Jimmy Savile, a monstrous pedophile hiding in plain sight -- Massive cover up ensured BBC star escaped arrest when alive

Jimmy Savile receives his knighthood from the Queen for entertainment and services

When I was living in Ireland, during the 1970s, Jimmy Savile was a big deal. The platinum haired DJ was host of “Top of the Pops” the most popular program by a mile on BBC television, featuring the top twenty songs in the charts that week. For a teenage generation, just feeling the first stirrings of the pop revolution, Jimmy Savile defined cool.

Savile was a welcome dash of color on a grey landscape and was universally loved.

By the time I emigrated Savile had moved on to his show “Jim’ll Fix It’ where he essentially made dreams come true for sick children.

Over the years he raised tens of millions for children’s charities and he perfected the role of aging eccentric rock star beloved by the masses.

Read more: Irish interview with Jimmy Savile, suspected mass pedophile, surfaces

He was revered from coast to coast and in Ireland, where he was a frequent visitor, he was mobbed. He was knighted by the Queen and he went to his grave last year as one of the most respected and beloved leaders of his generation.

Yet hiding in plain sight all the time was the fact that he was a vicious pedophile.

British police now say he may have abused by up to 300 young victims including, sickeningly, some of the ill children he helped.

How could he have gotten away with it for so long?

The answer now seems clear. He was so powerful that even those who knew his dirty secret stayed quiet about it.

That apparently included senior figures in the BBC who cast a blind eye on his activities because he was such a valuable commodity to them. A major investigation on him was shelved  after pressure from unknown quarters.

When he was alive several tabloids sniffed around the story and Savile went public on many occasions brushing the allegations aside.

It was incredibly brazen. To highlight the allegations against himself and dismiss them and it showed the depth of his arrogance and belief he could get away with it.

And of course he did.

He died a hero leaving hundreds of victims behind.

It is a powerful lesson in how plausible he was and how gullible people are to a smooth-talking utterly assured pervert who dropped names of powerful people when any questions arose.

Jimmy Savile’s game is finally up but those who protected him through the years must carry their own guilt now for not facing down the serial pedophile.

And his victims must surely question an establishment that refused to listen to them and listened to a pervert instead.

What if John F.Kennedy had survived Dallas 1963?- New Stephen King time travel book poses question

JFK in Dallas 1963

What if John F.Kennedy had survived the assassin Lee Harvey Oswald's bullets in Dallas on November 22 1963?

It is a question that will haunt history forever but a fascinating new book by Stephen King takes a stab at what might have happened.

King's book 11/22/63 tells the story of a time traveller, Jake Epping, who is sent back in time to prevent the murder of Kennedy.

The theory is that Kennedy would have kept America out of Vietnam, hundreds of thousands of lives would have been saved and the world would be a much better place.

No Kennedy assassination, no murder of RFK, no killing of Martin Luther King, no Black riots, etc,a kinder gentler America

It is fiction, of course,mixed with fact about the assassination and King portrays the world of Oswald, the communist sympathiser and of Dallas in 1963, with extraordinary insight .

It is 800 pages long but I found I could not put it down during the Thanksgiving weekend

Though Oswald was an avowed Cuban sympathiser he was also strangely mixed up with right wing groups, Russian expatriates and mafia types.

He was also just 22, a deeply weird guy who slept with his controlling mother until he was 11, lived in the Bronx for a time where he was diagnosed as having delusions of grandeur by a psychiatrist.

Most of the conspiracy theories arise because Oswald himself is such an insignificant figure who took down the most important man on earth. As King makes clear however, the evidence is overwhelming that he did just that acting on his own.

King does an amazing job pointing out just how much of a hothouse of hate on several different Dallas was on the eve of the Kennedy visit. There was deep racial tension, right wing and left wing feuding and a deep sense of America on the verge of a major breakdown.

All this is wonderfully drawn out and explained by King who also throws the reader a curve ball after (spoiler alert)..... the president's life is saved.

Instead of America the noble, it actually gets worse in a second Kennedy term, he is unable to drive through the civil rights legislation that Jonson was able to with his superior senate experience.

America collapses even worse than it actually did and saving Kennedy proves a disaster.

The book is a fascinating exercise in what might have been but will never be-- and more's the pity..

People to be thankful for this Thanksgiving - people who brighten our lives

Irish actress and Hollywood legend Maureen O'Hara 

Here is my annual list of those who have brightened my life this past year. As always, it is so easy to be negative, especially in the media world, which is why Thanksgiving gives us that precious opportunity to say a few words of praise, especially for those older leaders who have led the way for a younger generation.

Top of my list is Maureen O’Hara, the great Irish screen star who just seems to get stronger with age.

She celebrated her 91st birthday with the announcement of a major film school in her name in Co. Cork.  As the years go by The Quiet Man gets more iconic than ever. Many more years of good health Maureen.

Then there’s Pete Hamill, still the greatest chronicler of Irish America. His autobiography A Drinking Life is the best exposition of our culture, warts and wonderful traits combined. Great to see him working on yet another book and on the lecture circuit too.

Gabriel Byrne is giving back in spades. The actor and Irish cultural ambassador is helping fund the new Irish Arts Center and working tirelessly as Ireland’s arts ambassador to bring top notch shows and productions to America.

Liam Neeson, despite the most awful tragedy, the loss of his wife Natasha Richardson after a ski accident two years ago, continues to work to help Irish causes.

Ciaran O’Reilly and Charlotte Moore of the Irish Repertory Theater do so much to keep Irish drama alive in New York City.

The late Tom Kennedy of the American Ireland Fund was the very definition of an Irish gentleman who sadly passed away recently.

Mary Higgins Clark made such a magnificent grand marshal of the New York City St. Patrick’s Parade last year and who continues to defy Father Time with a new bestseller every year.

Don Keough is the man who brought the Notre Dame campus to Ireland and created the incredible Irish Institute at Notre Dame. He has come back from a bout of ill health with all guns blazing -- look for him in Dublin in September when Notre Dame play there.

Dr. Kevin Cahill almost single-handedly saved the American Irish Historical Society in New York.  It is America’s most prestigious Irish location, and he has ensured that it has a very bright future.

Denis Kelleher, a board member who was a huge part of retaining that wonderful American Irish Historical Society building.

Father Joe O’Hare is the former president of Fordham University. If the rest of the Catholic Church were like him there would be millions of converts.

We all take pace for granted the work Senator George Mitchell in our beloved Ireland. Without Mitchell the peace process would never have happened.

President Bill Clinton is still revved up and willing to help Ireland. He is going to host an economic conference to help the old country in 2012. We are lucky to have him in our corner.

Adrian Flannelly and Aine Sheridan are Irish American stalwarts. For over 40 years the Adrian Flannelly radio show has been a beacon for visitors from Ireland and Irish America alike. Long may it prosper.

Happy Thanksgiving!