Death in the Highlands
01 May 1992
Amanda Mitchison. Independent magazine 28.3.92 pp24-29. Looks at the mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of Willie McRae, a radical Glasgow lawyer, in 1985. McRae was found slumped in his car with a bullet through his head. The authorities decided it was suicide and the Lord Advocate of Scotland decided that there should not be a Fatal Accident Inquiry (the Scottish equivalent to a coroner's inquest). The article concludes that if the official view is to be believed McRae, in a fit of despair, was driving too fast and came off the road. He then dematerialised his two briefcases (which were later returned by the police) and then "unconscious and brain-dead threw his revolver away into the night". In the background of the case is the Special Branch interest in his political activities and similarities to the 1984 murder of Hilda Murrell, who like McRae opposed the development of nuclear power.