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The Strange Death Of William McRae

Spookdaddy

Spookdaddy

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A few years ago a saw a documentary about the death of the Glasgow Lawyer and SNP activist Willy McRae.

McRae was found barely alive at the wheel of his damaged car near a lay-by north of Fort William. His papers were found “shredded” and strewn over a wide area. It was only after he had died at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary that a bullet wound in the back of his head was discovered. McRae was what is called a “colourful” character - ex Naval Intelligence, spoke Urdu, joined the Indian National Congress (illegal at the time) and drank - lots. See here for more details.

My interest was piqued by a documentary (Under the umbrella of what I think was called Scottish Eye several years ago). This programme mentioned a few details which don’t seem to appear in the reports I can find on the web. The first was that the body was discovered by a backpacker (Australian, I think) who was not invited to attend the inquest. He also reported later that the site McRae’s body was found as reported to the inquest was different from where he had actually discovered it.

McRae was a bit of a cult character and the resultant souvenir hunting resulted in the most bizarre anomaly of all which was the discovery of more than one pair of number plates.

I have always been amazed that this incident hasn’t been higher up on the required reading list for Conspiracy Theorists. Even in Scotland, where I work a lot, his name barely inspires a flicker of recognition with most people these days. Okay so he wasn’t a President or a Princess and the number plates thing might be down to over zealous souvenir hunters - but come on, it’s all pretty strange, isn’t it?

Anyone know any more on this? Is he all but forgotten in Scotland?

(Oh, and be warned if you are tempted to Google - McRae seems to be one of those characters who for some reason attract interest from some strange and extreme quarters. I don't totally trust a lot of the sources and am only reasonably sure that the details I have provided are kosher).
 
A couple of fairly vital details I missed out.

McRae was a very active anti-nuclear campaigner and it was claimed that he was helping the Scottish National Liberation Army with funding and planning.
 
Would it be beyond the realms of possibility to try and contact the backpacker?Was his name and place of residence mentioned?
 
eerievon said:
Would it be beyond the realms of possibility to try and contact the backpacker?Was his name and place of residence mentioned?
Click to expand...
Bruce,
Pier No 46,
Stirling Flyover,
M8,
Scotland.

:cool:
 
Spook said:
A couple of fairly vital details I missed out.

McRae was a very active anti-nuclear campaigner and it was claimed that he was helping the Scottish National Liberation Army with funding and planning.
Click to expand...

What, both of them? :D
 
aerialsnake said:
What, both of them? :D
Click to expand...

Granted the SNLA doesn't immediately spring to mind when trying to name the worlds most infamous terrorist organisations. However I suspect that during the Thatcher era any potential threat to UK security, however apparently ineffectual, was very closely monitored.

Its also worth remembering that in the early days of the present Troubles (post '69) in Northern Ireland the IRA were treated with scorn and derision by the Nationalist community they were supposedly protecting. Until the Provisionals took over Nationalists joked that IRA stood for I Ran Away. All terrorist organisations have to start somewhere and all, I suspect, look faintly ridiculous until they start killing people.
 
Hmmm. I may do some research on this. It must have been reported in all the local papers and I should be able to get a look at the archives.

Cujo
 
I have heard about him, but only as one of a collection of various incidents in a book which I can't recall the title of. How annoying.
 
Call for new probe of SNP activist Willie McRae's death
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-h ... s-11665643

Lord Advocate Elish Angiolini Mr Finnie has written to Lord Advocate Elish Angiolini

Scotland's senior law officer has been asked to re-investigate the death of an SNP activist 25 years ago.

Solicitor and anti-nuclear campaigner Willie McRae was found badly injured in his crashed car on the A87 near Kintail in Wester Ross in April 1985.

Later, in hospital where he died, medical staff found a gunshot wound behind his right ear.

SNP councillor and former policeman John Finnie has asked Lord Advocate Elish Angiolini to look at the case.

Mr Finnie has urged her to release any official details so far kept secret in the same way confidential information on the death of UK government adviser Dr David Kelly were made public last month.
Continue reading the main story
Related stories

* Kelly's wounds 'self-inflicted'

In a letter to Ms Angiolini, the SNP group leader on Highland Council said: "The circumstances of Willie McRae's death, and the subsequent investigation, have led to a quarter of a century of speculation and public disquiet.

"Public confidence in the functions of state is very important, indeed, the UK government stated that their recent decision to release 'new details' about Dr David Kelly's death was 'in the interests of maintaining public confidence'.

"I ask you to display similar understanding of the public's need and institute a full investigation into all the circumstances surrounding the death of Willie McRae."

Mr McRae was travelling from Glasgow to his holiday home in Kintail.

Following the discovery of the gunshot wound, police recovered the weapon some distance from where his car crashed. There were no fingerprints on the gun.

No fatal accident inquiry was held and Mr McRae's death remains unsolved.
Click to expand...
 
