John Stonehouse - After Prison

After Prison

After his release, he worked as a volunteer fundraiser for the east London charity, Community Links, for several years. He joined the Social Democratic Party, which later merged with the Liberal Party to become the Liberal Democrats.

Stonehouse married his mistress Sheila Buckley in Hampshire on 31 January 1981 and shortly afterwards their son was born. Stonehouse wrote three novels, and made several TV appearances, mostly in connection with discussing his disappearance. On 25 March 1988, he abruptly collapsed on set during a TV show, but recovered. This was only temporary and Stonehouse died in Southampton, aged 62, on 14 April 1988 from a fourth heart attack. A fourth novel he was working on at the time of his death was published posthumously, in 1989.