View Full Version : Tom Slemen in Saturday Night's Echo


SteveFaragher
05-27-2007, 06:05 PM
I need to stop gioing on about how slack Mr S is at his job and how most of the stuff he does in the Echo and the Merseymart is merely a cheap way of plugging his books.

For example Tommy tells us all about the hordes of buried treasure in Liverpool in his usual detailed way.

Here's a few examples from the article;

"Many years ago an elderley man came to see me in Radio Merseyside and showed mean old gold coin and told me it was part of a fabulous treasure buried centuries ago not far from HMP Altcourse...... "

he goes on (and on)

"I never saw that old man again after he told me about the treasure: perhpas he is dead"

You know what I cant even be biothered typing the rest out but it concerned the St.James Cemetary (tell me it's not the one with the pyramid in it), grave robbing, a woman called simply "Joan" who could not remove the "stolen" ring, was haunted by a woman in black and ended up in a lunatic asylum (think they allk closed in the 1970's), and he ends the article with a plug for the 14th (my god who keeps buying this dross) Haunted Liverpool.

A surname Joan's would be good research, a date (presume the gold coin had a date, a monarch on it) perhaps the old man isnt dead.........

Shapers
05-27-2007, 06:15 PM
Whats wrong with plugging a book?

steveb
05-27-2007, 06:25 PM
Whats wrong with plugging a book?

Nowt. Just that a lot of his "facts", are unsubstantiated.
I tried to track down a few things mentioned in his books, just came
to a dead end.... Still a good story does sell books

SteveFaragher
05-28-2007, 11:28 AM
nowt wrong with plugging a book but it's now getting to the stage were there should be a disclaimer "the names have been made up to protect reality", it's even spawned a whole raft of impersonators such as Old Dick.

http://olddickkshauntedkensington.wordpress.com/

SteH
05-28-2007, 04:04 PM
I only skimmed through it as I cant stand the man, but didnt he say something about treasure buried under Netherfield Road. I can just imagine half of Everton there with pickaxes now.

theninesisters
05-28-2007, 04:08 PM
One of the funniest commets sLemon made was that a gent in a Top Hat occasionally stalks Well Lane in Childwall and has done for many years.

Seeing as Childwall House once stood on the exact spot where this guy is supposed to haunt, maybe he was the original owner and come back to try and haunt the living room :rolleyes:

Gnomie
05-28-2007, 04:26 PM
I used to live near Well Lane and was always playing there or near the church. never saw no Top Hats in all me days there:)

shytalk
05-28-2007, 04:41 PM
I'll check and see if Jona has a top hat, might be him he saw. :)

Ged
05-28-2007, 05:21 PM
14 books x 30 stories each - Christ, there's nearly more ghosts than people walking around which is strange in itself as i've yet to see one. His one about Gerard Gardens where some of us on here lived for decades was never mentioned once by anyone we ever knew. I think gullible women buy them (Ged ducks with hands protecting his head)

SteveFaragher
05-28-2007, 09:37 PM
I do have positive proof ghosts do not exist,

not a single ghost or someone from the othre side (Everton?) phoned roger phillips to complain about euro Cup final tickets

If I was Tom I'd stop writing the books and start diggin seeing as he has all these "Contacts" to all this loot......

SteveFaragher
05-28-2007, 09:39 PM
the top hat wasnt purple was it?

and it was on his head?

maybe it was a helmet?

SteveFaragher
05-28-2007, 09:42 PM
His facts are so spurious I'm beginning to disbelieve Liverpool is a real place.........hang on I'm fading away....I was only a figment of Tom Lemons fertile imagination.........after allll


Nah only joking I'm back, the walk down that white tunnel was killing me feet....

Max
05-28-2007, 11:40 PM
Watch out when criticising his Ripper work or getting to know like you know who did.:eek:

SteveFaragher
05-29-2007, 08:04 AM
why what happened , he didnt kill them did he, I mean his mate "killed" a vampire didnt he.......hmmmmmmmm

SteveFaragher
05-29-2007, 08:05 AM
Nowt. Just that a lot of his "facts", are unsubstantiated.
I tried to track down a few things mentioned in his books, just came
to a dead end.... Still a good story does sell books

not too surprising

Ged
05-29-2007, 10:52 AM
Well, as long as these women keep buying them, he'll keep supplying them of course. Hey, have you heard about this one Tom...............

Cadfael
05-29-2007, 11:12 AM
I think the Tom Slemen books are to be taken as seriously as Most Haunted.

The problem with the books is that they tell a story of what that person had for breakfast that morning yet cannot establish their surname.

There are lots of strange places in Liverpool which could easily be made in to a story but it's when you do research in to some of the stories, you realise that things don't add up all that well.

However people must be buying his books for him to bring out his latest in a long line of them and I have the collection myself. Not because I think they are true, but the fact that they are Liverpool based - you just have to take the stories with a 'pinch of salt'.

robbo176
05-29-2007, 11:33 AM
At the risk of being ridiculed I have to hold my hands up and admit to buying all of Slemans books :PDT_Xtremez_42:
I bought his first book Murder on Merseyside & continued buying them:ninja:

I don't take them serious but I do like to read them in bed ( maybe they just send me to sleep:rolleyes:)

I also buy them because they are Liverpool based

Mandy:)

Btw Ged I'm not gullible so you better had duck :PDT10

Ged
05-29-2007, 11:49 AM
Ha ha, that was said with my tongue in your cheeks. As long as you can make your own mind up about their authenthicity. :slywink:

robbo176
05-29-2007, 11:52 AM
tongue in my cheeks!!!!!:PDT10

Ged
05-29-2007, 11:55 AM
I'm ducking again..............

robbo176
05-29-2007, 12:01 PM
:003::Colorz_Grey_PDT_16:

PhilipG
05-29-2007, 12:01 PM
Everybody likes ghost stories and Tom Slemen is obviously cashing in on that.
As an amateur local historian, it annoys me that he presents everything as facts (or that's the impression I got, because I only read his first book).
It's so easy for myths, legends, mistakes and lies to be accepted as facts by people (and not only the gullible), that, in this case, people must think that Liverpool is the most haunted place in the UK.

