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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This episode of History's Devils delves into the life of Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Confederate general and the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. Joined by the incomparable Edd Mair, James explores Forrest's early life, his rise in the Confederate army, the controversial Battle of Fort Pillow, and his post-war activities, including his leadership in the KKK. The discussion highlights the complexities of Forrest's character, his motivations, and the lasting impact of his actions on American history, particularly in relation to race and the legacy of the Civil War.

Further Reading
John Allen Wyeth, That Devil Forrest: The Life of General Nathan Bedford Forrest (Quatarro, 2016)
Court Carney, Reckoning with the Devil: Nathan Bedford Forrest in Myth and Memory (Louisianna State Press, 2024)
Susan Campbell Bartoletti, They Call Themselves the KKK: Birth of an American Terrorist Group (Clarion, 2014)

Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Nathan Bedford Forrest
02:58 Early Life and Character of Forrest
05:55 Forrest's Rise in the Confederate Army
09:06 The Civil War and Economic Motivations
11:51 Forrest's Military Tactics and Leadership
14:36 The Battle of Fort Pillow: A Controversial Legacy
17:34 The Aftermath of the Civil War and Reconstruction
20:13 Forrest's Involvement with the Ku Klux Klan
35:11 The Origins of the Ku Klux Klan
36:04 The Evolution of the Klan: From Pranks to Terrorism
37:50 The Klan's Structure and Governance
39:15 Psychological Fractures
41:59 The Klan's Political Aspirations and Violence
44:42 The Klan's Influence in the 1868 Election
47:46 Ulysses S. Grant and the Suppression of the Klan
54:02 The Decline of the First Klan and Its Legacy
58:31 Nathan Bedford Forrest's Later Life and Controversies
01:00:47 The Legacy of Confederate Statues and Memorialization

Music by SOULFULJAMTRACKS

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In this inaugural episode of HISTORY’S DEVILS, James Crossland and Jayne Friend answer the question of where British Fascism came from, by dialling the clock back a hundred years to the 1920s. In doing so, they delve into the life of Rotha Lintorn Orman – the little-known upper-class alcoholic tomboy who became Britain’s first fascist – and her gang of military has-beens, street-fighters and conspiracy theorists who in 1923 dubbed themselves the British Fascisti. In doing so, Lintorn Orman created a movement that has persist for over a hundred years, rising to prominence in our own times via a new generation of racists, grifters and ambitious politicians.

Just try and get through this first episode without feeling the weight of Britain's past on the back of the present.

Follow Jayne Friend on Instagram

@drjaynefriend

Further Reading

Robert Benewick, A Study of British Fascism: Political Violence & Public Order (London: Allen Lane, 1969)

Julie Gottlieb, Feminine Fascism: Women in Britain’s Fascist Movement, 1923-1945 (London: I.B. Taurus, 2000)

Martin Pugh, Hurrah for the Blackshirts!: Fascists and Fascism in Britain Between the Wars (London: Pimlico, 2006)

Music by SOULFULJAMTRACKS

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https://bsky.app/profile/jamescrossland.bsky.social