Part 36: A Brief Return

[Note - 13 March 2022: I wrote this post in November 2016. I can't remember if it were ever published. This post concerns the way in which The Times reported the 2016 Justice for Willie McRae investigation. I make no comment here about the investigation and its reports although there is much I could say].

After more than a year's silence I return to blogging about the case but only for this one post.

Why?

Did the Times not report that the case was over?

The Times did report this but the investigators did NOT say the case was over nor that McRae shot himself. Their Report said,

the investigation has found no credible evidence of homicide, or that any other person(s) were with Willie as his car left the roadway.

'(N)o credible evidence of homicide' is quite different from saying that he committed suicide.

Even Mark MacNicol didn't say the case was closed. He thought that we should drop our interest but he never claimed that McRae killed himself. He wrote,

At the end of our investigation we couldn’t prove it was suicide. Though taking into consideration all of the witness statements it was clear to the majority of the campaign committee that it was LIKELY to have been suicide. [The emphasis is mine]

and

I believe it is LIKELY that Willie McRae committed suicide and I feel the time has come for his family, friends, and also the witnesses, to be left in peace. [The emphasis is mine]

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If you have thoughts, or more, feel free to:

email me at calumsblogATgmailDOTcom or

tweet me at @calumcarr

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COPYRIGHT

Please feel free to reproduce extracts and images provided you attribute the words and images to me taking into account any provisos below.

If you wish to use more than one quarter of the article then contact me for permission at calumsblogATgmailDOTcom.

Part 1: Introduction

Willie McRae: born 18 May 1923; died 7 April 1985 This we know for certain but much else in his life and death is open to conjecture. What is fact or fiction? Truth or lies? Openness or obfuscation? Will we ever know? Probably not but in this series – may be 1 post or 20 posts depending on my enthusiasm – I want to look back and review his story. The best way to ensure I keep going with my review is to write and post as I go on. You, my readers, are key to my continuing! I must have read about Willie in the 80s but I only became aware of him on Sunday past when the Sunday Express published a story more than 24 years after his death. [ Original source ; archived source ] Of course, we note the very important, … it was claimed last night. There’s nothing definite here but you can start to see that McRae’s life might not be straightforward. Within the rest of the article there is more. So here we have claims that he was killed: - by drug smugglers - by security services...

Archive Notes

Between December 2014 and August 2015 I investigated the death in 1985 of lawyer and SNP politician, Willie McRae. All my work was published on my blog "calumcarr on .... whatever" which is now closed. This work is now republished here. My writing did not cover the entire case but it is a very detailed study over 36 posts. I have checked to ensure links are still live and have corrected obvious spelling mistakes. Almost certainly, I will have missed some mistakes and created new mistakes for which I apologise. Other than these very minor changes, the posts are republished here as they were originally posted. The work is presented here in chronological order. Unfortunately, to achieve this, the original publishing dates have been removed and all comments lost. In preparing the posts for the archive I have come across the occasional error of logic, where a conclusion may be incorrect. I have left these untouched so the posts read as did the original...

Part 2: Last Journey

This is another scene-setting post. To launch into all the confusions and contradictions now would lead to our getting totally lost in a mishmash of facts, lies and conjecture. Better that I outline the basics first and then go back and look in more detail. I hope Part 4 will start this more detailed process but I’m not sure of my path yet. Time spent well now will bear fruit. Also because of the complexity of this case each detailed post is likely to take me several days to write. Please bear with me. -------------- On Friday, 5th April 1985 about 6.30pm, Willie McRae set out from Glasgow to his holiday home near Dornie in Wester Ross – about a 170 mile drive. Almost the entire drive was on single carriageway roads with much of the driving being in the dark. Sunset would have been about 8.05pm [based on sunset being that time on 6th April 2015]. Google maps estimates the driving time as 3h 55min. He should have arrived s...

Willie McRae Investigations

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