69-456: The Herald is a Reach plc newspaper serving Plymouth . Its website and social media were rebranded as Plymouth Live in 2018. The newspaper's average circulation was 3,872 in the second half of 2023, made up of 2,978 paid-for single issues and 894 paid subscriptions. The Herald is published six days a week, Monday to Saturday, and has a single edition. It is owned by Reach plc , formerly known as Trinity Mirror. Its sister titles include
138-620: A Labour Member of Parliament (MP) during the 1960s, Maxwell again put all his energy into business, successively buying the British Printing Corporation , Mirror Group Newspapers and Macmillan Publishers , among other publishing companies. Robert Maxwell led a flamboyant lifestyle, living in Headington Hill Hall in Oxford , from which he often flew in his helicopter, or sailing in his luxury yacht,
207-440: A British subject on 19 June 1946 and changed his name by deed of change of name on 30 June 1948. In 1945, Maxwell married Elisabeth "Betty" Meynard , a French Protestant , and the couple had nine children over the next sixteen years: Michael, Philip, Ann, Christine , Isabel , Karine, Ian , Kevin and Ghislaine . In a 1995 interview, Elisabeth talked of how they were recreating Maxwell's childhood family who were killed in
276-483: A company owned by Robert Maxwell , acquired the Daily Mirror from Reed International. The company was relisted as Mirror Group in 1991. In 1991 the company was due to be investigated via an Anton Piller order for alleged theft of software from companies including Adobe Inc. , Autodesk and Microsoft . The action was delayed as it coincided with Maxwell's death, but was recommenced in 1992. Subsequently it
345-691: A former employee of Israel's Military Intelligence Directorate , approached a number of news organisations in Britain and the US with the allegation that Maxwell and the Daily Mirror ' s foreign editor, Nicholas Davies , were both long-time agents for Mossad. Ben-Menashe also claimed that, in 1986, Maxwell informed the Israeli Embassy in London that Mordechai Vanunu revealed information about Israel's nuclear capability to The Sunday Times , then to
414-466: A former nanny of David and Victoria Beckham. As of September 2014, a further 19 claims were registered at the High Court and another 10 claimants had indicated they would bring proceedings against Trinity Mirror. Other reports claimed that the number of victims could be much higher, with Evan Harris, associate director of the pressure group Hacked Off describing the revelations as: "… just the tip of
483-794: A number of titles from the Guardian Media Group in 2010. In 2013, Trinity Mirror launched the content websites UsVsTh3m and Ampp3d on an experimental basis. UsVsTh3m was a website similar to BuzzFeed focused on quizzes and Flash games, edited by B3ta founder Rob Manuel and running the Tumblr platform. Ampp3d focused on data journalism and used the WordPress platform. Both websites were closed down in 2015. Robert Maxwell Ian Robert Maxwell MC (born Ján Ludvík Hyman Binyamin Hoch ; 10 June 1923 – 5 November 1991)
552-492: A one-off spoof magazine called Not Private Eye . A hint of Maxwell's service to Israel was provided by John Loftus and Mark Aarons , who described Maxwell's contacts with Czechoslovak communist leaders in 1948 as crucial to the Czechoslovak decision to arm Israel in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War . Czechoslovak military assistance was both unique and crucial for Israel in the conflict. According to Loftus and Aarons, it
621-493: A portal connecting motorists nationwide with trusted local garages and mechanics. In June 2014, Trinity Mirror transitioned its online bingo software from Dragonfish to Virtue Fusion from Playtech for its group of bingo brands. In November 2015, Trinity Mirror purchased Local World , a major stakeholder in local news titles, from DMGT . Local World had been formed by former Trinity chief exec David Montgomery in 2012 to consolidate all DMGT's local newspaper holdings other than
690-419: A press conference to publicise his acquisition, Maxwell said his editors would be "free to produce the news without interference". Meanwhile, at a meeting of Maxwell's new employees, Mirror journalist Joe Haines asserted that he was able to prove that their boss was "a crook and a liar". Haines quickly came under Maxwell's influence and later wrote his authorised biography. In June 1985, Maxwell announced
759-399: A report that concluded: "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 inflate Pergamon's share price through transactions between his private family companies. At the same time,
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#1732772666546828-615: A rival of the Evening Standard , Maxwell eventually decided to make it the first 24-hour paper as well. In May 1987, Maxwell's BPCC made an unsolicited bid to acquire US publishing conglomerate Harcourt Brace Jovanovich (HBJ). HBJ defended itself from the hostile takeover attempt by going deeply into debt to make large cash payments to shareholders. The strain of the debt was a factor in HBJ's 1989 sale of its theme park holdings to Anheuser-Busch . These theme park assets included
