‘I Share A Name With A Serial Killer’

What’s it like to be constantly confused with someone infamous?

Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash

The first Sunday of March is National Namesake Day, as I’m sure you know. This little-known holiday got me thinking about it must be like to share your name with a famous person. A neighbour in my road has the same name as a rather polarising Tory former minister, and he likes to confuse people who remark on this by explaining his own politics, which are about 100% different.

But then I wondered: what must it be like to share your name with an infamous person? Like a serial killer or psychopath or cult leader (or possibly all three)?

So I spent a few idle hours on LinkedIn trying to connect with some proper wrong ‘uns. Harold Shipman didn’t want to know. Charles Manson (who sounded like a lovely man, a scholar of ancient manuscripts) completed aired me. Nothing from Ian Brady, Ted Bundy or Frederick West either. Perhaps they were all sick of being asked. I didn’t pursue it — you don’t want to provoke these people, after all.

I was about to give the whole thing up when a cheery message popped up from Jim Jones. Not the notorious founder of the People’s Temple and architect of the tragic Jonestown massacre (well, it couldn’t be), but a different Jim Jones with the rather less threatening job of…