UK Spy Mystery – CARS Clues?
“PCDaly” sends along an intriguing UK spy murder mystery … “Gareth Williams, 31, was found in a padlocked sports bag in the bath of his flat 20 months ago.
He was a codebreaker for GCHQ, the government listening station, on secondment to MI6 and had worked closely with the American security services.”
For an apartment without much stuff in it, there is an interesting CARS clue.
It’s a low res photo so blowing it up shows not much more …
It’s definitely not the US Mack (notices Mack’s height to the trailer)
Plus, if you look closely, it definitely looks like the Piston Cup Championship logo on the left from CARS 2. So, it does seem in all liklihood to be this Disney Store product.
(still available at the Disney Stores UK site HERE).
But as PCDaly notes and asks:
The only problem with it being Cars2 merchandise, however, is that the movie Cars2 was released in June 2011, but Gareth Williams was found dead, stuffed into a red duffel bag in his bathtub in August 2010.
The UK Daily Mail article implies (but does not state) that the photos are from 2010.
Can you determine whether the Mack Transporter in the Gareth Williams living room photo was available (for purchase in a retail store or at a Disney themepark in Europe or USA) before his 2010 death?
Also, do you know when the basic storyline for Cars2 was finalized? or how much was finalized by August 2010 (when Williams died)?
First, the easy ones.
The CARS 2 storyline involving spies was pretty much sparked back in 2006 as Lasseter was thinking about it as a short playing on the drive-in screen but ultimately decided to save it and go with Pixar parodies. So, there’s not much linkage there. And they had already locked down the basic structure on April 9, 2008 when they announced CARS 2 (later when NEWT was canceled, they moved CARS 2 from 2012 to 2011).
CARS 2 opened in June in some European countries and the US/Canada but not until July in the UK. Most US merchandise was not available to the general public at retail until mid-May 2011. I did not track Disney Stores UK offerings but it seems unlikely anything would’ve been released and available until April 2011 and certainly NOT Summer 2010 as with computer animation, while the main characters are locked in, they can always change the peripheral characters with 10-months (till June 2011) so they would’ve not have wanted to release any peripheral characters as they might be changed even be cut or so they would not have released the other racers that early.
Now, the trickier parts …
However, presuming he met with foul play, adding a set of CARS to his apartment afterwards would not make much sense – why CARS? So while the implied date of his death is 2010, it seems more likely he was around until at least April 2011. Whether misleading the date of his demise serves a purpose is hard to say from here.
(USAToday gives a firm August 2010 as the month of his death).
While it’s not very likely, you can theoretically roll the dates back 3-5 months from April, 2011 if he purchased it on the streets of Asia. There is the unlikely possibility he bought a “factory back door,” one on the “streets.” Not saying it’s likely but a possibility – since production most likely began in Fall 2010 so it could ship by January-February to arrive in April-May … August seems just too early for production to begin and for it to be stored until shipping in February 2011 … while the possibility that he acquired it in Asia in August is extremely unlikely but it’s not 100% impossible (or bought it on eBay in the UK in that time period from Asia – obviously easier to trace).
But, even with the low res photos, there are some more incongruities. The Disney Mack does seem to have a spoiler wing in the back that does not look visible in the photo … but as noted, it may have been snapped off …
Here’s a photo of it in the box – which does seem to show the spoiler wing is already attached to Mack and does not require “assembly.” But it could’ve been damaged, snapped off or just slightly obscured in the low res jpeg. However, you could plausibly argue that a guy who kept so few possessions and appeared to have kept everything neat and tidy, how does he manage to damage his Mack?
The other oddity is that there appears to be a Fillmore on the table (green teal blob). Fillmore is NOT included with the CARS 2 included CARS in the set. Is it Fillmore? Is it simply bad color adjustment on the jpeg?
Or do you let your imagination run away with you and CARS were being used as spycraft carriers of secret messages … there’s enough room inside to carry a flash card. That Mack also had lights and sounds … turn off all your lights and blink a code or switch out Mack’s electronics for a black box upgrade to read the flash card (what better way to bring back a black box decoder designed as a Mack toy? Only they forgot the spoiler).