897-844: A secret agent of a foreign government, possibly a double agent or a triple agent , and "a thoroughly bad character and almost certainly financed by Russia". He had known links to the British Secret Intelligence Service ( MI6 ), to the Soviet KGB , and to the Israeli intelligence service Mossad . Six serving and former heads of Israeli intelligence services attended Maxwell's funeral in Israel, while Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir eulogised him and stated: "He has done more for Israel than can today be told." Shortly before Maxwell's death, Ari Ben-Menashe ,
966-542: A suitcase owned by his former head of security, John Pole. Later in his life, Maxwell had become increasingly paranoid about his own employees and had the offices of those he suspected of disloyalty bugged so he could hear their conversations. After Maxwell's death, the tapes remained in Pole's suitcase and were discovered by the researchers only in 2007. Maxwell's death triggered instability for his publishing empire, with banks frantically calling in their massive loans. Despite
1035-729: A takeover of Clive Sinclair 's ailing home computer company, Sinclair Research , through Hollis Brothers, a Pergamon subsidiary. The deal was aborted in August 1985. In 1987, Maxwell purchased part of IPC Media to create Fleetway Publications . The same year, he launched the London Daily News in February after a delay caused by production problems, but the paper closed in July after sustaining significant losses contemporary estimates put at £25 million. Originally intending it to be
1104-462: A very big iceberg". On 6 November 2014, Graham Johnson , pleaded guilty at Westminster Magistrates' Court . On 13 February 2015, Trinity Mirror published a public apology to "all its victims of phone hacking" on page two of the Daily Mirror . It also set aside funds to cover the cost of settling phone hacking compensation payments. The same apology was printed in the following editions of
1173-743: A year after he bought the Western Morning News company — and was renamed The Evening Herald and Western Evening News on 17 September 1923. On 24 May 1924, the name was changed again to the Western Evening Herald and Western Evening News . After changing format to tabloid in 1987, the title changed again to the Evening Herald , becoming simply The Herald in October 2006 when its print deadline shifted from midmorning (between 9 am and 11 am) to 1 am to accommodate
1242-609: Is a British newspaper, magazine and digital publisher. It is one of the UK's biggest newspaper groups, publishing 240 regional papers in addition to the national Daily Mirror , Sunday Mirror , The Sunday People , Daily Express , Sunday Express , Daily Star , Daily Star Sunday as well as the Scottish Daily Record and Sunday Mail and the magazine OK! Since purchasing Local World , it has gained 83 print publications. Reach plc's headquarters are at
1311-781: Is located at nine press sites throughout the UK, printing and distributing thirty-six major newspapers for the UK, including the Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror , the Sunday People , the Daily Record (in Scotland), and other contract titles including titles for the Guardian Media Group . Reach plc also owns a number of local titles in Northern England and in Surrey and Berkshire, after acquiring
1380-589: Is run by editor Claire Ainsworth. The history of the Herald stretches back to 2 pm on Monday 22 April 1895 when the Western Evening Herald was launched as Plymouth's first evening newspaper. Various other newspapers had come and gone in Plymouth in the preceding 100 years. The WEH was published by the owners of the Western Daily Mercury . It was then bought by Sir Leicester Harmsworth in 1921 —
1449-675: The Lady Ghislaine , named after his daughter Ghislaine . Maxwell was litigious and often embroiled in controversy. In 1989, he had to sell successful businesses, including Pergamon Press, to cover some of his debts. In 1991, his body was discovered floating in the Atlantic Ocean, having apparently fallen overboard from his yacht. He was buried in Jerusalem . Maxwell's death triggered the collapse of his publishing empire as banks called in loans. His sons briefly attempted to keep
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#17327726665461518-607: The Manchester Evening News and Reading Evening Post . In March 2010 Trinity Mirror stated that it would end its bout of staff cuts and newspaper closures. The announcement came as the company reported pre-tax profits of £72.7m for 2009, exceeding analysts expectations. In January 2012 it was announced Trinity Mirror acquired Communicator Corp, a digital communications company specialising in email and mobile communications for £8m. In August 2013, Trinity Mirror announced its partnership with whocanfixmycar.com,
