Relative Says ‘Disturbing’ Phone Calls Haunted Spiro

WHITEHAVEN, England — Ian Stuart Spiro, the purported British spy found dead in Rancho Santa Fe after the murders of his wife and three children, had been haunted by “disturbing” telephone calls, his brother-in-law told an inquest Tuesday.

Ken Quarton said Spiro, 46, believed himself to be “in mortal danger.” He denied Spiro was a spy, calling him “strictly a businessman.”

British news reports have claimed Spiro worked for both the CIA and Britain’s MI6 intelligence agency in the Middle East in the 1980s, helping Anglican envoy Terry Waite with negotiations to free hostages in Lebanon.

On Nov. 5, Gail Spiro, 41, and the couple’s children, Sara, 16, Adam, 14, and Dina, 11, were found shot to death in the family’s rented home in Rancho Santa Fe.

Spiro’s body was found three days later, slumped over the steering wheel of his car in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. Toxicology tests found he died of cyanide poisoning. Authorities are investigating whether he committed suicide or was murdered.

Friends and relatives have speculated that Spiro and his family might have been victims of a terrorist hit squad.

Quarton, half-brother of Gail Spiro, denied that Spiro ever worked for the intelligence services.

He added that Spiro was distressed when his name appeared in a book about Waite and Lt. Col. Oliver North’s attempts to exchange arms for hostages.

“I learned he had been crying on the telephone about the book, which made it seem he had been working for the United States,” Quarton said. “That is so dangerous in the Arab world.”

“Ian knew he was in mortal danger,” said Quarton, who lives in Toronto.

Quarton said he had difficulty contacting Spiro during October.

“The reason he had not been answering his telephone was that he had been getting some very disturbing phone calls,” Quarton said. “He said it was something that had come to haunt him from the past.”

Quarton did not say who had been calling Spiro.

He said Spiro, who spoke Arabic, had many contacts in the Arab world, which he used in his business.

Quarton doubted reports that Spiro had murdered his wife and children, calling the Spiros “a very loving family.”

Coroner Adrian Walker adjourned the hearing to a date to be fixed later. A British inquest was required because the bodies have been brought back to England for burial.

Press Association, the British national news agency, said Spiro will be buried with his wife and children Thursday in the tiny village of Boot, in the English Lake District, where the family once lived.