True Crime Campfire - Crown Fools: Two Notorious Cases from the UK

Episode Date: October 31, 2025

We tell a lot of wild stories about crimes that happened right here in the States—but it’s worth noting that our cousins across the pond are misbehaving just as badly. Y’know, same crimes, different accent. Today we’ve chosen two cases that each mirror so many of the ones we’ve covered from here: A woman consumed by her toxic obsession for the man she wanted to marry, and a man more interested in playing soldier and spy than he was in building himself a real life. Case 1: Jane Andrews, the murder of Thomas Cressman. Case 2, fantasist Michael Newitt. Sources:Channel 5's "Countdown to Murder," episode "The Duchess, the Killer and Her Lover"The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/may/21/royal-aide-jane-andrews-prison-release-murderDaily Mail: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14403185/Sarah-Ferguson-killer-aide-Jane-Andrews-sick-animals.htmlMurderpedia, Jane Andrews (various articles)https://www.thefreelibrary.com/The%2Bspy%2Bwho%2Bfooled%2Bme%3B%2BFAKE%2BMI5%2BAGENT%27S%2BEX-LOVE%2BTELLS%2BOF%2BLIES%2BTHAT...-a0188988173 https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2008/oct/31/ukcrime-jamesbond https://www.hinckleytimes.net/news/local-news/bond-style-secret-agent-fantasist-jailed-6036157 https://www.thetimes.com/uk/law/article/fantasist-fooled-police-into-believing-he-was-spy-5sd29jd8wpr https://www.thetimes.com/uk/law/article/two-years-in-jail-for-fantasy-james-bond-kqmsrwj8h0t https://www.eadt.co.uk/news/21284267.fraudsters-james-bond-lifestyle-exposed/ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/3330805/Bankrupt-posed-as-James-Bond-style-secret-agent-for-two-years.html?ICID=continue_without_subscribing_reg_firstFollow us, campers!Patreon (join to get all episodes ad-free, at least a day early, an extra episode a month, and a free sticker!): https://patreon.com/TrueCrimeCampfirehttps://www.truecrimecampfirepod.com/Facebook: True Crime CampfireInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/truecrimecampfire/?hl=enTwitter: @TCCampfire https://twitter.com/TCCampfireEmail: [e-mail]! https://true-crime-campfire.myspreadshop.comBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-campfire--4251960/support.

For all you hard workers and multitaskers, those who come to work with big ambitions and bigger ideas, and all you legends of the trade. However you get the job done, there's a Volkswagen commercial vehicle for your business. Choose the new transporter, caddy cargo, crafter, Amarok or the all-electric ID buzz cargo. Enjoy HB finance from 0% or purchase contributions of up to 2,000 euro. Find the Volkswagen in you with the 261 range. Terms and conditions apply finance provided by way of higher purchase agreement from Volkswagen Financial Services Ireland and subject to lending criteria. Volkswagen Financial Services Ireland Limited is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. Visit Volkswagenvans.com for further information. Pst, apparently Auntie Mary's famous homemade dishes are actually ordered in, courtesy of JustEast. Scandalous.

And she's able to maintain this scrumptious lie by getting seven euro off her orders. So, get your code in the app to get seven euro off your favourite restaurants. Feed your family. Tell them you cooked it. Minimum spend 25 euro. Participating stores only offer valid until 30th of November 2025. See just eat.I.E. for details. Hello, campers. Grab your marshmallows and gather around the true crime campfire. We're your camp counselors. I'm Katie.

And I'm Whitney. And we're here to tell you a true story that is way stranger than fiction. We're roasting murderers and marshmallows around the true crime campfire. For all you hard workers and multitaskers, those who come to work with big ambitions and bigger ideas, and all you legends of the trade. However you get the job done, there's a Volkswagen commercial vehicle for your business. Choose the new transporter, caddy cargo, crafter, Amarok or the all-electric ID buzz cargo. Enjoy HB finance from 0% or purchase contributions of up to 2,000 euro. Find the Volkswagen and you with the 261.

Terms and conditions apply. Finance provided by way of higher purchase agreement from Volkswagen Financial Services Ireland and subject to lending criteria. Volkswagen Financial Services Ireland Limited is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. Visit Volkswagenvans.com for further information. We tell a lot of wild stories about crimes that happened right here in the States. But it's worth noting that our cousins across the pond are misbehaving just as badly. You know, same crimes, different accent. Today we've chosen two cases that each mirror so many of the ones we we've covered from here, a woman consumed by her toxic obsession for the man she wanted to marry, and a man more interested in playing soldier and spy than he was in building himself a real life. This is Crown Fools, two notorious cases from the UK. So, campers, for this one, we're in London, England, mid-September.

