Reports of my death
Sir: I was astonished to read in John Michell’s review of Michael X: A Life in Black and White (13 September) that I died 35 years ago. Michell states that I went to Trinidad to investigate the murder, by henchmen of Michael X, of my sister Gale Benson, and that later I had died in an accident in California. In fact it was my younger brother Greville, Gale’s twin brother, who went to Trinidad at that time, and a year later died in a motor accident. Greville’s accident took place in Morocco, where he is buried.
I can hardly blame The Spectator for Williams’s slovenly research. But if you had reviewed the biography of my father, Captain Leonard Plugge, by Keith Wallis, one of your editorial staff might have picked up on this particular howler before publication. I reserve comment on Michell’s loathsome adulation of this murderous thug.
Frank Plugge
Via email
Not a defence
Sir: Theodore Dalrymple’s good sense seems to have deserted him in glossing over the seriousness of the charges against Professors Meadow and Southall (‘In defence of David Southall’, 6 September). He mischievously suggests that the sole complaint against Professor Meadow is that he deployed a misleading statistic in the trial that led to Sally Clark’s conviction and life sentence for murdering her two sons. But his authority and reputation as an expert in such cases was based on a theory that was built on a circular argument.
Dr Dalrymple’s similarly benign view of Professor Southall is at odds with the verdict of the General Medical Council (‘your conduct is so serious it is fundamentally incompatible with your continuing to be a registered medical practitioner’) after hearing, inter alia, of his wrongfully accusing a mother of murdering her son by asphyxiating him with his belt.
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