I always had a strong distaste for this man and Gordon Thomas and Martin Dillon's explosive and provocative book has certainly confirmed my dislike. 'The Assassination of Robert Maxwell', sub-titled 'Israel's Superspy' (2002) can be described as the untold story!

I knew of the man from his greasy Labour Party M.P. days, back in the 1960's, then the newspaper tycoon, his fingers attempting to get hold of Manchester United, and those same fingers ripping off pension schemes as his business empire f

I always had a strong distaste for this man and Gordon Thomas and Martin Dillon's explosive and provocative book has certainly confirmed my dislike. 'The Assassination of Robert Maxwell', sub-titled 'Israel's Superspy' (2002) can be described as the untold story!

I knew of the man from his greasy Labour Party M.P. days, back in the 1960's, then the newspaper tycoon, his fingers attempting to get hold of Manchester United, and those same fingers ripping off pension schemes as his business empire fell. The told story doesn't hold a candle to what is exposed here.

Maxwell the wheeler dealer of international business deals with the political overworld and the criminal underworld, (often hard to distinguish between the two), whilst operating as a spy for Mossad.

The two authors of this book have done some highly commendable research, much of it in the murky and dangerous areas of international espionage and criminal high finance. The Index lists a vast array of political names worldwide, who were part of the Maxwell machinations, Yuri Andropov, George Bush Snr., Mikhail Gorbachev, Adnan Khashoggi, Col. Oliver North, Shimon Peres, Ronald Reagan, John Tower, Margaret Thatcher and Boris Yeltsin.

All the intrigue of this fantastic story slowly builds to the mysterious events in 1991, of Maxwell's disappearance off his yacht Lady Ghislaine. Did he fall overboard as a result of heart failure or a suicide? Or was it a Mossad hit after he became a liability to the Israeli intelligence agency?

My eyes popped when I learned that Maxwell's body was lifted from the sea by a Jose Perdoma, a name very similar to the doorman of the Dakota building at the time of the John Lennon murder a decade earlier.

I couldn't agree with the author's statements regarding the JFK assassination of which I am more knowledgeable. "In 1962 Lee Harvey Oswald, after three years in Russia working in a factory, had written to Senator Tower from Moscow pleading with him to help him return to the United States with his wife, Marina. Shortly afterwards Oswald had assassinated Kennedy in Tower's home state of Texas. Tower later claimed he passed the letter to the State Department. Marina Oswald, when giving evidence to the Warren Commission investigation into the murder of President Kennedy, accused Tower of complicity in the assassination."

The hand written, undated letter from Oswald in Russia to Senator Tower was found in 1987 among items stored in the attic of the Washington D.C. residence of Tower's ex-wife. I have scanned the Marina Oswald depositions given to the Warren Commission, and nowhere does she mention Tower....although Lee Oswald's mother Marguerite frequently mentioned Tower in relation to her statements that Lee was a spy for some U.S. intelligence agency. It is also incorrect to state that Oswald assassinated Kennedy.

Senator Tower was killed in a plane crash in Georgia on April 5th, 1991.

So there is my only criticism of the book, it lacks any Notes to reinforce the stated claims...but, where there is so much smoke.