This episode of HISTORY’S DEVILS delves into the life of Sidney Reilly, a dashing, semi-mythical MI6 officer who has often been referred to – without much reason – as the “Ace of Spies”. James Crossland is joined by Professor Rory Cormac (author of How to Stage a Coup, and Fakers: A Top Secret Tale of Phantoms and Forgeries of the Disinformation Front) for a conversation that explores Reilly’s duality as both a charming spy and a deceitful grifter who worked his way into the British intelligence community whilst building side careers as an arms dealer and radium peddler, all whilst acquiring as many as four wives without ever bother to divorce one of them. Along the way, Reilly allegedly stole German war plans, tried to kill Valdimir Lenin and, in the final act of his melodramatic life, conspired with a supposedly anti-Bolshevik secret society to destroy the Soviet Union from within.

Join James and Rory for this wild ride of truths, half-truths and outright lies!

Buy James’ book:

https://eandtbooks.com/books/rogue-agent/

Buy Rory’s book:

https://www.tgjonesonline.co.uk/Product/Rory-Professor-of-International-Relations-Professor-of-Inter-Cormac/Fakers--A-Top-Secret-Tale-of-Phantoms-and-Forgeries-on-the-Disinformation-Front-Line/15874311

Further Reading

Andrew Cook, Ace of Spies: The True Story of Sidney Reilly (History Press, 2004)

Robin Bruce Lockhart, Reilly: Ace of Spies (1967)

James Crossland, Rogue Agent: From Secret Plots of the Psychological Warfare, the Untold Story of Robert Bruce Lockhart (Elliot & Thompson, 2024)

Keith Jeffrey, MI6: The History of the Secret Intelligence Service, 1909-1949 (Bloomsbury, 2010)

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Sidney Reilly: The Ace of Spies

04:34 The Duality of Sidney Reilly: Hero or Villain?

08:52 Reilly's Early Life and Transformation

12:50 The Rise of a Bigamist: Sidney Reilly's Marriages

25:33 The Legend of the Ace of Spies: Myths and Reality

30:37 The Problem with Historical Sources

31:00 Reilly's War-time Activities

34:15 MI6's Role in America

35:50 The Black Tom Explosion

37:14 Reilly's Recruitment into MI6

40:21 The Bolshevik Revolution and Reilly's Role

42:14 The Lockhart Plot

46:09 Reilly's Failures in Espionage

48:04 Double-Crossing and Confusion

50:23 Reilly's Later Years and Grifting

54:08 “The Trust” and Reilly’s Final Mission

56:21 The Mysterious Death of Sidney Reilly

59:34 The Enduring Legend of the Ace of Spies

Music by SOULFULJAMTRACKS

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