Robert Maxwell
Encyclopedia
Ian Robert Maxwell MC
(10 June 1923 – 5 November 1991) was a Czechoslovakia
n-born British media proprietor
and former Member of Parliament
(MP), who rose from poverty to build an extensive publishing empire. His death revealed huge discrepancies in his companies' finances, including the Mirror Group pension fund, which Maxwell had fraudulently misappropriated.
) in the easternmost province of pre-World War II Czechoslovakia
. His parents were Mechel Hoch and Hannah Slomowitz. He had six siblings. In 1939, the area was reclaimed by Hungary. Most members of his family died in Auschwitz after Hungary
was occupied in 1944 by its former ally, Nazi Germany
, but he had already escaped, arriving in Britain in 1940 as a 17-year-old refugee.
Maxwell joined the British Army
Pioneer Corps in 1941 and transferred to the North Staffordshire Regiment
in 1943. He was involved in action across Europe from the Normandy beaches
to Berlin
, and achieved the rank of sergeant.
He gained a commission in 1945 and was promoted to captain
. In January 1945 he received the Military Cross
from Field Marshal Montgomery. It was during this time that British Intelligence changed his name several times, finally settling on Ian Robert Maxwell.
In 1945 he married Elisabeth "Betty" Meynard, a French Protestant with whom he had nine children with the goal of "recreating the family he lost in the Holocaust". Five of his children were later employed within his companies. Two met with tragedy; his three-year-old daughter Karine died of leukemia
; and his eldest son, Michael, was severely injured in 1961 at the age of 15 after being driven home from a post-Christmas party when his driver fell asleep at the wheel. Michael never regained consciousness and died seven years later.
After the war, Maxwell first worked as a newspaper censor for the British military command in Berlin in Allied-occupied Germany. Later, he used various contacts in the Allied occupation authorities to go into business, becoming the British and United States distributor for Springer Verlag, a publisher of scientific books. In 1951 he bought three quarters of Butterworth-Springer, a minor publisher; the remaining quarter was held by the experienced scientific editor Paul Rosbaud
. They changed the name of the company to Pergamon Press
and rapidly built it into a major publishing house.
, he was elected as Member of Parliament
(MP) for Buckingham
. He was re-elected in 1966, but lost in 1970 to the Conservative William Benyon
.
in 1970. In 1974 he reacquired PPL. Maxwell acquired the British Printing Corporation (BPC) in 1981, and changed its name to the British Printing and Communication Corporation (BPCC) and then to the Maxwell Communications Corporation
. The company was later sold in a management buy-out, and is now known as Polestar. In July 1984 Maxwell acquired Mirror Group Newspapers from Reed International plc. MGN published the Daily Mirror, a pro-Labour Party tabloid newspaper. He also bought the American interests of the Macmillan publishing house
.
By the 1980s Maxwell's various companies owned the Daily Mirror, the Sunday Mirror
, the Scottish Daily Record
and Sunday Mail
and several other newspapers, Pergamon Press, Nimbus Records
, Collier books, Maxwell Directories, Prentice Hall
Information Services, Macmillan (US) publishing, and the Berlitz language schools. He also owned a half-share of MTV
in Europe and other European television
interests, Maxwell Cable TV and Maxwell Entertainment. In 1987 Maxwell purchased part of IPC Media
to create Fleetway Publications.
In June 1985, Maxwell announced a takeover of Sir Clive Sinclair's ailing home computer
company, Sinclair Research, through Hollis Brothers, a Pergamon Press subsidiary. However the deal was aborted in August 1985.
Maxwell's links with Eastern Europe
an totalitarian regimes resulted in a number of biographies (generally considered to be hagiographies) of those countries' then leaders, with interviews conducted by Maxwell, for which he received much derision.
Maxwell was also well known as the chairman of Oxford United Football Club
, saving them from bankruptcy and leading them into the top flight of English football, winning the League Cup
in 1986. Maxwell bought into Derby County F.C.
in 1987. He also attempted to buy Manchester United in 1984, but refused owner Martin Edwards
' asking price.
, head of "Leasco Data Processing Corporation", was interested in a strategic acquisition of Pergamon. Steinberg claimed that during negotiations Maxwell had falsely stated that a subsidiary responsible for publishing encyclopedias was extremely profitable. This led to an inquiry by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) under the Takeover Code of the time; at the same time the U.S. Congress was investigating Leasco's takeover practices. The DTI inquiry reported: "We regret having to conclude that, notwithstanding Mr Maxwell's acknowledged abilities and energy, he is not in our opinion a person who can be relied on to exercise proper stewardship of a publicly quoted company." It was found that Maxwell had contrived to maximise Pergamon's share price through transactions between his private family companies. This caused Maxwell to lose control of Pergamon in the United Kingdom—but not in the United States, where Steinberg purchased Pergamon. Justice Forbes in September 1971 was critical of the inquiry, "They had moved from an inquisitorial role to accusatory one and virtually committed the business murder of Mr. Maxwell." He further continued that the trial judge would probably find that the "inspectors had acted contrary to the rules of national justice." The company performed poorly under Steinberg; Maxwell resumed control of Pergamon, returned it to profitability, and eventually sold the company to Reed Elsevier in 1991.
