The Lockerbie Incident: A Detective's Tale [Illustrated] [Paperback]

John Crawford (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 6, 2006

"Lockerbie did not happen in isolation - what events triggered the biggest mass murder in Scotland ever? Get behind the rhetoric, dig around the facts and make up your own mind. Guaranteed no theories, no conspiracies, no holds barred."

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

John Crawford was born in Glasgow at the end of WW II, worked as a miner, and then served in the Royal Navy.

A police officer for over 29 years, most of those as a detective, John Crawford is married with one grown daughter.

He is Scottish to the core.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

From Chapter One - The Maid of the Seas

Whatever the events that had passed and whether they were or were not connected, the fact remained: at 1903 Greenwich Mean Time on Wednesday 21st December 1988, the Boeing 747 aircraft of Pan American Airlines - coded flight 103 - disappeared from the radar screen watched by Alan Topp. It disintegrated into half a dozen echoes as it spiralled to the ground, spilling its occupants, dancing a reel of death in the Scottish sky.

The break-up took place over the little market town of Lockerbie, which nestled in the gentle rolling hills of the Scottish borders. No one outside the area had heard much of the small rural community that sat beside the main road south from Glasgow to England. Now its name will never be forgotten.

From Chapter Two - The Nightmare Begins

The first task was to recover all the bodies of the deceased in each area. In our part of E sector we combed the hills and fields around Halldykes farm. A young child's body had been found nearby the previous night and had been taken to the town by the farmer. The only other piece of human flesh we discovered during our first hours in the field was a severed foot.

There was plenty of wreckage scattered in a path some 100 yards wide and stretching from the hills towards the town. All the major parts of wreckage found were checked thoroughly; in our sector a huge chunk of the tail was found lying in a hollow in a grass field. I was sent down to check out the strewn debris of personal belongings with a couple of other men. We had a look inside the wreck of the tail section but no bodies were found. The wreckage lay where it had landed until we had recovered the bodies.

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I am not ordinarily a religious person, like most cops I have seen too much of mans inhumanity to man to believe in it too much. On this night, and I don't know about the rest of the guys, but I said a wee silent prayer for each of the victims I put into the body bags.

After that I just went round in a blur moving from body to body and noting as much detail as possible for future identification. The senses became numbed as we continued our work. We went through the same routine with each victim in turn. Although the daylight was long gone we still had many bodies to photograph and transport to town.

From Chapter Five - Events in the Lead up to Lockerbie

The terrorists were led by Haj Hafez Dalkamoni, a one legged Israeli Arab who had been a prisoner of the Israelis for many years following an abortive cross border bomb attack. He'd lost a leg after a premature explosion. He was a close confidant of Ahmed Jibril and a member of the ruling commission of the General Command. He had arrived in Germany, ostensibly to receive treatment for his leg. It could be said that it was his mind that was being treated as he plotted revenge. His companions on arrival were Marwan Abdel Khreesat, a 46 years old Jordanian, and his wife. Khreesat was well known as a bomb maker with several international warrants in force for his immediate arrest.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing; illustrated edition edition (July 6, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1553698061
• ISBN-13: 978-1553698067
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,366,200 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No conspiracies, just the truth, February 3, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Lockerbie Incident: A Detective's Tale (Paperback)

There have been several books written about the Lockerbie Incident, but I don't see how there could be a more honest, open, heart-wrenching telling of the tale than this one by John Crawford.
I think only since 9/11 many Americans have come to realize the extent of evil in the world. Two hundred seventy people died as the result of this evil in 1988. Nowadays it seems that aircraft being blown out of the sky is something we have become desensitized to, but this event has touched the lives of many people, including this author, as well as myself.
From the luggage being loaded at the terminal, to the body bags on the rolling hills of Scotland, you will be involved in the case through the eyes of an experienced professional investigating it. You will be taken to Malta, shown piece by piece how this case was solved. You will be able to read each name one by one and get a sense of the magnitude of this event.
You will come to appreciate the work involved to keep a crime like this from going unpunished. You will not soon forget Lockerbie or the people who died there, may they rest in peace.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars the politics of real life, November 23, 2002

By 

Amanda Mair (uk) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Lockerbie Incident: A Detective's Tale (Paperback)

This is a clearly written and at times deeply honest account of the complexities involved in a major investigation. This investigation was a major one, not only for Scotland, but for the civilized western world, and had repurcussions that effected countless lives...and still does. The author places it well to allow the reader an opportunity to relate with the time of year and some of those complexities. The technical jargon of Police work and aviation is clearly explained and the brief history "lessons" concerning the Middle East and some of the fanatical characters is useful. Its written by someone who was literaly there picking up the pieces from the start. At times the author lays open his own feelings, which as a serving professional police officer, had to be secondary to the investigation. Not only raw emotions of dealing with the aftermath of such carnage, but of wrestling with the politics..not only of the police service, but of the Governemnts involved. This is documented and at times more subtly hinted at. It adds to the placing of the book and its historical usefullness in painting a detailed picture of such a major enquiry and the negotiaions that need to be undertaken..or avoided.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars No nonsence, the facts, October 2, 2002

By 

Terry Lowndes (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Lockerbie Incident: A Detective's Tale (Paperback)

I was fortunate to find this book early. It is written by a man who was actually on the ground as a local serving Police officer. It is written with feeling and sympathy for the unfortunate victims, who cascaded from the skies on to the small Scottish hamlet of Lockerbie.Mr Crawford then spent the next few years tracking the perpertrators of this unspeakable crime, around the world. He describes the horror at the outset,then follows every little clue, in true Sherlock tradition. He interviews suspects, talking to members of various Middle Eastern terror groups. He shares intelligence with other police forces from around the world, and his travels involving the investigation take you to the most unexpected corners of the globe. This is one great story, told by a very ordinary man who was determined to bring these terrorists to justice. John Crawford is destined for greatness in the detective story genre, and I'm eagerly awaiting his next work. Well recommended!