Deaths of 22 UK Scientists in unusual circtumstances - 1982-88

[Joe]

Thought I would post this list here (for posterity at least). There are a few articles on the web about it, but no obvious explanation as far as I can tell:

1. AUTO ACCIDENT--Professor Keith Bowden, 45, computer scientist, Essex University. In March 1982 Bowden's car plunged off a bridge, into am abandoned rail yard. His death was listed as an accident.

2. MISSING PERSON--Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Godley, 49, defense expert, head of work-study unit at the Royal Military College of Science. Godley disappeared in April 1983. His father bequeathes him more than $60,000, with the proviso that he claim it by 1987. He never showed up and is presumed dead.

3. SHOTGUN BLAST--Roger Hill, 49, radar designer and draftsman, Marconi. In March 1985 Hill allegedly killed himself with a shotgun at the family home.

4. DEATH LEAP--Jonathan Walsh, 29, digital-communications expert assigned to British Telecom's secret Martlesham Health research facility (and to GEC, Marconi's parent firm). In November 1985 Walsh allegedly fell from his hotel room while working on a British Telecom project in Abidjan, Ivory Coast (Africa). He had expressed a fear for his life. Verdict: Still in question.

5. DEATH LEAP--Vimal Dajibhai, 24, computer-software engineer (worked on guidance system for Tigerfish torpedo), Marconi Underwater Systems. In August 1986 Dajibhai's crumpled remains were found 240 feet below the Clifton suspension bridge in Bristol. The death has not been listed as a suicide.

6. DECAPITATION--Ashaad Sharif, 26, computer analyst, Marconi Defense Systems. In October 1986, in Bristol, Sharif allegedly tied one end of a rope around a tree and the other end around his neck, then drove off in his car at high speed decapitating himself. Verdict: Suicide.

7. SUFFOCATION--Richard Pugh, computer consultant for the Ministry of Defense. In January 1987 Pugh was found dead, wrapped head-to- toe in rope that was tied four times around his neck. The coroner listed his death as an accident due to a sexual experiment gone awry.

8. ASPHYXIATION--John Brittan, Ministry of Defense tank batteries expert, Royal Military College of Science. In January 1987 Brittan was found dead in a parked car in his garage. The engine was still running. Verdict: Accidental death.

9. DRUG OVERDOSE--Victor Moore, 46, design engineer, Marconi Space Systems. In February 1987 Moore was found dead of a drug overdose. His death is listed as a suicide.

10. ASPHYXIATION--Peter Peapell, 46, scientist, Royal Military College of Science. In February 1987 Peapell was found dead beneath his car, his face near the tail pipe, in the garage of his Oxfordshire home. Death was due to carbon-monoxide poisoning, although test showed that the engine had been running only a short time. Foul play has not been ruled out.

11. ASPHYXIATION--Edwin Skeels, 43, engineer, Marconi. In February 1987 Skeels was found dead in his car, a victim of carbon-monoxide poisoning. A hose led from the exhaust pipe. His death is listed as a suicide.

12. AUTO ACCIDENT--David Sands, satellite projects manager, Eassams (a Marconi sister company). Although up for a promotion, in March 1987 Sands drove a car filled with gasoline cans into the brick wall of an abandoned cafe. He was killed instantly. Foul play has not been ruled out.

13. AUTO ACCIDENT--Stuart Gooding, 23, postgraduate research student, Royal Military College of Science. In April 1987 Gooding died in a mysterious car wreck in Cyprus while the College was holding military exercises on the island. Verdict: Accidental death.

14. AUTO ACCIDENT--George Kountis, experienced systems analyst at British Polytechnic. In April 1987 Kountis drowned after his BMW plunged into the Mersey River in Liverpool. His death is listed as a misadventure.

15. SUFFOCATION--Mark Wisner, 24, software engineer at Ministry of Defense experimental station for combat aircraft. In April 1987 Wisner was found dead in his home with a plastic bag over his head. At the inqust, his death was rules an accident due to a sexual experiment gone awry.

16. AUTO ACCIDENT--Michael Baker, 22, digital-communications expert, Plessey Defense Systems. In May 1987 Baker's BMW crashed through a road barrier, killing the driver. Verdict: Misadventure.

17. HEART ATTACK--Frank Jennings, 60, electronic-weapons engineer for Plessey. In June 1987 Jennings allegedly dropped dead of a heart attack. No inquest was held.

18. DEATH LEAP--Russel Smith, 23, lab technician at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment. In January 1988 Smith's mangled body was found halfway down a cliff in Cornwall. Verdict: Suicide.

19. ASPHYXIATION--Trevor Knight, 52, computer engineer, Marconi Space and Defense Systems. In March 1988 Knight was found dead in his car, asphyxiated by fume from a hose attached to the tail pipe. The death was ruled a suicide.

20. ELECTROCUTION--John Ferry, 60, assistant marketing director for Marconi. In August 1988 Ferry was found dead in a company-owned apartment, the stripped leads of an electrical cord in his mouth. Foul play has not been ruled out.

21. ELECTROCUTION--Alistair Beckham, 50, software engineer, Plessey. In August 1988 Beckham's lifeless body was found in the garden shed behind his house. Bare wires, which ran to a live main, were wrapped around his chest. Now suicide note was found, and police have not ruled out foul play.

22. ASPHYXIATION--Andrew Hall, 33, engineering manager, British Aero-space. In September 1988 Hall was found dead in his car, asphyxiated by fumes from a hose that was attached to the tail pipe. Friends said he was well liked, had everything to live for. Verdict: Suicide.

 

[nicklebleu]

By the sound of it, working for Marconi is not very conducive for reaching retirement age.