Maxwell was known to be litigious against those who would speak or write against him. The satirical magazine Private Eye
lampooned him as "Cap'n Bob" and the "bouncing Czech", the latter nickname having originally been devised by Prime Minister Harold Wilson
(under whom Maxwell was an MP). Maxwell took out several libel actions against Private Eye, one resulting in the magazine losing an estimated £225,000 and Maxwell using his commercial power to hit back with a one-off spoof magazine Not Private Eye
.
In 1988, Maxwell purchased Macmillan, Inc., the American publishing firm, for $2.6 billion, which by some estimates was over three times its value . In the same year he launched an ambitious new project, a transnational newspaper called The European. However, in the following year he was forced to sell his successful Pergamon Press and Maxwell Directories to Elsevier
for £440 million to cover his massive debts, but he used some of this money to buy the ailing New York Daily News. At the time, he was hailed in New York City as the man who "saved the Daily News."
for the last 32 years of his life. He rented Headington Hill Hall
from Oxford City Council
, and while he described it as "the best council house
" in the country, other people jocularly called it "Maxwell House
". He also operated his publishing business, Pergamon Press
, from buildings in the grounds of the Hall, and the Maxwell helicopter was a frequent sight over the Headington area. In March 1991 Maxwell sold the press to Elsevier
, but it retained offices on the site.
, which was cruising off the Canary Islands
, and his body was subsequently found floating in the Atlantic Ocean. He was buried on the Mount of Olives
in Jerusalem. The official ruling was death by accidental drowning
. Some commentators have alleged suicide
, others that he was murdered.
Then Prime Minister, John Major
, said Maxwell had given him 'valuable insights' into the situation in the Soviet Union during the attempted coup. He was a 'great character', Major added. Neil Kinnock
, then Labour Party leader, spoke of him as a man with "a zest for life" who "attracted controversy, envy and loyalty in great measure throughout his rumbustious life."
had approached a number of news organisations in Britain and the United States with the allegation that Maxwell and the Daily Mirror's foreign editor, Nick Davies
, were both long time agents for the Israel
intelligence service, Mossad
. Ben-Menashe also claimed that in 1986 Maxwell had tipped off the Israeli Embassy in London that Mordechai Vanunu
had given information about Israel's nuclear capability to the Sunday Times
, then to the Daily Mirror. Vanunu was subsequently lured from London to Rome where he was kidnapped and returned to Israel, convicted of treason
and imprisoned for 18 years.
No news organisation would publish Ben-Menashe's story at first but eventually the New Yorker
journalist Seymour Hersh
repeated some of the allegations during a press conference in London held to publicise The Samson Option, Hersh's book about Israel's nuclear weapons. On 21 October 1991, two Members of Parliament
, Labour
MP George Galloway
and Conservative
MP Rupert Allason
(who writes books on the world of espionage under the pseudonym Nigel West) agreed to raise the issue in the House of Commons (under Parliamentary Privilege
protection,) which in turn allowed British newspapers to report events without fear of libel suits. Maxwell called the claims "ludicrous, a total invention," and sacked Nick Davies.
The close proximity of his death to these allegations heightened interest in Maxwell's relationship with Israel, and the Daily Mirror published claims that he was assassinated by Mossad after he attempted to blackmail
them.
Maxwell was given a funeral in Israel better befitting a head of state than a publisher, as described by author Gordon Thomas:
A hint of Maxwell's service to the Israeli state was provided by Loftus and Aarons, who described Maxwell's contacts with Czech anti-Stalinist Communist leaders in 1948 as crucial to the Czech decision to arm Israel in their War of Independence that year. Czech military assistance was both unique and crucial for the fledgling state as it battled for its existence. It was Maxwell's covert help in smuggling aircraft parts into Israel that led to the Jewish state having air supremacy during their 1948 War of Independence. Jewish leaders were also grateful for Maxwell's intervention and material help in securing the freedom and immigration between 1988–1991 of over one million Russian Jews through his friendship with Mikhail Gorbachev
. Over seven hundred thousand Russian Jews emigrated to Israel.
Others have linked Shamir's cryptic statement to Maxwell's having told the Israeli government that Mordechai Vanunu
had leaked details of Israel's secret nuclear weapons programme to Maxwell's Sunday Mirror
newspaper, prompting them to kidnap Vanunu.
and Ian
struggled to hold the empire together, but were unable to prevent its collapse. It emerged that, without adequate prior authorisation, Maxwell had used hundreds of millions of pounds from his companies' pension funds to shore up the shares of the Mirror Group, to save his companies from bankruptcy. Eventually, the pension funds were replenished with monies from investment banks Shearson Lehman and Goldman Sachs
, as well as the British government.
This replenishment was limited and also supported by a surplus in the printers' fund which was taken by the government in part payment of £100m required to support the workers' State Pension. The rest of the £100m was waived. Maxwell's theft of pension funds was, therefore, partly repaid from public funds. The result was that, in general, pensioners received about 50% of their company pension entitlement.
The Maxwell companies filed for bankruptcy protection in 1992. Kevin Maxwell was declared bankrupt with debts of £400 million. In 1995 Kevin and Ian Maxwell, and two other former directors, went on trial for conspiracy to defraud, but were unanimously acquitted by a twelve man jury in 1996.