A December 2000. An employee of Thomas Cressman was worried about his boss. Tom had never missed a day of work without calling in. Thomas's mother Barbara was worried too. She hadn't heard from him all weekend. And when they both failed to get in touch with him as the morning went on, they called the police. It wasn't good news. The investigators found Thomas in the bedroom of his luxury townhouse. He was lying face down in bed and his head had been bludgeon so badly that his skull was visible. When they turned him over, they found a four-inch gash in his chest. The killer had stabbed him twice, and on the second stab, they twisted the knife. Beside the bed lay a kitchen knife and a cricket bat, both covered in blood. Two questions needed to be answered as quickly as possible. First, who killed Thomas Cressman and why? And second, where was his living girlfriend, Jane Andrews? Initially, investigators wondered if Jane could be a victim as well.

if she could have been kidnapped by the killer and taken somewhere. But it didn't take long for them to uncover a trail of evidence that put Jane directly in their sights as suspect number one. She and Thomas had been in the midst of a crumbling romance, and Jane had a history of volatility in her relationships with men. Just a day before the murder, Thomas had called 9-99, the UK's emergency number, to ask for help. They were having a terrible fight, and he was worried someone might get hurt. Now he was dead, and Jane Andrews was in the wind. How did we get here?

Jane grew up in Lincolnshire, in the little town of Grimsby. Her dad was a builder by trade, but apparently work was pretty scarce, and Jane's mom was the main breadwinner of the family with her job as a teacher's aide. And I feel like there's more of a story there than I was able to find. I mean, if you're a dad and you're not finding enough work as a carpenter, I would think most people would take a second job or switch to a different trade or whatever. So I don't know what was up with that. And I kind of wish we did, because I think Jane's childhood is probably heavily connected to the kind of person that she became,

the intense fear of rejection and abandonment especially. But anyway, money was tight for the family. Jane later recalled having to look for spare change in the sofa cushions if she wanted to buy some milk or bread at the corner store. And her parents fought a lot. Lots of yelling and screaming with an earshot of the kids. and like a lot of kids whose home lives are chaotic, Jane started to act out. She skipped school so much that the truancy officer finally came over to the house and told her mom on her. Jane knew this would embarrass her parents, that they'd feel like she'd put shame on the family name, and this hit her hard.

That night, she took an overdose of over-the-counter drugs from her parents' medicine cabinet. She was 15 years old. This was her first attempt on her own life, but it wouldn't be her last. When she was 17, Jane went to college for fashion design. After she graduated, she started working as a buyer for the department store, Marks and Spencer, kind of like Macy's here, or maybe JCPenney would be a better comparison. It was fine, but it wasn't what she really wanted to do with her life. She wanted to climb the social ladder.

She wanted to run with the cool kids. One day she answered an ad in a magazine called The Lady. Their demographic was basically people with social. summer homes and or yachts. The ad was like, young mother needs personal dresser. And to Jane's complete shock, the young mother in question turned out to be the Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson, aka Fergie. Now, I don't know how much y'all know about Fergie. She's in some big trouble right now because of her ex-husband, Prince Andrew, and his connections with Creepo Jeffrey Epstein. She actually lost her Duchess of York title because he lost his title. So they're in trouble right now.

but in the 80s. The main thing we knew her for over here was the scandalous rumor that she liked having her toes sucked. I know. I'm so sorry. The job was a dream for Jane, personal shopper for a member of the royal family. She loved it from day one, and she was great at it, even if she did go a little single white female. She started dressing like Fergie, doing her makeup like Furgy. dyeing her hair red like Fergie's. Most cringe of all, she changed her accent to match the posh one the royals used. She's probably making her boyfriend suck on her toes, too. Stop it.

People's reactions to Jane were mixed. Fergie seemed to love her, even mentioned her in the front of one of the travel books she wrote, thanking her for her loyalty and kindness. And she had a circle of friends who loved being around her, lot of people didn't trust her. According to one anonymous source from the palace staff, she struck them as a gold digger, a social climber, someone who cared more about status than anything else. They thought she was manipulative and sneaky. But Jane loved working for the Duchess. She loved traveling all over the world with her. She loved having late night chats

with Princess Diana. She loved going to black tie events being photographed with Fergie. She loved her luxury flat on Prince of Wales Drive near Battersea Park. It was a life beyond her wildest dreams. There was just one thing she needed to cement it into place. Jane later told the guardian that she knew how to live independently and support herself and all, but she just really wanted someone to take care of her. Now that she was moving in the kind of fancy circle she'd always dreamed about, she was determined to find herself a rich husband. In 1989, Jane met an IBM exact named Christopher Dunn Butler. He was two decades older than she was, and best of all, he was rich. There was just one problem. Christopher was already in a relationship. Unsurprisingly,

Jane wasn't going to let that stop her. She and Christopher started messing around on the side. It might have started as a fling for Christopher, but Jane had her eyes on the prize, a rich society husband, and she wasn't going to let anything stand in the way of her closing that deal. A few weeks into their affair, Christopher's girlfriend got a package from an anonymous sender, some fancy chocolates. Oh, shit. Now, should we tuck into a box of mystery chocolates who's bona fides we have no idea about? Maybe not. But I can tell you right now, I would. Yeah, we don't waste chocolate in this house. So I have no call to it. I'd assume it was a secret admirer. I'd be like, oh, someone likes me. The girlfriend popped one into her mouth, and apparently so did some of

the other people in the household, and it was gross. It tasted horrible and burned their tongues, and they all spit it out immediately. Now, the only source we could find with this info was the British True Crime Show Countdown to Murder, and I wish they'd gone into more detail. All they said was that the chocolates turned out to have rat poison in them, proven by a police investigation. And we're not sure how they found that out, like if anybody ended up sick or in the hospital or what. But I'm guessing the girlfriend realized somebody had sent her something intended to hurt her and took the chocolates to the police. Fortunately, everybody spit the chocolate out in time and nobody died or anything, but holy shit, right? And I want to be clear, it was never shown that Jane Andrews was the one who sent this woman the poison chocolate.

