Kriti Mehrotra
If there’s one thing nobody can deny, it’s that the brutal homicide of English television presenter Jill Wendy Dando at the doorstep of her own home still has the entire nation baffled to its very core. After all, as carefully chronicled in Netflix’s ‘Who Killed Jill Dando?,’ the 37-year-old was shot once in the head on April 26, 1999, and her killer has unfortunately still not been positively identified. Yet for now, if you simply wish to learn more about one of the many individuals to have been rather vocal in seeking justice for her — friend/agent Jon Roseman — we’ve got the details for you.
Who is Jon Roseman?
It was ostensibly back around 1989 when Jon came across rising reporter Jill for the first time as she landed a stable position at BBC News in London, just for him to quickly evolve into her agent. However, the truth is their professional connection gradually grew personal, and she ended up being “a great support” to him as well as his kids once his wife died of cancer nearly two years later. It thus comes as no surprise this journalist’s untimely demise had such an emotional effect on the then-51-year-old he went into utter denial, that is until suspicion shifted to him for a brief while.
According to the documentary series, Jon was quite “colorful” and “robust to deal with… There’s a very famous story about him going around somehwere with a baseball bat to show his feelings.” However, what caught the attention of detectives was the fact he alone was aware Jill would be at her Fulham home instead of the Chiswick one she shared with her fiancé on that fateful morning because she had to pick up some important faxes sent over by his office. Then there’s the way the novel he’d been writing for 4 years, ‘Good Men Die Like Dogs,’ depicted a murder eerily similar to hers in which a representative’s client was shot in the head at their home.
Nevertheless, Jon’s book was slightly different as all the victims he’d described were males; plus, the act was that of a serial killer rather than a professional hit, a random attack, or a stalker foray. “The police, there were two of them, sitting in my office, and we talked it through,” he candidly elucidated in the original production. “They asked me if I had a manuscript of the book, which I did. They also said, ‘What was the time difference between the first murder and the second murder in the book?’ I’m thinking I’m in the Twilight Zone. I thought he was not taking this seriously, like, somebody’s had my manuscript and was following the plan of the book?”
Then, upon being asked whether he believed investigators suspected him to be the perpetrator, Jon crudely responded, “Well, I’d have to have paid someone to do it, that’s for sure. I had this reputation, and yes, I was really tough, but it was all an act. Anybody who suspected I would cut off a financial revenue like Jill Dando would have to be insane.” He later added, albeit struggling to find the right words, “It sounds terrible, but had we not sent her any faxes… I’m not gonna say – – Had she not gone back to the house, it wouldn’t have happened. Who knows how, where else, it would have happened, but that was the reason she went back.”
Jon Roseman is a Retired Man Today
Jon was actually cleared by investigators quite promptly, following which he publicly made it clear he had no intention of ever publishing ‘Good Men Die Like Dogs’ “out of respect for Jill and her family.” He even expressed, “All I can say is it is the most bizarre coincidence my book seems so awfully close to what’s happened in my life. People might think I’m cashing in on one of the tragedies of my life, but that’s ridiculous. I started writing this book four years ago, and I’d finished it before the murder… I don’t think I will be able to grieve properly, move on, until they catch the person who killed her. I need a reason for her murder and until I understand why someone wanted her dead then I don’t think I will ever fully accept it.”
This is actually a stance Jon maintains to this day — he might have left the entertainment industry behind to settle down in Grosseto, Italy, yet he can’t ever let Jill’s tale take a backseat in his heart. We should mention that this former agent of Jill, Carol Vorderman, Fern Britton, Nick Ross, and Natasha Kaplinsky, amongst many others, plus music video producer/director also worked in the US for a while to have a career spanning over 35 years. Nonetheless, it appears as if this Roseman Organisation as well as Talent Agency executive and author of ‘Diamonds are for Never’ has since retired and is simply leading a good, comfortable life in wonderous Bel Paese surrounded by his loved ones.