" Bower Tom Maxwell the outsider
Military Cross
The Military Cross is the third-level military decoration awarded to officers and other ranks of the British Armed Forces; and formerly also to officers of other Commonwealth countries....
(10 June 1923 – 5 November 1991) was a Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
n-born British media proprietor
Media proprietor
A media proprietor is a person who controls, either through personal ownership or a dominant position in any media enterprise. Those with significant control of a public company in the mass media may also be called "media moguls", "tycoons", "barons", or "bosses".The figure of the media proprietor...
and former Member of Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...
(MP), who rose from poverty to build an extensive publishing empire. His death revealed huge discrepancies in his companies' finances, including the Mirror Group pension fund, which Maxwell had fraudulently misappropriated.
Early life
Robert Maxwell was born Ján Ludvík Hoch into a poor Yiddish-speaking Jewish family in the small town of Slatinské Doly (now Solotvino, UkraineUkraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
) in the easternmost province of pre-World War II Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
. His parents were Mechel Hoch and Hannah Slomowitz. He had six siblings. In 1939, the area was reclaimed by Hungary. Most members of his family died in Auschwitz after Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
was occupied in 1944 by its former ally, Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
, but he had already escaped, arriving in Britain in 1940 as a 17-year-old refugee.
Maxwell joined the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
Pioneer Corps in 1941 and transferred to the North Staffordshire Regiment
North Staffordshire Regiment
The North Staffordshire Regiment was an infantry regiment of the British Army, which was in existence between 1881 and 1959. It can date its lineage back to 1756 with the formation of a second battalion by the 11th Regiment of Foot, which shortly after became the 64th Regiment of Foot...
in 1943. He was involved in action across Europe from the Normandy beaches
Operation Overlord
Operation Overlord was the code name for the Battle of Normandy, the operation that launched the invasion of German-occupied western Europe during World War II by Allied forces. The operation commenced on 6 June 1944 with the Normandy landings...
to Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, and achieved the rank of sergeant.
He gained a commission in 1945 and was promoted to captain
Captain (British Army and Royal Marines)
Captain is a junior officer rank of the British Army and Royal Marines. It ranks above Lieutenant and below Major and has a NATO ranking code of OF-2. The rank is equivalent to a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy and to a Flight Lieutenant in the Royal Air Force...
. In January 1945 he received the Military Cross
Military Cross
The Military Cross is the third-level military decoration awarded to officers and other ranks of the British Armed Forces; and formerly also to officers of other Commonwealth countries....
from Field Marshal Montgomery. It was during this time that British Intelligence changed his name several times, finally settling on Ian Robert Maxwell.
In 1945 he married Elisabeth "Betty" Meynard, a French Protestant with whom he had nine children with the goal of "recreating the family he lost in the Holocaust". Five of his children were later employed within his companies. Two met with tragedy; his three-year-old daughter Karine died of leukemia
Leukemia
Leukemia or leukaemia is a type of cancer of the blood or bone marrow characterized by an abnormal increase of immature white blood cells called "blasts". Leukemia is a broad term covering a spectrum of diseases...
; and his eldest son, Michael, was severely injured in 1961 at the age of 15 after being driven home from a post-Christmas party when his driver fell asleep at the wheel. Michael never regained consciousness and died seven years later.
After the war, Maxwell first worked as a newspaper censor for the British military command in Berlin in Allied-occupied Germany. Later, he used various contacts in the Allied occupation authorities to go into business, becoming the British and United States distributor for Springer Verlag, a publisher of scientific books. In 1951 he bought three quarters of Butterworth-Springer, a minor publisher; the remaining quarter was held by the experienced scientific editor Paul Rosbaud
Paul Rosbaud
Paul Rosbaud , was a metallurgist and scientific adviser for Springer Verlag in Germany before and during World War II....
. They changed the name of the company to Pergamon Press
Pergamon Press
Pergamon Press was an Oxford-based publishing house, founded by Paul Rosbaud and Robert Maxwell, which published scientific and medical books and journals. It is now an imprint of Elsevier....
and rapidly built it into a major publishing house.
Member of Parliament
In 1964, representing the Labour PartyLabour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
, he was elected as Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
(MP) for Buckingham
Buckingham (UK Parliament constituency)
Buckingham is a parliamentary constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.-Boundaries:...
. He was re-elected in 1966, but lost in 1970 to the Conservative William Benyon
William Benyon
Sir William Richard Benyon is a retired British Conservative Party politician, Berkshire landowner and former High Sheriff...
.
Business activities
Maxwell established the Maxwell Foundation in LiechtensteinLiechtenstein
The Principality of Liechtenstein is a doubly landlocked alpine country in Central Europe, bordered by Switzerland to the west and south and by Austria to the east. Its area is just over , and it has an estimated population of 35,000. Its capital is Vaduz. The biggest town is Schaan...
in 1970. In 1974 he reacquired PPL. Maxwell acquired the British Printing Corporation (BPC) in 1981, and changed its name to the British Printing and Communication Corporation (BPCC) and then to the Maxwell Communications Corporation
Maxwell Communications Corporation
Maxwell Communications Corporation plc was a leading British media business. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.-History:...
