Rocky Ryan; Hoaxer (Great obit)
Hyfler/Rosner
January 19, 2004, Monday
HEADLINE: Rocky Ryan
Rocky Ryan, hoaxer, was born on December 30, 1937. He was
found dead on January 15, 2004, aged 66.
Former stuntman whose pranks at Fleet Street's expense
finally turned sour
Rocky Ryan pulled off some remarkable hoaxes on national
newspapers, while living much of his own life in a slightly
seedy world of make-believe. He might convince the papers
that Mount Everest had become the venue for a series of
orgies or that Dirty Den was to be written out of
EastEnders, but he was perhaps not so very sure about the
realities of his own life.
He would taunt and tease his contacts in Fleet Street,
calling in assumed voices and giving them the numbers of his
supposed sources. He would then answer the phone in a
different accent, or ask friends to play the parts for him.
And although the numbers were suspiciously often in Neasden,
Ryan managed to persuade papers to run the exclusive news
that Elton John was selling Watford FC, that Samantha Fox
was pregnant and that Libyan diplomats expelled from Britain
had been executed on the orders of Colonel Gaddafi.
He was known to most of the news desks in Fleet Street, but
largely as a time-waster, because for every one of the tall
tales that made the news columns, there were several others
that failed. Favourably disposed though journalists are to
the idea of a scoop, they would often realise that the
elusive informant on the phone was Ryan yet again.
And when they asked him to pull the other one, the joker
could turn suddenly abusive, shouting insults and screaming
with rage. "People in the press are the lowest form of
life...they're fair game too, the bastards," was one of the
milder outbursts. He was not a man who took it in good part
if he in turn was exposed or ridiculed.
In his earlier capacity as film stuntman and then minder to
the stars, Ryan had stood in the background as newspaper
stories unfolded. He then became a source of imaginative
stories which left journalists with egg on their red faces.
But although he was paid for fantasies such as the sighting
of Lord Lucan in South Africa -which had the Express
scrambling a reporter -and the Queen interviewing Princess
Michael about the state of her marriage, he was never in the
financial big league. He was not so much greedy as
determined to prove that newspapers are insufficiently
scrupulous about their facts -a truth confirmed when one
referred to him as "short and stocky" while another
described him as standing 6ft. His stories, however, did
occasionally cost the newspapers that ran them very dear in
payments for libel.
Ryan claimed that on a few occasions he had been helped by
reporters wanting to settle scores in the office. He also
made money by betting with friends that he could hoodwink
the papers.
Michael Joseph Ryan was born in Tipperary, Ireland. He
claimed that his middle name was Rocco and that his mother's
parents were from Sicily. But he was brought up in the East
End and in Neasden, getting to know the Kray brothers and
the Richardsons. In his youth he spent some time in borstal,
and his occasional "bits of business" meant a continuing
relationship for many years with the custodial services.
He claimed he had served in the 23rd Parachute Regiment and
that he had been Army boxing champion. As the former Fleet
Street editor Derek Jameson wrote in his memoirs, "Rocky
likes to tell people he is a former SAS man and soldier of
fortune. He reckons to be a bodyguard by profession, earning
big money protecting millionaire Arabs and the stars. On
occasion he decides he is an actor -or film extra. Boxer and
stunt man, too, if you like. Personally I think he is a mini
cab driver."
Always something of a bruiser, Ryan certainly did take on
some body-doubling stunt roles, and through his work on
films and in television in the 1970s he got to know John
Wayne, Tony Curtis and Telly Savalas, sometimes escorting
them to nightclubs as a minder. In 1975 he was injured
during the filming of The Slipper and the Rose.
Although there may have been earlier stings, he began his
campaign of newspaper havoc in earnest in the mid 1970s
after one paper, by his account, tipped off the police that
he might be the Black Panther. After that he assumed many
names and guises. One day he would be Flynn, another Major
Peter Sivart. And then he would pop up on the television
news as an arms dealer discussing Colombia's drugs war.
