THE BIG RETORT

The year was 1908. A Remarkable Wager. A man wearing an iron mask... Pushing a pram full of postcard photographs... Must find a wife along the way... Visit three towns in each county of England... Make his way around the world visiting each country and city on the list... And it would take 6-8 years... But the person who did it would win the princely sum of $100,000 An astonishing tale…. IF TRUE. Following our findings into Harry Bensley, the legend who trekked through Edwardian England in order to complete an 8-year trek around the world ‘for a wager‘, we now present the identity of the young man who accompanied ‘Iron Mask’ on his remarkable journey. H is name was... William German. According to the Western Times article we uncovered (18 April 1908), it was it was four months after the commencement of the trek that William German of Holsworthy rendezvoused with a man wearing an iron mask. It states: “Master Wm. German, the son of Mr and Mrs S German, of T...

We recently highlighted the ‘banker’ who splashed out £71,000 on a drinks binge at a top London nightclub in one single evening - and with just nine money-making wannabees. Now, in our follow up exclusive, TheBigRetort   uncaps the bottle. At the bottom of the glass we discover a 'sponsored' jolly for  a top model agency and a publicity stunt gone awry. Our report pours ice on a little-known drink someone has styled 'Methuselah'... What do a bunch of party-going models and a drinks firm have in common?   Answer: A give-it-large hedge fund owner with more money than sense. To recap... It took place just off Oxford Street. In a club called The Rose. You may recall that this is the place (if you've got no soul) that was recently promoted by its gloating owners as the wannabe hangout of the embarrassingly wealthy. And boy do we mean e-m-b-a-r-r-a-s-s-i-n-g. The Rose has a thorn aft...

Jerome Isaac, 47, has been charged with murder and arson following the death of Deloris Gillespie, 73. The victim was set alight after being sprayed with a flammable liquid when her lift stopped on the fifth floor of her apartment block. The incident was captured on CCTV together with images of her attacker dressed as a pest controller who was seen entering the lift in Brooklyn, New York. The video went white as the woman was set on fire. Dorinda Thomas, 56, told the New York Post. "She was a wonderful lady, you understand."

Following the much-publicised introduction of the new Routemaster bus, reports just in...  Boris Johnson’s new bus, named the “Son of Routemaster”, has broken down on a motorway just south of Luton. The new Routemaster took the unscheduled stop leaving its driver looking forlorn. The Routemaster, which has its hazard lights flashing, is flanked by police in a lay-by.

I n our last Retort, we reported on the City hedge fund banker who received national publicity when it was revealed that he blew £71,000 on a single night out for ten in a London nightclub. Added to the largess he left a tip for one lucky young lady... of £10,000. TheBigRetort exclusive... Since we ‘outed’ the lucky 'Rose Club' waitress at our last retort the recipient of the windfall has now posted a photograph of the receipt - showing a tip made out to her to the value of ten thousand pounds. Yes - TEN THOUSAND! Who's the lucky girl, then? TheBigRetort can now reveal that she is none other than "Margaux Nina". Or at least this is the name under which she currently Tweets. "Wooooooop ahahahaha !!! ;-) watch out…" Ms Nina wrote in one tweet following the enormous tip. She even thanks the London Evening Standard, presumably for reporting on the tip? Woooooop ahahahaha indeed.

The new alternative to the hated Bendy-Bus was seen on London streets today as LBC's Nick Ferrari, and former MP Michael Portillo put two very large bums on seats.   Their verdict: a big thumbs up for Mayor Johnson's "Boris Bummer.". The old Bendies never did find much popularity (except amongst fare dodgers) and if Ferrari and others are to be believed, the Boris Bummer is likely to bring in the punters due to its lighting and sleek glass design, which also manages to retain the heritage of the old much-loved Routemaster. Will is be a success amongst the travelling public? Fares ladies and gents, please.

When newspapers recently reported the largesse of a mysterious hedge fund manager who is said to have frequented a London club where he spent £71,000 on a single evening out - TheBigRetort  couldn't resist querying the bill... The Evening Standard, together with the Mail and various additional newspapers of note recently carried a feature on the 13 th December that came in for a lot of scrutiny by we poor due to the amount of money that is said to have been spent, in a single evening, and by just one rich individual at a club styled 'The Rose'; and which (significantly) recently opened off Oxford Street. On Thursday evening into the Friday morning the club is said to have played host to a big-spending banker and his cohorts - with more money than it seem sensitivity in what are arguably straightened times, for the many at least. But is all as it seems in this remarkable story of riches to riches? Apparently this right ‘banker’ (call him what you will) all...