. The company was later sold in a management buy-out, and is now known as Polestar. In July 1984 Maxwell acquired Mirror Group Newspapers from Reed International plc. MGN published the Daily Mirror, a pro-Labour Party tabloid newspaper. He also bought the American interests of the Macmillan publishing house
Macmillan Publishers
Macmillan Publishers Ltd, also known as The Macmillan Group, is a privately held international publishing company owned by Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. It has offices in 41 countries worldwide and operates in more than thirty others.-History:...
.
By the 1980s Maxwell's various companies owned the Daily Mirror, the Sunday Mirror
Sunday Mirror
The Sunday Mirror is the Sunday sister paper of the Daily Mirror. It began life in 1915 as the Sunday Pictorial and was renamed the Sunday Mirror in 1963. Trinity Mirror also owns The People...
, the Scottish Daily Record
Daily Record (Scotland)
The Daily Record is a Scottish tabloid newspaper based in Glasgow. It had been the best-selling daily paper in Scotland for many years with a paid circulation in August 2011 of 307,794 . It is now outsold by its arch-rival the Scottish Sun which in September 2010 had a circulation of 339,586 in...
and Sunday Mail
Sunday Mail (Scotland)
The Sunday Mail is a Scottish tabloid newspaper published every Sunday. It is the sister paper of the Daily Record and is owned by Trinity Mirror and as such has a left-wing outlook which in turn tends to guide Scottish political debate in that direction.The Sunday Mail is read by over one million...
and several other newspapers, Pergamon Press, Nimbus Records
Nimbus Records
Nimbus Records is a British record company specializing in classical music recordings.Nimbus was founded in 1972 by the late bass singer Numa Labinsky and the brothers Michael and Gerald Reynolds and has traditionally been based at the Wyastone Leys mansion site, near Monmouth and the English/Welsh...
, Collier books, Maxwell Directories, Prentice Hall
Prentice Hall
Prentice Hall is a major educational publisher. It is an imprint of Pearson Education, Inc., based in Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, USA. Prentice Hall publishes print and digital content for the 6-12 and higher-education market. Prentice Hall distributes its technical titles through the Safari...
Information Services, Macmillan (US) publishing, and the Berlitz language schools. He also owned a half-share of MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
in Europe and other European television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
interests, Maxwell Cable TV and Maxwell Entertainment. In 1987 Maxwell purchased part of IPC Media
IPC Media
IPC Media , a wholly owned subsidiary of Time Inc., is a consumer magazine and digital publisher in the United Kingdom, with a large portfolio selling over 350 million copies each year.- Origins :...
to create Fleetway Publications.
In June 1985, Maxwell announced a takeover of Sir Clive Sinclair's ailing home computer
Home computer
Home computers were a class of microcomputers entering the market in 1977, and becoming increasingly common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as affordable and accessible computers that, for the first time, were intended for the use of a single nontechnical user...
company, Sinclair Research, through Hollis Brothers, a Pergamon Press subsidiary. However the deal was aborted in August 1985.
Maxwell's links with Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
an totalitarian regimes resulted in a number of biographies (generally considered to be hagiographies) of those countries' then leaders, with interviews conducted by Maxwell, for which he received much derision.
Maxwell was also well known as the chairman of Oxford United Football Club
Oxford United F.C.
Oxford United Football Club is an English association football club based in Oxford, Oxfordshire. The club play in League Two, following promotion from the Conference National in May 2010. The club had been a non-League side since their relegation from the Football League in the 2005–06 season. The...
, saving them from bankruptcy and leading them into the top flight of English football, winning the League Cup
Football League Cup
The Football League Cup, commonly known as the League Cup or, from current sponsorship, the Carling Cup, is an English association football competition. Like the FA Cup, it is played on a knockout basis...
in 1986. Maxwell bought into Derby County F.C.
Derby County F.C.
Derby County Football Club is an English football based in Derby. the club play in the Football League Championship and is notable as being one of the twelve founder members of the Football League in 1888 and is, therefore, one of only ten clubs to have competed in every season of the English...
in 1987. He also attempted to buy Manchester United in 1984, but refused owner Martin Edwards
Martin Edwards
Charles Martin Edwards was the chairman of Manchester United from 1980 until 2002. He now holds the position of honorary life president at the club.- Education :...
' asking price.
Controversy
In 1969 Saul SteinbergSaul Steinberg (business)
Saul Steinberg is a former financier, insurance executive, and corporate raider. He started a computer leasing company , which he used in an audacious and successful takeover of the much larger Reliance Insurance Company in 1968...
, head of "Leasco Data Processing Corporation", was interested in a strategic acquisition of Pergamon. Steinberg claimed that during negotiations Maxwell had falsely stated that a subsidiary responsible for publishing encyclopedias was extremely profitable. This led to an inquiry by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) under the Takeover Code of the time; at the same time the U.S. Congress was investigating Leasco's takeover practices. The DTI inquiry reported: "We regret having to conclude that, notwithstanding Mr Maxwell's acknowledged abilities and energy, he is not in our opinion a person who can be relied on to exercise proper stewardship of a publicly quoted company." It was found that Maxwell had contrived to maximise Pergamon's share price through transactions between his private family companies. This caused Maxwell to lose control of Pergamon in the United Kingdom—but not in the United States, where Steinberg purchased Pergamon. Justice Forbes in September 1971 was critical of the inquiry, "They had moved from an inquisitorial role to accusatory one and virtually committed the business murder of Mr. Maxwell." He further continued that the trial judge would probably find that the "inspectors had acted contrary to the rules of national justice." The company performed poorly under Steinberg; Maxwell resumed control of Pergamon, returned it to profitability, and eventually sold the company to Reed Elsevier in 1991.
