Mr Jones - The Man Who Knew Too Much: The Life and Death of Gareth Jones (ePub)

Murdered in Mongolia in 1935 aged only 29, the Welsh investigative journalist Gareth Jones is a national hero in Ukraine for being the first reporter to reveal the truth about the Holodomor - the 1932-33 genocide inflicted on Ukraine by the Soviet Union during which over four million people perished.

A graduate of Aberystwyth and Cambridge universities, Jones - fluent in Welsh, English, Russian, French and German - was talented, well-connected and determined to discover the truth behind the momentous political events of the post-war period. He travelled widely to report on Mussolini's Italy, the fledgling Irish Free State, the Depression-ravaged United States, and was the first foreign journalist to travel with Hitler after the Nazis had taken power in Germany.

Jones' quest for truth also drew him to the Soviet Union where his reporting of the Holodomor incurred the wrath of Stalin who banned Jones from ever returning. Within two years, on the eve of his 30th birthday, Jones was shot dead by Chinese bandits with links to the NKVD, the Soviet Union's secret police, and is buried in his hometown of Barry in Wales.

Drawing upon Jones' articles, notebooks and private correspondence, Martin Shipton, the highly respected political journalist at Jones' former newspaper, the Western Mail, reveals the remarkable yet tragically short life of this fascinating and determined Welshman who pioneered the role of investigative journalism.