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mysteries |
Defence Deaths |
Other Information |
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| Hanging, Electrocution, Poisoning, Asphyxiation - Why have so
many defence industry scientists died in bizarre accidents or suicides?
On 17th June 1983, Dennis Skinner, the Midland Bank’s representative in Moscow, was found dead on the pavement beneath the window of his fifth-floor Leninski Prospekt apartment block. Foreign Office officials announced the death of 54-year-old Skinner as a suicide, telling journalists he had a ‘persecution complex’, and that his death was due to a combination of excessive vodka and paranoia. But Skinner was discovered with his tracksuit top pulled over his head, and no trace of alcohol was found in his blood. His family and friends found it hard to accept a verdict of suicide. Only a few days earlier, he had passed a note to a neighbour, asking her to tell the British Embassy in Moscow that there was a ‘spy in their own security forces’. The end of the letter read: ‘For God’s sake, do this or I’m dead.’ While the circumstances of his death remain a mystery, it now appears that Skinner had found himself caught up in a web of espionage involving British Intelligence, the KGB and the international computer industry. The KGB Connection. In the 1960's, Skinner worked for the British computer firm ICL and was posted to Moscow, where he fell in love with his secretary Lyudmilla Arianova. Lyudmilla, had been originally planted on Skinner by the KGB to keep tabs on his international computer dealings. In 1970, the KGB asked him to co-operate with them, and when Skinner told the British Intelligence Service MI6 that he had been approached by the KGB, they recognized the intelligence possibilities in continuing the relationship. During the early 1970's Skinner divorced his wife, married his Russian sweetheart and took up a post financing international computer sales with the Midland Bank. Living between Russia and England, he continued his secret meeting with KGB agents in Moscow and MI6 officers in London. Each side appears to have known that the other was involved. Skinner’s problems began when the KGB wanted him to supply them with computers, despite the ban on high-technology sales to the Soviet’s imposed by the West. The KGB was particularly interested in electronic warfare and computer controlled defence systems, and Skinner informed his contact, Alexander Barabeichik, that he knew a way around the restrictions on export licences. Barabeichik then began to put pressure on Skinner, threatening false allegations of illegal currency dealings, owning pornography and visa offenses would be used against him if he refused to co-operate. Skinner discussed the threats with MI6, who promised that his visits to Russia would be conducted ‘under very controlled conditions’. Despite the caution, Skinner was killed during his next trip to Moscow. Back in London, an inquest into the death, headed by coroner Dr Mary McHugh, found that Skinner had been unlawfully killed. Dr McHugh alleged that ‘British Intelligence was connected with his death’, while others assumed it was the work of the KGB. American sources suggested that he ‘died at the hands of a British secret-service hitman’. The identity of Dennis Skinner’s murderer - and the exact reasons why he was killed - remains unknown, but his death was almost certainly connected with the sale of military technology to the Soviet bloc. And know it appears that Skinner’s death was just the one in a catalogue of dozens involving some of the most brilliant minds in military computer technology. Unsolved Deaths. Throughout the 1980's, the British defence technology industry was plagued with bizarre suicides, inexplicable accidents and disappearances. In the majority of cases, the police and security services went to enormous lengths to assert that no foul play was suspected, often ignoring or suppressing evidence to the contrary. One of the companies most affected by the loss of its military scientist was Marconi. The British defence contractors on 4th August 1986, 24-year-old Vimal Dajibhai, a Marconi computer programmer, fell to his death from the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol. He was found with his trousers pulled down, and a puncture wound on his thigh. Before his death, Dajibhai had worked on a classified defence project called ‘Cosmos’, designing computer simulations for the guidance system of the ‘Sting Ray’ torpedo, and also on as electronic warfare countermeasure device known as Zeus. Bizarre Suicides. Dajibhai’s family and friends refused to accept the official verdict of suicide, claiming that he was happily married and looking forward to a new well-paid job as a computer consultant in the City of London. Also, Dajibhai had planned to meet friends in the evening and had no reason to be in Bristol. At the last minute, the cremation was halted as the coroner reopened the police investigation, primarily because of the puncture mark, which was later found to be unimportant. The inquest returned an open verdict. Two months later, another Marconi employee, 26-year-old Ashad Sharif, died in bizarre circumstances. Like Dajibhai, Sharif worked on highly sensitive defence projects, specializing in electronics for Tornado jet fighters ad underwater vibration simulators. But on 28th October, Sharif tied one end of a length of rope around his neck and the other end to a tree. He then drove off in his car, killing himself instantly. A taped message - which was taken to be a suicide note - was fund in the car stereo, although the exact details of the message were never released. Sharif’s family rejected the official verdict of suicide, rubbishing police claims that their son killed himself after having an affair with his former landlady in Bristol. Unofficially, police were baffled as to why the two scientists should travel over 160km to Bristol to commit suicide, and regarded the deaths as a ‘complete mystery’. As the police probed for a possible connection between the two deaths, an acquaintance of Dajibhai disappeared. On 8th January 1987, 26-year-old Avtar Singha-Gida, who had been working on a project for the Ministry of Defence (MoD) while studying at Loughborough University, simply vanished during field tests at a reservoir in Derbyshire. His specialist subject was in the sensitive area of underwater signal processing, as used by submarines involved in electronic warfare. Just four days later, two weeks after mysteriously losing control of his car, 52-year-old Dr John Brittan was found dead in his garage at his home, near Camberley, Surrey, UK. The cause of death given was carbon monoxide poisoning. Brittan, who was said to be happily married with few worries, was the manager of the trial facilities at the MoD’s Royal Armament Research and Development Establishment, which was supervising work on electronic warfare command and control systems. Body Count Mounts. Suddenly, it no longer looked as if the deaths were coincidences. Within a five-month period, three scientists working on sensitive electronic warfare projects had died mysteriously, and one had vanished. And the body count continued to mount. Scientists working for a number of major computer and defence outfits - including the General Electric Company (GEC) and its subsidiary Marconi, the MoD, and the Royal Military College - were found dead in suspicious circumstances, although most were explained as suicides or bizarre accidents. However, the links between the victims were undeniable. Various theories have been put forward to explain the deaths. Assuming the fatalities are connected, the most likely possibility is that foreign intelligence agencies, principally the KGB, had been targeting contractors and civilians working on MoD projects in the electronic warfare field. In an attempt to acquire the technology being developed, the KGB may well have approached individuals, threatening them with blackmail or death if they refused to co-operate. A second, related, theory is that Britain’s own security services were responsible for the cover-up. Concerned that the defence industry scientists were security risks and open to KGB blackmail, MI5 agents arranged the deaths - which they may or may not have been responsible for - to look like suicides. This negated any need for official investigations, keeping any top-secret hidden agenda under wraps. A third explanation is that only the Marconi deaths were connected. The theory is that some of the staff became caught in a large-scale fraud. Then, in the mid to late1980's, when there was talk of an investigation, these scientists began to die. |
Sources: The X Factor |