Maxwell: The Final Verdict

William Collins

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 1996

Copyright © Tom Bower 1995

Tom Bower asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

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Source ISBN: 9780007292875

Ebook Edition © JUNE 2012 ISBN 9780007394999 Version: 2016-11-09

To Sophie

You are my teacher and all my life you have tried to demonstrate the principles underlying every action or inaction … Above all, you have given me the sense of excitement of having dozens of balls in the air and the thrill of seeing some of them land right.

KEVIN MAXWELL, written to his father in 1988

The Maxwell Foundation will be one of the richest of its kind in the world.

JOE HAINES, 1988

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Epigraph

Preface

1 The Autopsy – 9 November 1991

2 The Secret – 5 November 1990

3 Hunting for Cash – 19 November 1990

4 Misery – December 1990

5 Fantasies – January 1991

6 Vanity – March 1991

7 Flotation – April 1991

8 A Suicide Pill – May 1991

9 Two Honeymoons – June 1991

10 Buying Silence – July 1991

11 Showdown – August 1991

12 ‘Borrowing from Peter to Pay Paul’ – September 1991

13 Whirlwind – October 1991

14 Death – 2 November 1991

15 Deception – 6 November 1991

16 Meltdown – 21 November 1991

17 The Trial – 30 May 1995

Epilogue

Keep Reading

Notes

Company Plan

Dramatis Personae

Glossary of Abbreviations

Index

Acknowledgements

About the Author

By the Same Author

About the Publisher

On 12 May 1989, Peter Jay signed a short letter marked ‘Private and Confidential’ addressed to George Potter OBE, a director of Control Risks, one of Britain’s leading private detective agencies. Jay, the chief of staff to Robert Maxwell, thanked Potter, a former police officer, for ‘your letter and for the time you gave to meeting me and preparing it’.

Potter’s letter had described his surveillance of ‘the location and the levels of background radiation in the area’. Potter was referring in cryptic fashion to a surreptitious reconnaissance mission which he had undertaken around my home in Hampstead, north-west London. He continued: ‘Extremely sophisticated equipment does exist which might overcome the technical problems. Its acquisition would cost an estimated £50,000.’ The private detective was describing a scanner which would emit rays capable of penetrating my home and ‘reading’ the contents of my computer’s hard disc.

Wisely, Potter cautioned Jay about the problems. First, the detective wanted to be paid in advance the £50,000 for the equipment and also some fees. Secondly, Potter warned, he had ‘reservations as to the possibility of obtaining the evidence you require and the ability to keep the operation covert’. The detective’s concerns were understandable. A van carrying the scanner would be parked at the bottom of my garden in a narrow service road used by the Hampstead postal sorting office. Remaining unobtrusive for long periods would be difficult.

Jay, who had once basked in the glorious description as one of Britain’s ‘cleverest men’, was not slow to grasp Potter’s cautionary tone but was sensitive to the dissatisfaction that this report would cause his demanding employer. Little had been achieved since, one month earlier, he had received a briefing from Tony Frost, an assistant editor of the Daily Mirror, following his investigation around my Hampstead home.

Frost had accurately noted my address and identified my car, before reporting that ‘neighbours say his working hours are “rather erratic” with frequent trips away’ and that I ‘spent “a full working week” at the offices or studios of the various TV companies who commission his work’. Curiously, he noted that my newsagent ‘seemed to know Bower quite well’. After alluding to my financial status, Frost observed that my road is ‘typical of the more up-market parts of Hampstead’ and flatteringly noted, ‘the house looked to be tastefully and expensively decorated inside’.