MONTREAL -- RCMP counter-espionage agents hid the fact that former ambassador to Moscow John Watkins died under police questioning out of concern for 'operational matters' with 'international ramifications,' one of the officers involved said Tuesday.
Henry Brandes, chief superintendant of the RCMP, gave his account of Watkins' 1964 death at a coroner's inquest investigating the incident.
Watkins, 62, died in a suburban Montreal hotel room Oct. 12, 1964 while being interrogated by Brandes and Leslie James Bennett, another RCMP counter-espionage officer now in retirement in Australia.
Brandes told the Quebec government-ordered inquiry under Coroner Stanislas Dery that Watkins, a retired diplomat who had served as ambassador in the Soviet Union in 1954-56, was reminiscing about the old days in the diplomatic corps when he suddenly collapsed and died late on Thanksgiving Monday.
'In the middle of a sentence he reached for a cigarette,' Brandes said. 'He took a deep breath. He gasped and flung his head back in the chair and remained motionless.'
Brandes said he had left the investigation of Watkins' death in the hands of local police, asking only that the investigators avoid 'making it a cause celebre.'
The investigating coroner at the time, Marcel Trahan, was not informed Watkins had been under police questioning at the time of his death and did not order an inquest. Trahan's report indicated only that Watkins was waiting for a flight to England, and that he had died of heart failure while in the company of 'friends.'
Brandes said he stood by his statement that he was a friend of Watkins, whom he had known for one month. 'We spent a great deal of time together under very close relations and, yes, I considered him a friend,' he said.
'For the protection of the man ... and for the protection of operational national matters that had international ramifications,' Brandes said, he and Bennett had sought to avoid publicity about the incident.
Watkins was investigated as a possible security risk after a Soviet defector alleged he was being blackmailed by Russian intelligence agents for his suspected homosexual leanings.
Brandes said 'Rock Bottom' -- the code name for the Watkins investigation -- began in September 1964 in Paris, where Watkins then lived.
Watkins agreed to accompany the two Mounties to London, where he was questioned, then to the suburban Montreal Holiday Inn for further interrogation.
'He was not a well man,' Brandes said, noting Wakins complained frequently of pains in his arms and took medication regularly. Because of his failing health, 'we left the pace of the interviews up to him. We held discussions when he felt up to it.'
There was constant contact between the diplomat and the RCMP officers -- including visits to the theater, going for strolls and watching television -- but intensive interviews were limited to three-hour sessions, usually once a day.
Brandes said Watkins was 'free to go' and co-operated voluntarily with the investigation.
On the day he died, Watkins underwent a four-hour interrogation. 'It was a follow-up on much of the information we had gleaned from him, backtracking on events that had taken place a few years earlier,' Brandes said.
Brandes said.
The investigation was to resume Jan. 6, 1982 with testimony from an as yet unnamed witness.
A close friend and former collegue of Watkins whom Brandes and Bennett met during interrogation in London would be called as a witness. The friend was aware of the RCMP investigation of Watkins.
At the resumption of hearings Dery would decide whether to call as a witness Brandes' colleague Bennett from Australia.
