Original subtitles

- (dramatic music) - fitzharris: In their heyday,

The rolling stones were real rebels.

Drug busts and jail time.

But 1969 took it all to a new level.

Guitarist and band founder brian jones

Drowned in his swimming pool.

The police and the papers said he was drunk and high.

But were they telling us the truth?

Jones: Janet described her own statement as a pack of lies.

Fitzharris: Who was really there that night?

Hallett: He was having a party,

And midnight-ish we heard some screaming.

Fitzharris: And what really happened in his swimming pool?

This is a mystery so dark it paints everything black,

The band, the police, and even the british government.

Jones: This wasn't a case of accidental drowning,

But it was actually case of manslaughter or possibly murder.

(suspenseful music)

Fitzharris: I'm dr. Lindsey fitzharris.

I'm a medical historian and bestselling author,

With a phd in the history of science and medicine

From oxford university.

I've written about the pioneering days of surgery,

About syphilis, plagues and pandemics,

And even books made of human skin.

Some might say I'm obsessed with the macabre

And with death.

But, I think the way people die

Tells us a whole lot about how they lived.

I'm going to explore some of history's most famous lives

By looking at them through their extremely curious deaths.

This is my investigation room,

And here is my science lab where dr. Raychelle burks

Will be doing tests and experiments for me.

And here is where my crime-solving partner

Former scotland yard detective brian hook

Helps me piece together my investigations.

Call it biography with a twist.

A biography from the morgue.

(dramatic music)

The rolling stones were the epitome

Of 1960s rock and roll rebellion.

If you remember these images, so the saying goes,

You weren't there.

The stones had the sound, the style,

The scandal, and the sleaze.

From the front-page drug busts to the glamorous girlfriends,

They were every parent's nightmare.

They were badass.

In 1969, at the height of their fame,

The rolling stones were considered one of

The greatest rock and roll bands ever.

In the summer of that year,

Things go really genuinely bad.

The band hits the headlines

With a scandal no one sees coming,

The death of guitarist brian jones.

(suspenseful music)

From that fatal night on,

Rumors start circulating about a death that was,

Well, more than any other premature

Rock and roll death, wildly curious.

Is it an accident or is someone responsible?

Is it a classic rock and roll alcohol and drugs' overdose

Or is there, as some have alleged, foul play?

I'll start with the facts.

Brian jones is found dead

In his swimming pool at around midnight

On the night of the second of July 1969,

At his country mansion, cotchford farm.

A few days later,

The inquest swiftly declares it

An alcohol and drugs related drowning.

I've been working with former scotland yard

Murder squad detective brian hook

To start compiling a list on his investigations board.

(gentle music)

So, brian, what do we actually know about that night?

Hook: We know a fair bit.

I've actually got the coroner's inquest file here.

Cause of death, "drowning whilst under the influence

"of alcohol and drugs, misadventure."

Fitzharris: And who else was there that night?

Hook: Anna wohlin, brian's girlfriend,

Was there that evening,

And a man called frank thorogood.

Now he was a builder.

Brian was having a lot of refurbishment done on the house,

And frank was doing that refurbishment.

But, he was actually living in an apartment

Above the garage attached to brian's house.

Fitzharris: So in the guest house?

Hook: Yes. Fitzharris: Okay.

Hook: And also we have janet, who was a nurse.

It was thought that at the time that she was

Having a relationship with frank the builder.

And then, lastly, we have tom keylock,

Who is employed by the rolling stones as a tour manager

But also as a minder for brian.

He says he didn't arrive

Until the early hours of the morning.

(dramatic music)

Fitzharris: I need to think differently

From the way they were thinking in the 1960s.

It's time to meet brian.

(suspenseful music)

Under your 1960s finery brian,

You're just the same as us.

(dramatic music)

You're just flesh and blood.

This model made of gel behaves just like a human body.

With this, I'll be able to do some tests and experiments.

To help me, I've asked dr. Judy melinek

To take a close look at brian's autopsy.

(dramatic music)

She's pronounced on over 2500 cases,

And was one of the medical team

Who dealt with the thousands who died in 9/11.

She's going to use our gel body

To recreate what happened in brian's post mortem.

So what are we looking at here?

Melinek: He did have quite a bit of alcohol in his bloodstream.

A blood alcohol level of .14 grams percent

That's a little below twice what we'd have

For the legal limit for driving.

Fitzharris: Okay. Melinek: The kind of equivalent

Of three and a half pints of beer.

