Irishman Kenneth Lennon spelled out his own epitaph. Three days before he was shot dead in a quiet Surry lane he poured out his troubles to jazzman George Melly. Mr. Melly said on Tuesday night (16-4-74) that 30-year-old Lennon told him: "I have come to you because you are a fair man … If you hear about my body lying face down in a puddle or ditch, you will know I have been telling the truth." The meeting with Mr. Melly, at a London jazz club on Wednesday (10-4-74), prompted Lennon to go to the National Council for Civil Liberties. He made a 5,000-word statement to Mr. Larry Grant, the council’s senior legal adviser. The following Saturday Lennon was found shot dead at Chipstead, Surrey. In his statement he said that he was lured into spying against the Irish Republican Army in England by Scotland Yard'’ Special Branch. He was told to establish IRA contacts by drinking at the Foresters Arms pub in Luton, Bedfordshire. Lennon also claimed that robberies to boost IRA funds were planned with the knowledge of the special branch. And he was involved in a plot to free one of three men jailed for an attempted payroll raid. He was cleared of this plot and later told that his acquittal had been "fixed." Five days after being freed, Lennon was dead.
PICTURED: Officials of the National Council for Civil Liberties give details of the Lennon case at a Press conference. From left: Jack Droney, Larry Grant (who took Lennon's statement), general secretary martin Looney and Catherine Scorer (Northern Ireland Officer).