Kev
05-29-2007, 12:06 PM
Mrs Kev loves the books. Easy reading she says.

Ged
05-29-2007, 12:07 PM
I've actually sat in Rodney st, in my car, in the dark, with my kids waiting for McKenzie to run across the road, telling my kids, look, look, keep looking, if you look away you'll miss him. Who's the gullible one now.

snappel
05-29-2007, 12:39 PM
It's not really any different to all the more mainstream conspiracy theories. People like to believe this stuff because it makes their lives more interesting. Some of Tom's stories are food for thought, others just come across as fairy tales.

Kev
05-29-2007, 12:44 PM
What Mrs K finds interesting are the references to areas in which she has grown up, stories that they used to share when they were kids etc...

Ged
05-29-2007, 01:16 PM
That's the problem, kids mythical monsters and ghouls have been relayed to Tom by these kids as they've grown up and now they are in print as fact.

lindylou
05-29-2007, 04:11 PM
They are just fairy stories for grown ups.

Mind you - the books are very popular with young teenage kids. My son and his mates like the stories. Kids of that age are impressionable and like to scare themselves silly, ha! :)

I'm the worst skeptic in the world and don't believe in any of it. :)

Gnomie
05-29-2007, 05:40 PM
I have a few liverpool books from the 80`s i think. Liverpool Murders, Liverpool Oddities etc.

Most of those stories have ended up in Slemen`s books:PDT_Xtremez_12:

Max
05-29-2007, 11:25 PM
I am not a skeptic but there are some stories In them books that are too fairy tale like.

My dad was a bouncer on the original Cavern and thought that Devil In the Cavern story was crap.:unibrow:

Cadfael
10-26-2007, 03:47 PM
sLemon has surpassed himself now. Just picked up a copy of the latest Merseymart (allerton) to see him talking about a Monster on the field which borders Childwall Valley Road and Barnham Drive in 1963. My mum lived in Dominic Close (which the alleyway faces opposite the field) from birth and so did her three siblings and after asking her if she remembered the story - she laughed and said she had never heard of such tripe as she would have remembered.

sLemon then goes and gives the game away by saying that one of the boys said that it was coming from the area of Jackson's pond. Seeing as Jackson's pond is on the edge of Gateacre by the Falstaff Pub, he must have had really good eyesight to see something which is about a 10 min walk away directly through houses and cottages which have been standing there since the day dot. :rolleyes:

Ged
10-26-2007, 03:54 PM
Cad. I'm afraid you may have to grin and bear the fact that TS might be correct in their being monsters on the field - check this out. That's an awfully big un'.

http://www.glaucus.org.uk/GW-Orchid-Pat084.jpg

lindylou
10-26-2007, 09:09 PM
sLemon has surpassed himself now. Just picked up a copy of the latest Merseymart (allerton) to see him talking about a Monster on the field which borders Childwall Valley Road and Barnham Drive in 1963. My mum lived in Dominic Close (which the alleyway faces opposite the field) from birth and so did her three siblings and after asking her if she remembered the story - she laughed and said she had never heard of such tripe as she would have remembered.

sLemon then goes and gives the game away by saying that one of the boys said that it was coming from the area of Jackson's pond. Seeing as Jackson's pond is on the edge of Gateacre by the Falstaff Pub, he must have had really good eyesight to see something which is about a 10 min walk away directly through houses and cottages which have been standing there since the day dot. :rolleyes:


yeah, I read it too. It's ridiculous ! :rolleyes: The monster was supposed to be Pan playing the flute :rolleyes:

Mark R
10-27-2007, 06:29 PM
I have a few liverpool books from the 80`s i think. Liverpool Murders, Liverpool Oddities etc.

Most of those stories have ended up in Slemen`s books:PDT_Xtremez_12:

Yes, they were written by Richard Whittington Egan, who Slemen lists as an inspiration...

Cadfael
10-27-2007, 08:24 PM
Yes, they were written by Richard Whittington Egan, who Slemen lists as an inspiration...

Where credit is due, most people who read about the Williamson's Tunnels before the net found it from the Whittington Egan books.

Max
10-27-2007, 10:27 PM
sLemon has surpassed himself now. Just picked up a copy of the latest Merseymart (allerton) to see him talking about a Monster on the field which borders Childwall Valley Road and Barnham Drive in 1963. My mum lived in Dominic Close (which the alleyway faces opposite the field) from birth and so did her three siblings and after asking her if she remembered the story - she laughed and said she had never heard of such tripe as she would have remembered.

sLemon then goes and gives the game away by saying that one of the boys said that it was coming from the area of Jackson's pond. Seeing as Jackson's pond is on the edge of Gateacre by the Falstaff Pub, he must have had really good eyesight to see something which is about a 10 min walk away directly through houses and cottages which have been standing there since the day dot. :rolleyes:

How was I noticed taking a bath In Jackson's pond?:eek: