The twisted trail of a spy who crossed the bridge from West to East

IT WAS RAINING heavily on London and the 317 prisoners in D Hall of Wormwood Scrubs Prison were being kept indoors on Saturday, October 22, 1966. The 5 p.m. roll check had just been taken, and since everything seemed to be normal, all of the prisoners were being released from their individual cells for a two-hour "free association" period. Some men would spend this time playing checkers and talking to the other in- mates, others would complete lessons for various correspondence courses or read books from the prison library. Two hundred and ten prisoners were escorted by two guards to another wing of Wormwood Scrubs where they were going to see a current movie with other convicts. The remaining 107 were being kept in D Hall, where most of them were — turn the page Blake, from page 23

watching the wrestling matches on Although he had been off the "escape gized, "Sorry, I'm going back to my television. list" — a file of all prisoners who had cell. I've got to finish my Arabic George Blake had watched the attempted to escape or those who lesson." matches for several minutes before he were regarded as potential escapees — At the foot of the stairs, Blake turned to a guard and angrily spoke for over four years, the governor of cautiously turned his head back to see out: "All those matches are phony. the prison wouldn't give him the if any guard or prisoner was watching They're all rigged." freedom of movement the other in- him. No one was looking. It took him The guard nodded his head in- mates had. Unconsciously, Blake only a dozen seconds to reach the differently, then replied, "Well, you glanced at the two guards supervising second floor of the building. Walking don't have to watch them if you don't the men. Both were watching the tele- between the rows of cells, Blake dis- covered that he was the only person on the floor. There was a large, iron-barred win- dow, its glass partly broken, at the end of the corridor. Blake walked up to it, stooped down, and ran his right hand down the central iron bar. Near the floor his hand stopped at a strip of. dark adhesive tape which had been wrapped around the bar several times. Blake had placed it there to conceal a cut in the cast iron. Blake waited a minute until the men below him let out a yell. It took only a few kicks with his boot to bend the cut bar far enough out of shape to allow his body to squeeze through. The ground was twenty feet below him. Blake swung his legs out as he leaped and landed on a parapet covering an entrance to D Hall. With one more short jump he was on the ground. "The guard." Blake quietly spoke to himself and kept low near the para- pet, waiting. A few minutes passed, and then a lone figure decked out in rain gear and carrying a flashlight passed by. The guard swung the light towards the parapet but didn't see the figure huddling there. "Eight minutes, just eight minutes." Blake was thinking of the small amount of time he had left for his escape. "Eight minutes to get to the wall and to get out." The guard disappeared in the rain. Blake hurdled a short hedge and ran towards the wall twenty yards away. As he approached it, he saw the ladder hanging down next to the bricks. It was made of nylon and each rung was reenforced with a long, grey knitting needle. One, two, three ... up the twenty rungs Blake slowly climbed. His mind Scotland Yard released this photo of double agent George Blake, serving a 42- was counting off the minutes before year sentence, when he escaped from Wormwood Scrubs Prison on Oct. 22, 1966. the guard would return. He reached the top of the wall and then pushed want to. Is there supposed to be any- * vision. his body off the narrow ledge. It was thing better on?" Blake stayed in the main hall for a a drop, twenty feet straight down to "Hell no. Right now there's just few more minutes and then started to the ground. Blake made a quick roll those rigged matches." Blake turned walk towards the exit as the men were on his side as he landed to take the his eyes back to the screen but he yelling for their favorites. The two shock off his legs. This was a trick he couldn't keep his mind on the action. guards didn't sec him leave. had learned twenty vears before when For a moment he thought about the "Hey, George, stay and watch the he was instructing British agents who movie in the other wing of the prison, TV," a prisoner called. were being air-dropped in Nazi-held but he knew he would never be al- Blake didn't turn around to see who territory. Blake's blue prison uniform lowed out of D Hall by the guards. was addressing him, but quietly apolo- was thoroughly soaked when he got up and tried to look through the rank of captain in the British Royal that his feelings were genuine and heavy rain. Army during World War I. When he was recruited as a courier. For two At 7 p.m. the prisoners of D Hall Egypt became an English Protec- years Blake bicycled around the were returned to their cells for the torate, his father became a British countryside while carrying messages evening count. At 7:10 a guard citizen. Catherine Beijderwellen, his for the underground fighters. noticed that a cell on the second floor mother, came from a Protestant family In the spring of 1942 Blake rode was empty. However, a few prisoners in Holland. his bicycle to a drop point where he usually lagged behind, so it was In 1935 Ceorge traveled to Cairo was to pick up some coded messages. ignored. Ten minutes later, the cell where he lived with an aunt and her Instead, there was a large envelope was still empty and so the Governor rich husband. It was there that he was placed there. Tearing open the enve- of the prison and the main gate were taught the English language. lope, he discovered that it contained notified. A quick search of the grounds Blake's return to Rotterdam came an assortment of official-looking docu- was made and the nylon ladder was only a few months before Adolph Hit- ments. There was one piece of paper found hanging inside the wall. A ler launched his armies against the on which was written: "The Move- guard also found a lot of pink chrysan- nations of Europe. For several months ment has been betrayed. Get out of themums outside the prison which of uneasy peace he lived with his the country before the Gestapo arrests had been placed next to the wall grandmother while continuing his you. Use these false papers." where the ladder had been thrown education. Blake was just under eigh- Blake immediately jumped on his over. At 7:43 Scotland Yard was noti- teen when the invasion of Holland bicycle and started to pedal to the

On the left is a bearded Ceorge Blake when he was British Vice-Consul in Seoul as he was released with other Britons by the North Koreans in April, 1953. fied and an urgent message went out: came. His mother, who had married south. He did not stop at his uncle's Find George Blake. an English diplomat after her first home, but traveled quickly into Bel- It was Sunday when the English husband died, and his two sisters were gium and then into France. Blake had people heard the news. George Blake, able to cross the Channel into Great boarded a train heading for the Pyre- the man who worked as a double Britain before the Nazi storm troopers nees region of France when he was agent for the Russians for nine and a overran the small nation. stopped by a Nazi guard who de- half years while serving as a British Sinc^ it was dangerous for Blake to manded to see his papers. Silently intelligence officer, had escaped from remain in Rotterdam, he fled to Blake handed over several of the prison. Warnsveld in eastern Holland, where forged documents he had received. he lived with an uncle. It was there One gave his age as 16 years. The eorge Blake was a man who had that Blake was introduced to the guard was satisfied .and let him con- Gno strong national loyalties. He clandestine activities that would have tinue riding on the train. was born as George Beliar in Rotter- an impact on his life. While living Near the French-Spanish border, he dam in 1922. Albert William Behar, under the name of Pieter de Vries, he made contact with an "underground his father, was an Egyptian Jew who was contacted by the Dutch under- railroad" which had helped downed had spent five years in the French ground, which had learned of his — turn to page 32 Foreign Legion and had earned the anti-German feelings. They discovered Blake, from page 25

Allied pilots escape from Nazi terri- ordered Blake and Owen to the base- The guard became enraged over tory. With its help Blake walked over ment of the legation building to burn this back talk. "I'm the guard here. the Pyrenees Mountains into Spain. the ciphers and other appropriate Bend over, get down." Near Madrid he was arrested by the papers, while he remained in the main The two men could only obey his Civil Guard. However, since he' had a room to reassure the British civilians orders. The guard brought the butt of British passport, lie was sent to the who had taken refuge there. The two the rifle down on Blake's back. Then English base at Gibraltar. From there men quietly burned the papers as they Deane was hit. Over and over he beat he was flown to England in 1943. listened to rifle shots. As an after- and kicked the two men before him, When George landed in England, thought, they poured the contents of but neither one of them gave out any he adopted his stepfather's surname: the building's