It was back in June 2010. The Kepler space telescope discovered over 750 extrasolar-planets culled from data that it had collected in its first 43 days of observations of the cosmos. Marked "candidates" - since then astronomers have gone on to confirm hundreds of planets orbiting alien suns light years beyond our own little solar system. But one planet alone has drawn the most excitement. We name it “Keptoo-toobe”. The recent discovery by astronomers of an extra-solar planet designated Kepler 22b comes just one year after a treasure trove of stars was unveiled by the space telescope Kepler at NASA. “This is the biggest release of candidate planets that has ever happened,” said scientist William Borucki at that time. NASA expected only 50% of these so-called alien candidates to actually turn out to be real planets. Kepler 22b, almost two and a half times the size of the Earth, has not only been conf...

George Hallam, an economist at Greenwich University,  has been nominated as the London People Before Profit candidate in the forthcoming bye-election in Feltham and Heston. But can he do it? The challenge by Mr Hallam follows the death of MP Alan Keen (Labour), who passed away this November aged seventy-three. Mr Keen had been ill with cancer for some time. The London People Before Profit movement grew out of what was the former Lewisham People Before Profit (LPBP). People Before Profit was set up, not by politicians, but by community campaigners in South London who were angry about Government and political leaders who simply put the interests of Big Business before community need. The London People Before Profit Party brings together a broad group of people of varying political backgrounds who are united under one banner, the People‘s banner: Community Need Before Private Greed. Such was the rush to meet the qualifying deadline for the bye-election that the Londo...

Vincent Tabak may have graduated from 'observer to perpetrator' after watching pornographic films, before going on to strangle Jo Yeates, 'for his own sexual gratification' detectives have claimed. The six-man and six-women jury in Joanna Yeates murder trial had been deliberating for thirteen hours and 36 minutes, before returning to Court One at Bristol Crown Court and finding the defendant, Vincent Tabak, guilty of murder. As the verdict was delivered, Tabak immediately sat down and put his head in his hands. Mr Justice Field began sentencing by telling the jury: "I think there was a sexual element to this killing." Tabak is said to have held a collection of pornographic films featuring women being choked. Contrary to his image as a devoted boyfriend, it can also be revealed that he sought out the company of prostitutes while on business trips to Newcastle and Los Angeles. The judge lifted an order banning publication after the 10-2 guilty verdi...

TheBigRetort:  ringleader of a gang who kept mentally disabled people in cellar escaped jail term. Linda Ann Weston, 51, was convicted in 1983 for keeping a man in a closet and starving him to death. Although found guilty in the 1983 abduction and murder, Weston did not serve time in prison. Venus Weston, younger sister of Linda, was sentenced to six to 12 years in prison. Linda the elder was ruled ‘incompetent to stand’. Even though the plot was originally hers. A fact not picked up by the American media who continue to report: 'It is not known how long she served in prison.' TheBigRetort exclusive....

Police in Philadelphia recently discovered four abused and vulnerable adults shackled together in a dank cellar where they were being held captive, with dogs for cell mates. Officers also discovered a teenage girl. Three people have been arrested. It has been widely claimed that one of the captors, Linda Ann Weston, 51, served time in prison for a similar crime. TheBigRetort… but she didn’t. In November 1981, Bernado Ramos was reported missing by his mother. His body was found in a closet two weeks later. Linda Weston, 23, and Venus Weston, 21 his lover, were later charged and convicted with his captivity and murder. Apparently Bernado had been the father of Venus’s child but refused to support it. It was his last mistake. The Weston sisters had beat him with a broomstick and eventually starved him to death in the cupboard. A remarkably similar modus operandi when compared with the current charges. However, Linda Weston, now charged with abduction and enslavement in th...

Edgington knife attack linked to previous double slaying at New Cross. TheBigRetort… exclusive. An urgent probe by the NHS may wish to focus on the mental health unit where a knife attacker sought refuge, prior to going on a rampage that left one woman dead and another seriously injured. The patient, Nicola Edgington, 31, was from the same mental health unit where a previous patient also went on to commit a frenzied knife attack that left two foreign students dead. TheBigRetort previously revealed that Edgington had been ordered by a judge to be detained indefinitely under the Mental Health Act after stabbing her mother to death in 2005 - but was conditionally discharged in 2009. The 31-year-old recently admitted herself into Oxleas House in Woolwich, and fled the unit prior to her second and third attacks. Although a warning was put out by the unit to police, Edgington went on to stab one person to death and seriously injure another. The probe...

Sally Hodkin was on her way to work on Monday morning when she was murdered in a busy shopping street in south east London. Her assailant (pictured) is unable to appear in court due to "extreme" mental health problems. So who is really responsible for the death of Sally Hodkin? TheBigRetort... Sally Hodkin's assailant is Nicola Edgington, 31, of Ambedkar House, Flavell Mews, Greenwich, south east London. Edgington also attempted to murder 23-year-old Kerry Clark, who was attacked with a knife as she waited at a bus stop. However TheBigRetort can reveal that Nicola Edgington is unlikely to stand in a courtroom charged with the murder - ever. Because she has already been deemed in the past not guilty of murder due to diminished responsibility. The recent attacks by Nicola Edgington were forewarned - and could have been prevented. In 2006, Edgington, then aged 26, admitted stabbing her mother to death in a frenzied attack. She struck on the eve of ...