the police couldn't trace who sent the package. But like, I mean, just given what happens later in the story, it's interesting. That's all I'll say. It's interesting to me. I guess Christopher didn't suspect her, though, because he left his girlfriend for Jane, and they got married like three months after meeting, which, as we know, always works out great. Everything went fine for a few years. Being Christopher's wife, elevated Jane to the social circles she wanted to run in. I imagine she tried very hard to avoid people seeing her as a servant of the royal family. She wanted to be seen as a fancy lady in her own right, and Christopher was helping her make that possible. But then they started growing apart. Their sex life fizzled. And Jane's response was to have a

succession of affairs, one of which was with one of the royal bodyguards. I don't know about you, but to me that just seems like a real bad idea. And this is so weird to me. Like here you, You've been obsessed with landing a rich husband who can take care of you. And now once you've got him, you cheat on him left and right. Like, make that make sense. She met Greek shipping magnet, Dimitri Horn, at a charity event, and Sparks flew immediately. And by the way, what is it about Greek shipping tycoons? It seems like the royals are always hanging around with those dudes.

The American, like, royals, too, like Jackie Kennedy married a Greek millionaire after JFK died. Paris Hilton dated, too. Apparently the only job in Greece is heir to a shipping empire. No falafels, only shipping containers. Hairy chess and lots of money. Sounds good to me, man. Jane and Dimitri's relationship burned pretty hot and fast, but as she would with all her relationships from then on, Jane quickly started to self-sabotage.

She was possessive, jealous, controlling, and manipulative. She'd threatened to hurt herself if he didn't do what she wanted. Eventually, it all became too much for Dmitri. And when he broke up with her, Jane reacted like anybody would, by which I mean she trashed his apartment. She cut up his nice clothes, she smashed his phone, all the pictures of them together, smashed a T-set that had sentimental value to him.

And in addition to leaving the place looking like a tornado had just been through it, she went through his private journal with a permanent marker and drew big black lines through all the rest of, references to her. You know, just standard breakup stuff. We've all been there, right? If he'd had a bunny, she'd have boiled it. Jane wasn't the only one whose life was a bit chaotic around this time. By the late 90s, Fergie had gotten herself in a crazy amount of debt. The queen was pissed off about it, and it was made clear to Fergie that she had to cut back her budget. And in 1997,

after nearly 10 years as Fergie's right-hand lady, Jane was laid off, or maybe. redundant, as they say in the UK. Now, I'm not here to defend Jane Andrews in any way, shape, or form, but what the hell, Fergie? I mean, I guess to be fair, maybe they really weren't as close as the media's made them out to have been, but every source I've seen talks about how Jane became Fergie's confidon and friend, and you see tons of pictures of them together. And I find it hard to believe that they didn't have at least a friendship, if not like a best friendship or whatever. And now because of her financial mismanagement, Fergie has to lay her friend off, and after that, she just cuts her off cold, except for birthday and Christmas cards, apparently. Damn, girl, that is ice world,

and she wasn't even there. She didn't even, like, tell her herself. For Jane, it must have felt like total rejection, and not just from her friendship with the royal family, but from the whole life she'd built and the access it gave her. For somebody with the kind of rejection sensitivity Jane has, it must have hit like a nuclear bomb. A very clear reality check. You're not really one of us, and you're easily expendable. That said, Jane might not have been all that great a friend to Fergie either. In 1995, a quarter of a million pounds worth of jewelry disappeared from one of Fergie's suitcases. A suitcase Jane was in charge of. Now, we don't know what happen to the jewelry. As far as I know, Jane was never accused of taking it. But taken with

some of the other stuff we're about to learn about her, it's interesting. Yet again, interesting. Interesting. According to a Guardian article from 2003, after Jane left her job as Fergie's dresser, Pallas staff discovered that she'd been siphoning off money from her royal boss to the tune of 10,000 pounds. One staffer said, Jane answered to no one. She pretty much had carte blanche to spend what she wanted to keep the Duchess in high fashion. And allegedly, she was helping herself to some extra along the way. I mean, what's 10,000 pounds? Yeah.

Right. Well, that's the thing is that they wouldn't even notice, most likely. Yeah, it was just, it's basically like she just rounded it up, right? She probably just rounded up the cost. Fergie was famously in a crazy amount of debt at this point, as we know. I mean, that's why she let Jane go. So I'm sure it wouldn't have been hard to take a little here or a little there. God only knows what a duchess's credit limit is.

Right. Jeez, Louis. One palis staffer later said that Jane was always dressed to the nines. And everybody wondered how in the hell she could afford that on the 22,000 pounds she made in a year. Maybe this was how. Which 22,000 pounds a year seems low for someone you're trusting to dress you. Yeah. Well, yeah, I mean, I guess it was the 80s and 90s, but yeah, it does seem like kind of a paltry sum.

