Who Killed William Colby?

[Editor's Note 5/2/2021: We have published a long overdue update to this Chronicle which provides more details and motive for the murder of William Colby. The American Chronicle: Postscript: Who Murdered William Colby?]

When the inimitable "Marla Singer" of Zero Hedge indignantly told me to take my "goddamn" murder theories regarding William Colby elsewhere I realized that my moment in the bloglight had arrived. So after a bit of time and some research, I took her advice producing the following morality tale for would be CIA directors. You will learn how and why the assassins killed the former CIA director on April 27, 1996. His death may have been mysterious as the newsfakers reported but it was certainly not a boating accident - or any other kind of accident for that matter.

It is not every day that a CIA director is murdered - in fact more presidents have been assassinated than have been CIA directors. But the world of spooks and spies is murky where finding the truth is a labor of love. Such labor did Zalin Grant put into the mystery that he wrote an account of Colby's death in War Tales published by Pythia Press.

Grant is not the first investigator to tread the waters of Cobb Island where Colby vanished. A defunct Agora Press publication reported within weeks of the murder that foul play claimed his life and revealed a clue which Grant leaves dangling. Before we can get to that clue, we need to develop the background.

After a hard day preparing his boat for the upcoming sailing season, Colby returned to his home, called his wife in Texas, and watered his willow tree. While watering the tree his gardener introduced him to his visiting sister. They left, Colby returned the hose to its place in the garage, and prepared dinner. While seemingly mundane these events provide timing clues to his disappearance and death.

Grant did what the professional investigators failed to do - he compiled a timeline of Colby's activities provided by eye witnesses and a helpful cooking inference from his wife to determine that Colby probably sat down to eat around 8:30p - well after dark - when all of a sudden he decided to get up to go canoeing - as you do.

The following day concerned neighbor Alice Stokes called the police. Hours later Kevin Akers unknowingly found Colby's canoe beached full of sand near the junction of Neale Sound and the Wicomico River and towed it back to the marina.

Colby's body was found nine days after his disappearance. After a quick autopsy on May 6, 1996 by David R. Fowler, assistant medical examiner for Maryland John Smialek, Maryland’s chief medical examiner, declared death by heart attack - a declaration having the salutory effect of dispersing the news media.  Unfortunately there was no evidence for such a conclusion. Grant was told different stories about the cause of death depending upon whom he asked and the time of day.

As Grant pulled together other details of the murder he was able to determine that a squad of 3-5 assassins in two groups engineered the murder. One group grabbed Colby whom they demanded to empty all of his pockets and then took by car to the murder location. The other team commandeered his boat and brought it to the location where Akers found it. The location was required because it had the sand needed to secure the boat in place. The place was needed because it was the only location with an accessible road to the water and out of view of potential witnesses.

After the killers murdered Colby, they allowed his body to decompose for 9 days in order to make it impossible to determine the cause of death. So the internal organs rotted while the exterior retained excellent composure. Thus they assumed correctly that the coroners would rule accidental drowning.

When they dumped the body at the crime scene the killers had not counted on the currents which would drift the body to a location other than where the boat was found. This detail would help solidify the case for murder.

As for that clue phone we mentioned earlier? Colby had routed his Cobb Island phone to his Washington home so that all billing would occur there so as to limit visitors from running up long distance calls. Only the Colbys knew the dial out code. Should there be calls on the line after the suspected time of disappearance of 8:30 there would be hard evidence that abductors had come to take him away.

Mrs. Colby refused to cooperate with Grant in providing that evidence - information which Strategic Investor had suggested as early as 1996 as being a key piece of evidence in understanding the cause of Colby's death.

So why was Colby murdered? A CIA director can make a lot of enemies which Colby managed to do in spades. Perhaps his biggest sin was his willingness to honestly answer Congress the questions they put to him. In fact his candor caused Kissinger to instruct President Ford to fire him which he did in November 1975. Twenty years later Colby was scheduled to speak before Congress again and the spooks at Langley wanted to take no chances of more family jewels being cast before swine.

References:
Who Murdered The CIA Chief