The Boy in the Attic by David Malone

What are my considered reflections on the 1973 child murder of John Horgan?

The most surprising thing about this book, published in 2011, is that my co-conspirator Geraldine Comiskey had not heard of the case before Amazon suggested it to her. She lives not far from where these events happened.

It could have (perhaps should have) received major news coverage in Ireland and would then have been picked up around the world. I think some of the ‘why’ of that is relevant. David Malone himself, a professional journalist, only heard about the case from a very short article about the murder in a Canadian newspaper. What’s that all about? David himself admits perplexity:

“I first learned of John Horgan’s terrible murder when reading a tiny newspaper report: one short paragraph buried in the inside pages of, not an Irish paper, but a Canadian daily. I could never have imagined that this humble report would be all that the world knew of these broad-reaching, dark, strange events – events much stranger than anyone could possibly have guessed from the bare smattering of words they had been granted in the newspapers of the day.”

We could guess perhaps that the satanic element, the Catholic religious element, the intra-neighbourhood element, and the fact that this was a child killing of another child… that all of these elements had combined to result in a burying of the story, whether conscious or otherwise. I found out long ago that Ireland, then as now, is a very different place to England.

While we were recording our interview, a number of times I felt like this was not quite a real case. Almost every detail is uniquely disturbing. The level of preparation that Lorcan Bale undertook was unusual: he made large holes in the top of his wardrobe and in the ceiling above the wardrobe. These holes left a lot of dust and mess inside the wardrobe that was never seen or cleaned up.

The holes gave access from Lorcan’s bedroom straight into the attic above. Lorcan had run a lamp off a power extension cable into the loft and conducted at least one ouija board session up there with a friend, also called Lorcan. There was something up there that has been described as a satanic shrine with an altar and certain vile sacrifices or offerings.

How does such a young boy turn out this way? It’s a natural question but unfortunately the answer is usually some version of it depends. We know that Lorcan Bale had a number of occult and even satanic books available to him. They’re not especially disturbing books. Many people have read Aleister Crowley, Dostoevsky. But Lorcan Bale read and possessed a fair number. He had spent years of his short life in hospital for various different complaints. Had he found the books in the hospital library? It seems unlikely.

Geraldine Comiskey described one of the local Dublin markets as a sort of 1970s dark web. Perhaps he obtained the books there? But what triggered his curiosity in that direction? I have never really subscribed to the conspiracy theory about satanic worship cults. The idea has the smell of the witch trial, also a false conspiracy, about it. But could Lorcan, only a young boy, really have been groomed by adult satanists? And how could all of this happened without his overbearing parents getting wind?

The killing itself is horrific. It’s not something you can practice, hitting a human over the head with a wooden club. You get one chance. I would imagine most people err on the side of caution. Even when I am splitting wood I find it takes a while to judge the force. Lorcan killed John Horgan with a single blow. Imagine the anger and energy required to do that, and to get it right first time.

Listen to our extended interview

You can read more about the book and buy it here. If you missed our extended interview, these episodes are now available here on Substack and on Spotify.

The Boy in the Attic: Part 1

The Boy in the Attic: Part 2