In 1977 he was convicted of damaging a car and assaulting
staff at a store in London, but his mental health was
suspect and with the backing of the National Council for
Civil Liberties he appealed and a retrial was ordered. The
conviction was quashed.
Ryan particularly enjoyed a con wrapped in a stunt
compounded by a scam. Through his occasional visits to
friends in prison, he apparently met Peter Sutcliffe, the
Yorkshire Ripper, and in 1986 he persuaded the Sunday Sport
to part with £700 for what he claimed was a self-portrait by
Sutcliffe.
A week later the People crowed that its upstart new rival
had been conned, and that Ryan had painted it himself. But
three months later Ryan changed his story again, and told
The Guardian that the painting had genuinely been by
Sutcliffe.
Next he claimed that he had not spoken to The Guardian, and
that it in turn had been taken in by his brother (a
character who may or may not have been fictitious).
By the end of the 1980s the Rocky phenomenon was so well
established on Fleet Street that it was said that there was
even a hoaxer phoning newspapers and pretending to be Ryan.
In 1988, however, one of his bits of mischief went badly
wrong, when a journalist at The Observer, Farzad Bazoft,
called Ryan back about a story about gun running and Ryan
threatened him and his family. Bazoft called the police, who
traced the number back to Ryan. The case went to court and
Ryan was bound over to keep the peace.
Ryan later claimed that the shock of his arrest had killed
his mother, and vowed to get even with Bazoft. When Bazoft
was then hanged in 1990, stories appeared in the papers in
which Ryan said that he had told the Iraqi Embassy in London
that Bazoft had been recruited by Mossad, the Israeli secret
service. True or false, it was very far from a bit of
lighthearted fun.
After a stroke in the early 1990s Ryan became virtually a
recluse.
He had been briefly married in his youth, and had a
daughter.
KG
"In his youth he spent some time in borstal,
and his occasional "bits of business" meant a continuing
relationship for many years with the custodial services."
I'm usually pretty good with British slang, but this one's got me stumped.
Thanks!
KG
"Hyfler/Rosner" <rel...@rcn.com> wrote in message
news:400c1098$0$6088$61fe...@news.rcn.com...
Bill Schenley
> "In his youth he spent some time in borstal, and his
> occasional "bits of business" meant a continuing
> relationship for many years with the custodial services."
Borstal is a prison. It meant he spent time locked up.
Hyfler/Rosner
"KG" <kgno...@nospam.org> wrote in message
news:de2dnc2XXui...@comcast.com...
> Can any of you please explain the following phrase to me?
>
> "In his youth he spent some time in borstal,
> and his occasional "bits of business" meant a continuing
> relationship for many years with the custodial services."
>
> I'm usually pretty good with British slang, but this one's
got me stumped.
>
> Thanks!
> KG
>
Prison is my guess.
Louis Epstein
: Can any of you please explain the following phrase to me?
: "In his youth he spent some time in borstal,
: and his occasional "bits of business" meant a continuing
: relationship for many years with the custodial services."
: I'm usually pretty good with British slang, but this one's got me stumped.
A borstal is a prison for youth offenders.
: "Hyfler/Rosner" <rel...@rcn.com> wrote in message
: news:400c1098$0$6088$61fe...@news.rcn.com...
:> The Times (London)
:>
:> January 19, 2004, Monday
:>
:>
:> HEADLINE: Rocky Ryan
:>
:> Rocky Ryan, hoaxer, was born on December 30, 1937. He was
:> found dead on January 15, 2004, aged 66.
REALLY???
-=-=-
The World Trade Center towers MUST rise again,
at least as tall as before...or terror has triumphed.
Waterlou4
newspapers, while living much of his own life in a slightly
seedy world of make-believe. He might convince the papers
that Mount Everest had become the venue for a series of
orgies or that Dirty Den was to be written out of
Yeah, but that actually happened.
Don Mackie
<rel...@rcn.com> wrote:
> Prison is my guess.
A prison for young offenders. I imagine Juvenile Hall is the USA
equivalent.
--
"Any PC built after 1985 has the storage capacity to house an evil spirit,"
Reverend Jim Peasboro