Also, I believe these are the smaller scale Disney CARS but most of the larger ones are held together by screws and not rivets – easy to hide something inside the CAR with just a screwdriver … just saying … which would also explain why the CARS on the table may not match the actual Disney store set so you use them to swap data … after all, it would take a crazy CARS nut to realize that Fillmore did not come with this Disney set. 🙂
Hey, are those black helicopters up there?
On the hand, most likely he zippered himself into a bag to commit seppuku. Really.
3 May 2012
21 Comments
Does anyone have a picture of gareth before he died?
I’ve reposted my response to hypercarrots here, as it may be confusing which of the comments, including nested comments, I am referring to:
When I first noticed the woman’s wrap/dress on the chair and the pocketbooks on the table they seemed to go with the stories in the press that ‘perhaps Gareth Williams’ private life was what killed him’–stories that he attended a gay bar and attended a cross-dressing variety show, that he took secret classes in fashion design, etc.
The pillow in on the sofa in the form of a bike seat (or an actual bike seat with a pad) also seemed to fit with Gareth Williams’ interest in cycling as noted in the numerous articles after his death. So it seemed the photo was reflecting Gareth Williams’ apartment as he lived in it.
If it weren’t for the fact that the movie “Cars 2″ begins with the crushing into a red cube of a British spy, just like Gareth Williams in the red duffel bag, then I wouldn’t have thought much of the Mack Hauler carrier from Cars 2 sitting in the photo’s background.
In the video of the apartment (I left a link in a comment above), reportedly taped by police soon after Gareth Williams’ body was found, there is a woman’s dress or wrap in the same color as this later living room photo. It is draped on the same set of chairs. There is also a woman’s wig draped on one of the chairs.
Since we are pretty sure that this Mack Hauler photo is NOT from 2010 (when Gareth Williams’ body was discovered) and since the intelligence services in the UK normally can spike a story or photos in cases of national security (dead top secret spy found dead in unusual circumstances is not a security issue?), then can we assume the above photo which was released to the public by the UK Press was approved by the intelligence services? Was the photo staged?
If yes, then to whom was the message intended? (Does the identity of the car which is flipped upside down on the couch telegraph any message?)
If not staged, then why did the photographer allow the pocketbooks and other women’s clothes in the periphery to be photographed?
And why no editorial caption under the photo to the effect that ‘this was taken at a different time than when Gareth Williams lived in the apartment?’
I left a comment below, in response to hypercarrots.
I also read that Gareth Williams apartment was owned by the intelligence agencies, presumably part of their system of safehouses. Hmm.
(MET: See my comment about furnished corporate housing).
I agree. If staging it to look ‘of the period,’ then yes, someone blew it.
But if staging it to send a message, the Cars2 item is part of the message.
Of course if the Mack the Hauler and the cars are just toys of the current occupents, then a simple caption below the photo could clear up that potential confusion. Then that begs the question, why just one toy in the room? And the other question: what family would want to live in the apartment where an MI-6 employee was found dead in the bath under mysterious circumstances?
This video reportedly shows the apartment living room as filmed by the police shortly after Gareth William’s body was discovered. There is no glass table by the window. Looks like the coffee table is there instead and there is a different sofa entirely.
http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0502/british-spy-probably-killed-unlawfully-coroner.html
It was the squirrels!
looks like 2, maybe 3 cars on the couch
I thought the same thing, but couldn’t tell if the other two were part of the pillow, or shadows from the pillow. I emailed the Daily Mail to ask about the date of the photo and if a larger version is available for viewing. It’s been about 6 or 7 hours since I did this, but haven’t heard back yet.
i see what looks like a purse and a woman’s wrap on the chair. i’m guessing somebody brought their kid with them to that room and the toy’s are not even gareth’s. maybe it is a family member, maybe it is a detective who brought their kid to work with her…
the decorum of his flat looks like a vacation rental or extended stay hotel. i can’t imagine him having only a few random toys in his living room.
When I first noticed the woman’s wrap/dress on the chair and the pocketbooks on the table they seemed to go with the stories in the press that ‘perhaps Gareth Williams’ private life was what killed him’–stories that he attended a gay bar and attended a cross-dressing variety show, that he took secret classes in fashion design, etc.
The pillow in on the sofa in the form of a bike seat (or an actual bike seat with a pad) also seemed to fit with Gareth Williams’ interest in cycling as noted in the numerous articles after his death. So it seemed the photo was reflecting Gareth Williams’ apartment as he lived in it.
