Posted by
Riklaa on June 26, 2009 at 9:47pm
Krystian Bala: When Fact and Fiction Collide
Wed Aug 27, 2008, 11:00 AM, Radio 4
Crime writer Mark Billingham tells the story of how the contents of a novel led to the author's being convicted of murder. He visits the Polish city of Wroclaw to meet Krystian Bala, a novelist and philosophy graduate who was found guilty of orchestrating the murder of a local businessman in 2007.
160/44; 32.2 MB; sound quality excellent
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Author convicted of murder after including details in thriller
Daily Telegraph 19 Dec 2008
A best-selling Polish author has been jailed for 25 years for murdering a man he suspected of having an affair with his wife and then describing it in chilling detail in a thriller.
Polish crime-novelist and philosopher Krystian Bala, 33, was convicted at retrial in Wroclaw, south west Poland.
The court ruled he was guilty of organising the murder of Dariusz Janiszewski because he suspected he had become his wife's lover.
Eight years ago, fishermen found the corpse of Janiszewski, who owned a small advertising agency, on the banks of the River Oder, near the Polish city of Wroclaw.
In December 2000, the young advertising executive was fished out of the river Oder, bearing signs of torture. He had been thrown into the river alive, trussed up with a noose round his neck.
For years the murder had police in Wroclaw flummoxed. They had no suspect and no motive.
But five years later, police received an anonymous call in which they were told to take a look at the book Amok, published in 2003, three years after the killing. Officers were shocked to find the book contained intimate details of the murder that could be known only to police - or the killer.
The plot centred on a group of intellectuals experimenting with sex and drugs and contained an account of a murder, remarkably similar to that of Mr Janiszewski
Further investigations revealed that the victim was an acquaintance of Mr Bala's estranged wife.
Police then discovered Bala had phoned Janiszewski the very day he disappeared. They discovered that, four days after the murder, Bala had also sold the young advertising executive's mobile phone on an internet auction.
Mr Bala told police he had collated details of the killing from press reports and imagined the missing parts.doc 080827 Krystian Bala-When Fact and Fiction Collide.mp3
Replies
Thanks so much - Bob