Perversion of Justice by Julie K. Brown

Author:Julie K. Brown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dey Street Books

MEANWHILE, THE WAR BETWEEN MAXWELL AND MURDOCH’S NEWS Corporation raged on as the two publishing magnates fought over coupons—one of the major revenue sources for their newspapers. The banks also wanted more collateral and $2.2 million worth of shares of Maxwell Communication stock were sold, further depressing the price of the stock.18

On October 31, 1991, Maxwell flew by helicopter to Luton Airport, just outside of London, and boarded his private Gulfstream jet, arriving in Gibraltar, where his yacht was docked.

From there, the yacht traveled to Funchal, on Portugal’s island of Madeira. On November 4, he arrived in Tenerife, where he went ashore at about 8:00 P.M. Reports said he ate codfish cooked with clams and mushrooms, and had several beers at the Hotel Mencey, on a hillside resort in the port city. On the way back to his vessel, he asked the taxi driver to drive him around, and he stopped for coffee and brandy and then used a walkie-talkie to notify his crew that he was on his way back to the yacht.

Angus Rankin, the captain, greeted him aboard at about 10:00 P.M., news reports said.

Maxwell initially told Rankin to stay in Santa Cruz for a few days, but changed his mind and ordered him to head to the north end of Tenerife in the Canary Islands. Maxwell was restless, reports later said, and paced in and out of his stateroom most of the evening.19

The yacht headed toward Los Cristianos, a port on the southern coast of Tenerife. It anchored about two hundred yards from the beach near Los Cristianos at about 9:30 A.M., and shortly thereafter Maxwell’s absence was noted.

The crew began searching the yacht, scouring it at least four times before calling authorities. They considered that their boss may have gone for a swim, but the distance to shore was the length of two Olympic-sized swimming pools, and it was unlikely the three-hundred-pound Maxwell would have made it.20

“I think we lost him overboard,” came the call to marine authorities in Los Cristianos at about 11:30 A.M.

Almost immediately, theories circulated among reporters and others dispatched to help in the search. Did he fall while urinating over the rail? Did he have a heart attack? Did he decide to take his own life in the wake of financial ruin?

The original autopsy ruled he had died of natural causes, of heart and lung failure, but his family had doubts and ordered their own investigation, and further forensic tests. He was provisionally embalmed so that his body could be transported to Israel for burial, but his coffin was too large for the family’s small jet and another day went by before a larger jet was chartered to carry the six-foot-seven-inch coffin to Jerusalem the following day.21

Maxwell’s son Philip and Ghislaine stayed on board the family yacht in the days following his death.

Among those who claimed to have seen Maxwell’s body was Ken Lennox, the Mirror’s senior photographer, who was dispatched to escort Maxwell’s wife to the Canary Islands. Lennox said he agreed to identify the body to help spare Elisabeth’s seeing a waterlogged cadaver.

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