The Unusual Suspect

November 1, 2020
Machell, a writer for the Times of London, reconstructs the bizarre international crime spree of a self-styled Robin Hood who claimed he robbed banks to give the money to the poor. Stephen Jackley was a quiet British university student when, beginning in 2007, he launched a far-fetched plan to redistribute the wealth of "a callous capitalistic society that was destroying the planet and ruining lives for no good reason." Over the next seven months--armed with a knife and replica of a pistol--he robbed banks and other cash-rich institutions until he was arrested in Vermont after trying to use a fake ID to buy a real gun, which was too difficult to obtain in Britain. Jackley was deported and sentenced to 13 years in prison. A psychiatrist's report later found there was "little doubt" that he had Asperger's syndrome, which led to a one-year reduction in his sentence. Drawing on interviews with Jackley and other sources, Machell, a fluid writer, agrees that the young bank robber had Asperger's: "And while it's true that none of this would have happened if Stephen did not have Asperger's, it did not happen simply because he did." Contributing factors, note the author, included his subject's traumatic upbringing by a bipolar father and schizophrenic mother. Machell offers strong evidence that Jackley's Asperger's was made worse by a troubled youth. However, given Jackley's months of con artistry and the fact that his parents had mental illnesses that can run in families, the author, though well-intentioned, gives too little attention to whether Jackley might have conned a doctor or two--or had a more serious, co-occurring condition that explains his behavior more plausibly than only Asperger's. The result is a well-written page-turner that may cause readers to suspect that there's more to Jackley's crimes than Machell suggests. A fast-paced true-crime tale undercut by an iffy analysis of the perpetrator's Asperger's diagnosis.

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Starred review from November 16, 2020
British journalist Machell debuts with a gripping account of the unlikely criminal career of Stephen Jackley. As a student at the University of Worcester, Jackley decided to become a modern-day Robin Hood. Instead of social activism, he chose to make a difference by robbing banks with the intention of giving away the stolen money. After striking multiple banks in England in 2007, 20-year-old Jackley became the subject of a multinational investigation. His habit of obsessively writing down his thoughts and plans became a treasure-trove for law enforcement when he was finally apprehended in Vermont in 2008, after his failed efforts to buy a firearm. In 2009, after spending some time in prison in Vermont, he was deported to the U.K., where he served time until 2015. His diaries, along with Machell’s interviews with Jackley, enable the author to reconstruct Jackley’s bizarre criminal career in vivid detail. That includes Jackley having been so nervous before his first attempt that he had “written down the things he wanted to say and stuck the little script to his gun with all the nervous care of a schoolboy preparing to cheat on an exam.” Assured prose boosts Machell’s stranger-than-fiction true crime narrative. This balanced and sympathetic look at a troubled young man should have broad appeal. Agent: Richard Pike, C&W Agency (U.K.).

January 1, 2021

The most remarkable writing of the average bank robber is a note demanding money, not a treatise on environmental destruction and capitalism, but Stephen Jackley is far from ordinary. Observing the Shoemaker-Levy comet hurl into Jupiter in 1995 when he was a boy in rural England, he was consumed with dread about the precariousness of existence and human-made threats to Earth. Rather than becoming an environmental activist, this self-styled Robin Hood turned to crime to redistribute wealth and disrupt the flow of capital. Journalist Machell intersperses his gripping account with Jackley's journal entries and manifestos, which offer prescient predictions about social and economic issues. The author notes that though Jackley was also motivated by the 2008 worldwide financial crisis, he victimized the people he was attempting to help; the entry-level bank tellers traumatized by his robberies were no different than over-mortgaged homeowners. Machell is sympathetic, detailing his subject's difficult childhood--raised by a mother with schizophrenia and a domineering father, Jackley struggled to make friends, and his Asperger's syndrome went undiagnosed for years. However, the author stresses that neither these challenges nor Jackley's noble motivations excuse his violence. VERDICT With nuance and sensitivity, Machell has profiled a young man who, like a canary in a coal mine, offered warnings about impending financial, political, and ecological reckonings.--Bart Everts, Rutgers Univ.-Camden Lib., NJ

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