MONTREAL -- A policeman called to the death scene in 1964 of a former Canadian ambassador to the Soviet Union was told by a purported RCMP officer that the man choked on peanuts, an inquest heard Monday.
The Quebec government-ordered coroner's inquest opened Monday into the death of John Watkins, 62. Watkins was being questioned by two Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers when he died Oct. 12, 1964.
A coroners' inquest was not held immediately after Watkins' death - determined at the time to have been caused by a heart attack and listed by then-coroner Marcel Trahan as an 'unforeseeable' natural death.
The RCMP officers were investigating a Soviet defector's allegation that Watkins was blackmailed by the Soviet intelligence agency, the KGB, over his homosexual activities and was a security risk.
Sgt. Remy Martin testified he was a police constable in 1964 when he was summoned to the Chateaubriand Holiday Inn after Watkins' death. He said that on his arrival he was met by a man who identified himself as an RCMP officer.
Leslie James Bennett and Harry Brandes of the RCMP security service conducted the investigation into Watkins' security credentials that culminated in the 48-hour session of questioning just prior to Watkins' death.
Martin said Watkins was unconscious and propped in a chair at a round table littered with glasses and ashtrays, his head rolled back and legs spread.
He said one of the men who met him said Watkins had choked while eating peanuts. Martin said he checked Watkins' mouth and found no sign he had been eating peanuts.
Martin said it was his understanding from a phone call his partner made to local police headquarters that 'Brandes and Bennett did not want the St. Laurent police department to do anything with Watkins' body.'
'However, it was taken to the morgue despite their objections,' he said, adding a hearse drove up as he left the hotel.
Martin testified that despite four years driving the only local police ambulance, he did not recognize the vehicle nor the men inside it.
Martin's partner at the time, Pierre Lemire, told the inquest there had been three men in the room with Watkins, the two RCMP officers and a man who identified himself as an officer from the Department of External Affairs.
Lemire said the indecision among those in the room about the cause of Watkin's death had been 'quite strange.' He made no mention of having been told the diplomat died by choking on peanuts.
He said that as the senior officer he and not Martin had done thephysical examination of Watkins, including pulse and eye tests and a check of the dead man's mouth for obstructions. He said he found nothing in Watkins' mouth.
He said he and his partner left the matter in the hands of the RCMP officers, who had offered to advise the family and wait for a doctor.
The pathologist who signed Watkins' death certificate, Dr. Iona Kerner, said she made only an external examination of the body and found no unusual markings.
She said she 'most certainly' would have conducted a full autopsy had she known at the time that Watkins was a former diplomat in the presence of the RCMP at the time of his death.
An investigative report filed after the death indicated 'coronary thrombosis in an unexpected, sudden, and accidental death.'
The written testimony of Hugh J. Clark and his wife Phoebe, the only known relatives of Watkins, was also presented. The pair said they visited their first cousin in Paris about six months before he died, and he was healthy and appeared happy.
They said at another visit with him north of Toronto shortly before his death, Watkins 'didn't seem to have any get up and go.' They said he was short of breath, took medicine regularly and complained of pains in his arms.
The inquest, headed by Stanilslas Dery, was ordered in September - 17 years after Watkin's death -- by the Quebec government after questions were raised about the lack of a full inquiry after the diplomat's death.