Maxwell was known to be litigious against those who would speak or write against him. The satirical magazine Private Eye
Private Eye
Private Eye is a fortnightly British satirical and current affairs magazine, edited by Ian Hislop.Since its first publication in 1961, Private Eye has been a prominent critic and lampooner of public figures and entities that it deemed guilty of any of the sins of incompetence, inefficiency,...
lampooned him as "Cap'n Bob" and the "bouncing Czech", the latter nickname having originally been devised by Prime Minister Harold Wilson
Harold Wilson
James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, KG, OBE, FRS, FSS, PC was a British Labour Member of Parliament, Leader of the Labour Party. He was twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the 1960s and 1970s, winning four general elections, including a minority government after the...
(under whom Maxwell was an MP). Maxwell took out several libel actions against Private Eye, one resulting in the magazine losing an estimated £225,000 and Maxwell using his commercial power to hit back with a one-off spoof magazine Not Private Eye
Not Private Eye
Not Private Eye was a one-off spoof of the British satirical magazine Private Eye.- Overview :The spoof of Private Eye was published in December 1986 by Robert Maxwell, to celebrate his £55,000 libel victory over Private Eye caused by an accusation of attempted cash for peerages...
.
In 1988, Maxwell purchased Macmillan, Inc., the American publishing firm, for $2.6 billion, which by some estimates was over three times its value . In the same year he launched an ambitious new project, a transnational newspaper called The European. However, in the following year he was forced to sell his successful Pergamon Press and Maxwell Directories to Elsevier
Elsevier
Elsevier is a publishing company which publishes medical and scientific literature. It is a part of the Reed Elsevier group. Based in Amsterdam, the company has operations in the United Kingdom, USA and elsewhere....
for £440 million to cover his massive debts, but he used some of this money to buy the ailing New York Daily News. At the time, he was hailed in New York City as the man who "saved the Daily News."
Headington Hill Hall
Robert Maxwell lived in HeadingtonHeadington
Headington is a suburb of Oxford, England. It is at the top of Headington Hill overlooking the city in the Thames Valley below. The life of the large residential area is centred upon London Road, the main road between London and Oxford.-History:...
for the last 32 years of his life. He rented Headington Hill Hall
Headington Hill Hall
Headington Hill Hall stands on Headington Hill in the east of Oxford, England. It was built in 1824 for the Morrell family, local brewers, and was extended between 1856 and 1858, by James Morrell junior who built an Italianate mansion, designed by architect John Thomas...
from Oxford City Council
Oxford City Council
The Oxford City Council provides local government for the city of Oxford in England.- Overview :Between the 2004 local elections, and 2010 the council was in minority administration, first by councillors from the Labour Party, with the Liberal Democrats being the official opposition...
, and while he described it as "the best council house
Council house
A council house, otherwise known as a local authority house, is a form of public or social housing. The term is used primarily in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Council houses were built and operated by local councils to supply uncrowded, well-built homes on secure tenancies at...
" in the country, other people jocularly called it "Maxwell House
Maxwell House
Maxwell House is a brand of coffee manufactured by a like-named division of Kraft Foods. Introduced in 1892, it is named in honor of the Maxwell House Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee. For many years until the late 1980s it was the largest-selling coffee in the U.S. and is currently second behind...
". He also operated his publishing business, Pergamon Press
Pergamon Press
Pergamon Press was an Oxford-based publishing house, founded by Paul Rosbaud and Robert Maxwell, which published scientific and medical books and journals. It is now an imprint of Elsevier....
, from buildings in the grounds of the Hall, and the Maxwell helicopter was a frequent sight over the Headington area. In March 1991 Maxwell sold the press to Elsevier
Elsevier
Elsevier is a publishing company which publishes medical and scientific literature. It is a part of the Reed Elsevier group. Based in Amsterdam, the company has operations in the United Kingdom, USA and elsewhere....
, but it retained offices on the site.
Death
On 5 November 1991, at the age of 68, Maxwell was presumed to have fallen overboard from his luxury yacht, the Lady GhislaineLady Mona K
Lady Mona K is a luxury motor yacht built by Amels in 1986.-Design:Built in 1986 by Amels of Vlissingen, Netherlands, she was the first of numerous classic Jon Bannenberg designed super yachts. With a well-flared bow, lozenge-shaped ports, vertical windows and mullions, and handsomely sculpted...
, which was cruising off the Canary Islands
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...
, and his body was subsequently found floating in the Atlantic Ocean. He was buried on the Mount of Olives
Mount of Olives
The Mount of Olives is a mountain ridge in East Jerusalem with three peaks running from north to south. The highest, at-Tur, rises to 818 meters . It is named for the olive groves that once covered its slopes...
in Jerusalem. The official ruling was death by accidental drowning
Drowning
Drowning is death from asphyxia due to suffocation caused by water entering the lungs and preventing the absorption of oxygen leading to cerebral hypoxia....
