- Read the Wikipedia article and the lists it draws on [@wikipedia2026marconi] [@harper2005marconi]. Each name was traced back to the earliest source that could be found, giving a table of 27 people with employer, work, date, verdict and where the verdict comes from (dataset DAT0DGG95C1NAJ8).
- Pulled every Commons and Lords written answer on the deaths, 1986–1990 (about 35). They give the official employers, security classifications and verdicts, the refusal of an inquiry, and the MoD's statement that none of the dead was questioned in the Marconi fraud inquiry [@hansard1987mar31sharif] [@hansard1988mar31scientists] [@hansard1988nov11deaths].
- Read the contemporary wire and feature coverage that can be reached: Press (NZ) reprints of AP and Reuters 1987–88, the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and Australian Financial Review [@marshall1987firm] [@witt1988deaths] [@huck1988baffling] [@pp1988coincidence]. Most British national papers of 1987–89 could not be reached; OCR scans of the Times and FT on archive.org turned up only two relevant items (dataset DAT0DGG961MG5FH).
- Checked the later record. In 2022 Donald Robertson was convicted of murdering Shani Warren [@cps2022robertson]. A Chilean court and a 1998 British inquest found that Jonathan Moyle was killed. Jonathan Wash's inquest file is in the Bedfordshire archives [@bedsarchive1988wash], and there are open FCO files on Wash and Moyle at Kew [@tna1986fco653861] [@tna1991fco78389].
- Tested whether the deaths are an excess (method MTH0DGGBP3AS2EZ, run RUN0DGGDGRHYP78). Used ONS age-specific suicide and undetermined-intent rates for ages 20–64, 1982–1990 [@ons2025suicides], and GEC's workforce from the 1989 MMC report [@mmc1989gecplessey]. GEC's 17,500 UK science and engineering graduates alone would be expected to produce about 32 such deaths over the period; the lists hold 8 GEC cases. Even at half the population rate the lists fall short.
Figure 1
The lists hold about a quarter of the GEC deaths ordinary rates predict
Observed ÷ expected suicides and open verdicts, GEC UK science and engineering graduates (17,500), 1982–1990, ONS male rates ages 20–64
Drawn by the site
- Wrote six questions with answers and evidence: whether there is an excess, a common cause, a shared project, a link to the fraud inquiry, what the list really is, and six individual cases. Stored copies of all 46 reachable sources, the case table, the code and its outputs on the server.