And it wasn't just palace money. Dimitri Horn told the press she'd written herself an 8,000 pound check from his brother's bank account without permission. Later, after the murder happened, police searched Jane's flat and found 12,000 pounds worth of silverware and jewelry she'd taken from the Shishi Jewelry store where she worked. Clearly, our girl had sticky fingers. allegedly. Jane was devastated after losing her job with the Royals. It was like she'd been standing for years on this plushy velvet rug, and suddenly it's yanked out from under her,

and she's lying on the cold concrete floor. Without warning, she was ripped out of the life she'd been reveling in for 10 years. No more chats with Princess Die, no more trading secrets with Fergie, no more fancy society parties or free world travel. and it didn't take long for her financial situation to become pretty dire. She found a job working for Annabel Jones Jewelers in Knightsbridge, a wealthy part of London. It wasn't Buckingham Palace, but it gave her access to rich men.

In December of 1998, she went out with some friends and met a handsome 39-year-old man named Thomas Cresswell. Thomas' parents were American millionaires who had moved to England so his father could work for Ford. his childhood was about as different from Jane's as you could possibly imagine, but there was immediate chemistry between them. Tommy was a gregarious, energetic guy, big smile, fun-loving, wide circle of friends. He owned a car cover business, and he was working hard to grow it. To Jane, he must have seemed like the golden ticket. He came from a wealthy family. He was wealthy in his own right. He had a beautiful townhouse and a boat and an expensive car, and he was these yon the eyes too. Perfect.

Jane and Tommy moved fast like a lot of couples with instant chemistry do. She'd moved in with them within a couple months. They were pretty smitten with each other at first. Jane liked leaving him little love notes all over the house. But Tommy's family were put off by her early on. His mom later told the UK's Channel 5 that she felt like Jane kind of warmed her way in.

The way she remembers it, Tommy told Jane she could stay with him for a couple of weeks and then she just never left. It bothered them that Jane didn't seem to have any interest in getting to know them at all. She only had eyes for Tommy, and it struck them as a little obsessive. She seemed kind of cold. And, of course, we know how Jane is in relationships by now, and Tommy was no exception. It didn't take long at all for the jealousy to come out, the anger, the possessiveness. If they were at a party and she saw Tommy talking to another woman, no matter who it was,

or how casual the conversation was, she'd stomp over there and whisk up. away. Which imagine how embarrassing, right? When Tommy went on a guy's trip to Germany to celebrate his friend Stag, Jane blew up his phone 24-7, and if he didn't answer, she would just flip her shit and leave unhinged voicemails. Why haven't you called me back? What are you doing? Threatening suicide was Jane's go-to tactic. And I know that sounds harsh, but I call it a tactic because in Jane Andrew's case, I really believe that's what it was. It doesn't mean she wasn't genuinely unhappy and it doesn't mean she wasn't in need of help. She absolutely was. But I've seen this plenty of times. I've seen it in my own life and in lots of true crime cases where threatening

to harm yourself can be a manipulative tactic and a really effective one, unfortunately. It's incredibly emotionally draining for the other partner. She also embarrassed him a few times when they were out with friends saying stuff like, why won't you propose to me or why aren't we engaged yet right in front of everybody? She was laser focused on marriage. this guy, but Tommy was dragging his feet. Gee, I wonder why. Jane eventually got so frustrated that she broke into Tommy's email account. And, you know, here's

the thing. If you go rooting around where you shouldn't be rooting, chances are you're going to find something you don't like. Jane found a series of emails he'd written back and forth with a friend in California, a female friend. According to one of the detectives who worked on this case, it was clear that there had never been any actual sexual contact between them, but their emails got pretty spicy.

And in one of the emails, he talked about Jane, who he called The Girlfriend, and it was not good. He described her as an old, comfortable slipper he couldn't quite let go of. Yeah, I know some of y'all felt that in the pit of your stomach. That is not something you'd want your significant other to say about you. And that's the kind of shit that lives rent-free in your head for the rest of your life. It would hurt anybody. for Jane, who was controlling, possessive, and hyper-sensitive to rejection,

not to mention emotionally volatile, it was another nuclear bomb. She forwarded the dirty emails to Tommy's parents, and then to the other woman's employer. And then she confronted Tommy. I think we can probably imagine what that conversation was like. She was in a rage. But Tommy managed to soothe her by inviting her on a trip to Italy with him and his family. Jane was thrilled. She thought he was probably going to propose to her while they were there.

