Was espionage-obsessed homeless pot-head Thomas Palmer murdered by MI5?

No, of course he wasn't.

But the fact that his death is officially 'unexplained' makes it a suitably-eerie story due to the spook connection.

Read all about it.

He deserves a heritage Blue Plaque for the piddling incident, though.

Your link isn't a link at all

a reply to: Excallibacca

Odd. Have edited and it works now. Apols, not sure what went wrong there.

a reply to: audubon

I do not know what to make of his death, but I am sad that it was so long ago, that the funeral must surely have been concluded by now. I would have turned up for that. Seems that the fellow protested the right things broadly speaking, and eschewed the right things also. I would like to have known him, I think.

I would also like to know precisely what he died of, and in what circumstances.

a reply to: TrueBrit

There would have been an Inquest in any case of an unexplained death, and that would have been open to the public. Rootling around on the net, I can't find a mention of his Inquest in any local news-sources (others may succeed where I failed, as I didn't search very hard).

I think the word 'unexplained' is being used here by the Mail to imply 'mysterious', when it might not be that mysterious at all ('Unexplained' is not a verdict available to Coroners, so it must have been expressed rather differently).

originally posted by: audubon
a reply to: TrueBrit

There would have been an Inquest in any case of an unexplained death, and that would have been open to the public. Rootling around on the net, I can't find a mention of his Inquest in any local news-sources (others may succeed where I failed, as I didn't search very hard).

I think the word 'unexplained' is being used here by the Mail to imply 'mysterious', when it might not be that mysterious at all ('Unexplained' is not a verdict available to Coroners, so it must have been expressed rather differently).

Unexplained might just mean the journalist/researcher didn't know. I'm not sure how much credence to give them. Max Spiers is another example the Mail are peddling.

a reply to: uncommitted

The story says that the Court was told the death was unexplained. Some quoted speech might have helped clarify this, but from the near-total lack of detail in the story, I'm guessing the DM are relying on the account of a non-journalist who attended.

You're right to take the DM with a pinch of salt - like most UK press, they are not above embellishment. Generally, the more independent corroboration there is in a DM story, the more reliable it is, and you soon learn to spot the fantastical ones.

originally posted by: audubon
a reply to: uncommitted

The story says that the Court was told the death was unexplained. Some quoted speech might have helped clarify this, but from the near-total lack of detail in the story, I'm guessing the DM are relying on the account of a non-journalist who attended.

You're right to take the DM with a pinch of salt - like most UK press, they are not above embellishment. Generally, the more independent corroboration there is in a DM story, the more reliable it is, and you soon learn to spot the fantastical ones.

Good post. Certainly in the Spiers case a lot of the actual information is coming from his mother - couldn't really get less unbiased.