Fitzharris: So it doesn't sound like much.

Would it have made him drowsy?

Melinek: I think that's unlikely.

Someone's who's got a history of chronic alcoholism

And who drinks on a regular basis,

No, I would not expect them to become unconscious from it.

To give you a sense of it,

I can show you on the model.

(dramatic music)

So normally when I do an autopsy,

I make a y-incision on the body.

I go from shoulder to shoulder down to the breastbone,

And then down the abdomen.

(gentle music)

Fitzharris: I'm like a kid in a science class right now.

Melinek: Peel back everything.

(gel squelching)

Fitzharris: Oh, that sound.

So really just open up the body like a window.

(dramatic music)

Melinek: The next step is to take loppers.

Fitzharris: Wow.

Melinek: And we use it to clip the ribs.

(bones cracking)

And that allows us to expose the chest cavity,

The lungs, the heart, and the liver.

A normal-sized liver,

Is about this size.

But the pathologist found

That brian jones had a markedly enlarged liver,

Twice normal size and indicates hard drinking.

(dramatic music)

Fitzharris: That tells us that the three pints or so of beer

That brian had taken onboard that night,

Would have had minimal effect on his ability

To function normally.

But we also know from the coroner's report

That brian had been under the influence of drugs... Apparently.

I've asked analytical chemist dr. Raychelle burks

To take a close look at the toxicology report

From that night.

(dramatic music)

So raychelle, brian jones,

Big time rock and roll star,

But he wasn't partying hard that night?

Burks: Well, they tested for five drugs and didn't find any.

But, in the urine

"amphetamine like substance 1,720 micrograms.

"in normal urine this never exceeds 200 micrograms."

Fitzharris: Wow. Burks: Continuing,

"these figures suggest ingestion

"of a fairly large quantity of drug."

Fitzharris: So what does all this mean?

Burks: If it's in the urine,

It means it's gone through his system,

And he's metabolized it.

Now that takes some time.

It could have been 24 hours before.

(dramatic music)

Fitzharris: As is routinely the case, for his autopsy

A sample of brian jones's urine was examined.

We take this practice for granted,

But way before stethoscopes,

Blood tests, and mri scans,

A pot of pee was a crucial diagnostic tool.

The influential greco-roman physician, galen,

Believed that urine was the best way to determine

Whether a patient's four humors,

Blood, phlegm, yellow and black bile, were in balance.

In medieval europe,

Something called a urine wheel

Was used to diagnose disease

Based on the color, smell,

And even the taste of the urine.

(tense music)

These rather pretty wheels had 20 colors

Ranging from white as well-water

To black as a very dark horn.

The urine wheel may not have been useful

In diagnosing diseases as we understand them today,

But it was standard practice for hundreds of years.

Today, doctors no longer taste our urine,

Nor do they spend much time

Contemplating its smell or color.

But asking a patient to pee into an impossibly tiny cup

Is not an uncommon request,

As anyone entering a hospital or medical office today knows.

Or, as it turns out, a morgue.

With modern chemical analysis urine can tell us

More today than it has ever told us in the past.

(dramatic music)

So what else is interesting here?

Burks: Well, they did a thin layer chromatography test,

And they didn't find the five drugs they tested for.

"but, did show the presence of two dense spots.

"one yellow orange, which has not been identified,

"and the other a purple spot."

Fitzharris: What's a thin layer chromatography test?

Burks: It's a way to separate out a complex mixture.

You drop the mixture on a plate.

It would separate out,

And give you lots of spots like this.

Now you've got to identify each one.

Fitzharris: So could these spots be related to the amphetamine

Like substances found in his urine?

Burks: They could.

Fitzharris: Brian's drug taking

Was affecting more than his own body.

Just before his death,

There's high drama in the world of the rolling stones.

Drugs and alcohol were contributing to an increase

In the strength and frequency of brian's mood swings.

He's not turning up for rehearsals,

And when he is, he's drunk or high.

Mick jagger and keith richards fire brian from the band.

Film producer stephen woolley became an expert

On relations within the rolling stones

When he researched his movie about brian jones

Finding evidence that his death

Might have been more than pure accident.

(gentle music)

Woolley: Brian was the one who formed the rolling stones.

He had got the band together.

He was the one that came up

With the name the rolling stones.

(dramatic music)

Before brian's death,

Keith richards discovered that

Having fired brian from the band,

Brian wanted to keep the name the rolling stones.