If it weren’t for the fact that the movie “Cars 2” begins with the crushing into a red cube of a British spy, just like Gareth Williams in the red duffel bag, then I wouldn’t have thought much of the Mack Hauler carrier from Cars 2 sitting in the photo’s background.
In the video of the apartment (I left a link in a comment above), reportedly taped by police soon after Gareth Williams’ body was found, there is a woman’s dress or wrap in the same color as this later living room photo. It is draped on the same set of chairs. There is also a woman’s wig draped on one of the chairs.
Since we are pretty sure that this Mack Hauler photo is NOT from 2010 (when Gareth Williams’ body was discovered) and since the intelligence services in the UK normally can spike a story or photos in cases of national security (dead top secret spy found dead in unusual circumstances is not a security issue?), then can we assume the above photo which was released to the public by the UK Press was approved by the intelligence services? Was the photo staged?
If yes, then to whom was the message intended? (Does the identity of the car which is flipped upside down on the couch telegraph any message?)
If not staged, then why did the photographer allow the pocketbooks and other women’s clothes in the periphery to be photographed?
And why no editorial caption under the photo to the effect that ‘this was taken at a different time than when Gareth Williams lived in the apartment?’
(MET: Yes, I can certainly see where they ‘staged’ the rest of the apt but the CARS inclusion is a bit strange as it’s really the only “personal” object – the art on the wall is bland and non-descript – almost like hotel art – would a real person even bother to buy art like that and go to the trouble to hang it but maybe it’s a corporate furnished apt as the decorating style is that everything goes together but it’s bland and to blend in … other than the bike seat which we can see from the other available photo, he’s a bike rider, CARS are really the non essentially item in the room so that in itself is weird … I could argue the car overturned means very little as normally if you were playing with it and then got up from the couch, soft cushions might cause it to turn over … but just the inclusion of CARS is an oddity … certainly if you’re staging this location, why call attention? Would the inclusion of toy CARS automatically says to you ‘all is normal?’ Though of course, the person blew it by buying an item not available until March, 2011 – why Fillmore (not with the set?) and where’s the spoiler wing? Of course, if it took 20-months to determine a man stuffed in a locked duffel bag probably did not commit suicide, these little details will remain unresolved).
I clicked on a different article that said a Russian couple are now living in the apartment with their 3 year old son.
They didn’t know about the killing until now. Surprise!
I wondered if some emailed the photographer, his name is on the photo.
I Googled him as well, hoping to find a portfolio of news photos. I like the email idea though, I’ll see if I can find that as well.
The story of Williams’ death is disturbing, especially given how little the intelligence services seem to want to cooperate. The London police were prevented from directly interviewing MI-6 co-workers of Williams according to some reports.
The following website is a curiosity: someone writing about the Gareth Williams death investigation as if it were part of a Sherlock Holmes and Watson mystery. The artistic license can get annoying at times, and the series stretches to more than 100 pages, but the details in the dialog seem to be linked to actual news accounts.
The site is called Sherlock Holmes And The Alderney Street Mystery (“SHATASM” for short).
Start reading at chapter 32 and beyond to get an idea of the the author’s thinking.
http://shatasm.blogspot.com/2010/12/chapter-32-impossible.html
Here is a different angle in the same room with no Cars:
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/59960000/jpg/_59960352_59960351.jpg
I’m sorry it looks like I piggybacked the last two replies, but those comments weren’t there when I posted — more comments awaiting moderation? Met, can you turn that feature off or something?
John, I didn’t see your comments either until both our comments appeared simultaneously.
Thanks for posting, Met.
So it sounds like the Mack the Hauler visible in the living room photo is from 2011 and therefore the photo cannot be from 2010 and cannot be accurately reflecting the apartment as it looked when Gareth Williams lived and was found dead there.
I wonder why the UK Daily Mail does not attempt to properly tag the photograph.
Here’s a BBC article about Gareth Williams death (this week). The livingroom photo attached to this article shows no trace of the Mack the Hauler. There is no attempt to tag this photo with a date either.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17790563
There is also an overturned car over on the couch. If you zoom in on the photo the date code is clearly EA 1003, which means April 10, 2013. This guy must have been a time traveler!!
What’s more suspicious is the upturned car on the couch…hmmm?
As the Cars World Turns…