The Never-spotted Leopard - Feral: Rewilding the Land, the Sea, and Human Life - page 61

Moat are still appearing on Facebook pages.* Here is a small
sample.
R.I.P Sir Raoul Thomas Moat - A True Peoples Champion. Sir Raoul
was murdered in cold blood by Northumbria police, anyone that
knows the sound of a shotgun blast will know he didn't kill himself. We
will fight to get justice for you our brave fallen soldier.
R.I.P Raoul You Were A Propa LEGEND ! Ganna Be Missed Mate !
Wish People Were Like You When Said Your Going To Do Something
You Mean ! STILL THINK YOU COULD HAVE WENT LONGER !
R. I.P MATE ROCK HEAVEN LIKE YOU ROCK DOWN HERE !
YOU TOTAL LEGEND
A True Peoples Champion . . . It is sick the way our national treasure
has been treated. R. I. P Sir Raoul Thomas Moat, gone but never
forgotten.
There are thousands of messages like these, posted by both sexes.
Moat seems to have become a vehicle for urges to which we cannot
afford to succumb. He is admired for his ability to evade capture,
flitting like a wild beast through the brakes and coverts of Northum-
berland, outfoxing the hounds and helicopters deployed by the police.
He had burst from his enclosure and gone feral, and in doing so he
appears to have unleashed the desires of people who feel trapped in
their lives. Several of the commentators lamenting this adulation for a
killer used the same term. They complained that Moat had been 'lion-
ized'. 16 This word carries more weight than the authors intended.
* Moat's story - and the strange public response - recapitulates that of Harry Rob-
erts, the armed robber and sadistic murderer of prisoners during late colonial wars,
who went on the run in 1966 after shooting dead two policemen. He hid in the woods
for ninety-six days before he was captured. Like Moat, this revolting man was cele-
brated by some people as a folk hero.