. Some commentators have alleged suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
, others that he was murdered.
Then Prime Minister, John Major
John Major
Sir John Major, is a British Conservative politician, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990–1997...
, said Maxwell had given him 'valuable insights' into the situation in the Soviet Union during the attempted coup. He was a 'great character', Major added. Neil Kinnock
Neil Kinnock
Neil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock is a Welsh politician belonging to the Labour Party. He served as a Member of Parliament from 1970 until 1995 and as Labour Leader and Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition from 1983 until 1992 - his leadership of the party during nearly nine years making him...
, then Labour Party leader, spoke of him as a man with "a zest for life" who "attracted controversy, envy and loyalty in great measure throughout his rumbustious life."
Israeli connection
Shortly before Maxwell's death, a former Mossad officer named Ari Ben-MenasheAri Ben-Menashe
Ari Ben-Menashe is the author of Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network, a book purporting to describe his involvement in Iran-Contra and other intelligence operations. An Iraqi Jew who was educated in Israel, he is a former Israeli government employee, and has said that he...
had approached a number of news organisations in Britain and the United States with the allegation that Maxwell and the Daily Mirror's foreign editor, Nick Davies
Nicholas Davies
Nicholas Davies, also known as Nick Davies, is a journalist and author, formerly foreign editor at the Daily Mirror. He was closely associated with Robert Maxwell, and was the centre of considerable UK media attention in 1991 after he was accused in Seymour Hersh's book The Samson Option of...
, were both long time agents for the Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
intelligence service, Mossad
Mossad
The Mossad , short for HaMossad leModi'in uleTafkidim Meyuchadim , is the national intelligence agency of Israel....
. Ben-Menashe also claimed that in 1986 Maxwell had tipped off the Israeli Embassy in London that Mordechai Vanunu
Mordechai Vanunu
Mordechai Vanunu ; is a former Israeli nuclear technician who, citing his opposition to weapons of mass destruction, revealed details of Israel's nuclear weapons program to the British press in 1986. He was subsequently lured to Italy by a Mossad agent, where he was drugged and kidnapped by...
had given information about Israel's nuclear capability to the Sunday Times
The Sunday Times (UK)
The Sunday Times is a Sunday broadsheet newspaper, distributed in the United Kingdom. The Sunday Times is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News International, which is in turn owned by News Corporation. Times Newspapers also owns The Times, but the two papers were founded...
, then to the Daily Mirror. Vanunu was subsequently lured from London to Rome where he was kidnapped and returned to Israel, convicted of treason
Treason
In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more extreme acts against one's sovereign or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife. Treason against the king was known as high treason and treason against a...
and imprisoned for 18 years.
No news organisation would publish Ben-Menashe's story at first but eventually the New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
journalist Seymour Hersh
Seymour Hersh
Seymour Myron Hersh is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist and author based in Washington, D.C. He is a regular contributor to The New Yorker magazine on military and security matters...
repeated some of the allegations during a press conference in London held to publicise The Samson Option, Hersh's book about Israel's nuclear weapons. On 21 October 1991, two Members of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
, Labour
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
MP George Galloway
George Galloway
George Galloway is a British politician, author, journalist and broadcaster who was a Member of Parliament from 1987 to 2010. He was formerly an MP for the Labour Party, first for Glasgow Hillhead and later for Glasgow Kelvin, before his expulsion from the party in October 2003, the same year...
and Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
MP Rupert Allason
Rupert Allason
Rupert William Simon Allason is a military historian and former Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom. He was the Member of Parliament for Torbay in Devon, from 1987 to 1997...
(who writes books on the world of espionage under the pseudonym Nigel West) agreed to raise the issue in the House of Commons (under Parliamentary Privilege
Parliamentary privilege
Parliamentary privilege is a legal immunity enjoyed by members of certain legislatures, in which legislators are granted protection against civil or criminal liability for actions done or statements made related to one's duties as a legislator. It is common in countries whose constitutions are...
protection,) which in turn allowed British newspapers to report events without fear of libel suits. Maxwell called the claims "ludicrous, a total invention," and sacked Nick Davies.
The close proximity of his death to these allegations heightened interest in Maxwell's relationship with Israel, and the Daily Mirror published claims that he was assassinated by Mossad after he attempted to blackmail
Blackmail
In common usage, blackmail is a crime involving threats to reveal substantially true or false information about a person to the public, a family member, or associates unless a demand is met. It may be defined as coercion involving threats of physical harm, threat of criminal prosecution, or threats...
them.
Maxwell was given a funeral in Israel better befitting a head of state than a publisher, as described by author Gordon Thomas:
On 10 November 1991, Maxwell’s funeral took place on the Mount of OlivesMount of OlivesThe Mount of Olives is a mountain ridge in East Jerusalem with three peaks running from north to south. The highest, at-Tur, rises to 818 meters . It is named for the olive groves that once covered its slopes...
