UK UK - Jill Dando, 37, Fulham, London, 26 Apr 1999

[Hexe]

Who do you believe killed Jill and why?

Who? Honestly I have no idea, but I'd look among the men she knew. Someone angry he got rejected? Or unable to cope with her engagement? Don't know, it smells somewhat personal to me. What I see is someone who waited at Jill's doorstep wanting to kill here. This person is well acquitanced with guns and ballistic (a propos limited range, the perp wasn't concerned with that considering he made the load of gunpowder in the cartridge smaller, seems point blank was his plan all the time), also with anatomy of the brain, considering he chose the best angle of the shot, that guaranteed the brain stem damage and instant death. He knows a thing or two about blood spatter, has cool head and is a meticulous planner.

What I don't see here is a work of loud, sloppy, bumbling man, waving his gun carelessly. Whoever it was knew what he was doing and what for.

 

[Novosti]

London is chock full of tourists from all corners of the world. No accent stands out there.



How do you know he did not have an escape route?



That would make his interaction with Jill longer, increasing the risk. What if she resisted, or started screaming?



I said that before and I will say it again: if this gun was redone well, there was no risk of it not working.



That's where we agree.

A well modified smooth bore blank firer is more likely than not to work at very close range. I agree with that. But so is a knife or an axe. There's no way a professional gunman would choose to use any of these things - except in a scenario where they are unable to get hold of anything else. But that undermines the whole idea of this being a professional. This is a weapon that screams amateur opportunism i.e. it being the only firearm the attacker ever owned.

 

[Hexe]

A well modified smooth bore blank firer is more likely than not to work at very close range. I agree with that. But so is a knife or an axe.

Knife is far more messy (makes harder to direct the blood spatter away) and an axe is rather difficult to conceal (and even more messy than the knife).

There's no way a professional gunman would choose to use any of these things

I do not think it was a professional gunman.

 

[Markybug]

Let's get something straight: he cannot hold an identical gun when we do not know what exact gun was used to kill Jill. The gun he held was of a type that might be converted into such weapon, but we have no idea if it was identical.

A crazy man in her neighbourhood who is pictured with a gun, identical in style and type, but it could be another individual with another similar gun, ok.

George is guilty imo, and if the ambulance crew hadn’t destroyed the crime scene this would have been put to bed years ago.

 

[rvlvr]

Let's get something straight: he cannot hold an identical gun when we do not know what exact gun was used to kill Jill. The gun he held was of a type that might be converted into such weapon, but we have no idea if it was identical.

We also know that the ‘gun’ he was pictured holding was stolen from him in the 1980s:

R

UK Post in thread 'UK - Jill Dando, 37, Fulham, London, 26 Apr 1999'

Aug 15, 2025

I’ve also been reading Brian Cathcart’s book ‘Jill Dando: Her Life and Death’. I really like contemporaneous accounts of crimes, this one came out shortly after BG’s first trial and is well researched and written.

I’d long wondered when and where the photo of George with his ‘gun’ was taken, given how dated everything looks. I’d always assumed it was very likely to have been at Stanhope Gardens in Kensington, where George stayed in the mid-1980s after being released from prison, where it’s said he would “regularly dress in combat gear and carry [his] gun around the hotel.”

His behaviour...

• rvlvr

• 

This inconvenient fact is constantly overlooked when discussing whether George had the means to do this - understandable from a layperson, perhaps, but someone like Nick Ross absolutely should know better and the fact he continues to share the photo is quite revealing as to the strength of his argument.

 

[forensicswannabe]

The real question is why does Barry still continue to lie about the picture of him holding the gun he always states it isn't him in the picture when it clearly is and if he is innocent I just dont get the reasoning behind lying it doesn't help his case.

 

[Hexe]

The real question is why does Barry still continue to lie about the picture of him holding the gun

Probably because he is not very bright pathological liar.

 

[Inspector Evans]

Who? Honestly I have no idea, but I'd look among the men she knew. Someone angry he got rejected? Or unable to cope with her engagement? Don't know, it smells somewhat personal to me. What I see is someone who waited at Jill's doorstep wanting to kill here. This person is well acquitanced with guns and ballistic (a propos limited range, the perp wasn't concerned with that considering he made the load of gunpowder in the cartridge smaller, seems point blank was his plan all the time), also with anatomy of the brain, considering he chose the best angle of the shot, that guaranteed the brain stem damage and instant death. He knows a thing or two about blood spatter, has cool head and is a meticulous planner.

What I don't see here is a work of loud, sloppy, bumbling man, waving his gun carelessly. Whoever it was knew what he was doing and what for.

