(A detailed account of the 27 mysterious deaths which have occurred in Britain's defence industry - all of them connected with electronic warfare - the key to the battlefield of the future)
From the 1970's through 1990, 27 scientists who had been working in various capacities on defense projects in the U.K. died from accidents or suicides- that's the official explanation for their deaths. The "accidents" and "suicides" which have become known as the 'GEC Marconi Scientist Deaths"- because most of the people who died had been involved with GEC Marconi, all occured under very suspicious circumstances. In "Opening Verdict: An Account Of 25 Mysterious Deaths In The Defense Industry," Tony Collins, who had previously written for the computer magazine "Computer Weekly" examines 25 of the 27 deaths which many highly credible journalists in the U.K. have questioned whether these deaths were really accidents and suicides. As with every journalist who examines these cases, Tony Collins demonstrates very clearly all of the reasons why it is so difficult for anybody to find any proofs or evidence which would conclusively solve what had caused the deaths of these scientists. "Open Verdict" is very thoroughly researched. This book raises many questions and raises many doubts about the official explanations for these deaths. Hopefully at some point in the future, somebody somewhere will be able to fill in the missing pieces, and we'll learn the truth about what happened to the 27 people who had worked as consultants on defense projects who have all died or disappeared under mysterious circumstances, including the 25 people who Tony Collins wrote about in "Open Verdict".
For amateur sleuths who enjoy reading books in this genre: I wouldn't classify this book as a "whodunnit"- these cases are more of a "whatdunnit". I should point at that while there are numerous very obvious flaws in the official explanations for the deaths of the people who had worked as consultants on defense projects plus one disappearance because no body has ever been found for one of the people who is discussed in this book, until any evidence is found that would conclusively prove that these were homicides, all we have are a growing list of questions and ZERO (0) answers.
This book really hit a nerve within then UK defense industry. As one of the Test Engineers on the systems the deaths were happening on we were very nervous.
There were actually a couple more strange deaths that happened surrounding one of the projects. I, for one, moved Companies/systems; only to find out it used the same system that was central to the deaths.
I can understand why these happened as well (if they were not 'accidental'); the system they all had in common was one that if it was cracked by an unfriendly actor/s then it would invalidate & compromise many, costly, defense systems based on it.
We will never know for sure, unless Top Secret papers are released after 100 years etc.... But, from an 'insider' perspective, Mr Collins was certainly on to something.