But Tommy wasn't interested in marrying Jane. He'd actually been thinking about breaking up with her for a while, but he wanted to let her down gently and he hadn't figured out how to do that yet. I think he was hoping the trip might be one last good memory for them before the relationship ended, or maybe he thought they might reconnect and make things better. But unsurprisingly, that is not how it went. They ended up getting in a big argument,

in front of a bunch of family and friends, which was embarrassing for Tommy, the whole trip they were sort of up and down. And then, in the cab on the way to the airport to fly back home, Jane started in on Tommy about commitment. You have to commit to me. I want a ring. I want to get married. Finally, Tommy just had enough. He told her, look, I am not going to marry you. I'm never going to marry you. Apparently, he'd been trying to convince her to get help. I assume. for the psychological issues that were making the relationship impossible. But Jane wasn't interested. And if that was the case, Tommy said,

he wasn't going to sign up for a lifetime of jealousy and control. I imagine that was an awkward plain ride back to England. God, yeah. The argument continued back at the townhouse until they were too tired to fight anymore, but the next morning, Jane was all rested up and ready to pick it back up. She was worse than he'd ever seen her, just freaking out on a major scale,

and a little before noon, the emergency services got a call. I'm having a major fight with my other half, Tommy told the dispatcher. You could hear Jane shouting in the background, help, help. We're rowing, Tommy said, and someone's going to get hurt. The dispatcher asked what he wanted them to do, and he said he needed somebody to come over to his flat so no one would get hurt. But as is often the case in these situations, the 9-99 operator didn't seem to take Tommy's call seriously.

This was especially common back in the early 2000s. Unless somebody had already committed some kind of violence, the police couldn't or wouldn't do anything. And we can't discount the fact that many people don't take men seriously when they ask for help with an abusive partner. Often don't take women seriously either, unfortunately. But when you're a man calling for help with your violent female partner, there's a tendency for people to react like,

what? Are you scared of a little woman? Yeah. At about noon, Jane stormed out of the townhouse, got in her car, and sped off. Tommy called one of his best friends to vent about the argument. While he was on the phone, his call waiting went off, and he told his friend, oh, that's probably Jane, I'll call you back. He never did.

Instead, he decided to walk over to his office for a little while, just to keep some distance between him and Jane. While he was gone, Jane came back to the townhouse. opinions differ about what she did next, whether it's proof of premeditation. The first thing she did was pack a suitcase and stash it in a closet. According to the series Countdown to Murder, she then chose a sharp knife from the kitchen and hid it under her side of the bed. Thomas eventually came home and spent the evening watching TV in bed.

At around 10, Jane got in beside him and pretended to fall asleep. And once she could tell he was sleeping, she slid out of bed. Tommy kept a cricket bat beside the bed, and Jane picked it up. Then she crept up to Tom's side of the bed, raised the bat, and brought it down as hard as she could on his head. Most likely it knocked him out, or at least stunned him. Jane grabbed the knife from under the bed and stabbed him, in the lung and then in the heart. The medical examiner found that it probably took Tom several minutes to bleed out and die. Then Jane showered. The police would later find the shower and sit.

sink full of blood-tinge drops of water. She staged the scene a bit, took a bathrobe cord and tied it between the bedroom door and the banister, presumably to make it look like she'd been trying to get away from Tommy, but she did it so loosely, like there's no way that would have worked. It was just for show. She got her suitcase out of the closet, and she left. The story hit the news like a hurricane. Even the Duchess of York pleaded with Jane to turn herself in. It took a couple of days for the investigators to track Jane's location, using her cell phone and some CCTV footage of her buying underwear at a department store. While she was on the run, she texted her friends with varying degrees of coherence. She played dumb about Tommy at first, asking what had happened to

him and then professing her innocence. And finally, she took a handful of paracetamol, which is Tylenol, at a rest stop and fell asleep in her car. That's where the police found her, and placed her under arrest for the murder of Thomas Cressman, the man she'd wanted so badly to marry. She went on trial in the spring of 2001, and it was huge news, partly because the case is a fascinating one in itself, and partly because of Jane's former association with Fergie.

Jane's story was that she'd killed Tommy in self-defense. She painted a picture of him as a cruel abuser, a picture, we should be clear, that was not supported by anything other than Jane's say so. In fact, I find it tough to believe, just based on the fact that he called the police the day of their big fight, he wanted them to come and help. He didn't want either him or Jane to get hurt. And you can listen to the 9-99 call, and it just, he sounds like really defeated and stressed, like not angry. He just sounds like kind of sad and stressed out.

But Jane swore that he was coming after her on the night of the murder, threatening to fucking kill her. and she just grabbed the nearest thing to hand and defended herself. The jury didn't buy it. There was, on the other hand, a ton of evidence to support Jane's history as a possessive, controlling, and unstable partner. Jane was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 15 years. And Jane was a bit of a pistol behind bars, apparently. My favorite post-arrest story is when Jane informed one of the prison guards that she couldn't

drink the water they gave her. I only drink bottled water. Really? Okay, princess. And one day in 2009, she just walked right off the prison grounds. Police found her in a hotel room a few days later with her family. Because of her psychological issues, the Crown opted not to charge her for the escape. She got really lucky there. She went up for parole in 2012 and claimed she'd been abused as a child,

and this should mitigate the circumstances of her crime, that the parole board didn't agree. They found that Jane still remained a danger and needed to stay right where she was. However, she got another chance years later, and in 2015, she was paroled. She's 57 years old now, and she works for an animal charity. I'm glad she's doing something good with her time. I still wouldn't want to date her. Some of Jane's friends have spoken really highly of her in the press,

talking about how amazing she was to be around, and what a dear friend she was to them. And, I mean, that's valid. That was their experience of her. But most of these friends are women. They never experienced her in a relationship. They didn't have to live with her or date her. They never came home to an apartment full of broken glass and shredded clothing. During Jane's trial, the prosecution shared a note the police had found in Thomas and Jane's flat after the murder. It had been torn up, but they pieced it back together. It said, Dearest Janie, I have tried and tried to make you happy and do things for you, but it never seemed to be enough. Your mood swings have been hard to predict. The jealousy has also gotten out of hand. I must be part of your life, not all. Same for you. I hate to see you so upset. Tommy. And that was the rub, that to Jane Andrews, Thomas was her life. She couldn't see her way past her life with him. She let her obsessions wallow her whole, and she found a way to take him down with her. For all you hard workers and multitaskers, those who come to work with big ambitions and bigger ideas, and all you legends of the trade. However you get the job done, there's a Volkswagen commercial vehicle for your business.

