Trucker's Paradise

Truck Driver William Mortimer Leigh, 55, was a happily married, home-loving man--perhaps twice as happy as most. For where others make do with one, William had two wives, two homes, and two sets of children--and doted on them all.

In a cozy cottage at Chorlton-cum-Hardy, William and Emily Leigh, his wife of 33 years, had spent many a contented hour together through the years with their five fine children, who range in age from 32 to 17. At another cottage in Ancoats, just five miles away along his truck route, William found equal contentment under the name Spencer with Elsie, his second wife, and their happy brood of four children, aged 14, 9, 7 and 6.

A systematic, fair and thrifty man, William divided his weekly income of -L-11 ($30.80) equally between the two families, giving each wife -L-5 and keeping -L-i for himself. His job, like that of Alec Guinness' bigamous seafarer in the movie The Captain's Paradise, made it simple, even obligatory, for him to be absent from each of his homes for stated periods. He was careful to spend Christmas and New Year's Day alternately at either home. To avoid any embarrassing slips of the tongue, William had even arranged as far as possible to give the children in each of his families the same names.

Thanks to such foresight, the delicate balance of William Leigh's life was maintained for 16 full years, and his cup of happiness overflowed. Then, recently, in a casual conversation with a neighbor, William committed that dreaded slip of the tongue: he referred to his Chorlton daughter as Lynn, instead of Margaret, when in fact Lynn was an Ancoats daughter--and the only child whose name was not duplicated in Chorlton. Word of the slip got to Emily, the Chorlton wife. Emily sent her eldest son to follow his father when he left home, and before William knew it, there was Emily, his Chorlton wife, knocking at the door of his Ancoats home. William was puttering about the kitchen when Elsie, his Ancoats wife, answered the knock. "Can I see William, my husband?" said Emily to Elsie. "William," answered Elsie, "is my husband."

A display of marriage certificates ended the argument, but not the trouble. William, hearing the commotion, bolted out the back way, but was caught and brought back by son George--the George from Chorlton, that is. Last week William was in Manchester's Strangeways Prison, beginning an 18-month term for bigamy. "I hope you're satisfied," he told the women who had brought his dreams crashing so low.

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