SOMETIMES, I look back on my time as a newspaper editor and, so much happened, much of it seems surreal.
For example, I’ll never forget the period that the infamous crook, bully, and fantasist, George Reynolds, somehow took over the running of Darlington Football Club in its darkest hour and built a massive stadium on the edge of town.
Reynolds liked to surround himself with ‘yes men’ and, when The Northern Echo refused to kowtow to his increasing intimidation, he took against us. Our staff were threatened and abused on an almost daily basis, and he used to turn up at my house, with a couple of henchmen, to frighten my family.
Written threats were posted through the door. Foul-mouthed rants were shouted through the letter-box. We had four children at the time and we ended up with a direct link being set up to the police on our home phone.
Anyway, a fella called Ted Blair, on social media, has unearthed another memory from his archives – a picture of a billboard Reynolds erected outside the stadium in the midst of all the madness.
“If you’re gonna write headlines about me, I’m gonna write headlines about you,” he declared in one of his foul-mouthed phone calls to Echo HQ at Priestgate.
The billboard went up and I’d drive past it on the way to work to see the kind of headlines shown in Ted’s picture. A week or so later, there was another headline: BARRON IS GAY – SACK BARRON.” Another interesting insight into the man’s prejudices.
Reynolds ended up being jailed for three years for tax evasion in 2005 after he was stopped with £500,000 of dodgy money in his car. Other charges, including money laundering, were denied but left on file.
Like I say, it all seems surreal now. I really must write that book one day…
In the meantime, here’s a reminder of a piece I wrote in 2021 after he died: https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/opinion/columnists/19246565.day-george-reynolds-came-round-house-threaten-family/