Outstanding

What is the most outstanding feature of Pimpleman?

His nose? His pimples? His sheer ugliness?

No, none of the above.

His most outstanding feature is the fact that he’s outstanding.

Really. He really stands out. He stands out like a sore, throbbing thumb.

A lonely man standing on a deserted street staring obsessively at an apartment from which a 4 yr old girl would be allegedly abducted from, stands out like a peacock on the front yard of one's small house.

And that’s "our" Pimpleman.

Seen three times by three independent witnesses in the exact same place and thrice observed looking fixedly at apartment 5A. So say JW, TS and Derek Flack.

He’s also seen twice at the same time of day, 08.00, although on different days and different places. So say JW and TS, two of the three people mentioned above.

In total, he’s seen by three people. The question is why.

Why do only three people see him?

Let’s start with the place where he’s seen by the three: Rua Dr. Francisco Gentil Martins on the opposite side of the Tapas Bar, Pool & Tennis Courts entrance.

He was seen there on May 2nd at 12.30 (TS) and 15.00 (JW), and also possibly on that same day at 11.00 (DF). Derek Flack raises the possibility of the 11.00 encounter having been on May 3rd.

We know, according to the Ocean Club computer lists in the PJ Files that there were registered as staying in the resort the following amount of people:

- Pg 618: 258 people, 248 adults, 10 children

- Pg 622: 263 people, 253 adults, 10 children

- Pg 626: 288 people, 277 adults, 11 children

- Pg 630: 292 people, 280 adults, 12 children

- Pg 634: 275 people, 265 adults, 10 children

That averages a day, 275 people, 265 adults and 10 children.

We know that many children were registered as adults, so shall we say that there were 230 adults staying in the resort a day on that particular week. We know that there are 3 pools in the resort. Let's also throw in the beach. We can then estimate that about a quarter of those people used the Tapas pool & tennis courts. Around 60 adults. 

So out of over 60 Ocean Club tourists, only one, I repeat one, sees a peacock in the front yard of their house: JW.

Lest we forget TS is an Ex-pat and Derek Flack a Brit on holiday on his own apartment.

Add to that number the people hired in overstaffed Ocean Club, both British and Portuguese. As far as we’re told, we had the following activities going on inside the Tapas complex: Bar, Restaurant, Crèche, Tennis. and Pool.

Shall we add 20 people to our 60 adult tourists? That makes it 80 people just linked to the resort. And no one sees Pimpleman besides JW.

Pimpleman is said, by the three witnesses to have been standing on the other side of the ONLY entrance to that complex:

Nobody stakes out a house for just a minute or two. One arrives, sets oneself up to watch, watches and gathers up information. It’s a process that takes time, otherwise what’s the use? So we must assume that each time he was seen, it means that he was where he's said to be for a significant amount of time.

For example, on May 2nd, one must assume that between 12.30 and 15.00 he stood there for long periods of time. Long periods of time to be noticed and if you add DF’s 11:00, then extend that time even longer.

I would say that any of the referred times to be of significant movement at that entrance. People going in and out to the pool, people coming for their children for lunch and coming back to leave them at the crèche, people going to lunch, people going to tennis, people going to the bar...

Pimpleman was standing just on the other side of the road during “rush hour” and one, and only one person, JW, out of all the resort’s tourists and staff, notices the lonesome man staring at what is now the most famous apartment in Praia da Luz.

If you happened to have been one of the two men walking in the picture below that a day or two before Maddie disappeared saw a lonesome man staring at the apartment she was staying at wouldn’t you’ve reported the odd character to the PJ at once? I certainly would have.

JW, our OC tourist apparently notices the man only because he had unnerved her for some unexplained reason 3 days before, proving to have a much better memory than Derek Flack that in the same time span seems to forget so much...

JW is with her little daughter at 8.00 in Rua do Ramalhete. By the direction she’s walking we assume that both are heading for The Mill for breakfast, because nothing else is of interest for a tourist to see in that side of PdL.

But if she wasn’t, I would say that at that time the daily “Breakfast Pilgrimage” to The Mill would be taking place. That was the exact same route taken by the T9 for their first dinner, remember?

I would expected that at that hour Rua do Ramalhete would have been somewhat busy with all the tourists that had to use that road to head to and from The Mill for breakfast. At least not the deserted street that is portrayed in the Mockumentary.

But here one has to be serious and not blame all those who passed there at that hour. First, because the man doesn't exist, and even if he did there was no reason to find a man in any way suspicious just because he’s standing on a sidewalk.

Even with all the hysteria that quickly developed it would absolutely comprehensible that if a 1000 people saw him then and there, none would have reported it because he would've just been but one of many others who were seen and not noticed standing alone on a sidewalk for the most diverse of reasons in PdL that week.

A different scenario altogether is for him be standing alone in a pathway with both hands up on the wall staring at an apartment at 08.00, like TS states she sees Pimpleman. Although a walking pathway, only a limited amount of people do use it. Basically those from the two building blocks.

Yes, he could be waiting for a friend, or some other explainable reason, but the fact remains that he would be noticed. And when news broke out that it was in that apartment that Maddie had been abducted from then all those on their way to or from breakfast or to the creches who would've certainly noticed him would have flocked to the PJ to tell.

For much less did CFT, Mrs Fenn’s niece go to the Police. Unfortunately not the PJ as we know by now.

And talking about CFT, it’s also very strange that from all those apartments in Apartment 5A’s building block and also from the block next to it, that no one happened to see a lonesome man in the pathway leaning on a wall looking at the apartment.

I mean, when I'm on holiday I do have the habit in the morning of looking out the window to see what the weather is like, and if I have a view, to come to the window and appreciate it. And those two apartment buildings do have a wonderful view overlooking Tapas... and the pathway.

But no, no one sees a man looking very suspiciously at the apartment from where a little girl would disappear from, only a 11yr old girl who happens to be going to school. Or so she says.

And what about the McCanns?

With all the tennis, jogging, going to pick up Maddie and the twins to and from the crèches, going to Baptista… certainly they would have noticed Pimpleman every time they went in and out the house to get and to leave the equipment for the sport they were about to practice or just did do. Or the supermarket shoppings. Or the children for lunch...

Gerry remembers a guitar player on the beach but fails to notice a man staring at his apartment. 

The picture above, from the Mockumentary, filmed from Apartment 5A shows how suspicious Pimpleman would have appeared to be to the McCanns whenever they left the apartment...

Whether it was Gerry or Kate, who went to pick up Maddie for lunch on May2nd surely must have  literally bumped into the man and must have crossed ways with him as close as Derek Flack did!

Lastly, but not least, something our readers have pointed out, where is the Portuguese community of PdL? The last time I looked, PdL hadn’t gained yet the Gibraltar status, and if that were to happen, I think Albufeira would come first on the list.

No Portuguese see Pimpleman. In fact, in all the Maddie Affair, the only Portuguese we hear about are either linked to the Justice system or to the OC. A ghost town filled with people.

Nor do any other tourists from all the many buildings surrounding the Tapas Entrance or overlooking Rua Dr. Francisco Martins. Nor tourists nor Ex-pats. Only one tourist but from the other side of town who happens to be on that particular street although he doesn’t remember exactly why and, as said, an Ex-pat going to school.

So many people and only three see the man. Mind you, it could have been five, but two other people that were with them, Christine and TS’s mom, just, like the rest of PdL... didn’t.

I’m trying to remember what’s the term to qualify these five people… Oh yes, now I remember, it’s cobblers.