Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/John Martin Scripps


 * The following is an archived discussion of a featured article nomination. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the article's talk page or in Wikipedia talk:Featured article candidates. No further edits should be made to this page.

The article was promoted 02:07, 1 June 2007.

John Martin Scripps
After going through a very productive peer review here, I believe this article is ready for the star. It is well-referenced, the prose is of engaging quality, and the three non-free images used have valid fair use rationales. Resurgent insurgent 13:47, 23 May 2007 (UTC) I think mostly these are all minor comments and hope they help a bit. Let me know if there's anything else I can do. The Rambling Man 16:18, 23 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Support with some comments Very interesting article, even though the subject matter isn't too pleasant! A few comments:
 * 1) "...suicide by gassing..." - the wikilink on gassing takes you to Gas which I'm not sure is really ideal.
 * 2) "Life seemed to return to normal ..." - by the sounds of it, normal to Scripps was pretty abnormal by most standards. Consider a re-word of this opening, I think.
 * 3) Big wikilink - "from Category B to Category C" - I'd prefer a reword like "...due to a reduction in his security categorisation..." and wikilink the "security categorisation" phrase. But that's a personal preference...
 * 4) "...would be a big mistake..." seems a bit POV.
 * 5) A small explanation of who Flor Contemplacion was would be helpful to add context (I didn't even know it was a person!).
 * 6) In the trial section, Scripps is claimed to have fended off homosexual advances whilst in prison in Israel in 1978 - was he actually imprisoned in Israel at the time? I might have missed it earlier but I don't remember that being mentioned in the article.  Or, perhaps he made it up?
 * 7) The Family section seems oddly positioned. I would think that it was possible to incorporate all the information in this section in sections before the Post-death coverage section.
 * Preliminary note before I fix the rest: I can find no reliable sources that mention why he was in Israel in 1978. All the reports on the trial say "Martin said he fended off a homosexual attack while in prison in Israel in 1978," and nothing more. I'm also curious how and why he came to end up in jail there; this explains he was jailed for stealing from a kibbutz worker (and that he ran away from a cadet training camp in France earlier), but I'm not sure where the author got the info from and the page is hosted on a personal web host. Resurgent insurgent 23:42, 23 May 2007 (UTC)
 * All done except for the Family section. I could merge it into Early life but that would bloat the section. Let me think of a way. Resurgent insurgent 01:29, 24 May 2007 (UTC)
 * I moved the Family section up to between Early life and Murder of tourists, since the Early life section lends context to it and it ends off with a possible motivation for the murders which are mentioned next. I also split the ending quote to the Appeal and hanging section. Resurgent insurgent 02:27, 24 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Support Comment Very well-written article. There are several paragraphs in the Early Years section that do not contain sources.  If you'll fix that and the concerns of the reviewer above I'll support. Karanacs 19:42, 23 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Hmm... all of those paragraphs in that section which have no inline cites attached to them were taken from the same source [3]. I didn't know whether it was better to have [3] after every paragraph, or just at the end of the entire block that I reworded. I chose the second option. Resurgent insurgent 23:42, 23 May 2007 (UTC)
 * It's usually wise to have at least one cite per paragraph. That way, if someone comes around and rearranges the article, you still know where the information came from. Karanacs 00:55, 24 May 2007 (UTC)
 * OK, done. :) Resurgent insurgent 01:29, 24 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Support: I found it a very interesting, well written article. Anynobody 06:00, 24 May 2007 (UTC)


 * Support per above. Chensiyuan 10:21, 24 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Support, well written article. Terence 15:19, 26 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Support, easily readable, not a pleasant topic. &mdash; mrmaroon25 (talk • contribs) 19:15, 28 May 2007 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the article's talk page or in Wikipedia talk:Featured article candidates. No further edits should be made to this page.