Lookback: 1988 Newsday Article on 20 Year Old String of British Scientists Deaths
gerry
Nine defense scientists have died, but government, families are
silent
Newsday (Melville, NY)
February 28, 1988
Author: Adrian Peracchio. Newsday Europe Bureau
Addicted as they are to murder mysteries, the British have been
unusually silent about a chain of implausible coincidences, strange
accidents and suicides that have left nine scientists involved in
defense work dead within a period of 17 months.
Yet all the ingredients for a lurid thriller (the genre was
practically invented here), are evident in the string of deaths that
began in August, 1986, and continued even late last month.
A scientist committed suicide by tying a rope to his neck and a tree,
then driving away in a car; another incinerated himself by placing two
drums of gasoline in his car, then driving at top speed into the side
of a deserted restaurant; another was found asphyxiated with a plastic
bag over his head and his feet tied in what police said was an unusual
sexual experiment that went wrong.
If this series of deaths of defense researchers under bizarre
circumstances had occurred in New York State, investigators would
swarm from Buffalo to Brooklyn like mad ferrets to come up with
plausible theories and the story would send news editors into swoons
of delight.
But in England, the string of mysterious deaths - in addition to an
attempted suicide and a disappearance - has failed to ignite much of a
public spark. It has been all but ignored by the news media and has
brought down an official curtain of secrecy in response to all
inquiries, even from family members of the victims.
The facts are intriguing enough. Out of nine deaths, only two were
classified as suicides; five were designated at inquest as an open
verdict - that is, recognition that the cause of death is unknown; and
two were judged accidental. Four of the scientists worked or had
worked for the the Marconi Group, the defense-contract subsidiary of
Britain's General Electric Co.; two of the Marconi researchers had
worked on the same classified project; five of the scientists were
computer experts; three had done extensive research in underwater
defense systems.
None of the 11 scientists had displayed obvious signs of depression or
unusual behavior. Four of them had just completed a successful project
or were in line for promotions or new jobs; one had just married,
another was about to wed and another had just moved with his wife and
two children into a $425,000 house in a pastoral village.
Police said that with the exception of the two researchers, computer
programmers who had worked briefly on the same project, there were no
connections - personal, profession or even geographic, between any of
the men.
Perhaps the most baffling aspect of the mystery is that it has failed
to stir the British government into giving any sort of public
explanation for it. After an initial flurry of sporadic news coverage
- most of it in local or regional newspapers - opposition
parliamentarians called for independent government investigations on
the security implications of the incidents - to no discernible effect.
"I do not wish to be accused of inventing plots more suited to a TV
thriller than real life," said John Cartwright, the defense spokesman
in Parliament for the opposition Alliance party. "But I think," he
said in Parliament, "the circumstances of these cases and the possible
links between them stretches the possibility of coincidence too far."
The Home Office, which directs security investigations, says it has no
reason to look further, announcing only that it saw no connection in
the string of deaths. Neither the Home Office nor local officials
would discuss the individual cases since most of them involve workers
with security clearances covered by the blanket Official Secrets Act.
The act forbids the disclosure of anything remotely connected with
national security. It carries criminal penalties and applies to
government officials, journalists and anyone else deemed to have
knowledge of sensitive material.
When detectives close to the cases talk, they do so only privately and
anonymously. Some say their professional instincts left them
dissatisfied with the cases. But they also hint they were discouraged
from going any further. "We will probably get all the answers when
they make the files public in 30 years," one detective said.
The puzzling string began in August, 1986, and involved scientists and
researchers in sensitive positions with the Marconi Group.
That was when Vimal Dajibhai, a 24-year-old computer programmer for
Marconi Underwater Systems at Watford, a suburb of London, fell 260
feet to his death from the Clifton suspension bridge in Bristol. There
was no known reason for him to be in Bristol, 60 miles north of
London. He had just married and was believed by his colleagues to be
happy. He was working on the guidance system for the Sting Ray
torpedo, which defense experts say is one of the world's most advanced
computerized missiles, with software more advanced than that used by
anti-ballistic missile systems. An adapted version of the system is
thought to be in use in Star Wars research programs for which Marconi
is a major British contractor.
At Dajibhai's funeral, police prevented the body from being cremated
and took it away for a second autopsy to determine the nature of a
puncture in his left buttock. Later, police told the family the
puncture was caused by a bone fragment.
In October, 1986, another Marconi programmer, Ashad Sharif, was found
dead in Bristol. He had tied a rope to a tree and his neck, was in the
driver's seat of a rented automatic-transmission car and accelerated
away, snapping his neck. He left a taped statement, which police said
was tantamount to a suicide note. But his family said that what Sharif
said on the tape could not be construed as a suicide explanation.
Sharif was engaged to a young woman in Pakistan and was due to marry
her in a few months. Sharif, considered to be a talented programmer,
had worked for a time in Dajibhai's section on the same project but
police said the two men did not know each other well.
In December, 1986, another Marconi scientist, Victor Moore, 46, died
of a suspected drug overdose under circumstances that were kept
closely guarded by police. Moore had top security clearance at the
Marconi installation at Portsmouth, in the south of England. He had
just completed work on infrared space satellites. The inquest resulted
in an open verdict and the British security agency, MI5, began an
internal investigation, but government sources said the result of the
inquiry would be kept secret.