Har Zeitim in Jerusalem, across from the Temple Mount. It had all the trappings of a state occasion, attended by the country’s government and opposition leaders. No fewer than six serving and former heads of the Israeli intelligence community listened as Prime Minister Yitzhak ShamirYitzhak Shamir' is a former Israeli politician, the seventh Prime Minister of Israel, in 1983–84 and 1986–92.-Biography:Icchak Jeziernicky was born in Ruzhany , Russian Empire . He studied at a Hebrew High School in Białystok, Poland. As a youth he joined Betar, the Revisionist Zionist youth movement...
eulogized: "He has done more for Israel than can today be said" (Gideon's Spies: The Secret History of the Mossad, St. Martin's Press, 1999).
A hint of Maxwell's service to the Israeli state was provided by Loftus and Aarons, who described Maxwell's contacts with Czech anti-Stalinist Communist leaders in 1948 as crucial to the Czech decision to arm Israel in their War of Independence that year. Czech military assistance was both unique and crucial for the fledgling state as it battled for its existence. It was Maxwell's covert help in smuggling aircraft parts into Israel that led to the Jewish state having air supremacy during their 1948 War of Independence. Jewish leaders were also grateful for Maxwell's intervention and material help in securing the freedom and immigration between 1988–1991 of over one million Russian Jews through his friendship with Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...
. Over seven hundred thousand Russian Jews emigrated to Israel.
Others have linked Shamir's cryptic statement to Maxwell's having told the Israeli government that Mordechai Vanunu
Mordechai Vanunu
Mordechai Vanunu ; is a former Israeli nuclear technician who, citing his opposition to weapons of mass destruction, revealed details of Israel's nuclear weapons program to the British press in 1986. He was subsequently lured to Italy by a Mossad agent, where he was drugged and kidnapped by...
had leaked details of Israel's secret nuclear weapons programme to Maxwell's Sunday Mirror
Sunday Mirror
The Sunday Mirror is the Sunday sister paper of the Daily Mirror. It began life in 1915 as the Sunday Pictorial and was renamed the Sunday Mirror in 1963. Trinity Mirror also owns The People...
newspaper, prompting them to kidnap Vanunu.
Collapse of a publishing empire
Maxwell's untimely death triggered a flood of instability with banks frantically calling in their massive loans. His two young sons KevinKevin Maxwell
Kevin Francis Herbert Maxwell is a British businessman, son of Robert Maxwell and brother of Ian Maxwell.Educated at Oxford University, Maxwell spent most of his working life before 1991 employed by his father. Following the collapse of Robert Maxwell's Mirror Group media empire he became the...
and Ian
Ian Maxwell
Ian Maxwell is a British businessman, and the son of the media mogul, Robert Maxwell.-Early life:Ian Maxwell was educated at Marlborough College and Oxford University. His first involvement in his father's business was at Pergamon Press from 1978 to 1983...
struggled to hold the empire together, but were unable to prevent its collapse. It emerged that, without adequate prior authorisation, Maxwell had used hundreds of millions of pounds from his companies' pension funds to shore up the shares of the Mirror Group, to save his companies from bankruptcy. Eventually, the pension funds were replenished with monies from investment banks Shearson Lehman and Goldman Sachs
Goldman Sachs
The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. is an American multinational bulge bracket investment banking and securities firm that engages in global investment banking, securities, investment management, and other financial services primarily with institutional clients...
, as well as the British government.
This replenishment was limited and also supported by a surplus in the printers' fund which was taken by the government in part payment of £100m required to support the workers' State Pension. The rest of the £100m was waived. Maxwell's theft of pension funds was, therefore, partly repaid from public funds. The result was that, in general, pensioners received about 50% of their company pension entitlement.
The Maxwell companies filed for bankruptcy protection in 1992. Kevin Maxwell was declared bankrupt with debts of £400 million. In 1995 Kevin and Ian Maxwell, and two other former directors, went on trial for conspiracy to defraud, but were unanimously acquitted by a twelve man jury in 1996.
Cultural references
- In 2008, Maxwell's wife published her memoirs, A Mind of Her Own, which sheds light on her life with Maxwell when the publishing magnate was ranked as one of the richest people in the world.
- A BBCBBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
drama titled MaxwellMaxwell (film)Maxwell is a 2007 drama about Robert Maxwell, starring David Suchet as Maxwell and Patricia Hodge as his wife Betty. It was written by Craig Warner and directed by Colin Barr. Maxwell aired on BBC2. Suchet was later awarded an International Emmy for his performance....
covering his life shortly before his death starring David SuchetDavid SuchetDavid Suchet, CBE, is an English actor, known for his work on British television. He is recognised for his RTS- and BPG award-winning performance as Augustus Melmotte in the 2001 British TV mini-drama The Way We Live Now, alongside Matthew Macfadyen and Paloma Baeza, and a 1991 British Academy...
was aired on 4 May 2007.
- Maxwell, through his software company MirrorsoftMirrorsoftMirrorsoft was a computer game software publisher in the United Kingdom, owned by Mirror Group Newspapers. It was founded as a publisher of educational software before moving into games. One offshoot of its printing roots was Fleet Street Publisher on several platforms...
, played a role in the acquisition of the video game TetrisTetrisTetris is a puzzle video game originally designed and programmed by Alexey Pajitnov in the Soviet Union. It was released on June 6, 1984, while he was working for the Dorodnicyn Computing Centre of the Academy of Science of the USSR in Moscow, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic...
from its developers in the Soviet UnionSoviet UnionThe Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
and its eventual marketing and sale in the West.
