Another way he filled his time - an unconscious strategy, perhaps - was by becoming a complainer, a person with grievances. At the council housing office he was a frequent visitor, calling in with a complaint once a week or once a fortnight. His rent was often in arrears but he was reluctant to take responsibility for that and interested instead in grumbling about neighbours or about repairs that were needed. At times he became angry and had to be ejected. His health, too, was often on his mind, for he came to believe very strongly that he suffered from a number of complaints which were either not being diagnosed or not being taken sufficiently seriously. Chief among these was scoliosis, a spinal condition, but there were others. He consulted medical reference works in the library and argued with successive local doctors about his symptoms, until by the late 1990s most of the practices in Fulham refused to have him on their books. In several west London hospitals, too, he was a well-known but less than welcome visitor. A third area of grievance was the police, who he felt at times victimized him. He himself was occasionally the subject of complaints and he believed the police did not give him a fair hearing, perhaps because he had a criminal record. In the early 1990s he was questioned in connection with the Rachel Nickell murder in Wimbledon - he was never a serious suspect and was soon ruled out - and no doubt this stoked his sense of injustice. It amounts to a pattern: whether it was welfare, health or the police, Barry George usually had some problem that preoccupied him, that required him to conduct research in the library and latterly on the Internet, and to consult experts - doctors, solicitors and so forth - seeking their opinions and giving them the benefit of his. It also gave him something he could talk about to other people he met.