Fitzharris: If brian legally kept the name rolling stones,

It could be a financial disaster for the rest of the band,

And, it seems, things did turn ugly.

Woolley: I'm not sure this is entirely true,

But, apparently, a brouhaha developed.

Keith had pulled a knife on brian

And was held back by mick.

(dramatic music)

Fitzharris: According to an eyewitness,

There was a big fight about the band's name.

But could the rolling stones possibly

Have been involved in brian's mysterious death?

(suspenseful music)

Shortly before his death sent shockwaves to the rock world

Former rolling stone brian jones is rumored to have been seen

Fighting with guitarist keith richards.

Over rights to the band's name.

Can we trust this eye witness' report?

Hook: This story about keith richard pulling a knife on brian

Has been a rumor for years.

So I'd take that with a grain of salt.

It's just a rumor.

But, what can we be sure of?

Hook: Well one thing we're certain of,

Brian's split with the band was definitely acrimonious.

(dramatic music)

Fitzharris: Despite being fired, brian doesn't go easy.

He strikes a tough deal,

Whereby, the stones pay him a lump sum and a yearly fee.

If brian jones lives,

He can continue to make life difficult for the stones.

But is his death a coincidence or something more sinister?

(suspenseful music)

So this is the bombshell that's either

Going to make or break my career,

Adding the rolling stones up there on the suspect list.

I don't know, should I call my lawyer?

Hook: Most certainly.

There's no way that they are people of interest.

Their life got a lot easier

After brian had left the band and died,

But no evidence whatsoever.

So I'm sorry, not suspects.

(dramatic music)

(lively music) (crowd cheering)

Fitzharris: Despite the falling out,

Brian's death led to a poignant tribute

At a rolling stones concert two days later.

Now it's the time to return to the night itself.

(chimes and beeps)

Fitzharris: Brian dies at his beautiful house, cotchford farm.

Here's what it looks like at the time of brian's death.

It's a quaint old farmhouse,

Comfortable but not enormous.

Home of aa milne,

Who wrote the wonderful winnie the pooh books.

It's thought that with brian that night

Were frank the builder,

Anna, brian's girlfriend,

And janet a nurse and friend of frank's.

So these were all the people there that night,

And presumably they gave a statement to the police?

Hook: Yes, they all say that they had a little bit of food,

And little bit of drink,

And then, eventually,

Frank, anna, and brian go into the pool.

Fitzharris: Does anything strike you as odd

From these statements?

Hook: Yeah, none of them match.

(dramatic music)

Fitzharris: Frank thorogood tells police

That he was the last one in the pool with brian.

Frank leaves for a cigarette.

And then, he says that some time later.

He discovers the body with anna,

Who screams that brian is on the bottom of the pool.

Anna wohlin gives a completely different account.

(beeps and chimes)

She went inside to the bedroom,

Leaving the others by the pool.

At around midnight,

Anna says that she hears janet scream

That something has happened to brian.

So in anna's version,

It's janet who discovers brian in the pool not her.

(ominous music)

According to janet's statement,

She heads inside the house before anna.

After speaking with frank in the kitchen,

She then finds brian face down in the water.

So, according to janet,

Frank isn't at the poolside when brian is discovered.

She is.

How come none of these witnesses heard brian

Struggling in the water as he was drowning?

(suspenseful music)

(dramatic music)

Whatever else happened that night at cotchford farm,

Brian jones was found dead in the swimming pool.

The autopsy may have ruled it a drowning,

But what actually happens to your body as you drown?

Most of us can hold our breath

For between 30 seconds and two minutes.

Every second after that,

Your chances of surviving

Underneath the water become slimmer.

The instinct not to breathe

While you're under water is so strong,

That it overcomes the agony of running out of air.

This is called the break point,

When you just have to take a breath in.

Experiments have shown this involuntary response

Comes around about 87 seconds.

You might be surprised to discover

That drowning doesn't look like drowning.

According to dr. Francesco pia,

A lifeguard from long island new york,

Who is an expert on rescuing drowning victims,

The waving, splashing, and yelling

That we see in the movies simply doesn't happen.

The mouths of drowning people

Are not above the surface of the water long enough

For them to exhale, inhale, and call out for help.

This is why drowning children often go unnoticed.

Of the roughly 750 children

Who will drown next year in the u.S.,

Many will do so within 25 yards

Of their parents or another adult.

The silent, undramatic way that people drown

May go a long way to explaining

Why no one saw brian jones slip under

The water that summer evening in 1969.

