Paradise: Peta Frampton and Chris Farmer

A new line of enquiry for Crime Guy heads to 1970s Guatemala.

One of the main reasons I wanted to move Crime Guy over here to Substack is to get more interactive. While I wait for the team over there to polish off the new video feature, I have started a thread which you can all contribute to. A thread is a discussion or conversation around a theme.

One of my informants pointed me at the BBC podcast “Paradise” which is a very detailed 11 episode study of a double murder from the 1970s. Two British youngsters were drowned from a boat near Guatemala, but the unusual twist is that the two young sons of the killer witnessed the event and were powerless to stop it. At the time of writing I have just finished listening to the second episode, and I will try to listen to a couple of episodes a week so that I don’t go too fast or too slow. If you are already ahead of me, please feel free to jump into the discussion here.

I chose this podcast mainly because it was a gripping story, but also because it is freely available without having to be a member of Audible or another service. I hope and expect it is available outside the UK but if not, please feel free to suggest one of your favourite podcasts for a future thread. You can listen to Paradise on BBC Sounds right here for free.

If you really don’t like podcasts and prefer the written word, you can still join in. There is a recent book written by Chris Farmer’s sister which I will also cover in this thread. You can grab the book here.

I think in this case, it might not be that helpful to make a detailed timeline of events leading up to the attack. If you disagree, please get in touch. I will however add a map or two to help locate the young couple. My first suggestion is below. Meanwhile, enjoy listening and reading about this case, and please do get stuck into the conversation!

The victims sailed with the killer and his sons from Belize to Guatemala