Rumours of murder in the global village

Oh dear. Oh dear.

I'm strangely upset and quite a bit weirded. Out.

Those of you who have been with me here in Blogoslavia for A Very Long Time, may remember that two years ago (almost exactly, in fact) I wrote a post on a character in the neighbourhood I once lived in, in London. Over time, I've had rather a lot of visits based on this post (yes, I do look at my stats and my "recent keyword activity". It's interesting, k? Even when one is sometimes totally unable to even come to one's own blog, let alone say anything there). I thought, at first, that this was because of some morbid reality-TV type enjoyment people were getting from laughing at this poor character *. Then, two days ago, my stats suddenly went quite wild. Instead of the handful of faithfuls (and I love you all - seriously. And your every footprint on my stats is appreciated), I was getting literally hundreds of people, and not just Londoners - people from elsewhere in Britain, too (Glasgow, Maidstone, Manchester) as well as from all over the place (Dublin, Pennsylvania, Perth, Andalucia, Abu Dhabi - I kid you not), searching for the name of this poor hapless simpleton and landing on my above-mentioned post.

So I had to investigate.

Using my extra-special search techniques (secret, MI5 issue), I followed the tracks of one of these (silent, unknown) visitors, and landed on a Facebook Appreciation Society (I'm sorry but I don't understand these things - I'm middle-aged) for this very person. That such a thing should exist is peculiar in itself, and while it feels a little bit like mockery, the introduction to the page assures the reader that it is, in fact, *not* mockery, it is appreciation. But. But but.

The top of the chat thread on this site suggested there was a rumour that this person, whom I did not know personally but whose life, clearly, had been marred in some way, by someone (even though he was known as someone almost always happy and polite), had been cornered by a gang of youths and stabbed to death.

It is, obviously, a hideous thing. A hideous, hideous, tell-tale sign of our times, perhaps, or of human nature, its inherent cruelty, something or another (if it's true, obviously).

And, whilst not meaning to take away from the impact of the hideousness of this rumour, on a completely different level I find the fact that these people (and there have been 129 of them today, k? From all over the place) who, in all likelihood, do not "know" each other - and certainly not me, or indeed, the poor innocent in question, perhaps - are online, looking for facts of his alleged demise - I find it. Something. Strange. Compelling. Almost moving, yet horrible (is this the road traffic accidents on motorways syndrome, only an inch or so away from the "let's laugh at people when they are humiliated on television" syndrome?).

I don't know. I really don't.

But anyway, hence the global village. And I just didn't feel like I could keep quiet about this.

* and I'm avoiding mentioning his name, because I don't want to cash in on the interest and trawl for traffic, under these - or indeed, any - circumstances.