Barry George yearned to be Gary Glitter, posed as an SAS soldier and pretended to be a professional stuntman. He insisted he was the cousin of Freddie Mercury, the lead singer of his favourite band, Queen.
The question for the jurors was whether this serial fantasist who craved attention could have found the notoriety that had previously eluded him in another, more chilling role: Jill Dando's killer.
The answer they reached yesterday was based on the facts of the case, but there was more to George and his twilight world than the evidence presented to court, a side to him that can only be described by the women who became his victims.
For legal reasons, the jury was not told that George had convictions for attempted rape and indecent assault. He was also accused of assaulting his ex-wife a few months into their short-lived marriage.
Thirteen women had given statements to the police saying George had stalked them and there was evidence he had pestered hundreds of others who lived close to his flat in Fulham. He followed one victim home, telling her: "Now I know where you live."
Police discovered George had compiled lists with the addresses, descriptions, photographs and car registration numbers of almost 100 women. Princess Diana's was among them.
He was once found hiding in the grounds of the princess's home, Kensington Palace, wearing a balaclava and carrying a knife, a poem to Prince Charles in the pocket of his combat fatigues.
Det Supt Hamish Campbell, who led the investigation, believes George may have been obsessed with Dando, possibly because she was a celebrity, or because she was an attractive woman who lived nearby. It is Det Supt Campbell's belief that George had met her before, though there is no proof, and that he was a "very isolated, lonely and frustrated individual" who was "internally driven".
Could George have accosted Ms Dando on her doorstep and reacted violently when she tried to get away? A handwritten note found in his messy ground-floor flat in Crookham Road may hint at the truth of what happened on April 26th, 1999.
"I have difficulty handling rejection," George confessed. "I become angry . . . it starts a chain of events which is beyond my control."
Barry George, like his late sister, Michelle, who died during a fit, suffers from epilepsy, a condition which was not properly diagnosed until shortly before his trial. Though it is now accepted that George does suffer from a mild form of epilepsy, the experts are divided about its effects. Some believe he deliberately exaggerates the condition, others claim it has caused "severe brain dysfunction".