It’s 4:45am on the 5th of November 1991 and English media mogul Robert Maxwell is aboard his $35 million dollar yacht, the Lady Ghislaine, cruising through water off the Canary Islands in Spain. He’s on the phone with a crew member.

"The temperature is now too cold. Turn the air-conditioning off," he says gruffly down the line from his luxurious master suite. 

He’d only called 20 minutes earlier complaining it was too hot…and “could they turn the air-conditioning up??”

They’re the last conversations Maxwell - one of the richest men in the world at the time - is known to have had. 

At 5:25pm later that day, the 68-year-old’s naked body is found floating in the Atlantic. And his family, employees, and the police are left to discover the hundreds of millions he’s been stealing from his own staff. 

To this day, his death remains mysterious. 

Did he kill himself, aware that his fraudulent finances would soon be revealed?

Was it just an awful accident? A slip off the side under the cover of darkness.

Or was it murder? A cold-blooded assassination to cover up a top-secret double life as a superspy for one of the largest espionage agencies in the Western world.

THE END BITS

Subscribe to Mamamia

CREDITS

Guests: Martin Dillon

Host: Gemma Bath

Executive Producer: Gia Moylan

Audio Producers: Rhiannon Mooney

GET IN TOUCH:

Feedback? We’re listening! Call the pod phone on 02 8999 9386 or email us at [email protected]  

Join our closed Facebook community to discuss this episode. Just search True Crime Conversations on Facebook or follow this link https://bit.ly/tcc-group 

If any of the contents in this episode have caused distress, know that there is help available via Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636

Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.

Just by reading or listening to our content, you’re helping to fund girls in schools in some of the most disadvantaged countries in the world - through our partnership with Room to Read. We’re currently funding 300 girls in school every day and our aim is to get to 1,000. Find out more about Mamamia at mamamia.com.au 

Become a Mamamia subscriber: https://www.mamamia.com.au/subscribe

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.