No doubt many would consider this to be an excessively morbid study, although I think few interested in Joe's life could honestly say they have never thought or talked about it. My reason for doing it, having studied many other cases over the years, is that I believe the verdict returned at the inquest - that Joe knew exactly what he was doing, murdered Mrs. Shenton and then committed suicide intentionally - is wrong. I believe that, had Joe lived to stand trial, he would have been acquitted of murder on the grounds of diminished responsibility, and a verdict of misadventure, if not an open verdict would have been returned. Of course, this would not have meant the Joe would have got off scot-free, but he would most likely have been remanded to a hospital or rehabilitation center for a period of time for professional treatment of his mental problems, and released later.

In the time I have been interested in and studied the life and work of Joe Meek, I have come to know a very different man from the one who is widely recognized by the public. I have also become close to people who knew and loved Joe, and were loved in return, and knew that his favorite thing in the world was a damn good practical joke. I have seen him through the eyes of those people and feel that, although he died four years before I was born, I have come to know him in a strange way.

However, much as I love him as a person, I do recognize that towards the end of his life, he had terrible mental problems which sometimes caused him to treat people badly, and suspect people he knew as friends as being against him. The very drugs he was taking, he thought to help him, were further affecting his mind, and at times he could be an unlikable and frightening man. With help, he could have overcome this, and there is some evidence that he was seeking that help. The few minutes it took to end his and Mrs. Shenton's life were a terrible tragedy that should never have happened. The grief that the Shenton family felt is frequently overlooked; she had a husband, two children and at least one grandchild, and by all accounts was a friendly and caring woman who would do anything to help others. She and Joe had been good friends, and he regarded her as a sort of surrogate mother during the times he could not be with his own mother. In some ways this makes the tragedy even more poignant; that he should be so disordered in his mind to actually take the life of someone he liked so much. What sparked their final argument is still not known; it has been said that the Shentons had been hassling Joe about the amount of noise coming from the studio in the last six or eight months, but this doesn't seem to have markedly affected their friendship, particularly as they were still exchanging gifts and cards at Christmas time.

While it can never be right to take someone's life in cold blood, I do not believe that is what happened here. It also seems unfair that a man who had done so much good work in his life and had been kind to people - charities, prison reform, struggling artists, friends and family - should be made into a pariah for a few seconds in which a disordered mind finally snapped. Phil Spector was once quoted as saying "A hell of a lot more important than the fact he died, is the fact he lived"; although he wasn't talking about Joe specifically, rather any achiever who dies prematurely, it expresses the way we should be thinking about Joe, and its source is rather ironic. Although a study of his death may therefore seem paradoxical, I feel that an examination of all the myths and falsities that have grown up over the years might go some way toward ensuring that all sides of the story are told.

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