(tense music)

(dramatic music)

On that night the eye witnesses

Give completely different stories to the police.

If we've been able to identify the contradictions

In their statements what do they make of them?

Why don't they investigate these discrepancies?

So brian, you're a former cop,

Whose job was it to go to cotchford farm?

Hook: Initially, it was the sussex constabulary.

They're a small rural force,

And, interestingly, there's only

One statement from a police officer,

And that's constable albert evans.

He arrives at cotchford farm at 10 past 12:00.

Sees a body.

Goes into the house.

But, it's extremely short.

Fitzharris: Yeah, I mean, I'm no cop,

But this seems like a very short statement.

It's about a page long.

Hook: Nothing about who he spoke to,

What the events were, nothing.

Fitzharris: Really crucial facts to the case are missing?

Hook: They're just not there.

(dramatic music)

Fitzharris: Albert refused to revisit that night with us.

But scott jones, a journalist,

Who has completed decades of research on this case,

Actually spoke to albert evans.

Jones: In the 1990s albert evans,

Who was now out of the police,

Wrote to the chief constable to say that he wasn't happy

With the police work that had gone on.

Albert evans told me

He interviewed more than three witnesses.

Everybody had said to him there'd been an altercation.

There'd been a fight.

The evidence he said was incredibly clear.

It was obvious what had happened.

Brian jones had died in a fight.

Yet, albert evans said to me that bob marshal,

The most senior cid officer on the case, stopped him,

And from that moment onwards,

That evidence was buried,

And it was ignored.

(dramatic music)

Fitzharris: There definitely was a fight,

But the police aren't investigating it.

It seems that the police are a big factor here.

Hook: Well, the investigation is gonna be the crux of this.

We need to find out who's actually pulling the strings.

Fitzharris: So, you have albert evans,

The first cop on the scene.

Hook: Yep, he spoke to a lot of people,

And they're saying that there was a fight.

Fitzharris: His evidence is being ignored

By his superior bob marshall.

Plus, you have the police,

Who represent the establishment at this time.

You have the rolling stones,

Who represent the counterculture.

This is a dynamic that I think

Is very interesting to this case.

The long running struggle between the police

And the counterculture pivoted mostly on one thing:

Recreational drugs.

(dramatic music)

As a world-famous rock star,

It would have been easy for brian to get hold of

Almost any recreational drug available in the 1960s.

But mind-altering drugs are as old as time.

Before the development of language,

Our ancestors were seeking out highs.

Everything from the ganja of rastafarians,

To tobacco of native americans,

And even wine in christianity.

A survey of 488 modern societies revealed

That 90% have fundamental belief systems

Influenced by the consumption of mind-altering drugs.

(dramatic music)

Celebrity use and abuse of mind-altering substances

Are nothing new.

In the early 1800s,

World-renowned chemist humphry davy

Experimented with inhaling nitrous oxide.

He thought it gave him exclusive access

To the inner workings of the brain

And the secrets of heaven.

He wrote poetry while under its influence

And even held laughing gas parties

For his celebrity friends.

Talking of mind - altering substances,

Cocaine was in common and unregulated use

Throughout the 19th century.

In 1863, the french chemist angelo mariani

Marketed a wine treated with coca leaves,

The active ingredient of which is cocaine.

Vin mariani contained 11% alcohol

And 6.5 mg of cocaine in every fluid ounce.

(gentle music)

It was an instant hit.

Novelist robert louis stephenson loved it.

He wrote "the strange case of dr. Jekyll and mr. Hyde"

During a six-day cocaine binge.

So, if you think the drug-fueled party lifestyle

Began in the 1960s, look back a few hundred years,

And think again.

(bright music)

(dramatic music)

Drugs were the polarizing feature

Of the political landscape in the late '60s.

Hook: There'd been a lot of tension between the band

And the police in the previous years,

And, in particular, the sussex police,

Who were investigating the case.

They had a history with the rolling stones.

On February 12, 1967,

There's a notorious drug bust

At keith richards's country house, redlands in sussex.

Keith and mick reportedly in the midst of a debauched party,

Including the legendary one involving

Mick's girlfriend marianne faithful.

And after a high-profile trial,

All they got were a few days in jail.

So sussex police I would have imagined

Would have been humiliated.

Now I'm not saying that's a motivation for a cover up,

But it must have left the sussex police really smarting.

