The Death of William McRae

There have been at least three prominent cases of so-called "auto-erotic deaths" in the last five years linked to intrigues in British politics. First, on March 31st 1990, there was Jonathan Moyle, the editor of the magazine Defence Helicopter World. He was in in Chile investigating a story that a Chilean firm, Industrias Cardoen, planned to convert US civilian helicopters into gunships for sale to Iraq. It has been long rumoured that Mark Thatcher the son of the British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher was involved in secret arms deals with Chile. Details of some of these allegations are contained in the Profits of War: Inside the Secret US-Israeli Arms Network by the former MOSSAD agent Ari Ben-Manashe (Sheridan Square Press, New York, 1992). At first, Moyle's family were told that he had died whilst masturbating and hanging inside a cupboard - to small for him - in a hotel room in Chile. He was found hanging by his shirt with a pillow case over his head. A needle mark on his leg suggested he had been sedated according to a report in The Guardian on February 28th 1998. A chambermaid claimed she saw blood on the bed, but the Chilean police said it was suicide. The British foreign office later claimed he had killed himself in some sort of "bizarre sex game" that went wrong. It later apologised to the family for spreading this allegation. In February 1998, a inquest in Exmouth, Devon concluded that he had been "unlawfully killed" by "person or persons unknown". Stephen Milligan, was a Tory MP and Parliamentary Private Secretary to the notorious arms dealer Jonathan Aitken, then a minister in the Tory government. On 7th February 1994, he was reported to have been found tied to a chair with a plastic bag over his head and a satsuma stuffed into his mouth. The usual embarrassment surrounding these cases seem to have prevented the press from carrying out an in-depth investigation into various discrepancies in the case. Aitken, was known to have an particular interest in Sado-Masochistic sex - Milligan wasn't. He was engaged at the time to a women who is now a Tory MP. More relevant perhaps is Aitken's well-documented links to intelligence agencies and his role in shadowy arms deals that were conducted in the Ritz hotel in Paris in 1993. James Rusbridger, who died the same month as Stephen Milligan, was an ex-MI6 agent and respected investigative journalist specialising in intelligence matters. He was found hanging from a beam in his loft wearing a diving suit at his house in Bodmin Moor, Cornwall in February 1994. When his body was discovered, he was dressed in a green protective suit for use in nuclear, biological or chemical warfare, green overalls, a black plastic mackintosh and thick rubber gloves. His face was covered by a gas mask and he was also wearing a sou'wester. His body was suspended from two ropes, attached to shackles fastened to a piece of wood across the open loft hatch, and was surrounded by pictures of men and mainly black women in bondage. Consultant pathologist Dr Yasai Sivathondan said he died from asphyxia due to hanging "in keeping with a form of sexual strangulation". It was reported shortly before his death that he had started work on a controversial book about the Royal Family. The text of the book has never been released, and there were various discrepancies and strange events connected to his death that were reported at the time but have never been fully explained - such as journalists being followed to his house by unmarked cars. He was infamous for writing letters to newspapers which poured scorn on the Official Secrets Act; his books, such as The Intelligence Game, cast doubt on the official version of events. Just before his death, he unearthed Britain's code-cracking secrets, in particular the story that the British had cracked Japanese naval codes in advance of the attack on Pearl Harbour. After his death, Sunday Times reporter James Adams quoted senior intelligence officials as saying Rusbridger never had any connection with any branch of British intelligence: "His death was as much a fantasy as his life", said one source . . . "Rusbridger's interest in intelligence seems to have coincided with his conviction for theft in 1977". © 1997

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