Last Years and Death
She had always been prone to neurosis and depression, which was exacerbated by her cocaine habit. Her mother's death in 1976 also affected her deeply, and her behaviour became unpredictable, which led to her breaking up with Sullivan. Her life had begun a downward spiral into drug use and depression following the raids on her shop. A few months prior to her death she had received a large tax bill which she was unable to pay. Her kleptomania became more pronounced in the last year of her life, with her being arrested for shoplifting in June 1979, and again for stealing a necklace the day before her death. Millington committed suicide at age 33, using a deliberate overdose of paracetamol at her home in Walton-on-the-Hill, Surrey. Her husband found her dead in her bed on 19 August 1979. She left four suicide notes which were found near her body. In one of them she had written, "The police have framed me yet again. They frighten me so much. I cant face the thought of prison...The Nazi tax man has finished me as well"
She was buried at the St Mary Magdalene Church, Betchetts Green Road in the village of South Holmwood, Surrey. Her grey granite tombstone is situated at the side of the churchyard and bears the surname "Maxted" – her married name. She is buried in the same grave as her mother, Joan Quilter, who died in 1976.
Read more about this topic: Mary Millington
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