Fitzharris: We know that bob marshall,

The senior cop leading the investigation,

Told albert evans, the first cop on the scene,

To look away from the evidence

Of an altercation involving brian.

But journalist scott jones thinks

The police went one step further.

Jones: There are notes at the bottom of albert's statement

In bob marshall's handwriting, details about drugs.

Brian jones he clearly was under

A doctor in london we know that,

And we know, obviously, from the records

That these were the drugs that the doctor was giving him.

But bob marshall's hand-written notes

Have been turned into evidence

That's attributed to albert evans.

That isn't what you would normally expect

From a proper full and fair police investigation.

(suspenseful music)

Fitzharris: So bob marshall is adding the presence

Of drugs to albert evans' original statement.

Hook: Maybe to push the drugs overdose angle?

And if that was the case, it certainly worked

Because the tabloid press jumped

On the anti-drugs bandwagon.

They assumed that brian jones had got what he deserved.

Fitzharris: This police investigation

Into brian jones's death

Is looking curiouser and curiouser.

Brian jones was one of rock n roll's first casualties

Drowned in his swimming pool in the summer of 1969.

Its quickly decided to be an alcohol and drugs related death

But we've discovered that the police investigation at the time

Is full of inconsistencies

Retired detective inspector stuart booth

From the sussex police had to manage any new evidence

That emerged in this case throughout the 1980s and 90s.

(gentle music)

Booth: If you look at the contents

Of these witness statements,

It says that the statement was taken

In the presence of chief inspector marshall.

It is unusual for a senior officer

To sit in for a statement.

It doesn't give an independent view of what's being said.

He's only sitting in for one purpose.

Control of the inquiry.

Fitzharris: In 2008, chief inspector bob marshall

Went on record to say he was happy

With the result of the inquest.

But at the time,

Could someone have been putting pressure on him?

Jones: It's true to say that the police investigation

On the ground everything stopped with bob marshall.

But what's also true is that

Cid officers would not risk their own careers

And reputation by carrying out cover ups

If they didn't think they were gonna get away with it,

And the only way they'd get away with it

Is if they knew they had the support from above them.

I think it's highly likely that the pressure

That sussex constabulary would have been under

Would have come from the home office.

Fitzharris: Well that's an interesting angle

From scott jones,

But tell me what's the home office?

Hook: The home office is a government department.

It supervises all the police forces in the united kingdom.

It's kind of like your department of justice.

You gotta remember this is the 1960s.

The government have effectively declared war on drugs.

They're terrified of the drug culture,

So anybody that falls foul of that drug culture

And is high profile, as far as they're concerned, is great.

(dramatic music)

Fitzharris: This war on drugs is fascinating.

Scott jones' investigation took him deep into the links

Between the government, the police force,

And even coroners in the late '60s.

Jones: We have a copy of the letter here

From the home office written by peter beedle,

A senior civil servant

To the coroner who led the inquest

Into brian jones's death.

He says, "you have kindly agreed to let me have a copy

"of the post mortem examination report.

"I am very grateful for your cooperation."

Now if we're to believe that brian jones

Accidentally drowned in his swimming pool,

Why on earth does a senior civil servant

Need to be kept informed?

It just doesn't go together.

Clearly they were happy to try and get the message

That they wanted out there about drugs.

Fitzharris: Well, that's certainly a cracker of a theory

From scott jones.

That the home office put pressure on the police.

Hook: I mean, I don't think that there was a direct order

From the home office,

But I just think that some strings

Were probably being pulled,

And I'm sure that the sussex police,

Way down the bottom felt those strings being tugged

And will be more than happy to please their masters.

Fitzharris: Well, it's certainly compelling,

The idea that the cover up goes

All the way to the top, to the government.

(dramatic music)

According to the inquest,

There are only three witnesses at cotchford farm that night,

And their statements are problematic.

But albert evans, the first cop to arrive,

Claims he speaks to several people,

Who were still at cotchford farm when he got there.

We've uncovered a fascinating interview from the early 1990s

With brian jones' neighbor, mary hallett.

She worked as his cleaner

And her house is a spitting distance from his.

Surely, she would know who was there that night?

Hallett: The day before brian died,

He was telling me that he'd got people coming down

That evening because he was having a party.

There was quite a noise down there,

Music and people's voices.

Later on, midnight-ish,

We came out and we saw police with walkie talkies.

(dramatic music)

Fitzharris: If this is true, there's a huge party

At brian's mansion on the night he dies.

But there aren't any witness statements

From any of these other party goers.

