Reply author: Jukama
Replied on: 08 May 2004 7:55:35 PM
Message:

Open verdict in death of Holmes expert
Yesterday coroner Paul Knapman called it a "very unusual death" and recorded an open verdict. He said there was insufficient evidence to rule whether it was suicide, murder or a deviant sexual act taken too far that had caused the death of the former chairman of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London.

The court heard talk of the "curse of Conan Doyle", where people connected with the creator of Sherlock Holmes seem unusually predisposed to unexpected death, breakdown or unpleasant conflict.

Mr Green was found dead on March 27 in bed at his multimillion pound home in Kensington. A pathologist said the form of his death was so unusual he had come across only one other such case in 30 years.

Mr Green's sister, Priscilla West, said she had been alarmed by a phone conversation in which he seemed preoccupied with the forthcoming sale of a collection of Conan Doyle's papers, valued at £2m, at Christie's, which he thought should go to the British Library. He asked her to keep three names and phone numbers safe.

Nicholas Rathbone Utechin, a friend of the deceased and relative of the Sherlock Holmes actor Basil Rathbone, told the inquest that Mr Green had called him insisting a radio broadcast produced by Mr Utechin four years previously backed his theory that the family wanted the papers to go to the British Library.

He believed the bulk of the papers belonged to the late Dame Jean Conan Doyle, the author's daughter, and claimed she had wanted them to be donated to the library.

But there was a rumour that the main reason Mr Green wanted the papers at the library was so that he could access them and fulfil his ambition to write the definitive biography of Conan Doyle.

Mr Utechin said he had listened to the tapes but found no evidence of what Mr Green was suggesting and became concerned for his state of mind.

The court also heard from Lawrence Keen, the last person to see him alive. He said the pair had been out for a meal during which Mr Green had drunk the lion's share of a litre of wine before they had gone to his home for coffee.

Mr Green insisted they talk in the garden "because the whole house was bugged". Mr Keen later left the house.

In his summing up the coroner said: "There are many points in this case in favour of a verdict of suicide. He was acting strangely. There was no evidence of foul play.

"I'm perfectly content to say suicide is the most likely position. But we have no note and it's a very unusual way of killing oneself."




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