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Angus Montagu, 12th Duke of Manchester

‘KERRY Cheeseman remembers screaming as the plane landed… She, Angus and Keith were due in New York to “meet people, obviously mafia”. Angus, who had drunk more or less continuously, was lying slumped at her feet in the first class cabin, complaining of tiredness. “He said, ‘You must have something on you to keep me awake’. So I gave him one speed tablet.” The amphetamine worked quickly. Angus left first class and moved towards the cockpit…’

‘The judge, John Owen QC, remarked that the possibility that Angus could be a company director would “send shivers down the spines of many investors”; he was, in Owen’s estimation, “absurdly stupid“…undeterred, Angus immersed himself in projects of impressive range (property in Spain and Chelsea Harbour, golf courses, drag-racing, computers, casinos, hotels, waste disposal in the Republic of Ireland, acquisition of the Caribbean island of Aruba, development of Heathrow airport, a safety deposit scheme in the Channel Islands). He volunteered his services as a PR man to Four Seasons hotels, sought a post as president of a New York bank, offered advice about currency transactions and passports, continued his involvement with a hire-car company, and talked about an association with both Sheik Makhtoum and Bear Stearns…’

‘…Keith Cheeseman assured Osborne that he could acquire up to 80 of the London bonds, adding the chivalrous warning that they were “extremely hot”. Three weeks later, on 21st August 1990, Osborne’s Lincoln Continental was found parked in a shopping mall off the Houston freeway. His body was on the back seat; he had been shot twice in the back of the head.…Serenely ignorant that he was a peripheral figure in the world of organised crime and terrorism, Angus [prepared for] his maiden speech in the House of Lords…’

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→ Victor Hervey
→ John Bristol