John Stonehouse was missing for a total of 34 days. John disappeared on November 1974 on the beach of Miami and was found in Melbourne in December 1974.
Stonehouse was a man who was destined for political greatness. Born on July 28, 1925, to parents who had also been involved in politics, he was the youngest child of William Mitchell Stonehouse, the secretary of the local trade union, and Rosina Marie, the sixth female mayor of Southampton.
Young Stonehouse studied at prestigious universities like the London School of Economics, where all he talked about was getting a seat in the parliament. Until his disappearance, it seemed like his political greatness was guaranteed.
John Stonehouse Missing Days
John Stonehouse went missing on November 20 1974, with many believing he had ended his life. His clothes were seen in a pile on Miami beach.
Many assumed he had drowned while swimming or been killed by a shark. However, the man had faked his passing and was en route to Australia.
His secretary, Sheila Buckley, was waiting for him as they had planned to start a new life in the country. Stonehouse had left behind his career, his wife, and his two children without so much as a second thought.
However, there was a method behind his madness, and his elaborate disappearance was not only planned but also necessary. For about five years, Stonehouse’s career and finances had started crumbling around him.
The former MP had been privately detained by the British Secret Service in 1969 under assumptions that he was a spy and a secret service agent for the then soviet state Czechoslovakia, an enemy of Britain at the time. Though he successfully defended himself, Stonehouse’s reputation had taken a hit.
He had also been facing financial trouble as many of the international businesses he’d set up after 1970 needed to make more profits. To temporarily avoid responsibility for these financial troubles, Stonehouse had transferred ownership of many of these enterprises to his secretary and mistress, Sheila.
So, with nowhere to turn to, Stonehouse faked his passing in Miami, took on the identity of Joseph Markham, a recently deceased husband of one of his constituents, and fled to Australia.
Upon arriving in the country and meeting Sheila, Stonehouse switched identities and became Clive Muldoon. He immediately deposited 21,500 Australian Dollars in the Bank of New Zealand.
In a strange twist of fate, another British man’s disappearance would lead to Stonehouse’s capture. Lord Lucan, a British Peer, had disappeared two weeks before Stonehouse for a violent crime, and the Australian police had been on the lookout for him.
The teller spotted Stonehouse as Muldoon at another bank, the Bank of New South Wales, and, finding him suspicious, reported him to the police, who detained him soon after.
The Aftermath Of The Stonehouse Disappearance
The former MP was captured by the Australian police on December 24, 1974, 34 days after his arrival. Britain fought for six months to have him extradited.
During the six-month wait, Stonehouse had tried desperately to seek asylum in Sweden or Mauritius. As soon as he stepped onto British soil, he was confined in Brixton Prison, but released on bail in August 1975.
Strangely, the man was still a member of the Labor Party which didn’t expel him as they needed his seat to maintain a majority in the parliament. However, Stonehouse joined the English National Party a year later, which led to the Labor Party losing its majority.
Stonehouse was charged with 21 charges of theft, fraud, forgery, and a bevy of other charges for which he conducted his own defense. The trial lasted 68 days and ended with the former MP sentenced to seven years in prison.
His health slowly deteriorated while in prison, and he was released three years later on August 14, 1979, for good behavior and also because he has suffered three heart attacks. He spent the rest of his life still involved in politics, writing novels, and making television appearances about his disappearance.
He passed away on March 25, 1988. Stonehouse and his run-ins with the law are still fresh in the public’s mind as over twenty years after his life ended, it was revealed that then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had covered up the revelation that Stonehouse had been a spy due to insufficient evidence.
There’s also an ongoing television series that shows the dramatized events of his disappearance and aftermath.