1587-993: The Sunday People and Sunday Mirror . A hearing at the High Court in London heard on 3 March 2015 that one Mirror group journalist had hacked the phones of some 100 celebrities every day and that 109 stories had been published about just seven claimants. On 21 May 2015, damages totalling nearly £1.25m were awarded to eight people as the result of phone hacking by Mirror Group journalists, including actress Sadie Frost (£260,000) and ex-footballer Paul Gascoigne (£188,250). Other damages recipients included soap opera actors Shane Richie (£155,000), Shobna Gulati (£117,500) and Lucy Benjamin (real name Lucy Taggart, £157,250), as well as BBC creative director Alan Yentob (£85,000), TV producer Robert Ashworth (former husband of Coronation Street actress Tracy Shaw , £201,250) and flight attendant Lauren Alcorn (former girlfriend of footballer Rio Ferdinand , £72,500). The Mirror Group said it would consider whether to seek permission to appeal against
1656-582: The 1964 general election , representing the Labour Party , Maxwell was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for Buckingham and re-elected in 1966 . He gave an interview to The Times in 1968 in which he said the House of Commons provided him with a problem. "I can't get on with men", he commented. "I tried having male assistants at first. But it didn't work. They tend to be too independent. Men like to have individuality. Women can become an extension of
1725-561: The Allied-occupation authorities to go into business, becoming the British and US 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 academic publishing house. In
1794-740: The Competition and Markets Authority launched a preliminary investigation into the deal, requiring Trinity Mirror to keep Express Newspapers as a standalone entity. In July 2020, Reach announced that it was cutting 550 jobs, 12% of its workforce, because of falling income amid reduced demand for advertising in its titles. In January 2011, former MP Paul Marsden announced that he was considering taking legal action against Trinity Mirror, over alleged phone hacking . On 24 September 2014, Trinity Mirror admitted that some of its journalists had been involved in phone hacking. It admitted liability and agreed to pay compensation to four people who had sued for
1863-559: The Daily Mirror . Vanunu was subsequently kidnapped by Mossad and smuggled to Israel, convicted of treason and imprisoned for eighteen years. Ben-Menashe's story was ignored at first, but eventually journalist Seymour Hersh of The New Yorker 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, Labour MP George Galloway and Conservative MP Rupert Allason (also known as espionage author Nigel West) agreed to raise
1932-925: The Express & Echo in Exeter , the Herald Express in Torquay and the Western Morning News . Over 80% of the local adult population in the Plymouth region were said to use The Herald's website in 2013. In 2018, The Herald's website was rebranded as Plymouth Live by Reach plc . Its sister websites are Devon Live and Cornwall Live . Plymouth Live is active on social media, regularly posting breaking news, pictures and videos on its Facebook, Twitter. and Instagram pages It has 217,000 followers on Facebook, 81,200 followers on X, and 28,000 followers on Instagram. The Herald's print team
2001-633: The London stock markets . Maxwell subsequently lost control of Pergamon and was expelled from the board in October 1969, along with three other directors in sympathy with him, by the majority owners of the company's shares. Steinberg purchased Pergamon. An inquiry by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) under the Takeover Code of the time was conducted by Rondle Owen Charles Stable and Sir Ronald Leach in mid-1971. The inquiry resulted in
2070-520: The Metro , expanding their holdings while streamlining production, to make the group more saleable. Its 115 titles were formed primarily by those of Harmsworth's historic Northcliffe Newspapers Group , alongside other smaller purchases made by DMGT and Local World subsequently, including the 2007 purchase from Trinity. The purchase increased Trinity Mirror's local circulation by around 50%. The deal valued Local World at around £220 million. In February 2018,
2139-700: The One Canada Square in London . It is listed on the London Stock Exchange . The Daily Mirror was launched by Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe , "for gentlewomen" in 1903. The company was first listed on the London Stock Exchange on 2 December 1953. In 1958 the International Publishing Company (IPC) acquired Mirror Group Newspapers, but IPC was in turn taken over by publishing giant Reed International in 1970. In 1984 Pergamon Holdings ,
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2208-663: The SeaWorld chain, which the company had purchased in 1976. By 1988, Maxwell's various companies owned, in addition to the Mirror titles and Pergamon Press, Nimbus Records , Maxwell Directories, Prentice Hall Information Services 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. Maxwell purchased Macmillan Publishers ,
2277-596: The United States Congress was investigating Leasco's takeover practices. Judge Thayne 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 natural justice". Pergamon performed poorly under Steinberg; Maxwell reacquired