And even more curious,

There is a witness statement from the rolling stones minder,

Tom keylock, who says he wasn't even there when brian died.

But if there's this big party,

Why do we only have four witness statements?

And one of them is from tom keylock,

Who says that he arrived at 3:30 a.M.?

He wasn't even there when brian died.

Hook: Yeah, but, if you look at these photographs,

You can see tom keylock dealing

With the press the following morning.

It certainly looks like he's at the center of this.

He's commanding things.

He's orchestrating them.

Fitzharris: Yet, in the midst of all this pandemonium,

While the press is clamoring for answers,

Tom keylock seems to be very much in charge.

(suspenseful music)

He is having to deal with a shocking event.

One of the world's most famous rock stars is suddenly dead.

(suspenseful music)

If the police in 1969 were reluctant to pursue

The full truth of what happened that night

At cotchford farm, I'm not.

Tom keylock, died a few years ago,

But film producer stephen woolley

Took a special interest in him.

Woolley: Tom keylock was a london cockney who had glasses

And a demeanor like a very rough michael caine.

He was a road manager

Or security man for the rolling stones.

Tough, didn't take no nonsense guy.

Had a strange relationship with brian

Because tom would be sort of taking these girls

Who were throwing themselves at brian,

Taking advantage in order to live

The rolling stones lifestyle himself.

Fitzharris: Keylock says he arrives

At cotchford farm at 3:30 a.M.

But, what is he doing before then?

Tom's account of that evening

Is called into question by terry rawlings,

An author who became obsessed with the death of brian jones.

What's really cool is that

He managed to track down tom keylock

And took him back to cotchford farm.

And lucky for us, he filmed the whole thing.

This is the first time some of this extraordinary

And unique footage has been shown to a tv audience.

(dramatic music)

Rawlings: I became quite close with tom,

And his guard went down quite a lot with me.

The longer it went on that day,

The less believable tom's account

Of his whereabouts for that night became.

Fitzharris: That sounds really strange.

Step me through the timeline.

So tom returns back to redlands,

And at some point on his journey, he stops for dinner.

In 1969, 10.30 p.M. In the middle of the countryside,

There will be nowhere open.

Fitzharris: Do we know the name of the restaurant?

Did he, did he? Hook: Nope, no details.

Never been disclosed.

After midnight,

Tom is stopped by a police officer

And told that brian is dead.

Fitzharris: Okay, so a police officer

Happens to come across his car

And stops it for the purpose of telling him

That brian is dead.

This seems really, really unlikely.

Hook: Yes, I have to agree with you there.

I really, really do.

He then drives to cotchford farm

Arriving there at 3:30 a.M.

Fitzharris: Tom's account of his movements is hardly convincing.

But I know that terry rawlings manages to catch up with him

Much later in life in 2009.

Rawlings: Tom would give things away

Over the course of an evening's drinking,

And in the morning he'd sober up,

And go, "I never said that."

You had to try and catch him out

Because he was so well rehearsed.

(dramatic music)

Fitzharris: Forty years later it seems like tom keylock

Is admitting he was there at the time of brian's death.

(dramatic music)

It's pretty clear now that tom keylock

Must have been lying back in 1969,

And so it seems was everyone else.

None of the witnesses mention

That tom was there when brian died.

Scott jones managed to interview anna wohlin in 2011.

Jones: I went over to stockholm to meet anna.

She told me that her statement

Had been effectively dictated by bob marshall.

When I asked her why she was willing

To have signed that statement,

It became clear that anna was very, very disorientated

On the night of brian jones's death.

Clearly sort of drunk and possibly high

And incapable of giving a coherent statement.

(dramatic music)

Fitzharris: Anna's not the only one.

One of the other witnesses named

In the inquest file, janet lawson,

Also wanted to revise the statement she gave at the time.

Jones: Janet described her own statement to me

As a pack of lies,

Lies that were set out by sussex constabulary.

On a false promise from the police.

That false promise being you can come back

And give another full statement

When you're ready in your own time.

She was never given that opportunity.

Janet was absolutely certain

That there was a party going on

At brian jones's house the night he died.

That explains why when albert evans

Turned up on the scene just after midnight,

The first pc to arrive,

He interviewed lots of people in the garden.

Fitzharris: Both janet lawson & anna wohlin

Go back on their 1969 statements.

But these retractions never make it

Into the official police report.

(gentle music)

So what are the key players really doing that night?

