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Malicious Damage - Islington Council

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Final curtain:<br />

The price of fame<br />

By 1967, aged 34 years, Joe Orton had established himself<br />

as a significant writer with a promising future. His success<br />

however put a terrible strain on his relationship with Halliwell,<br />

who was becoming increasingly jealous of his partner. He felt<br />

marginalised as Orton’s career took off and his own artistic<br />

efforts floundered. Halliwell also suffered from a sense of<br />

inadequacy due to Orton’s sexual promiscuity with other men.<br />

On 9 August 1967, unable to carry on and not wanting his<br />

partner to continue without him, Kenneth bludgeoned Joe to<br />

death with several hammer blows to the head. He then took his<br />

own life with an overdose of barbiturate pills. The couple were<br />

discovered the next morning by a chauffeur calling to collect<br />

Orton from their Noel Road flat.<br />

In memory: Commemorative plaque to Joe Orton<br />

at 25 Noel Road.<br />

Aftermath<br />

In a final twist to the tragic event, it was discovered that<br />

Halliwell had died first and, although unconscious, Orton had<br />

taken several hours to die. Kenneth Halliwell’s funeral was<br />

held on 17 August in Enfield and Joe Orton’s the day after at<br />

Golders Green Crematorium, where playwright Harold Pinter<br />

read the eulogy, concluding with, “He was a bloody marvellous<br />

writer.” It was later arranged for their ashes to be combined<br />

and buried together.<br />

Legacy<br />

Joe Orton’s public life lasted barely four years but his impact<br />

as an innovative playwright of international standing remains<br />

to this day. Regrettably the same cannot be said of Kenneth<br />

Halliwell, whose life was unfulfilled.<br />

A tragic loss: Joe Orton - playwright,<br />

‘collage’ artist and icon, 1966.<br />

Joe’s unique literary work is his legacy but, in typical<br />

Ortonesque fashion, the ‘guerrilla artwork’ that he and his<br />

partner-in-crime created when resident in Noel Road is key<br />

to that legacy. The surviving doctored library book covers go<br />

far beyond being simply historical items that were subjected<br />

to malicious damage. They are the catalysts that inadvertently<br />

activated an extraordinary playwright’s career and lasting<br />

reminders of the life and crimes of Joe Orton and Kenneth<br />

Halliwell in <strong>Islington</strong>.<br />

<strong>Islington</strong> Heritage Services, 2011<br />

Scene of the crime:<br />

25 Noel Road,<br />

9 August 1967.<br />

Final curtain:<br />

Daily Mirror, 10 August 1967

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