Born Free

BORN FREE. 1966 film based on the true life book by Joy Adamson chronicling her life in Kenya on a game reserve with orphaned lions. In particular the moving story of  her returning to the wild her favorite cub "Elsa". It won two Academy Awards for its music theme score and was the most popular film of the year at the British box office, later spawning 1970s sequels Living Free and Forever Free and publicising the now worldwide "Born Free Foundation". The two stars of the film (Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna) both later became prolific wildlife campaigners. On 3rd January 1980, Joy Adamson's body was discovered by her assistant, Peter Morson in the Shaba Nature Reserve in Kenya. He mistakenly assumed she had been killed by a lion and this was what was initially reported by the media. The police investigation found Adamson's wounds were too sharp and bloodless to have been caused by an animal and concluded she had been murdered aged 69. Paul Nakware Ekai (a discharged labourer formerly employed by Adamson) was found guilty of murder and sentenced to indefinite imprisonment. He escaped capital punishment as the judge ruled he might have been a minor when the crime was committed. Her husband George Adamson was murdered nine years later in 1989, near his camp in The Kora National Park, while rushing to the aid of a tourist who was being attacked by poachers.