Movie producer stephen woolley,

Spoke to janet about 40 years after brian's death.

Woolley: She started to talk

About tom keylock in the interview.

And it became apparent to me that

That's why she was at cotchford farm was to see tom.

She was not there to see frank thorogood.

Janet was actually tom keylock's mistress

And would meet tom at the house to have their own tryst.

(suspenseful music)

Fitzharris: Tom was having an affair with janet.

That's why tom is there, to see janet.

Now we know why he spins so many lies about his whereabouts.

He's married & covering up this illicit relationship.

But there's one more person who's movements

That night need more investigation.

The builder, frank thorogood.

In the mysterious death of brian jones

We've so far established that key evidence is ignored

There are inconsistent witness statements

And now, a cover up elicit relationship

Brian, help me summarize a bit.

Frank wasn't having an affair with janet, is that correct?

Hook: No, tom was having the affair with janet.

That's why he says he was miles and miles away.

He invents this cock and bull story.

But I've found out a bit more about frank.

Woolley: What happened as well,

I mean, which wasn't reported in the newspapers,

Was frank wasn't being paid for the work

That he was engaged in, in the house.

Frank was fired being told he would be paid at a later date.

Fitzharris: So frank thorogood had just found out

That his lifestyle at brian's party house might be ending.

Now that's interesting.

Hook: Yeah, because the rolling stones office had decided,

That as brian was no longer a member of the band,

They were not gonna pay his bills.

(gentle music)

Fitzharris: Frank thorogood, is a builder who's been living

And working at brian's house all summer.

He's also, crucially, the last person

In the pool with brian.

Even frank himself admits this

In his statement to the police.

Stuart booth uncovered some astonishing

And unexpected new evidence.

(dramatic music)

Booth: One day I walked into my office

And found a statement of detective sergeant mike harvey.

I had never seen it before in the coroner's report.

It was not in there.

Basically, he had been called out to search the place,

And he had found some drugs, durophet,

In the coat pocket of frank thorogood.

On that statement it says "cautioned" in handwriting.

But in those days,

They would seek to prosecute

Anybody committing an offense of drugs.

(dramatic music)

Fitzharris: Frank thorogood

The last man to be in the pool with brian

They let him off with a caution.

But he has a big packet of brian's drugs in his pocket.

And the police decide not to let the coroner know

And remove the statement about it from the file.

But remember the mysterious spots

Mentioned in the pathology report

Found on the chromatography test?

Could these spots be linked to the drugs

Frank was in possession of?

(dramatic music)

So I just found out that brian jones's builder

Had a drug called durophet in his pocket.

Does that mean anything to you?

Burks: It does.

I've got a note written by brian jones's doctor.

It lists all of the prescriptions he gave jones.

One of them is durophet,

Active ingredient is amphetamine.

Fitzharris: Okay, that's interesting.

Burks: Now it lists other drugs as well.

Mandrex for sleeping, valium as a tranquilizer.

A medihaler for asthma,

And piriton for hay fever.

Fitzharris: That sounds like a lot of drugs.

Now could any of these drugs be responsible for the spots

That we're seeing on the thin layer chromatography test?

Burks: The only way we'd know for sure

Is to run the exact same test

Using all of our new drugs of interest.

And that's exactly what I got my fellow chemist,

Dr. Agatha grayler, to do for us.

Fitzharris: All right, well, let's see what her results are.

Burks: Let's give her a call.

Hi, agatha, I'm here with lindsey.

Fitzharris: Hey.

Grayler: Hi, lindsey nice to meet you.

Fitzharris: Yeah nice to meet you.

I hear you've done some tests for us.

Grayler: Yes, I ran all the drugs that are on

Brian jones's prescription note from his doctor.

Fitzharris: We're looking specifically for purple

And yellow orangey spots.

Did you find anything?

Grayler: Well, I did find some spots,

And they are purple.

Fitzharris: Oh, great!

(women exclaiming)

Look at that.

Okay, so what does that indicate?

Grayler: Well, these spots were for antihistamines,

Which is anti-allergic tablets.

Fitzharris: That's interesting.

Burks: Well, one of the well - known side effects

Of most antihistamines is drowsiness.

Fitzharris: So that could have been a contributing factor

To the reason why he drowned?

(dramatic music)

Our new test has resolved one major question

About brian jones's death.

Antihistamines combined with alcohol

Could have been a dangerous sedative.

However, the mysterious spots weren't durophet.

But we do know that frank was in possession of these drugs,

Which belonged to brian.