I agree with that. She had a long term boyfriend up to 1997. Then a gap of a few months before she met Alan Farthing in late 1997. Then the engagement was announced January 1999 with wedding set for the September as would've wanted the honeymoon out of the way before the preparation for co-presenting the millennium coverage.

She was visible and admired by many and seems by a few accounts she had some flings before Farthing came on the scene so the timeline is possible for someone who was spurned or jealous she was taken and so once the engagement news was announced it could've taken a month or two to arrange the hitman.

The police ruled out ex's but I assume that was just checking out where they were on the day (so ruling out they were actually the person with the gun at the doorstep) rather than looking into if any significant sum of money was moved out to pay someone to do it.

It's another theory like the Serbian one and I'd probably rank both above someone just randomly walking down the street, seeing her get out of the car and deciding to attack her there and then.

 

[Hexe]

The police ruled out ex's but I assume that was just checking out where they were on the day

Another question is if they knew about all her exes. Dando seemed to be quite discreet person, not the one to advertise every fling she had. Then there may be some men who overestimated in their mind their closiness to Jill and thought there was something only to get a bucket of cold water to the head when mr Farthing stepped up into the limelight. There might be a good number of men the police did not check.

 

[Markybug]

Do we know how many guns George had? Any guns allegedly stolen from him might necessarily have been all of them.

He was buying military equipment a couple of weeks before Jill’s murder for example.

 

[SteveH]

Well. it was Serbian hitmen who tried to assassinate Barry himself wasn't it? And it was poor old BG who had a gun put to his head:

“When I was in emergency accommodation in Hackney, I was stood in a long hallway and I had a gun put to my head and was told ‘Watch your back’," he [BG] said.

“I went to the police station and told them and they gave me lip service. I was living in fear.

“There were two things in my mind: I’ve been acquitted of this crime and then I get a gun to my head.

“There was talk of a Serbian hit team involved in Jill’s killing.

“We think it must have been someone who had a link to the murder. It’s too much of a coincidence.

"I didn’t get a look at them.”

'They put gun to my head' - Barry George on Jill Dando mystery

He was acquitted almost 10 years ago of the killing of the loved Weston-super-Mare star, but says he still does not feel free

www.bristolpost.co.uk

Case closed!

The naivety of some contributors continues to astonish me. Barry George had A gun which was "stolen" apparently.

A gun. Just one?

Anyone who believes that twaddle should read this Guardian article from 2001:

Dando killer was an oddball loner

Barry George yearned to be Gary Glitter, posed as an SAS soldier and pretended to be a professional stuntman. He insisted he was the cousin of Freddie Mercury, the lead singer of his favourite band, Queen.

www.theguardian.com

"Digging further into his past, the murder squad discovered George's fascination with the military went beyond using the name Thomas Palmer - the SAS soldier who led the raid on the Iranian embassy in 1980.

In December 1981 he joined the Territorial Army, 10th batallion Parachute regiment, based at White City, using the name Steve Majors. He attended 29 voluntary training days, learning to strip, assemble and fire rifles and machine guns. He was discharged the following November.

In August 1982 he joined the Kensington and Chelsea gun club. He attended eight sessions but his application for full membership was rejected. When police first interviewed George he claimed he had no contact with firearms after leaving the TA. This was a lie.

By 1985 he had collected several pieces of military equipment, including an imitation Heckler Koch machine gun, a starting pistol and a gas mask.

A friend he allowed into his room at a bed and breakfast in Kensington saw a third weapon, a polished silver pistol, carefully wrapped in tissue paper and kept in a shoe box.

This gun has never been found.

Police also found a photograph of George posing in a balaclava and gas mask and holding a gun, probably a firing pistol. He also owned a combat knife, as well as shirts, jumpers, a beret and epaulettes from the SAS regiment. Only two weeks before Miss Dando's death he had bought an SAS belt.

George was an avid collector of brochures and magazines for military kit suppliers and gun dealers, and his books included Ambush and Counter Ambush, Ninja the Invisible Assassins and Construction of Hiding Places."

See also:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-43483/Dando-killed-single-bullet.html

Dando defendant 'fired handgun into friend's home'

Jill Dando’s alleged killer fired a handgun into a friend’s hallway when he called round to see him one day, the Old Bailey heard today.

www.irishexaminer.com

Dando suspect ‘leapt out with machine gun to startle hotel guests’

The man accused of murdering Jill Dando terrified hotel guests by dressing in combat fatigues and leaping out at them armed with a machine gun, the Old Bailey heard today.

www.standard.co.uk

To make matters worse we get the old canard that BG wasn't "very bright". Please! Stop it!