| Article 3860 of clari.news.music:
From: clarinews@clarinet.com (AP)
Newsgroups: clari.world.europe.western,clari.news.law.crime.violent,clari.news.interest.people,clari.news.music
Subject: Books: Ex-Stone Was Murdered
LONDON (AP) -- Two new books claim Rolling Stones guitarist Brian
Jones was murdered in his swimming pool in 1969, a month after he
split with the band.
A coroner ruled at the time that 27-year-old Jones drowned in
the pool at his 11-acre Sussex estate ``while under the influence
of alcohol and drugs.''
Jones, the Stones' lead guitarist, had parted with the band,
saying he wanted ``to play my own brand of music rather than that
of others.''
Both books -- ``Paint It Black: The Murder of Brian Jones'' by
Geoffrey Giuliano and ``Who Killed Christopher Robin?'' by Terry
Rawlings -- claim the pop star was murdered by London builder Frank
Thorogood, who died in November.
The books allege that Thorogood, who had been hired to help
renovate Jones' home, held the pop star's head under the water
while they were swimming until he stopped breathing. Giuliano
alleged that Thorogood might have been helped by an unidentified
accomplice.
Sussex police said Sunday they would look at any new evidence
submitted to them to decide if the investigation of Jones' death
should be reopened.
Thorogood's daughter, Janis Bell, was quoted in The Mail on
Sunday as saying her father was not capable of murder.
``Dad was not an aggressive man, I never saw him lose his temper
and he thought the world of Brian. People have said he was jealous
of Brian and didn't get on with him, but that's nonsense,'' she was
quoted as saying.
According to excerpts from Rawlings' book in Sunday's News of
The World, Thorogood allegedly made a death-bed confession to his
old friend Tom Keylock, who was a road manager for the Rolling
Stones at the time of Jones' death.
Keylock quoted Thorogood as telling him in the hospital in
November: ``It was me that did Brian. I just finally snapped. It
just happened. That's all there is to it.''
The cornerstone of Giuliano's book, excerpted in The People
newspaper, is a tape recording of an unidentified witness who was
at Jones' house the night he died.
He claimed a man named ``Frank'' started dunking the guitarist
under the water in horseplay at the end of a party and was joined
by an unidentified accomplice.
``When he died it was so ... easy. We didn't even know he was
dead. ... We pushed him under for the last time and he just didn't
fight,'' Giuliano quoted the witness as saying.
An unidentified detective who investigated Jones' death was
quoted by Giuliano as saying several officers wanted to charge
Thorogood and one of his associates with manslaughter.
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