On July 2, 1969, Brian Jones died in a drowning incident at his home at Cotchford Farm, the former residence of children's author, A.A. Milne. Brian had recently split from his band The Rolling Stones, and was putting his life in order, enjoying the peace and quiet of the English countryside. His death has never been satisfactorily explained.
The autopsy revealed he had only consumed a rather small amount of alcohol that night, and it was generally known that Brian was seeing a psychiatrist and not living his customary wild and wooly lifestyle. He was doing some remodelling at Cotchford and absorbed in his newly-planted vegetable garden.
Tom Keylock, a chauffeur and general dogsbody for the Stones, had introduced Brian to Frank Thorogood, who became the contractor at Cotchford. Brian befriended Frank, who soon began to take advantage of Brian, until he was threatened with dismissal, not long before Brian's death. On his deathbed in 1993, Frank Thorogood confessed to killing Brian, but his family hushed the confession, saying he had never said such a thing. Various groups of fans and journalists have, over the years, tried to get the police to reopen the investigation, and now it looks as if they might have succeeded.
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