- John Illman
- London, UK
- john{at}jicmedia.org
Photo credit: Jane Allison
Vincent Marks was the star expert witness who helped to secure the conviction of British child killer Beverly Allitt and the acquittal of Claus von Bülow, the playboy lawyer originally convicted of killing his heiress wife by injecting her with insulin. She spent the last 27 years of her life in a coma.
One of the 20th century’s most sensational court cases and the first major US trial to be televised, “the sleeping beauty murder” was the basis of a bestselling book, Reversal of Fortune, and the film of the same name—Jeremy Irons won an Oscar as von Bülow. Marks was the principal expert witness.
But his extraordinary career as a pioneering researcher into insulin and hypoglycaemia eclipsed dozens of appearances on the witness stand.
Good looking, with a commanding presence, a stentorian voice, and great charm, Marks was professor of clinical biochemistry at the University of Surrey and, simultaneously, head of clinical biochemistry and metabolic medicine at the Royal Surrey County Hospital, also in Guildford.
Research
His Guildford reference laboratory was the first in the UK to offer insulin assays to NHS hospitals throughout the UK. He recalled, “We received samples of blood, urine, and even tissue from patients with hypoglycaemia that was not from overtreatment of diabetes, but to some underlying disease—the nature of which was unknown.
“This gave me unrivalled access to data …
