One day, as she was on her way to take the kids out the house, Mary Turner Thomson received a phone call that was about to turn her life upside down. The woman on the other end was her husband Will Jordan’s other wife. I’m barely scratching the surface in this blog, as I think she tells it best, and I’d also really like you to get hold of her book, The Bigamist. But she agrees it’s not a spoiler to tell you that Will is a psychopath; he had at least two wives and 5 fiancées while with her; those are just the ones Mary knows about, as well as more than a dozen children. Here's the full episode:
He explained his long absences by saying he was a spy, and went to extraordinary lengths to prove it. He mutilated parts of his own body to show he’d been out fighting a secret war, and appeared to get old friends to collude in his lies, calling Mary and appearing to be part of his life in the secret services.
Will was imprisoned but is now out doing his psychopath stuff to other unsuspecting victims. It’s just about the craziest story I’ve ever heard, and you’re about to hear some of the most unbelievable parts about the ways he managed to extract money from her and the other women in his life.
In the aftermath, Mary wrote The Bigamist, detailing the whole saga, and has just written a follow-up called The Psychopath, where she goes into more detail about what it is to be one – so get hold of that in March when it comes out – until then, you can satiate your psycho desire with my earlier podcast with M.E. Thomas, who is one herself. Mary’s story was also the inspiration for The Psychopath Test, by Jon Ronson, who toured afterwards with her.
Next week, we’ll hear from Conservative peer – he’s actually a lord – Daniel Finkelstein. And you'll find other episodes, including feminist Helen Lewis and the man in prison for accidentally killing his wife.