Pr. Andrew's Old School Friend Dies of Cocaine Overdose "The Times" July 8, 1999.
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Cocaine binge killed son of 'Golden Greek'
BY ANDREW PIERCE
A fortune wasted on drugs
AN HEIR to one of the world's most powerful shipping dynasties died
from one of the highest cocaine overdoses recorded, only days after
conquering Mount Everest.
Constantine Niarchos, who had lived through two chaotic decades of drug
addiction, had consumed 25 times the amount of cocaine normally
associated with drugrelated deaths.
The fourth son of the Greek shipping billionaire Stavros Niarchos, who
was known as the "Golden Greek" through his rivalry with Aristotle
Onassis, was the first climber to plant the Greek flag on the world's
highest peak.
His moment of triumph, which appeared to confirm he had finally beaten
his addiction, was only 17 days before a last and fatal binge at his
flat in London's Mayfair.
An inquest at Westminster was told yesterday that the billionaire was
so desperate for a fix that he had stuffed the drug into his mouth in
handfuls. When he realised some of it was wet he tried to dry it out in
a microwave oven.
Doctors said that level of cocaine in the twice-married businessman's
body has been exceeded only by smugglers who swallowed the drug to
bring it into Britain.
Like a figure from a Greek tragedy Mr Niarchos, 37, seemed doomed from
the start. When he was aged eight his mother, Eugenie, who had endured
her husband's numerous affairs, was found dead in mysterious
circumstances. His father was charged with involuntary homicide but
never stood trial.
Constantine was sent to Harrow where his £500-a-week pocket money
earned him the newspaper title of "Britain's richest schoolboy". His
descent into drugs and playboy lifestyle was chronicled in the gossip
columns. He was expelled from Gordonstoun, where Prince Andrew was a
contemporary, for drug taking.
Marriage to Princess Alexandra Borghese, a Romanian aristocrat, was
shortlived. He later married Sylvia Martins, a Brazilian artist, who
had dated Richard Gere, the actor.
In 1996 his father died and Mr Niarchos, who worked in the family
shipping firm in London, inherited £1 billion. He gave up drugs and
alcohol and travelled the world. He climbed Kilimanjaro and Mont Blanc
and scaled Everest in an expedition in which a fellow climber died
after becoming lost.
Anne Michelle Lutkin de Massy, a friend for 20 years, said in a
statement read at the hearing that when she arrived at the flat on May
31 Mr Niarchos had a bag of about one ounce of cocaine in his hand.
"He was complaining the cocaine was wet and he could not snort it. He
put some of it into a microwave, became impatient, and started to eat
some of it it out of the bag.
" He chopped up the cocaine with his credit card on a work top. I had
two lines. I saw Constantine snort at least four. He reached into the
plastic bag, got a handful about the size of a 50p piece, put it into
his mouth and ate it."
Having tried and failed to sleep, she discovered her friend 45 minutes
later collapsed on the floor with blood seeping from his nose and his
eyes wide open. He was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead.
His body showed a cocaine level of 25.5 microgrammes per millilitre:
the normal amount in drug-related deaths is one or two microgrammes.
The level was so high disbelieving medical staff carried out a further
check.
Paul Knapman, the Westminster Coroner, who recorded a verdict of death
by non-dependent abuse of drugs, said: "The amount of cocaine has been
exceeded only by people trying to smuggle cocaine into the United
Kingdom. This is yet another example, as if one were needed, of the
danger to life from taking cocaine."
A fortune wasted on drugs
THE squalid end of one of the world's richest men was proof that some
people can have too much money (Andrew Pierce writes).
Having emerged victorious from his Everest expedition in May,
Constantine Niarchos was thought by his family to be about to fulfil
the promise of a new life.
In fact Mr Niarchos was succumbing to the deadly charms of cocaine with
his former lover, Michelle Lutken de Massy. For 20 years they had taken
cocaine together. They started young. Mr Niarchos was expelled from
Harrow School when he was caught in possession of drugs. The same fate
followed at Gordonstoun when a detective guarding Prince Andrew, a
fellow pupil, found cannabis in a hollow chair-leg.
The next stop was Millfield. Constantine's father allegedly arrived in
the grounds in a helicopter and promised the school whatever it chose
to charge if they could guarantee his son stayed off drugs. Newspaper
gossip columns for the next decade were a long account of cocaine-
fuelled parties, and drug busts. After a brief romance with Kerry
Kennedy, daughter of the late Bobby, he had a spell in the Betty Ford
Clinic.
Michelle, the daughter of a Norwegian businessman, had started taking
drugs as a 16-year-old. As a model in Milan she became hooked. An
affair followed with the tennis player Vitas Gerulaitas, whose career
was destroyed by drugs and who died in 1994.
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