We name the man behind ‘killer journalist’ book that has shocked literary world
THIS is the eccentric author behind an anonymously penned book that claims to tell the true story of a British journalist who lived a double life as a serial killer.
The subject of the book is an ‘internationally renowned war correspondent’ who is said to have carried out torture, and a number of murders and rapes, which were only discovered after his death. The alleged serial killer and his widow are given false names, Alan and Kay Buckby.
Numb: Diary Of A War Correspondent was published this week by Dublin-based Liberties Press – with no named author.
The Irish ghost-writer behind the book has taken part in a number of radio and newspaper interviews this week under the pseudonym Louis La Roc.
In the interviews, La Roc rejected
He rejects claims the book is a work of fiction
suggestions the book was a work of fiction and claims it was written from dozens of notebooks found after the journalist’s death last October at the age of 55.
And the Irish Mail on Sunday can reveal that the man behind the book is a colourful Cork lawyer named Colin Carroll.
The websites of Mr Carroll and La Roc are registered to the same person, and recordings of the two men speaking sound identical.
When approached yesterday, Liberties Press director Seán O’Keefe admitted that Mr Carroll was the author: ‘No, I’m not denying that. That’s correct,’ he said.
However, Mr O’Keefe said he never met Ms Buckby or saw the notebooks.
It was put to Mr O’Keefe that some people believed the book was a work of fiction. He said he had no comment to make but insisted that the book was a true account of a real serial killer.
However, he admitted he did not know the identity of the serial killer on whom the book is based.
He was also asked about the notebooks that underpin the book: ‘Well, I don’t have any cast iron way of saying that they are real – but we are satisfied they are,’ he said.
He was then asked about the possibility that the book could inadvertently identify someone else as the war correspondent, as only a finite number of war correspondents died in October 2014.
Mr O’Keefe said no checks had been done to see whether anyone who was a war correspondent had died in October 2014.
Mr Carroll’s website – www.colin carroll.ie – reveals that he used to work as a commercial lawyer but now describes himself as ‘a filmmaker, writer and innovator’.
In 2006 he presented a show on RTÉ called Colin And Graham’s Excellent Adventures, in which he and another presenter travelled the world competing in unusual sports. The website states he has launched a magazine in Spain, learned to fly an aeroplane, established a TV production company, and is currently working on several ‘novels and screenplays’.
When questioned this week, La Roc declined to reveal his identity or even what country he is from. He would only say he lives on the continent, dividing his time between Milan, Paris and Lisbon.
He claimed to have ghost-written a number of other books, including one about a Hollywood actress, a world-famous football manager and a global pop star, which have sold two million copies to date.
La Roc says he was put in touch with Ms Buckby last year, who handed over her husband’s notebooks. He said the journals were compiled over Mr Buckby’s 30- year-career, covering conflicts including Northern Ireland, the Balkans, Syria and Iraq.
In the book’s foreword, Ms Buckby writes that she discovered the notebooks after her husband was killed when a tree fell on him as he was out walking in a storm.
The journals are said to reveal his involvement in a number of serious crimes dating back 30 years, beginning in Northern Ireland in the 1980s.
It tells how ‘Buckby’ watched as loyalists tortured an IRA volunteer to death. But the details of the incident do not seem to match any reported incident from the era.
Asked how he verified the content of the journals, he replied: ‘All I had to do was a Google search.
‘The only names that were changed in the notebooks and diaries were his own name and that of his wife, so all I had to do was Google the people that were killed and how they were killed and tally it up,’ he said.
La Roc said he had since given the notebooks to authorities in the UK: ‘I’ve had endless conversations with MI5. Initially the police in London and then MI5 sifted over the material,’ he explained. Additional reporting by Warren Swords.
ben.haugh@mailonsunday.ie
His books have ‘sold two
million copies to date’