A Scottish comedian has long been involved in a struggle for justice involving his good friend, who died under suspicious circumstances during a party of rocker Pete Doherty. Jerry Sadowitz has been working for almost a decade to uncover the truth about his death.
Mark Blanco fell from the balcony on the second floor of a residential building after an argument with the Libertines star in December 2006. The aspiring actor was kicked out of his London apartment after asking the controversial musician to see him on stage.
But he returned to the party before falling to his death. The police suspected that the incident was suicide, but a coroner denied this, leaving the cause of death open.
New evidence revealed in a Channel 4 documentary claims that the police investigation was botched and leads to new evidence from an FBI expert who, after investigating the incident using new techniques, came to the conclusion that he was murdered.
The controversial comedian Sadowitz joined the Campaign for Justice years ago and even used a video call from Blanco’s mother Sheila before some of his shows in 2014. He became friends with the late actor after meeting at a meeting for magicians.
He spoke about this campaign in an interview with The Herald nine years ago, while describing him as “one of my best friends” and “a potentially great, funny and uniquely talented author”. He added: “It’s good that the public sees Sheila’s message as something separate. It is very disturbing that there has been no investigation. She was swept under the carpet.”
Blanco was found dying in the street with severe head injuries after trying to make an advertisement for a new play he was directing in London. He visited the apartment of Paul Roundhill, a friend of Doherty, to persuade him to visit.
The security guard of the Babyshambles rocker Johnny Jeannevol confessed to the police that he had thrown Blanco from the balcony, but later retracted this after saying that he had a lot of cocaine. Police concluded that his death was suicide or an accident, which was ruled out by a coroner.
Doherty was implicated in the death during an inquest in 2007, which heard that he had told Jeannevol to “talk” to Blanco after “upsetting” him. The rock star was also seen on CCTV running away from the body.
In his book, A Likely Boy, he admitted that he “waited” after finding the seriously injured one, because he did not want to have any more problems after clashes with the police. The former heroin addict told Channel 4: “I’m sorry for the loss of Ms Blanco. I appreciate any help people can give her.”
Comedian Sadowitz demanded that the case be investigated by the police again. He said: ‘Everything around this apartment and the people in it seem to be well protected. You have to at least try. You can’t make the details disappear. That was a really decent guy, a nice guy. What Mark’s mother is doing is incredible: she has a mountain to climb.”
Pete Doherty, who killed my son? it’s on Channel 4, Monday at 10am.