to me and I felt dirty. It may be that King grabbed some of my hair, because for about a week I washed my hair every day, which was most unlike me. I even remember my dad making some comment about me using so much shampoo. The third time King assaulted me was . . .’”

  Deniz looks up angrily. “How many times do you have to go back before you decide that you don’t like being fucked? Does it take three sexual experiences for you to realize it was bothering you? ‘The third tim
e King assaulted me was, again, following a lift home from the Hop. This time it did hurt and I told him that, but he did not stop. I even asked him if he used Vaseline, and he replied, “Oh no, you’ll do with spit.” It all happened very fast, and he was very surgical and physical. I would also like to add that King never kissed me or showed me any affection. Many years later I attended the Brit Awards, and while I was there I saw Jonathan King. On seeing me, he gave me a long stare and then walked away. I believe he is dangerous and I want to stop it happening to other children.’”

  Deniz looks up, in fury, from the evidence statement.

  “He wasn’t a child!” he says.

  “How old was he?” I say.

  “Fifteen,” says Deniz.

  In the end, Jonathan is acquitted of this particular charge. The victim admits on the witness stand that he was probably sixteen when he knew Jonathan, and the prosecution can’t prove that the sex was nonconsensual. While there is no statute of limitations for underage sex—or for sexual assaults—a sixteen-year-old who has had consensual sex with an adult must, by law, complain within a year of the offense for the adult to be tried. This boy waited twenty-three years, which is why his case is abandoned.

  The day after I see Deniz, I receive an e-mail: “Hope you’ll remember Deniz is not quite as worldly wise as others—don’t hurt him. JK.”

  I always find it hard to look Jonathan in the eye after hearing some detailed recital of his sexual behavior. But I wonder whether any act of sex, when described with such precision, would sound equally unpleasant. The evidence Deniz read me constitutes probably the most serious charge of all sixteen complaints, and even it is not as black-and-white as one might like. Why, for instance, did the victim return on two occasions?

  I would like to ask Jonathan his views on the intricacies of these sexual power plays, but he professes his innocence so adamantly that he won’t be drawn on the subject. I do, however, get to ask another of his victims, Nick McMeier, these questions. One morning in November, I sit in Nick’s flat in Kingston, Surrey, and he shows me some of the presents Jonathan bought him during their time together.