.comment-link {margin-left:.6em;}

Hoses of the Holy in the Parallel Universe

December 01, 2005

The Marconi Suicides

There was a programme on BBC2 last nght called Scandal, which is an odd thing. It's just like news loop really - juxtaposing various prominent stories of decades past with no commentary or attempt to update the stories. So there was something about Reagan's arms-for-hostages scandal, the Death on the Rock shooting of IRA suspects (was diesel really only 21.4p per litre?), and a sequence of stories about mysterious deaths of scientists in the defence industry.

I must profess to some ignorance about this, because the 80s is a Lost Decade for me, but it does seem strange that so many people apparently committed suicide in such a short space of time. Some people hold that these deaths go up to and beyond the death of Dr David Kelly of "sexed-up dossier" fame. On the other hand, it does seem quite plausible that being a scientist makes you depressed, especially if you work in the so-called defence industry. Because, let's face it, sometimes they don't mean defence at all. They mean attack.

This post, dating from 1987 (hence the monospace font, because the internet was all monospace in those days), gives some details of the 80s deaths, but there are others which list more names. The point is, that these deaths don't ever seem to have been investigated as one – not officially, anyway, which is where the paranoia creeps in.

I have a dilemma here, because I want to link to the site to make things easy for you, but at the same time I don't want to expose myself to nutters. One of the web sites in particular features some anti-Israel sentiments which would seem to have very little to do with the Marconi deaths. Some of the sites that talk about the deaths are UFO nuts. When anti-Zion and UFOlogists cluster round a subject, you might want to steer clear. Anyway, do a Google on "mysterious deaths marconi" and you'll get a taster. Third hit down is the one that lists a lot of them, going right up to 2005.

It's all very Monty Python. "He committed suicide, your honour, by tying himself to a tree at the top of a cliff and then chopping it down." Or, "He committed suicide, your honour, by injecting himself with a muscle relaxant, tying himself up, rolling to the top of the Clifton Suspension Bridge, and throwing himself off. He then removed the ropes he tied himself with, hid them, and died." Here's a real one, in case you think I exaggerate too much:

April 10, 1987: Shani Warren, 26
--Expertise: Personal assistant in a company called Micro Scope, which was taken over by GEC Marconi less than four weeks after her death.
--Circumstance: Found drowned in 45cm. (18in) of water, not far from the site of David Greenhalgh's death fall. Warren died exactly one week after the death of Stuart Gooding and serious injury to Greenhalgh. She was found gagged with a noose around her neck. Her feet were also bound and her hands tied behind her back.

Coroner's verdict: Open. (It was said that Warren had gagged herself, tied her feet with rope, then tied her hands behind her back and hobbled to the lake on stiletto heels to drown herself.)

Anyway, it's all very fascinating, and I wish there was a proper book on the subject, not written by a UFO nutcase or rabid Israel-hater.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home