Interesting list, thanks Perceval for posting.

 

[Ennio]

Although it is difficult to know what - if any - connections these deaths may have had to each other, there does seem to be a real pattern there which reminded me of the following:

Q: (Ark) Well, once we are on this subject, I want to ask about these mathematicians. Yesterday I learned that from my mathematician friend in Poland about the death of - in our Kairos club - a young mathematician Branson. And apparently he was quite young and for no reason suddenly he died driving a car. (L) In an accident? (Ark) No, while he was driving. Now, he was a friend of the German mathematician who worked with Irving Segal, the young guy that drowned in Clausthal in the lake. There was a conference, and they went for a swim in the lake. People were on the shore watching, and he just sank in seconds and that was all. He was also like 20-some years old. Then we had this Pertti Lounesto, the same club, related to the same area of mathematics, who drowned in the sea a few months after we saw him at the conference {in Cookville, Tennessee}. Okay, and then we had the Russian mathematician who was doing also similar work, and he went to the Black sea for vacation and he drowned. All these young people died, and they are all mathematicians doing very abstract work. It's too many of them to have drowned just by accident. I mean, what kind of coincidence is it? Any comment?

A: It is not a coincidence. It is too bad that so many who are on the right track in so many ways do not have the advantage of knowing about those things that would shield them from frequency driven attacks; such things as diet changes that would protect them from direct manipulation; things such as awareness of other densities. But, of course this last item would have come to their notice.

One wonders what, if anything, computer scientists working for the defense industry in the UK in the mid to late eighties may have been looking at - assuming that it had anything to do with being "on the right track". And of course their deaths may have been the results of other things.

 

[Joe]

One wonders what, if anything, computer scientists working for the defense industry in the UK in the mid to late eighties may have been looking at - assuming that it had anything to do with being "on the right track". And of course their deaths may have been the results of other things.

That's what occurred to me also, that there was something in development at that time that revealed something that the PTB did NOT want revealed.

 

[RedFox]

_http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/europe/uk-industry.htm

The United Kingdom has a large and diverse defense industry. In 1986 this represented around £12 billion ($17.6 billion), of which £9 billion was in MoD contracts ($13.2 billion) and £3billion in exports ($4.4 billion), with an additional £400 million ($510 million) imported (95 percent of which was from the United States). While the UK MoD identified about 10,000 firms that benefited from its contracts, a smaller number (about 100) made equipment specifically for the MoD.

Two important trends in the British defense industry in the 1980s were privatization and consolidation. During the 1980s the Thatcher government sold off most of the state-held firms (including British Aerospace (1985), Royal Ordnance (1987), British Shipbuilders (1986), Shorts Brothers (1989) and Rolls-Royce, as well as the management of the Royal Dockyards. Over the same period, two defense industrial giants emerged, British Aerospace (which acquired Hawker Siddeley, much of Royal Ordnance, and Sperry UK) and GEC (which acquired all or parts of Marconi Electronics, Ferranti, and Plessey). GKN purchased the helicopter manufacturer Westland, and GEC purchased the military vehicle and shipbuilder VSEL in 1994. In 1999, British Aerospace merged with GeneralElectric's Marconi division.

In the mid-1990s it employed some 225,000-340,000, accounting for 3 percent of the labor force and 3 percent of the UK's GDP (one-fourth of which was exported). Some estimates put this figure slightly higher, at 225,000 for UK MoD contracts, 120,000 for defense exports (a total of 345,000), and an additional 170,000 indirectly involved in defense activities [Trevor Taylor and Keith Hayward, The UK Defense Industrial Base-- Development and Future Policy Options, 1989). Keith Hartley et al, 'The Economics of UK Defense Policy in the 1990.," RUSI Journal, Summer 1990, gave the figure as 340,000 direct, 280,000 indirect for 1987-1988. The UK Trades Union Congress put the figure at 1 million.

_https://www.sussex.ac.uk/webteam/gateway/file.php?name=sei-working-paper-no-8.pdf&site=266

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, under the governments of Wilson, Heath and Callaghan, there was a shift of emphasis towards the European role. The empire was replaced by the Commonwealth; colonial responsibilities, especially naval policing and far-flung land-based commitments, were phased out. In 1966, Britain took the decision to withdraw from East of the Suez Canal. Britain joined the European Community in 1973 and, on a number of issues, (the US role in the third world, NATO strategy etc.), distanced itself from the United States and took a common position with other West European countries.
During the 1980s under the government of Mrs Thatcher, this tendency was reversed. Along with President Reagan, Mrs Thatcher eagerly embraced the new cold war; defence spending rose and the government strongly supported the deployment of cruise missiles and went ahead with the purchase of American Trident missiles for Britain. By re-emphasising the special relationship with the United States, the British government was able to rekindle populist notions of Britain's position as a great power. In addition to the Soviet threat, Mrs Thatcher, along with the US government, placed increasing emphasis on new threats in the third world, arising from the proliferation of missiles and weapons of mass destruction, the rise of regional dictators like Galtieri (Argentina), Gaddaffi (Libya) and Saddam Hussein (Iraq), and the growth of terrorists, drug traffickers, fundamentalists, etc. The Falklands War substantiated this notion and provided an occasion on which to revive Second World War imagery and sentiments of Britishness.
In principle, the end of the cold war calls into question both the transatlantic relationship and the future of a specifically West European identity. On the one hand, Britons national position has come to the fore once again. On the other hand, there is a need for a newly defined international role. In practice, a rethink of Britain’s foreign and security policy has been very slow to emerge.

There's some interesting connections for sure!