Choose the new transporter, caddy cargo, crafter, Amarok or the all-electric ID buzz. Cargo. Enjoy HB finance from 0% or purchase contributions of up to €2,000. Find the Volkswagen in you with the 261 range. Terms and conditions apply finance provided by way of higher purchase agreement from Volkswagen Financial Services Ireland and subject to lending criteria. Volkswagen Financial Services Ireland Limited is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. Visit Volkswagenvans.com for further information. Pst, apparently Auntie Mary's famous homemade dishes are actually ordered in,

courtesy of just eat. Scandalous. and she's able to maintain this scrumptious lie by getting 7 euro off her orders. So, get 7 euro off, Buzum, Milano, Sentra and more. Feed your family. Tell them you cooked this. Minimum spend 25 euro.

Participating stores only offer valid until 30th of November 2025. See Justeed.com for details. Moving on now to Case 2, we're starting this one in the peaceful East Anglian town of Beckles, England, in the mild December of 2006. Specifically, we're at the Wavany River Center, a dock for people to more their boats when they weren't puttering about on the Placid River. But there was nothing placid about Michael Newett as he marched into the office of the dock manager, James Knight. In most ways, until now, Michael had been a dream customer, pleasant, sociable, always well put together, a high roller with a luxury motor cruiser.

The one very important way that Michael was not a dream customer was his laxity when it came to paying his docking fees on time. This is something businesses will often let slide for wealthy customers. Michael could easily take his 200,000-pound boat somewhere else. But evidently, James Knight wasn't the only one Michael had been. stiffing. A bank had contacted James and asked him to secure Michael's boat because he'd skipped payments on it. And that was what led and agitated Michael to burst into James's office. And after some back and forth, he dropped the bombshell. I am not the bloke you thought I was,

Michael said. I'm really an intelligence officer working for the Secret Service. Here we are again, y'all. It never ends with these people. Yeah, if anyone's playing TCC Bingo, I think that's a free space. He opened his coat to take out his police warrant card, which probably not coincidentally, revealed a small pistol in a shoulder holster. Michael said he was working on counterintelligence operations in Leicester. It's not clear exactly how this first interaction ended, but soon Michael had apparently scraped up enough money for the bank and was allowed to use his boat again.

For about five months. After that, the bank once again asked James Knight to lock up the motor cruiser. When you're in a heated conversation with someone, you're not always thinking clearly. It had taken James a little while to realize that Michael's story stank like a month-old kipper. Why would a counterterrorism officer in Leicester, a hundred miles away, need a luxury boat and sleepy little beckles? why would he miss payments on that boat? And most importantly, why would someone in such deadly serious and secret work out themselves over something so petty? Anyway, the second verse went much like the first, with Michael storming in to complain, then quickly storming right back out again when James shouted that he didn't believe anything Michael told him ever since that James Bond nonsense last year.

A few days later, Knight received a very soon. furious-looking letter, which was headed as coming from major incident team, S.O.14 Central region, and required him to come for a formal interview in London regarding an operative who had revealed his identity to James. The interview was requested by commanding officer Michael Newitt, CMG, which had also been on the warrant card Michael had shown James. CMG stands for Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George, a Chevalric Honor awarded for non-military foreign service. It's usually given out to diplomats and ambassadors, but for the purposes of our story, we just need to know that, one, it'd be kind of a

weird thing for a random cop to have been awarded. Two, police warrant cards don't include honorifics like that because their only purpose is to just establish police authority, not personal accomplishments. And three, most importantly for us, James Bond was awarded a CMG at the end of the novel from Russia with love. And all deep bond nerds know that he's commander James Bond, CMG, D-S-O-R-N-V-R-O-M-G. James Knight, anyway, thought his chain was being yanked and called the police, who may or may not actually have bothered to properly investigate. But one way or another, James didn't hear any more about Michael until years later. Now, hold on to your butts for this revelation, but Michael knew it was not actually a super secret secret agent man

with the secret service. What? I know. No, someone wouldn't just go lie like that. Say it isn't so. He was just a failed businessman who got weird when things started going wrong. He made the whole thing up, and it wasn't the first time either. In 1993, Michael was in the middle of a divorce from his first wife and met a new lady, Tatina, and she was swept off her feet by this charming, funny pilot. He might have been charming and funny, but he absolutely was not a pilot. He also added an element of tragedy to his personal story, which seems to me to be a very calculated move. Yes, I'm a dashing pilot, but also I'm a delicate baby bird, and you have to look after me. Then 26 years old, he said he'd previously suffered three heart attacks, and it had had

