Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Did cops cover up murder of a Rolling Stone?
UNANSWERED QUESTIONS OF DEATH 50 YEARS ON
The local cops wanted to press charges but Scotland Yard officer pulled rank
TOM KEYLOCK GUEST AT ROCK STAR’S FATAL POOL PARTY
IT was a sweltering night, the booze was flowing and cakes laced with hash were eaten like they were going out of fashion.
Guests launched into the pool and boisterous play fights broke out.
Centre stage was Brian Jones, who founded the Rolling Stones and launched them on to the world stage.
Three weeks earlier he had been sacked from the band, which would go on to sell 240 million records as one of the richest groups of all time.
Jones was looked after financially and so the rock and roll parties continued. But the intoxicating allure of those reckless summer nights proved a lethal mix.
At 9pm on July 2, 1969 a single piercing scream rang out as Jones was discovered at the bottom of the pool. He was just 27.
An inquest ruled his death was misadventure. But conspiracy theories have suggested Jones was murdered.
COMPLICIT
And now, from beyond the grave, a previously unseen interview reignites suspicions that Jones was murdered and that police at the highest level were complicit in a cover-up.
The death has been pored over relentlessly down the years. There have been hundreds of hours of TV reports and documentaries and thousands of words written by investigators and journalists seeking the truth.
One motive, it is said, was a financial dispute between Jones and disgruntled builder Frank Thorogood, a guest that night at Cotchford Farm, Sussex.
An inquest found Jones died from “drowning while under the influence of drink and drugs”.
In footage obtained by the Sunday Mirror, Jones’ manager Tom Keylock reveals how the rocker and his pals were “out of their minds” after getting stoned on hash cakes.
Keylock – who is accused by investigative reporter Terry Rawlings of covering up the murder – branded Jones a “pain in the a**e”.
The manager, now dead, was interviewed in 2009 by Rawlings, who has spent 30 years searching for the truth.
The revelations will appear in a Netflix documentary based on Rawlings’ book Who Killed Christopher Robin? – a nod to the farm’s setting for the Winnie the Pooh books.
In his interview, Keylock finally admitted he was at Cotchford Farm, formerly owned by Pooh author A. A. Milne.
Keylock, who spent years denying he was there, said in the interview: “Brian’s always been a pain in the a**e and he’s still a pain in the a**e. I’m sick and tired of all these soppy stories going out.
“Believe me, this is the last interview I will ever do on Brian Jones. Forty years on I’m still listening to stories. I’m getting sick of it. The bulls*** they come out with is unbelievable.”
According to the official version of events, there were just three guests at Cotchford that night: Brian’s builder Thorogood, now deceased, the rocker’s girlfriend Anna Wohlin, and nurse Janet Lawson – Keylock’s girlfriend.
They gave police statements saying Jones had been drinking and Lawson said he had been taking sleeping tablets too. All three said they had left the pool and gone to separate parts of the house minutes before Jones drowned alone.
Police arrived at 12.15am. Thorogood was taken to hospital with an injured wrist. However, the jigsaw of evidence gathered by Rawlings and others challenges the official version of what
happened. It places many more people at the party. Keylock said in his interview: “What people don’t know is that very strong hash cakes were made. That’s why they were all stoned and they didn’t know what day it was.
“Janet told me she don’t remember anything because she was out of her head. The country coppers didn’t know what a hash cake was.
“They didn’t know you could make cookies with hash in it. I never had no hash cakes, I’m the only one that wasn’t stoned. The rest was stoned.
“Course I was at Cotchford Farm. Where else did you think I was then?
“I was there and that’s why I know the truth. Janet was saying to me that they were clowning around in the pool, splashing each other, ducking each other.”
Keylock believes the police investigation was bungled and admits to being informed by his brother Frank, a senior Scotland Yard CID officer.
In further claims, Keylock says: “The reason I know it’s a cover-up is because my brother was in the CID and he said ‘You won’t get no further, just forget it, they’ve made a decision, it was accidental death’.
“I think the police wanted to make a manslaughter charge but they was told just forget it because we’re not interested. We’ve made a decision, it was accidental death, he died in the pool, leave it at that. The only one who could have been possibly charged was Frank (Thorogood) because he was in the pool. But police said just forget it.
“The orders came from the very top not to pursue it any more and it was never pursued after that.”
The alleged police cover-up – plus claims the Home Office brushed the affair under the carpet – is outlined in the Netflix documentary.
Investigator Rawlings explained: “Straight after Brian died, Keylock called his brother, and Frank came over to Cotchford.
“Sussex Police bumped into this Scotland Yard officer and Keylock pulled rank on the local police.
“From that moment on there is no crime committed, even though the local police wanted to press manslaughter charges against Frank Thorogood.”
The builder and his crew were reportedly taking liberties with Jones, even though he paid them £18,000 – £291,000 in today’s money.
He had decided that day to sack them – as fellow Stone Keith Richards had done after an earlier fallout.
Rawlings says Thorogood believed he was owed £6,000 (£97,000 today) and that he needed the money to pay his mates. Jones’ girlfriend Anna Wohlin, who moved back to Sweden directly after the death, later appeared to corroborate the theory that Thorogood murdered Jones. She has said: “I don’t know if Frank meant to kill Brian. Maybe it was horseplay in the pool that went wrong. But I knew all along he did not die a natural death. I’m still sure of it.”
Nicholas Fitzgerald, a socialite friend of Jones’, said he had arrived at 11pm and saw “at least three men and a woman” looking at a floating body.
He said he was told by a man who answered to the description of Tom Keylock: “F*** off or you’ll be next.”
DCI Bob Marshall, head of the investigation team, said there were “six or so” guests at the party. But the ID of the others remains a mystery.
The documentary claims local coroner Dr Angus Somerville was bribed to rush through the autopsy.
Sommerville, who died in 1981, mysteriously received 12,000 Dunlop shares which were put into his account on the day of Jones’ death.
Rawlings said: “It is very suspicious. The timing is incredible. It could have been something Frank (Thorogood) had sorted. He had a lot of money and would have been able to do that.”
Rawlings also reveals he is investigating speculation that Jones was badly beaten up before he died.
He explained: “There are rumours that he was covered in bruises so I am trying to get to the bottom of it.”
Jones had a volatile personality and was cast out by the Stones despite being the creative force behind the band. Iconic pictures show him in the original line-up with Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts and Bill Wyman. Manager Andrew Loog Oldham wanted Jagger as the main man – then Richards ran off with Jones’ girlfriend Anita Pallenberg.
Jones was paid off with £100,000 – about £2million in today’s money – plus £20,000 a year for the band’s lifetime. That would be £20million by now... and counting.
Sussex Police have reviewed their investigation into Jones’ death three times – in 1984, 1994 and 2009.
But Rawlings fears further questions will never be answered. He added: “Everyone took advantage of Brian, it was covered up. But now his killer will never be brought to justice.”