Scientists have made the recent ‘discovery’ that neutrinos may travel faster than the speed of light. A short trip back in time may spread light on the findings. TheBigRetort… Scientists at the Opera (Oscillation Project with Emulsion-tRacking Apparatus) experiment in Gran Sasso, Italy, found that beams of neutrinos sent to its detectors from Cern, 730km away in Geneva, arrived earlier than they should have. But TheBigRetort can report that the claim is not ‘evidence’ that the speed of light barrier has been broken, and with it the genius that was Albert Einstein, but a manifestation of events that link back in the stellar pages of time… here on Earth Twenty-four years ago detectors in the US, Japan and Russia observed a burst of 24 neutrinos which originated from a supernova in the Large Magellanic Cloud. About 2 hours later, an experienced New Zealand amateur astronomer observed the area of the supernova, but noted nothing unusual. About 3 hours after the neutrino burst howev...

New Dutch film spells big opportunity for girl with English connection. TheBigRetort profiles rising star Pippa Allen. Originally titled "Patatje Oorlog“ - “Patatje Wars” [War Fries] is based on the acclaimed book "A Little Chance" by Marjolijn Hof, and traces the lonely life of nine-year old Harriers (Pippa Allen) who constantly worries about her father, a doctor who has left home to work in a war zone. What if he gets a disease? What if he stands in the way of stray bullets? What if? Just a few of the fears that beset young Harriers on her angst-ridden journey towards an inevitable conclusion. In order to reduce the risk that something bad may happen to her father Harriers journeys into the strangest corners of her mind. Her fantasies are portrayed in stop-motion animation combined with live action; extraordinary for a Dutch film. It is due for later release with English subtitles - hence the title “War Fries“. But what of that English connection? Pippa, who ...

A curious incident is said to have occurred during the Lewisham riots that may keep Government experts pondering for quite some time... the sale of alcohol. TheBigRetort exclusive... The place: Brockley Cross, London SE4 The time: Just the other day actually Durng the riots, a shopkeeper was unsurprised when he saw a young guy saunter in, lean down, and then pick up a four-pack of beer. However, it  was what his 'usually friendly' and 'long time' customer then went on to say that left him totally 'stunned'. "I'm taking these!" "Oh," the shopkeeper responded with a smile as the guy headed for the door without paying, "do you want to open a tab?" The young man looked back, paused for a minute, and then delivered his anarchic coup de guerre: "No. I'm taking them!  And there's nothing you can do about it!" And with that he was gone.  "The silly thing is he's been coming into my shop for years! An...

The riots in London and which also sporadically erupted around the country we now know had little if anything to do with politics or poverty. They were pre-Christmas smash-and-grab raids.  Wondering into Lewisham shopping centre yesterday to offer our services towards the clean-up campaign we were surprised however to discover little in the way of the apocalyptic damage that was transmitted around the world over the previous evening’s news. The images that were recorded of Lewisham, usually from helicopters overhead, offered a zoom-lens view of the ‘riots’ as they happened - and a distorted one if ever. In what were actually endless loop shots of the same events--buildings in flames, cars, and streets, ablaze-- this was (apparently) “Lewisham Burning“, and with it the end of life as we knew it. Presented by this distant media the whole fabric of society had come apart like the seams on a badly fitting tuxedo. An apt description, the mobs seemed intent on bagging e...

Colin and Chris Weir of Largs in Ayrshire have been named as the couple who scooped the £161m on the EuroMillions jackpot this week. The pair have been married for 30 years.. The winning numbers were 17, 19, 38, 42 and 45, and the lucky stars were 9 and 10. The record haul will put them in 430th place on the Sunday Times Rich List.   Och Aye the you!

TheBigRetort has obtained a transcript of News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks informing News Of The World staff of her ‘arrogance’. Taken from a secret recording by a member of Ms Brooks’ staff, the (edited) transcript also includes the explosive admission that more revelations are 'on the way': Rebekah Brooks: ... and I remember the team spirit of the paper where you all, who were there came alongside me and we fought for something we believed in, and I remember when we saw all the news headlines that came in the next day - we were rubbished everywhere and there was an opinion poll that said ‘97% of the British public agree with you‘. And we were like ‘right, here we are, we're up and running‘. And so I feel very strongly exactly the same as you, and that's why I said "mounting anger". And you know, I'm not saying- you know, this is not exactly the best time in my life, but I'm determined to get vindication for this paper. And for...