Robert Maxwell’s rise to power and mysterious death that spawned wild conspiracy theories
No-one quite knows what happened on the ill-fated night of Robert Maxwell’s death in 1991. His naked body was pulled from the sea and what quickly followed was the downfall of his publishing empire
When the body of publishing magnate Robert Maxwell was found floating in the Atlantic Ocean in 1991, the world was left stunned.
At the age of 68, the media mogul had boasted a seemingly successful empire when he fell from the £15m yacht that he had named after his daughter, Ghislaine.
While his untimely death triggered speculation of suicide and foul play, Robert’s once booming publishing empire also began to crumble as layers of fraud began to emerge.
Robert’s daughter now awaits trial for her links to Jeffrey Epstein, but her powerful father also boasted his own dramatic story of wealth and scandal.
Born to humble beginnings in Czechoslovakia, the Jewish youngster escaper persecution by fleeing to France during the Second World War.
Having lost many of his family in the Holocaust, Robert joined the Czechoslovak army and was commended for his efforts by the British Army.
After the war was over, Robert stepped into the world of publishing and grew Pergamon Press into a booming business before casting his focus onto politics.
He remained a Labour MP for six years – and made many high-ranking political connections – before falling back into business and acquiring several major publishing houses, as well as the Mirror Group Newspapers.
With business apparently thriving, Robert lived a life of extravagance and often travelled by helicopter and enjoyed throwing lavish parties.
However, others noted that he was also prone to “bullying and intimidation” in his business partnerships and social circles.
“You have to think of him as a multipersonality. He was the City magnate, the bully, the aspirant politician, the Jewish daddy,” Mirror’s Political Editor Julia Langdon explained, according to The Guardian.
Other controversies quickly emerged around the larger than life figure, including suggestions that he was an informant for Israeli intelligence service as well as implications that he had several ties to eastern Europe and political interests in Communist countries.
And, prior to his death, Israeli born Mossad officer Ari Ben-Menashe accused Maxwell of being an agent and suggested that he could go public with vital information.
On November 5, 1991, Maxwell was last seen in the early hours walking on his yacht.
He had just a huge row with his son over a major upcoming meeting with the Bank of England.
Hours later, his naked body was pulled from the ocean close to Spain’s Canary Islands.
While pathologists were unable to determine his cause of death, some suggested that the 22-stone man had tripped while urinating overboard – which he often did naked.
In the days after his death, it emerged that Robert had looted over £440million from the Mirror Group pension fund in a bid to keep his businesses afloat.
The conspiracy theories around the nature of Maxwell’s death continued to flood in, however his family maintained that Robert did not take his own life.
Years later, his sons Kevin and Ian Maxwell told The Sunday Times, they do not believe their dad took his own life, nor was he murdered.
“If I say anything about it, I think it is highly unlikely that he would have taken his own life, it wasn’t in his makeup or his mentality,” Kevin told the publication.
“I don’t think any murder conspiracy stands up, so for me, it is an unexplained accident and I’m content to live with that.”
The fallout from Robert Maxwell’s death would see his two sons acquitted of all charges in the £460 million fraud on Mirror Group’s pension fund.
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