Even among the people who may have clues to the disappearances and
deaths, some have been isolated under strange circumstances. In
January, 1987, Avtar Singh Gida, 26, an Indian-born researcher in
underwater defense technology, suddenly vanished shortly after he had
married and three months before he was to complete a four-year PhD
program at Loughborough University on a Ministry of Defense grant. He
had worked on a paper on high-power sonar and acoustic imaging with a
senior researcher.
Five months later, Interpol found Gida working as a clerk under an
assumed name in a sex boutique in the red-light district of
Montmartre, in Paris. He was reunited with his wife in the south of
France and went into seclusion. Neither he nor his family have been
available for comment.
The apparent string of deaths has continued, the latest taking place
last month. But there is little public interest in the deaths. None of
the families involved wishes to go further and none wishes to talk to
the media any longer.
While the Official Secrets Act certainly blocks any sort of
independent investigation into the deaths, there are other factors
contributing to the lack of interest in pursuing these cases.
The psychology of the British public discourages any kind of
investigative reporting on such an unusual string of occurrences. The
notion is far more widespread here than in the United States that
officials in authority are generally competent and ought to be obeyed
or at least deferred to. The result - even for the families involved -
is an extreme reluctance to contradict official versions of events, or
to defy an official suggestion of silence.
In one case, Sharif's, family members told local reporters off the
record they did not believe Sharif had committed suicide but said they
did not attend the coroner's inquest because they were told by police
officials it was not "in their best interests" to do so.
The police are content with the coroners' verdicts, even when they
find them, privately, implausible. The open verdicts are filed away
with not much hope they will ever be solved.
"I know what you want me to say," one detective said, with a long-
suffering sigh. "You want me to say that no good detective believes in
coincidences, at least not this many coincidences. All right, so I'll
say it. And after that I will tell you there is nothing to go on. Not
a bleeding thing to connect any of them, not a single shred of
evidence to suggest anything but what they appear to be. But I'll say
this: I'll feel much better if there are no more of these cases."
***** The Mystery File Eleven cases involving defense workers in
Britain over a 17-month period
Subject: Vimal Dajibhai, 24 Job: Computer programer for Marconi
Underwater Systems at Watford. Working on torpedo guidance system.
Manner of death: Fell 260 feet from a bridge in August, 1986.
Official verdict: Open case.
Subject: Ashad Sharif, 26 Job: Marconi computer programer. Worked in
Dajibhai's section but did not know him well.
Manner of death: Found in car in Bristol, October, 1986, with snapped
neck. Rope had been tied around neck and tree.
Official verdict: Suicide.
Subject: Victor Moore, 46 Job: Marconi scientist with top security
clearance. Had just completed work on infrared satellites.
Manner of death: Suspected drug overdose in December, 1986.
Circumstances kept closely guarded by police.
Official verdict: Open case.
Subject: Mark Wisner, 25 Job: Computer specialist at Royal Air Force
Research Center.
Manner of death: Undisclosed, December, 1986.
Official verdict: Suicide.
Subject: Avtar Singh Gida, 26 Job: Researcher in underwater defense
technology.
Circumstances: Vanished in January, 1987, three months from completion
of PhD. Surfaced five months later working under assumed name in Paris
sex boutique.
Status: In seclusion.
Subject: Richard Pugh, 37 Job: Expert in design of computerized
warfare systems.
Manner of death: Found asphyxiated at home in Essex in January, 1987.
Plastic bag over his face and feet tied together. Police classify it
as a bizarre sexual experiment.
Official verdict: Accident.
Subject: John Brittan, 52 Job: Former official at Royal Military
College of Science. Recognized computer expert.
Manner of death: Found dead of carbon monoxide poisoning in car,
engine running, in January, 1987.
Official verdict: Accident.
Subject: Peter Peapell, 46 Job: Lecturer at Royal Military College of
Science. Worked on top-secret projects.
Manner of death: Carbon monoxide poisoning, found under car, engine
running, with garage locked from outside, in February, 1987.
Official verdict: Open case.
Subject: David Sands, 36 Job: Key scientist with top security
clearance at Easams, Marconi's sister company in North Hampshire. May
have been involved in Star Wars research.
Manner of death: His car, loaded with two 10-gallon cans of gasoline,
slammed into wall of deserted restaurant, creating a fireball, in
March, 1987.
Official verdict: Open case.
Subject: Robert Greenhalgh Job: Contracts manager with defense
division of ICL. Had security clearance.
Circumstances: Plunged 40 feet onto rail line, sustaining multiple
injuries, in April, 1987. Hospitalized for several weeks.
Official verdict: Suicide attempt.
Subject: Russell Smith, 23 Job: Scientist with the Atomic Energy
Authority in Harwell.
Manner of death: Found at bottom of steep coastal cliffs in southeast
England in January, 1988. Had vanished two weeks earlier. Car was
found abandoned about 150 miles from where he died.
Official verdict: Open case.
Caption:
1) Photo by Rex Features Ltd-Hampshire firefighters look over car in
which scientist David Sands died after it slammed into a deserted
restaurant and exploded in flames.