- In other media references, the character of Richard De Vere in the BBC sitcom To the Manor BornTo the Manor BornTo the Manor Born is a British sitcom that first aired on BBC1 from 1979 to 1981. A special edition appeared in 2007. Starring Penelope Keith and Peter Bowles, the first 20 episodes and the 2007 special were written by Peter Spence, the creator, while the 1981 finale was written by Christopher...
was reportedly based on Maxwell: De Vere was a Czech emigre who'd built a self-made fortune after settling in Great Britain.
- Maxwell's death is referenced at the end of the James BondJames BondJames Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
film Tomorrow Never DiesTomorrow Never DiesTomorrow Never Dies is the eighteenth spy film in the James Bond series, and the second to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Bruce Feirstein wrote the screenplay, and it was directed by Roger Spottiswoode. It follows Bond as he tries to stop a media mogul from engineering...
; M orders a press release announcing the death of newspaper baron and lead villain Elliot Carver, claiming that he had fallen overboard from his luxury yacht and drowned in the ocean. She adds that at present there is speculation of suicide.
- Alfred MarksAlfred MarksAlfred Edward Marks OBE was a comic actor and comedian.-Biography:Marks was born as Ruchel Kutchinsky in Holborn, London. He left Bell Lane School at 14 and started in entertainment at the Windmill Theatre. He then served in the RAF as a Flight Sergeant in the Middle East where he arranged...
also played Maxwell in a 1990s radio play for BBC Radio 4BBC Radio 4BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
, entitled Maxwell: The Last Days.
- A fictionalised version of Robert Maxwell appears as "Richard Armstrong" in the novel The Fourth Estate by British novelist and former MP Jeffrey Archer, in which Rupert MurdochRupert MurdochKeith Rupert Murdoch, AC, KSG is an Australian-American business magnate. He is the founder and Chairman and CEO of , the world's second-largest media conglomerate....
appears fictionalized as "Keith Townsend". The novel describes two lives and newspaper empires in parallel.
- He is loosely typecast as cold-blooded murderer sergeant Ludovic in Evelyn WaughEvelyn WaughArthur Evelyn St. John Waugh , known as Evelyn Waugh, was an English writer of novels, travel books and biographies. He was also a prolific journalist and reviewer...
’s WWII novel suite Sword of HonourSword of HonourThe Sword of Honour trilogy by Evelyn Waugh is his look at the Second World War. It consists of three novels, Men at Arms , Officers and Gentlemen and Unconditional Surrender , which loosely parallel his wartime experiences...
.
- A fictionalised version of Robert Maxwell appears as "Rupert Sheffield" in the novel Le disparu des Canaries (Disappeared from the Canary Islands) by french novelist and former journalist Gérard de VilliersGérard de VilliersGérard de Villiers is a French writer, journalist and editor. His SAS series of spy novels have been bestsellers, with his total sales running into more than 150 million. His works have been translated and are especially popular in Germany, Russia, Turkey, and Japan...
.
See also
- Headington Hill HallHeadington Hill HallHeadington Hill Hall stands on Headington Hill in the east of Oxford, England. It was built in 1824 for the Morrell family, local brewers, and was extended between 1856 and 1858, by James Morrell junior who built an Italianate mansion, designed by architect John Thomas...
, OxfordOxfordThe city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through... - Scottish Daily NewsScottish Daily NewsThe Scottish Daily News was a left-of-centre daily newspaper published in Glasgow between 5 May and 8 November 1975. It was hailed as Britain's first worker-controlled, mass-circulation daily, formed as a workers' cooperative by 500 of the 1,846 journalists, photographers, engineers, and print...
- Perth Daily News, Australia
Further reading
- Short BBC profile of Robert Maxwell
- Accountancy Age timeline
- Department of Trade and Industry report on Maxwell's purchase of the Mirror Group
- Biography
- Hersh, SeymourSeymour HershSeymour Myron Hersh is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist and author based in Washington, D.C. He is a regular contributor to The New Yorker magazine on military and security matters...
. 1991. The Samson Option - Thomas, Gordon and Dillon, Martin. (2002). Robert Maxwell: Israel's Superspy : The Life and Murder of a Media Mogul, Carroll and Graf, ISBN 0-7867-1078-0
- Henderson, Albert, (2004) The Dash and Determination of Robert Maxwell, Champion of Dissemination, LOGOS. 15,2, pp. 65–75.
- A book by Martin Dillon, The Assassination of Robert Maxwell, Israeli Superspy
- Research report: details Robert Maxwell's other names
- Joe Haines (1988) Maxwell, Houghton Mifflin, ISBN 0-395-48929-6 .
- Robert N. Miranda (2001) Robert Maxwell: Forty-four years as Publisher, in E.H. Frederiksson ed., A Century of Science Publishing, IOS Press ISBN 1-58603-148-1
- Bower Tom Maxwell the final verdict Harper Collins 1996 ISBN 0-00-638424-2
" Bower Tom Maxwell the outsider
- Roy Greenslade (1992) "Maxwell: The Rise and Fall of Robert Maxwell and His Empire," ISBN 1-55972-123-5