Born in 1926 in Leeds, England, Jimmy Savile rose to fame a few decades later as a well-loved DJ and TV personality. He became a national treasure, especially amongst children, after he established the renowned show “Jim’ll Fix It” during the 1970s- a show which enabled children to write to Jimmy in order to make a dream of theirs come true on national television.
After Jimmy died in 2011, there was an outpouring of grief from the public; it even prompted many prominent figures and celebrities to publicly offer their condolences. The turnout for his funeral was huge, and fans were even allowed access to a viewing of his closed casket prior to burial. Ultimately, it seemed he was loved by all who knew him.
However, shortly after his death, feelings of upset and empathy turned to shock and anger following the exposure of Savile as a sex offender who victimised significant numbers of adult women and underage girls during his lengthy career. Although it seems that Savile had successfully fooled his audiences for decades, stories and statements spoken by Jimmy himself during his lifetime have since emerged which indicate a far more sinister side to him. Based on the quotations below, it becomes hard to comprehend that Jimmy Savile’s predatory antics were not detected and exposed much earlier:
When asked to write a eulogy about himself, Savile said: “He was a fellow who instinctively knew the difference between right and wrong, good and bad.”
He was approached by a policewoman in the 1960s after a local girl went missing, and she asked Jimmy if he had seen her. To this, Savile replied: “[If I see her] I’ll bring her back tomorrow but I’ll keep her all night first as my reward.”
When reminiscing his early days, Savile stated: “The people who work for me call me The Godfather. And nobody messes with The Godfather. He is the boss. The big man. Some of the hairy things I’ve done would get me 10 years inside.”
When addressing earlier rumours of his paedophilic tendencies, Jimmy responded: “…it’s easier for me, as a single man, to say ‘I don’t like children’ because that puts a lot of salacious tabloid people off the hunt… How do they know whether I am or not? How does anybody know whether I am? Nobody knows whether I am or not.”
In reference to his legacy after death, he said: “When I’m gone, they’ll say ‘I always thought he was straight but he wasn’t- he was crooked’.”
The inscription on Jimmy’s gravestone read: “It Was Good While It Lasted”. Naturally, this has since been destroyed.