bypass surgery at 26. Three months later, they were living together and Tatina was pregnant. As the pregnancy progressed, Michael apparently started to feel like he wasn't getting enough of Tatina's attention anymore. He collapsed, gasping to the floor, clutching at his chest. Oh, no, another heart attack. Tatina was terrified. And then the ambulance crew arrived, found nothing at all wrong with him, found no bypass

scar. nothing whatsoever to indicate any heart problems. He was just straight up faking it. When Tatina asked him what the hell, he just kind of shrugged and never explained why he'd done it. Not long after their daughter was born, Tatina had had enough and just took the baby and left. Michael told police and her colleagues that she had severe postnatal depression and could be dangerous. He even went on local radio to say the same to whoever was listening. Somehow after that, he talked to Tina into coming back to him, and they bought a house together.

Girl, what? They went on the radio. Oh, my God. Like, who let him on the radio? What the hell? That is so weird. You know, I imagine that he was like a regular calling into the radio to talk about, you know, his secret service, his qualms with his wife. I don't know. He's doing too much.

Good God. But Michael didn't care too much about little things like bills and mortgage payments. And one year after moving in, they had to sell the place or have it repossessed. That was finally it for Tatina, who gave Michael the old heave-ho. He maintained a relationship with his daughter, though, which mainly involved him talking about himself. By the time she was a teenager, he was telling her he was a race car driver and had formed the rock group Casas. Sabian. It's wrong with you. It's so funny.

By then, with people who hadn't known him for long, Michael had firmly settled into his fantasy super spy persona and made sure as many people as possible knew about it, just like a real spy would do. With his new wife, Louise, he slept with a Glock 9 millimeter pistol under his pillow. The gun was an imitation and only as dangerous as a blunt object, but Louise didn't know that. Could you sleep with the loaded gun inches from your head? I don't think I could. Michael had

another fake gun, Bonn's famous Walter P.P.K. fitted with a silencer, a small gun from the 1930s that any actual modern spy would be embarrassed to be caught with. At any time of the day or night, Michael might race out of the house with one or the

other gun on special missions. He was not a good business man. He He'd previously gone bankrupt, and he'd been prosecuted for failing to keep proper accounts. By 2006, he founded Messina Technologies, a communications company that almost immediately started to fail. He made sure everyone there knew about his secret spy life, too, taking six employees. He took six employees into a room and told them he might sometimes have to leave suddenly.

the reason I might have to get up and go is because I work for MI5 he said Don't you know somebody in that meeting was just dying to be like sir I don't think this is real

And they're like They're getting paid so they can't be like I quit I know right But you know they were just making fun of him So bad behind his back So cringe A couple days later, he took his sales manager, Amy Warren, aside, and told her he'd been shot on a mission a few years ago.

And that was why he could only work part-time for MI5. This sounds like a more dramatic version of the pilot with heart attack stick he'd pulled with Tatina, the daring but wounded hero. Sure enough, Michael soon sent Amy an email propositioning her for sex. Oh, Lord. An email. Come on, Michael. Like, yes, Bond would absolutely try to get an attractive employee into bed. But an email, that's just sad.

To whom it may concern. Amy declined. Yeah, yeah. One morning, Michael came in all scruffy and unshaven. I've spent the night in some bushes on a covert surveillance assignment, he told Amy. Are we sure we know the meaning of covert, Michael? Although, to be fair, this was the one way in which he really did follow James Bond, who would totally blow his cover to try and impress a woman.

True. When he ran off on special missions, Michael was having fun playing policeman. He'd made his phony warrant card and used it to persuade a garage to fit his Volvo with blue strobe lights and a siren, something actual police departments have their own garages and mechanics to take care of. of. And I can just feel the agonies in Michael's soul that he was doing this to a boring Volvo and not a flashy ass in Martin. There's a good chance the guys at the garage knew he was full of nonsense and just wanted his money. But we shouldn't underestimate Michael's ability to bullshit. Clearly. With Messina Technologies circling the drain and Michael's bank account running

on empty, one of his other cars was repossessed. He showed the repo man, his fake ID, and to back it up, opened the trunk to show off his handcuffs and police the baton. The repo man, who'd probably seen a few things, called the police. And when an officer arrived, Michael managed to persuade him. He was working for MI5 and even got the officer to sign a statement acknowledging he'd been given confidential information. Wow. It's always great to see your local law enforcement falling for a scam as obvious and dumb as this one. You know. It really gives you a sense of security, right?

Yeah, you know that repo man was just sitting there, like, with his arms wide. Like, what the fuck? Like, are you serious, man? Just know it. Oh, God. One time, Michael got to use his flashing lights and sirens on the M6 motorway to pull over a suspected drunk driver. Oh, for the-huh.

Michael arrested the driver, which I think in the U.S. would probably count as kidnapping. Yeah. Yeah. And took him to a local police station before quickly jetting on. off to take care of super secret counterterrorism work. The driver later pled guilty to driving under the influence. Oh, my dear God. How?

How the hell that happened? I cannot imagine. That is insane. In 2007, Michael walked into the police station in the town of Hinkley and declared himself to be Commander Newitt of the Metropolitan Police, a special operations commander with MI5, the foreign office, and counterterrorism unit. And that seems like a lot. It'd make Michael one of the most important police officers in the whole country.

