Massive cocaine binge killed gay Count

By Tony Grew • October 11, 2007 - 12:23

The Count had injected himself with the drug every hour for nearly 24 hours before he died.

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A German aristocrat famed for his libertine lifestyle died from a massive overdose of cocaine, an inquest has heard.

In July Count Gottfried von Bismarck, 44, was found dead in his apartment in Chelsea, west London, by an estate agent selling the property.

It is thought he had been dead for up to three days.

Professor Sebastien Lucas, who performed the autopsy, told Westminster coroner's court yesterday that von Bismarck's corpse had the highest level of cocaine he had ever seen.

The Count had injected himself with the drug every hour for nearly 24 hours before he died.

It was revealed in court that he was also HIV+ and infected with Hepatitis B and C.

The Westminster coroner called it a "very regrettable story" and recorded a verdict of death by a heart attack caused by drug dependency and the overdose.

Count Gottfried von Bismarck was the great-grandson of the 19th Century German chancellor Otto von Bismarck.

He was first thrust into the tabloid limelight as a student at Oxford in 1986, when the 22-year-old daughter of Tory Cabinet minister Paul Channon died at one of his notorious parties.

In August 2006 he was again in the spotlight when a man fell 60ft from the roof garden of the Chelsea flat where Count von Bismarck was found dead.

The inquest into the death of Anthony Casey, 38, ruled that a 'gay sex orgy' was taking place at the flat of the aristocrat.

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