The trial of Neil Entwistle, the British-born husband and father accused of the brutal slaying of his wife and 9-month-old daughter allegedly fueled by a sex addiction, is about to start in the Boston suburb of Woburn. As you might expect, the international media is going to turn this into a circus and the people living in the small town of Hopkinton, where the deaths occurred, are understandably afraid of their lives being turned upside down.
What I find ironic is the lede of this article about the “cone of silence” descending on the neighborhood:
Rattled neighbors of Neil Entwistle have entered into a pact to remain silent as the trial of the accused wife and baby killer invades their idylic enclave in the woods in Hopkinton, neighbors said. [my emphasis]
So the neighbors are talking to the media to explain that they aren’t talking to the media. And the whole article is filled with this contradiction:
“It was overwhelming,” a 20-year-old neighbor said of the days and weeks following the murders of Rachel Entwistle, 27, and her baby girl, Lillian Rose, 9 months. This time, she added, everyone has agreed not to talk about the past - or at least try not to.
“All the satellite trucks and media made it difficult for the kids,” said a 42-year-old Cubs Path dad yesterday. “The school got involved. The kids were frightened.”
You get the sense the reporter was aware of the irony. The lure of being quoted in the media—even anonymously—is very difficult to resist. I know from being on both sides of the reporter’s notebook.
Photo credit: Sister72 Used under a Creative Commons Attribution license. Via Wikipedia Commons.
Image Credit
- reporter.jpg: Jackie/Flickr | CC BY 2.0