Someone whose arrival at a local station should probably, you'd think, at least be preceded by a phone call. Hinkley isn't huge, but it's not tiny. It's a big enough place that you'd think its police officers should be on the ball, especially a sergeant like the man Michael spoke to. But nevertheless, he was able to convince this guy he was conducting counterterrorism work in the county, and needed a local police pocketbook for his notes. And he got one, walking out of the Hinkley station with another piece for his policeman costume. This is so depressing.

It's so sad. And there's a guy here that's like this Jeremy DeWitt, and I'm really curious to know how many of y'all have heard of Jeremy DeWitt. It is a rabbit hole. We're going to cover him at some point, but it is a hell of a rabbit hole. It is Google him. Crazy. Yes. But it was another call to the Hinkley Police Station that would bring them.

whole thing tumbling down. Commander Newett claimed to have information about a local drug operation, and this time he got someone who was on the ball, PC Lee Smith. For a start, it was weird that a high-ranking Met Officer would just cold call a local police station for something like this. If Michael was who he said he was, he would have access to the exact names and numbers he needed for drug enforcement operations, and then there was that commander title. Commander is an extremely senior rank in the Metropolitan Police, approximately equivalent to a brigadier general in military terms. You don't get that high without serving like 25 years first. Michael was 41 years old.

So unless he first pulled on a uniform at about the same time his voice started to break, it just did not add up. And Commander is a senior management position, all strategic planning and budgets. It's not a position that puts you on the operational front lines. A commander is not, for example, someone who would be personally calling in minor drug bus and rule Leicestershire. Who knows where Michael would have actually sent the cops if they'd taken him seriously? That drunk driving arrest shows he enjoyed actually doing fake police work. My guy was a method actor. He probably just smelled some weed when he walked past a neighbor's house.

There are maybe 20 commanders in the Metropolitan Police, and it didn't take PC Smith much more than a phone call to find out that there was no no such creature as commander Michael knew it. Michael was arrested for fraudulently pretending to be a police officer. When officers arrived at Messina Technologies, they asked Amy Warren about her boss. He works for MI5, she said, and the cops all started cracking up. Oh, Amy, honey, really? Babe. They found one of Michael's fake guns in his briefcase at work, and in a locked drawer of Amy's desk, they discovered some explosives, or at least what looked kind of like explosives. This is only mentioned in one source, so I suspect it was actually like Play-Doh with a digital clock stuck into

it or something, but Amy was understandably alarmed. At Michael's house, officers found his other fake gun, some flash grenades, some incompetently shredded fake ID documents, and several police radio handsets and earpieces. Like the guns, these were entirely non-functional. just big toys. His wife, Louise, seems to have bought his story, hook, line, and sinker, bless her heart. As Michael was being arrested, she said, you've got the wrong man. He works for the government. Michael Newett pled guilty to charges relating to impersonating a police officer and his replica firearms and was sentenced to two years in prison at Leicester Crown Court in 2008. So he's obviously long since out by now, but whatever he's been up to hasn't made any news.

but I'm sure it's some big old bag of bullshit. Now, just a reminder, we are going on our Crime Wave True Crime Cruise next week to the Bahamas to do our first ever live show alongside several other amazing podcasts. We'll be recording the live show and releasing it as an episode, but we probably won't be able to do that until we get home. So most likely, we'll be on a break next week. But we'll be back soon with more Stranger Than Fiction Stories for you, so don't you worry.

So that was a couple of wild ones, right campers? You know, we'll have another one for you in two weeks. But for now, lock your doors, light your lights, and stay safe until we get together again around the true crime campfire. And as always, we want to send a grateful shout out to a few of our lovely patrons. Thank you so much to Kylie, Melissa, Paul, Julie, and Donuts. We appreciate y'all to the moon and back. And if you're not yet a patron, you're missing out. Patrons of our show get every episode ad-free at least a day or.

early, sometimes more, plus tons of extra content, like patrons-only episodes and hilarious post-show discussions. And once you join the $5 and up categories, you get even more cool stuff. A free sticker at $5, a rad enamel pin or fridge magnet while supplies last at 10 virtual events with Katie and me, and we are always looking for new stuff to do for you. So if you can, come join us at patreon.com slash true crime campfire. Pst! Apparently, Auntie Mary's famous homemade dishes are actually ordered in. Courtesy of JustEats, scandalous, and she's able to maintain this scrumptious lie by getting 7 euro off her orders. So, get 7 euro off, Buzum, Milano, Centra and more.

Feed your family. Tell them you cooked this. Minimum spend 25 euro. Participating stores only, offer valid until 30th of November 2025. See JustEat.4.i for details. in the casino something as small as the roll of a dice or the spin of the slots holds the thrill of the unknown sign up with bet victor and when you wager 10 euro you'll get 50 euro in bonuses on selected games plus 100 free spins on big bass splash place your best bet at bed victor 18 plus new customers only offer expires within seven days of sign up 40 times wagering

requirement visit betvictor.com and Seas Gamblingcare.I.U. Please gamble responsibly.