Year: 2019

Tower of London

A Window into the Minds of Abwehr Officers – Die Nachhut

Over the course of the last year, I’ve written a few blog posts in which an Abwehr officer named Walter Schulze-Bernett played a role. Dutchman Harm Knol Bruins – German Spy and Civil Engineer– 18 Dec 2018 Irish Naturalization – Wolpe, Roos and Smith – Black Market Passport Business – 11 Oct 2019 From June […]

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Article Review – Dramatising intelligence history on the BBC: the Camp 020 affair – Christopher J. Murphy (2019)

The Article Dramatising intelligence history on the BBC: the Camp 020 affair. Christopher J. Murphy. Intelligence and National Security, Volume 34,  Issue 5, p. 688-702, 2019. Summary A few months ago, I received a complimentary copy of this article from the author. He had earlier requested a copy of the Camp 020 Spy! television episode

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Book Review – Who Put Bella in the Wych Elm: Volume 2: A Crime Shrouded in Mystery – Alex Merrill (2019)

The Book Who Put Bella in the Wych Elm: Volume 2 – A Crime Shrouded in Mystery. Alex Merrill. APS Publications. 2019. Summary The mystery of who put Bella in the Wych Elm has an enduring fascination. Over the decades, theories of whose skeletal remains were found in a hollow tree in Hagley Wood, Worcestershire,

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Spooky Trees

Bella in the Wych Elm – The Van Raalte Connection

In the mid-1950s, after “Anna of Claverley” wrote her cryptic letter to journalist Wilfred Byford-Jones (a.k.a. Quaestor), the police were able to track down and interview the letter writer, one Una Abel Mossop. Una claimed that in 1941 her husband, Jack Mossop, had told her a story about a mysterious Dutchman named van Raalte and

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Tower of London

The Unsealed 1939 National Register entry for Kenneth Clifford Howard

Introduction For a few years now, I’ve been researching a gentleman named Kenneth Clifford Howard and his mysterious association with the two German spies, Josef Jakobs and Karl Theodore Drücke. His association with Josef seems to be based on a filing error at the National Archives (or MI5). Two small notebooks belonging to Kenneth can

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Book Review – Ghost of a Hurt – Bella in the Wych Elm – Rik Rawling (2008)

During my research into the Bella story, I’ve come across repeated references to a booklet published by Rik Rawling entitled Ghost of a Hurt. Unable to find a copy online, I reached out to Pete Merrill (co-author of another book on Bella) and got Rawling’s contact info. Rawling was kind enough to send me a

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Tower of London

Geheimnisse des Towers: Spione und Kronjuwelen – ZDF (2019) – in German

A cousin of mine in Germany made me aware of a German documentary that broadcast on 11 June 2019 in Germany. The show was a four part series on Geheimnisse des Towers (Secrets of the Tower [of London]): Geheimnisse des Towers: Spione und Kronjuwelen (Spies & Crown Jewels) Geheimnisse des Towers: Verschwörer und Verräter (Conspirators

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