Gareth Williams' Death

The mathematician Gareth Williams died at the age of 31. Here is all you want to know and more!

Biography - A Short Wiki

Best remembered for the mysterious circumstances of his death, this Welsh-born mathematician was a dual Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) and British Secret Intelligence Service agent.

After studying at Bangor University in his late teens, he earned a PhD in mathematics from the University of Manchester.

His naked body was found stuffed in a large bag in a British secret service safe house in the Pimlico neighborhood of London, England.

Personal Life

Born and raised in Anglesey, Wales, he grew up speaking Welsh as his first language and English as his second.

On the request of the U.S. State Department, British Foreign Secretary William Hague signed a document after Williams’ death that barred the general public from many of the details of Williams’ professional life as an intelligence officer.

How did Gareth Williams die?

The coroner concluded that another party placed the bag containing Williams into the bath, and on the balance of probabilities locked the bag. The coroner said that Williams was probably alive when he was put in the bag and that he probably died shortly afterwards from CO 2 poisoning or from a short-acting poison.