2346-560: The 120-mile distribution journey to Plymouth after printing was transferred to Weymouth in Dorset. Alan Clark , the Conservative MP for Plymouth Sutton from 1974 to 1992, dismissed the people of Plymouth as "believing everything they read in the Herald ". In 2012, Local World acquired owner Northcliffe Media from Daily Mail and General Trust . Reach plc Reach plc (known as Trinity Mirror between 1999 and 2018)
2415-551: The American firm, for $ 2.6 billion in 1988. That same year, he launched an ambitious new project, a transnational newspaper called The European . In 1991, Maxwell was forced to sell Pergamon and Maxwell Directories to Elsevier for £440 million to cover his debts; he used some of this money to buy an ailing tabloid, the New York Daily News . The same year Maxwell sold forty-nine per cent of Mirror Group's stock to
2484-583: 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 £100 million required to support the workers' state pensions. The rest of the £100 million was waived. Maxwell's theft of pension funds was therefore partly repaid from public funds. The result was that in general, pensioners received about half of their company pension entitlement. The Maxwell companies filed for bankruptcy protection in 1992. Kevin Maxwell
2553-483: The Holocaust . Five of his children—Christine, Isabel, Ian, Kevin and Ghislaine—were later employed within his companies. Karine died of leukaemia at age three, while Michael was severely injured in a car crash in 1961, at age 15, when his driver fell asleep at the wheel and crashed headlong into another vehicle. Michael never regained consciousness and died seven years later. After the war, Maxwell used contacts in
2622-653: The PROMIS software to Sandia National Laboratories and Los Alamos National Laboratory , two of the most important nuclear research and national security facilities in the United States. Maxwell allegedly employed John Tower , Chairman of the United States Senate Committee on Armed Services , to facilitate the sales of the bugged Israeli version of the PROMIS software to Sandia and Los Alamos. The Foreign Office suspected Maxwell of being
2691-687: The World ' s editor, Stafford Somerfield , opposed Maxwell's bid in an October 1968 front-page opinion piece in which he referred to Maxwell's Czechoslovak origins and used his birth name. He wrote, "This is a British paper, run by British people ... as British as roast beef and Yorkshire pudding ... Let us keep it that way". The paper was later purchased by the Australian tycoon, Rupert Murdoch , who later that year acquired The Sun , which had also previously interested Maxwell. In 1969, Saul Steinberg , head of "Leasco Data Processing Corporation",
2760-488: The alleged hacking of voicemails (entertainer Shane Richie , soap actresses Shobna Gulati and Lucy Benjamin and BBC creative director Alan Yentob ). The four also received an apology. Trinity Mirror also announced that it had earlier settled six other phone hacking claims in relation to former England football manager Sven-Göran Eriksson , footballer Garry Flitcroft , actor Christopher Eccleston , showbusiness agent Phil Dale, Richie's wife Christine Roche and Abbie Gibson,
2829-519: The boss." Maxwell lost his seat in 1970 to Conservative challenger William Benyon . He contested Buckingham again in both 1974 general elections , but without success. At the beginning of 1969, it emerged that Maxwell's attempt to buy the tabloid newspaper News of the World had failed. The Carr family, which owned the newspaper, was incensed at the thought of a Czechoslovak immigrant with socialist views gaining ownership. The board voted against Maxwell's bid without any dissent. The News of
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2898-471: The business together, but failed as the news emerged that the elder Maxwell had embezzled hundreds of millions of pounds from his own companies' pension funds . The Maxwell companies applied for bankruptcy protection in 1992. After Maxwell's death, large discrepancies in his companies' finances were revealed, including his fraudulent misappropriation of the Mirror Group pension fund. Robert Maxwell
2967-517: The company completed the acquisition of the publishing assets of Northern & Shell , including the Daily Express , Sunday Express , Daily Star (collectively the Express & Star Group), and OK! . Following completion, Trinity Mirror announced a plan to rebrand as Reach , subject to investor approval at a meeting scheduled for May 2018. Following completion of the acquisition,
3036-832: The company in 1974 after borrowing funds. Maxwell established the Maxwell Foundation in Liechtenstein in 1970. He acquired the British Printing Corporation (BPC) in 1981 and changed its name first to the British Printing and Communication Corporation (BPCC) and then to the Maxwell Communication Corporation (MCC). The company was later sold in a management buyout and is now known as Polestar. In July 1984, Maxwell acquired Mirror Group Newspapers ,
