Sunday, March 9, 2014

Books: My Neighbor My Stalker by Billy Joe Davis


'Jesse would tell us stories about having sex on duty, which he claimed most of the officers did, usually with prostitutes that they would threaten to take in if they wouldn't give blowjobs or something'


I grew up in the city. My surrounding world was made up of busy streets, tall buildings, movement and constant energy. When I was in my mid-twenties, after finishing my degree, and finished a long relationship I longed for a change. I took a job in the country, hours from the city and my previous life. My surroundings became trees and mountains, cows and barns and desired quiet. Or so I hoped... I moved with a friend, and shortly after we settling into our new home, she began to date an officer from the small towns police detachment. They only dated for a few months, but the aftershocks from the relationship went on for a year. The officer was not the kind of police officer who you tell your children to seek out if lost. He was more the Samuel L. Jackson kind from the movie Lakeview Terrace. He stalked both her and I as well as anyone who visited our home. As scary it was it, our experience with a stalker ended well. After numerous complaints and meetings, the officer was transferred, to a remote location where hopefully the only think he can stalk is another animal in the woods. Not all stalking stories end with a happily ever after.


We often think the victims of stalkers are the rich and the beautiful. Models and celebrities with great bodies and successful careers, humans worthy of having someone lose their mind over. Truth is, the victims of stalkers are really not important at all. They are not in any way deserving of the attention, nor the pain, inflicted upon them. They are simply the person in the field of vision when the unbalanced becomes unhinged.


'Jesse started talking about how one late night he slit his wrists horizontally so the bleeding would be slow and was walking down the highway, but no one noticed, so he walked to a motel and stuck his wrists in the pool to open them back up, then he walked into a gas station so someone would notice the blood, and the cashier called 911.'
MNMS


My personal experience with stalking has had me weary of books and dramatizations. Most of the Lifetime, Tori Spelling starring versions don't really come close to the reality. The fear and inability to control how you live your life. The 24 hour, 7 day a week cloud over everything and crime of not being able to feel safe, even within your own home. Maybe most of all, the lasting impact, both emotionally and financially, it can take on a life. These are some of the reasons Billy Joe Davis' My Neighbor My Stalker is such a compelling story. Billy Joe is not an actor, not a model not a man who ever would have thought he would be focus of obsession. Billy Joe is an artist, one's whose work I have featured on FH. An artist whose life was turned upside down by a neighbour and a stalker. The impact of the experience remains raw and is still playing itself out with Billy Joe's ability to move forward in almost every aspect of his life.


Billy Joe's experience with stalking was and continues to be about control, possession and jealousy. The ordeal destroyed his life, in part because of his stalker being an ex police officer with knowledge of how to use his friends, his connections and the system. Having been previously convicted of stalking a female years earlier, by the time he met Billy Joe, he had learned how to manipulate the system and cause severe damage by involving other police officers to help and with the cover up. The estimated financial damage is closing in on $100,000. Billy Joe is now ill, destitute, and at risk of losing his home with nothing to fall back on. Everyone that he knew was scared, threatened or intimidated away. Billy Joe's stalking ordeal is also not over, his stalker is still free to terrorize, the only change has been he has become more subtle, more secretive and ultimately, more dangerous.


'No one is immune from stalking, its not always a 'creepy' guy hiding behind bushes watching a pretty girl. I am not embarrassed about what happened and what is happening now, I just want to share my story, get my life back and let people know it can happen to anyone.'

Part of Billy Joe's journey to get his life back is to heal, rebuild and ultimately take back control. This is part of the reason for pouring his story into the novel 'My Neighbor My Stalker.' Billy Joe hopes the book will help get the message out about his ordeal so others won't have to go through the same suffering. In addition, sales of the book will go towards helping Billy Joe to get back on his feet financially. Check out the kindle edition on Amazon HERE:

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