And when frank was questioned by the cops,

He said he was in charge of giving them to brian.

Everything is pointing at frank being involved

In some way in brian's death the drugs in the pocket,

Which he could have been using to spike him with.

Frank doesn't get paid that day,

So he feels that brian owes him a lot of money.

And he's the last one in the pool.

There's a lot of evidence mounting against frank,

But would this case make it to court?

Hook: Good question.

There is a lot of evidence, but it's all circumstantial.

Fitzharris: And frank sticks to his story.

He maintains that he left brian in the pool,

Happily swimming away.

Hook: Yeah, in my experience though,

People that have been involved in a major incident

Change as they get older,

And that's a burden on them.

And if you keep a secret for too long,

That burden becomes really heavy.

Fitzharris: Well, it's funny that you should say that

Because there were some people

That just couldn't leave this story alone.

Terry rawlings followed this case for years

And he spoke to frank and tom at length about it.

In 1993 he persuaded them both back to cotchford farm

To relive that night, hoping to get to the truth

And he filmed it all.

Fitzharris: Twenty-five years after brian jones's death,

Journalist terry rawlings persuades key players

Tom keylock and frank thorogood

To revisit the scene of the death.

Rawlings: We was not the greatest of film crews,

But we had microphones dotted around.

We wanted them to slip up

And stray away from that story they'd been sticking to

And get just that little bit more of the jigsaw puzzle.

They was getting more and more uncomfortable

About being there the longer it went on.

I don't find anything convincing about

How they're conversing with each other

At all about the night.

(gentle music)

Fitzharris: So terry didn't catch them out that time.

Yet, like a lot of people as the years went on,

Frank kept talking to journalists,

To investigators, to friends.

And guess what?

Terry filmed one of frank's "chats".

(suspenseful music)

Fitzharris: Decades after the fact,

Frank admits on camera

That on the night of brian's death he was the prime suspect.

(suspenseful music)

Frank died in 1993,

And I can't help wishing we got

A little bit more out of him in that interview.

But I know that shortly after frank died,

Terry rawlings filmed an interview with tom keylock,

The rolling stones tour manager,

Who we now know was there the night brian jones died.

It was back at cotchford farm.

And tom makes a sensational claim

About something frank said just before he died.

(suspenseful music)

So what do you make of what tom keylock says?

Hook: I don't trust deathbed confessions at all.

Fitzharris: Well, it seems like this is a secret

That went to the grave with frank.

It's frustrating that so many

Of the key players have since died.

But I know scott jones recorded one of his

Final conversations with janet lawson,

The nurse having an affair with stones minder tom keylock.

(dramatic music)

Jones: If you were asked

Is there a chance that brian jones

Could have simply drowned would your answer be,

Yes there's a chance, or is that no something happened?

Lawson: I think because of the state that frank was in.

I came back out of the house

And brian was lying at the bottom of the pool.

Jones: Yeah

Lawson: And frank was in the kitchen shaking like a leaf.

I mean why would frank have been standing

In the kitchen absolutely terrified...

Jones: Mm.

Lawson: ...If something hadn't happened?

(ominous music)

That's pretty condemning stuff

From the mouth of a key witness.

She believes frank did something to brian.

That's the strongest statement yet that frank is the killer.

I wish frank thorogood was still alive to answer to that.

(gentle music)

The death of brian jones seemed so simple at the time

A rock and roll alcohol and drugs drowning

In a swimming pool.

But it seemed it was anything but simple.

And the people who would have known

What happened have since died.

The death was ruled an accident.

But, was it something more disturbing?

We will never know for sure,

But this my theory on the death of brian jones.

(dramatic music)

This is what I now believe to be the truth.

Frank thorogood is responsible for brian's death.

There's just too much evidence pointing at him.

I think that frank discovers earlier that day

That he's not gonna be paid for his work.

Resentment has been mounting all summer.

Maybe he just snaps.

Maybe it's play fighting that just goes wrong.

The first cop arrives just after midnight.

He suspects foul play.

But when more senior officers arrive around 3:00 a.M.,

They insist on it being an alcohol and drugs related death.

Why? Because they know that the government

Is keen to use high profile drugs deaths

To discredit the counterculture of the late '60s.

In a police investigation that's riddled

With missing evidence and unfollowed leads,

It's hard not to conclude that brian jones

Is a victim of a miscarriage of justice,

And his death will remain wildly curious.

(dramatic music)