3105-540: The company introduced a number of measures to manage discretionary spending more carefully, some of which attracted press attention. In 2007, the company sought to sell a number of titles: the Reading Chronicle was sold to Berkshire Media Group and 25 Trinity Mirror South titles were sold to Northcliffe Media . On 1 October 2007 it was announced that the sale of the Racing Post had been completed:
3174-454: The efforts of his sons Kevin and Ian, the Maxwell companies soon collapsed. 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 money from investment banks Lehman Brothers , Coopers & Lybrand , and Goldman Sachs , as well as
3243-503: The entire sale process had raised £263 million. In September 2008 the company announced that it would be closing the printing plant in Liverpool after 154 years of printing in the city, and transferring the work to Oldham. In February 2010, Trinity Mirror bought the regional M.E.N. Media and S&B Media divisions of Guardian Media Group , containing 22 local titles across Northern England and in Surrey and Berkshire. This included
3312-519: The ground". Maxwell also bought into Derby County in 1987. He attempted to buy Manchester United in 1984 but refused owner Martin Edwards 's asking price. Pergamon Press, a Soviet -friendly firm, published numerous Soviet science books in the West. A bugged version of the intelligence spy software PROMIS was sold in the mid-1980s for Soviet government use, with Maxwell as a conduit. Maxwell
3381-638: 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 fired Davies. A year later, in Galloway's libel settlement against Mirror Group Newspapers, Galloway's counsel announced that the MP accepted that the group's staff had not been involved in Vanunu's abduction. Galloway referred to Maxwell as "one of
3450-683: The name "Ivan du Maurier", or "Leslie du Maurier", the surname taken from the name of a popular cigarette brand ) took part in a protest against the leadership of the Czechoslovak Army, and with 500 other soldiers he was transferred to the Pioneer Corps and later to the North Staffordshire Regiment in 1943. He was then involved in action across Europe, from the Normandy beaches to Berlin , and achieved
3519-476: The public. Maxwell's links with Eastern European totalitarian regimes resulted in several biographies of those countries' leaders, with interviews conducted by Maxwell, for which he received much derision. At the beginning of an interview with Romania 's Nicolae Ceaușescu , then the country's communist leader, he asked, "How do you account for your enormous popularity with the Romanian people?" Maxwell
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#17327726665463588-458: The publisher of six British newspapers, including the Daily Mirror , from Reed International plc . for £113 million. This led to a media war between Maxwell and Murdoch, the proprietor of the News of the World and The Sun . Mirror Group Newspapers (formerly Trinity Mirror, now part of Reach plc ), published the Daily Mirror , a pro-Labour tabloid; Sunday Mirror ; Sunday People ; Scottish Sunday Mail and Scottish Daily Record . At
3657-401: The rank of sergeant . Maxwell gained a commission in 1945 and was promoted to the rank of captain . In January 1945, Maxwell's heroism in "storming a German machine-gun nest" won him the Military Cross (MC), presented by Field Marshal Sir Bernard Law Montgomery . Attached to the Foreign Office , he served in Berlin during the next two years in the press section. Maxwell naturalised as
3726-415: The situation in the Soviet Union during the attempted coup of 1991 . 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." A production crew conducting research for Maxwell , a 2007 biographical film by the BBC , uncovered tapes stored in
3795-477: The size of the damages, but increased the money allocated to deal with phone hacking claims from £12 million to £28 million. On 15 December 2023, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex was awarded £140,600 by the High Court in damages against Mirror Group Newspapers after 15 out of 33 sample articles in his claim against MGN were ruled as being the product of phone hacking or other unlawful information gathering. Reach plc's printing division, Reach Printing Services,
3864-447: The worst criminals of the century". On 4 November 1991, Maxwell had an argumentative phone call with his son Kevin over a meeting scheduled with the Bank of England on Maxwell's default on £50 million in loans. Maxwell missed the meeting, instead travelling on his yacht, the Lady Ghislaine , to the Canary Islands , Spain. On 5 November, Maxwell was last in contact with the crew of Lady Ghislaine at 4:25 a.m. local time, but
3933-406: Was Maxwell's covert help in smuggling aircraft parts into Israel that led to the country having air supremacy during the war. Maxwell is alleged to have distributed a bugged version of a software, PROMIS , to a plethora of national governments and global financial institutions that enabled mass spying by the government of Israel. Maxwell was allegedly able to sell the bugged Israeli version of
