Willie MacRae
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Willie MacRae was a Scottish nationalist best remembered for the mystery surrounding his death.
MacRae was an active member of the Scottish National Party (SNP) and a prominent anti-nuclear campaigner. A qualified solicitor, MacRae had in fact contested the SNP leadership in 1979, coming third in a three-way contest with 52 votes to Stephen Maxwell's 117 votes and winner Gordon Wilson's 530 votes.
He was active outwith Scotland too, having served in the Royal Indian Navy becoming friendly to the campaign for independence for India. He was also the author of the maritime law code of Israel and emeritus professor in the University of Haifa. After his death a forest of 3,000 trees was planted in Israel to mark his passing.
MacRae's death is shrouded in mystery. On April 5, 1985 he was driving from Glasgow to his home in the Scottish Highlands but never made it back. The next day he was found unconscious suffering from gunshot wounds, subsequently dying without ever regaining consciousness.
A handgun was later found near to where MacRae was found, said to belong to the deceased and having been fired twice. The official verdict in the inquest into his death was suicide, but many individuals refuse to believe this is the case. Many argue that in fact he was killed by the secret services due to his political activity inside the SNP, and the high profile campaigning he was involved with against nuclear dumping in Scotland, although this has never been proved.
In 2005 Fergus Ewing MSP requested a meeting with Elish Angiolini, the Scottish Solicitor General to discuss allegations that have persisted that MacRae was under survellience at the time of his death. The request was rebuffed, with Angilini claiming that he had not been under survellience and that she was satisfied that a thorough investigation into the case had been carried out. However, in July, 2006 a retired policeman, Iain Fraser, who coincidentally seems to have been a member of the SNP and who was working as a private investigator at the time of MacRae's death claimed that he had been anonmously employed to keep MacRae under survellience only weeks before he died.
The death of Willie MacRae received further attention when the events surrounding it formed the basis of a broadcast of the STV show "Unsolved", originally broadcast on November 9, 2006.
