Death in the Highlands (1)
01 January 1991
Death in the Highlands
artdoc June=1992
Amanda Mitchison. Independent magazine, 28.3.92, pp24-29. Looks
at the mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of Willie
McRae, a radical Glasgow lawyer, in 1985. McRae was found slumped
in his car with a bullet through his head. The authorities
decided it was suicide and the Lord Advocate of Scotland decided
that there should not be a Fatal Accident Inquiry (the Scottish
equivalent to a coroner's inquest). The article concludes that
if the official view is to be believed McRae, in a fit of
despair, was driving too fast and came off the road. He then
`dematerialised his two briefcases' (which were later returned
by the police) and then `unconscious and brain-dead, threw his
revolver away into the night'. In the background of the case is
the Special Branch interest in his political activities and
similarities to the 1984 murder of Hilda Murrell, who like McRae
opposed the development of nuclear power.
Statewatch, vol 2, no 3, May-June 1992