4002-401: Was a Czechoslovak -born British media proprietor , politician and fraudster . After escaping the Nazi occupation of his native country, Maxwell joined the Czechoslovak Army in exile during World War II and was decorated after active service in the British Army . In subsequent years he worked in publishing, building up Pergamon Press to a major academic publisher. After six years as
4071-549: Was afforded a lavish funeral in Israel, attended by Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir , Israeli President Chaim Herzog , at least six serving and former heads of Israeli intelligence and many dignitaries and politicians, both government and opposition, and was buried on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem . Herzog delivered the eulogy, and the Kaddish was recited by his fellow Holocaust survivor, friend and longtime attorney Samuel Pisar . British Prime Minister John Major said Maxwell had given him "valuable insights" into
4140-458: Was also the chairman of Oxford United , saving them from bankruptcy and attempting to merge them with Reading in 1983 to form a club he wished to call " Thames Valley Royals ". He took Oxford into the top flight of English football in 1985, and the team won the League Cup a year later. Maxwell used the club's old grounds , close to his office at Headington Hill Hall , to land his helicopter—fans would chant, "He's fat, he's round, he's never on
4209-399: Was born Ján Ludvík Hyman Binyamin Hoch in the small town of Slatinské Doly, in the region of Carpathian Ruthenia in Czechoslovakia (now Solotvyno , Ukraine) on 10 June 1923. Like the rest of the then-newly formed Czechoslovakia, the area of Maxwell's birth and upbringing had been part of the Austria-Hungary until early November 1918. The area was annexed by Hungary in 1939. Maxwell
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#17327726665464278-406: Was born into a poor Yiddish -speaking Orthodox Jewish family and had six siblings. Most of Maxwell's relatives were murdered in Auschwitz after Hungary was occupied in 1944 by Nazi Germany , but years earlier he had escaped to France . In May 1940, Maxwell joined the Czechoslovak Army in exile in Marseille . After the fall of France and the British retreat to Britain , Maxwell (using
4347-474: Was death by a heart attack combined with accidental drowning , although three pathologists had been unable to agree on the cause of his death at the inquest; he had been found to suffer from serious heart and lung conditions. Murder was ruled out by the judge and, in effect, so was suicide. His son discounted the possibility of suicide, saying, "I think it is highly unlikely that he would have taken his own life, it wasn't in his makeup or his mentality." Maxwell
4416-402: Was declared bankrupt with debts of £400 million. In 1995, Kevin, Ian and two other former directors went on trial for conspiracy to defraud , but were unanimously acquitted by a 12-person jury the following year. In November 1994, Maxwell's widow Elisabeth published her memoirs, A Mind of My Own: My Life with Robert Maxwell , which sheds light on her life with him, when the publishing magnate
4485-511: Was found to be missing later in the morning. It has been speculated that Maxwell was urinating into the ocean nude at the time, as he often did. He was presumed to have fallen overboard from the vessel, which was cruising off the Canary Islands, south-west of Spain. Maxwell's naked body was recovered from the Atlantic Ocean and taken to Las Palmas . Besides a "graze to his left shoulder", there were no noticeable wounds on Maxwell's body. The official ruling at an inquest held in December 1991
4554-415: Was interested in a strategic acquisition of Pergamon Press. Steinberg claimed that during negotiations, Maxwell falsely stated that a subsidiary responsible for publishing encyclopedias was extremely profitable. At the same time, Pergamon had been forced to reduce its profit forecasts for 1969 from £2.5 million to £2.05 million during the period of negotiations, and dealing in Pergamon shares was suspended on
4623-471: 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
4692-595: Was ranked as one of the richest people in the world. Having earned her degree from Oxford University in 1981, Elisabeth devoted much of her later life to continued research on the Holocaust and worked as a proponent of Jewish-Christian dialogue. She died on 7 August 2013. In July 2020, Maxwell's youngest child, his daughter Ghislaine Maxwell , was arrested and charged in New Hampshire with six federal crimes, involving minors' trade, travel, and seduction to engage in criminal sexual activity, and conspiracy to entice children to engage in illegal sex acts, allegedly linked to
4761-406: Was reported that "At the Mirror Group, for instance, 700 out of the 800 software programs in use were found to be illegal". The company bought Scottish & Universal Newspapers in 1992, and in 1997 it acquired the Birmingham Post and Mail group of newspapers. In 1999 Trinity International Holdings, owners of the Liverpool Echo , merged with Mirror Group to form Trinity Mirror. During 2005
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