Brian Jones Daughter wants probe into murder claims
BRIAN Jones’ daughter has called for a new investigation into his death amid reports that a new documentary will conclude the Rolling Stones founder was murdered 50 years ago last week.
Barbara Marion spoke as fans travelled thousands of miles to her father’s Cheltenham graveside to pay homage to the musician on the landmark anniversary of his death.
Jones was just 27 when he was found dead at the bottom of his swimming pool at Cotchford Farm in Hartfield, East Sussex, on July 3, 1969, less than a month after being asked to leave the band.
Although a coroner recorded a verdict of misadventure, ever since his death there have been numerous allegations that foul play was involved.
And according to the Daily Mail, Terry Rawlings, who has spent decades investigating Jones’s death, is about to unveil a documentary about his findings.
“Brian Jones was murdered, beyond any doubt, and there is a wealth of evidence which says that it was then covered up,” he told he Mailonline this week.
The view is supported by his daughter, who only discovered that he was her father in 2002 and told Sky News that his death was a “bit of a mystery”.
Speaking at the cemetery in Cheltenham where fans had gathered from across the globe, she told Dermot Murnaghan: “I think he was murdered and I think the police did not investigate it the way they should have.
“I would love to have them reopen [the case] and to get some answers.”
She and others said talented musician Jones did not get the credit for the part he played in setting up what is arguably the biggest band in the world.
“He formed the Rolling Stones. He chose every member, he got them their gigs. If it weren’t for my father, Mick
Jagger would be an accountant somewhere,” she said.
Jones was born in a Cheltenham nursing home in 1942 to Lewis and Louisa Jones. He lived in Eldorado Road and Bath Road, and attended Dean Close School and Cheltenham Grammar School.
After getting his girlfriend pregnant, he left school at 17 and eventually went to London, where he set up the Rolling Stones as a blues band in 1962 .
But as he began to struggle with drugs and alcohol, Mick Jagger and guitarist Keith Richards steered the band in another direction and he was asked to leave three weeks before his death.
Mr Rawlings, an investigative reporter, has long claimed that he died in a row over money with builder Frank Thorogood and there are reports the construction worker confessed to the killing on his deathbed to Jones’ former chauffeur-turned-minder Tom Keylock. Rawlings claims the row came after the musician fired the builders.
Police have repeatedly denied claims that officers at the scene took the rock star’s death in the swimming pool on face value because of his lifestyle.
Sussex Police decided to review Jones’s death in 2009 after Scott Jones, a British investigative journalist, traced a number of people who were allegedly at Jones’s house the night he died.
They recently issued a statement in response to speculation saying: “The death of Brian Jones was investigated in 1969 and was also the subject of two reviews by Sussex Police, in 1984 and 1994. From time to time over the past 49 years Sussex Police have also received messages or reports from journalists and other individuals about the death. Each is considered on its individual merits and reviewed wherever appropriate.
“No such report has been received since 2010 and no new evidence has emerged to suggest that the coroner’s original verdict of ‘death by misadventure’ was incorrect. The case has not been reopened and there are no plans for that to happen.”