I would think there are more case that need to be looked in to so why not do them all.
 
johncbdg1 said:
I would think there are more case that need to be looked in to so why not do them all.
Click to expand...

They won't all be looked into. You have to slowly and carefully amass a dossier of evidence and proof of odd occurrences.Even then you may not get anywhere.

It takes time. Look at Colin Wallace, he was framed for a killing. But he was convicted of manslaughter rather than murder so he was out in less than 10 yrs. He was also lucky that Paul Foot took up his case. It still took a long time afterwards to get his name cleared.

Who framed him? Some section of British Intelligence.
 
Just found that the Scottish Eye documentary I mentioned all that time ago is actually up on YouTube.

Part 1 - LINK.

Part 2 - LINK.

Part 3 - LINK.
 
Good selection of links Bigphoot.

I'm pretty sure it was also included in a series of 30 min tv programmes about unsolved crime in scotland - along with Bible John and others I can't remember.

I did a quick and totally unscientific poll last night after it was raised on the RIP thread and of my 6 (i know! i know!) people asked separately "remember Willie McRae? what do you think happened to him?"?

5 knew at once who I meant, 1 knew once we'd discounted a chap who lives in the next road :D
3 said that "they" did him in, it was murder/assassination
2 said it was suspicious/fishy and they tended to believe the worst.
1 said that it was the British Establishment who killed him. End of.

So, Willie McRae? you are not forgotten sir!
 
I've never heard of this case, but it's a good one to exercise the old speculative faculties on, thank you.

My first observation on watching that video is that if you are involved with people who plan to plant explosives (SNLA), special branch and the security forces should and will take a close interest whether you really mean to detonate them or not. A confrontation in a quiet spot, a gun produced, a mistake or overreaction in the heat of the moment and a botched cover-up: all very possible.
 
As to Frideswide's respondent who fingered the British establishment as the culprits, its possible, but let's not forget that, as countless independence movements have found in the long history of the British Empire, members of those groups' own disgruntled peoples are as often as not quite happy to do the job of despatching these dissidents before it becomes necessary for the professionals to dirty their hands.

Very often these people don't even need to be asked, armed or remunerated!
 
It's certainly a case that has more questions than answers. I had a look at the area on Google Earth and if I wanted to bump someone off it would be a perfect location - right in the middle of nowhere, plenty of space to hide a body and a car for that matter. Or even kill him, dispose of the body in a loch, then leave his car some distance away.
But if he was killed and it was made to look like a suicide, why do it in such a strange location, why not wait until he was in his cottage?
Yithian's idea of something going wrong during a confrontation makes sense.
 
I started a thread on this way back (Fuck my boots!!!! 2003?? - where the hell did all that time go?). Rather remarkably, the links still seem to link to something. Anyway, it's here.

Perhaps the mods could merge.

I'm just going to go and have a lie down.
 
There will be no fatal accident inquiry into the death of SNP activist Willie McRae despite thousands joining a campaign demanding a fresh investigation.

Mr McRae was found unconscious in his crashed car near the Highland village of Invergarry in April 1985. He was taken to Raigmore Hospital in Inverness, where doctors discovered he had been shot in the head.

Mr McRae later died at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and his death was ruled as a suicide, but there have been persistent rumours of a cover-up.

The Crown has now ruled out a fatal accident inquiry, despite nearly 12,000 people signing a petition calling for lord advocate Frank Mulholland to organise an investigation into the 61-year-old’s death.

A Crown Office spokesman said: “Crown Counsel are satisfied with the extensive investigations into the death of William MacRae and have instructed that an fatal accident inquiry will not be held into the circumstances of Mr McRae's death." ...

http://news.stv.tv/highlands-island...-fai-into-death-of-snp-activist-willie-mcrae/
 
This has been a case that I've kept coming back to over the years since I first read about it in a book on Scottish mysteries called "Scotland's Unsolved Mysteries of the Twentieth Century" (possibly the book that 'Anonymous' refers to above) - and an excellent read if anyone's interested**.

The results of a crowd funded investigation are given here. Spoiler alert - they come down on the side of suicide!

However, at this remove in time, I feel (from a quick read through of the .pdf) that there are still unanswered questions. Repeated reports of discrepancies regarding whether or not he was under Special Branch surveillence at the time of his death, and recent suggestions that the project that he was working on at the time of his death was not actually concerning the nuclear industry as previously thought* but was instead regarding a highly connected paedophile ring in power in politics and the judiciary in Scotland and Westminster keep this conspiracy of interest.

* McRae had previously uncovered a secret plan to bury nuclear waste in the Ayrshire hills that he publicised and consequently caused to be dropped. On that occassion he famously suggested that the government might want to store their nuclear waste where "Guy Fawkes stored his gunpowder".

** ETA - I've just read one of the reviews on the Amazon website of this book, and liked this: "I think this is a superb book! And my opinion has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that l wrote it...":)
 
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