wine cellar down the cries of pain. Blake's face was partially Blake. Because of his knowledge of drain in hopes of preventing a buried in the snow, but the guard Flemish and German and of the drunken massacre. The front door was could see a forced smile on his lips. geography of Holland, he was re- pushed down and several armed sol- Blake kept that smile throughout the cruited by the British Special Opera- diers entered the main room. Holt, beating. tions executive, who needed a man Blake, Owen and the other British During the months of captivity, the with those abilities for the Dutch civilians were arrested by the "Peo- men around Blake admired him for branch. Blake spent the remainder of ple's Army" of North Korea. his courage and for his ability to the war training agents who were be- Blake and the other civilian cap- resist the attempts at brainwashing. ing air-dropped into Holland. At the tives, including Philip Deane, a British Bishop Cecil Cooper stated: "Blake end of the war he received the Dutch journalist, and Commissioner Herbert was a man of great energy. He kept us Order of Nassau, an honor bringing Lord of the Salvation Army, were kept alive by his enthusiasm and his cour- him knighthood for his services. in the South until U.S. forces ad- age. Blake resisted the brainwashing Blake spent some time as an inter- vanced towards the Yalu River. On fiercely, arguing with the political of- preter for the naval staffs in Berlin October 31, 1950, the prisoners, along ficers who were attempting to indoc- and Hamburg before he was ap- with 700 American soldiers, were trinate us." proached by MI-6 (Military Intelli- taken on a death march across the During the time of captivity, the gence, Branch 6, the organization 38th Parallel. The people were forced civilians were not exposed to as much which conducts England's espionage to walk 15 miles a day, and the com- brainwashing as were the military. activities abroad), who needed a man bination of this physical exertion and However, they were constantly bom- with his war experiences and linguistic the poor diet of millet had its effect. barded with propaganda: works of abilities. Using the front of a naval Those who dropped out of the march Lenin, Marx, and Mao; modern Soviet officer, he attended a Russian inter- were sent to "People's Hospitals," literature and Russian newspapers. preter course at Downing College, where they were shot and buried. Blake was hungry for reading material Cambridge, which was being run by Commissioner Lord was forced at gun and eagerly read these books. During Commander Anthony Courtney, who point to sign on the death certificates the summer of 1951 he began to have headed the Russian Section of Naval that these deaths were due to "heart doubts about the wickedness of com- Intelligence. Courtney stated: "The failure." Lt. Cordus H. Thorton, a munism. Nowhere in the reading ma- Foreign Office contacted me and asked captured Army officer, was shot in the terial could he see slums in Russia, if I would accept Blake in the course. head because he had let too many of but he knew they existed in the They indicated that he was being his men drop out. Twenty-five percent capitalist nations. The communist sys- absorbed into our intelligence service, of the march's participants died as a tem did not "exploit" the workers as but that he should be regarded at the result of it. was done in the Western nations. The college as just a serving officer." more Blake read, the more convinced Blake's studies came to an end in t was a cold winter in Pyong- he became that it was better than the 1948 when he was posted to Seoul, Iyang that year. Blake shared a system he had been raised under. South Korea, where he was to pose as 9-by-9-foot cell with nine other pris- The break came in November, vice-consul at the embassy. Again, oners. For the most part, he and the 1951. Blake had been talking to his that was a mere cover to conceal the other civilians were not mistreated like interrogator when he demanded, "I fact that his real bosses were in MI-6 the military prisoners, but there were want to see the Tiger." and not in the Foreign Office. In times when the guards did their best A few minutes passed, then the 1949, with the information he had re- to break the men. commandant of the prison camp ap- ceived from contacts, Blake warned "Look, there's a guard coming this peared. "What do you want?" his superiors that the North Koreans way." Philip Deane spoke to Blake as Blake's reply was short. "I want to would soon cross the 38th Parallel, they were resting on the ground, ex- work for the communists." but his warning was ignored. hausted. This was met with a short laugh. The second invasion and occupa- The guard pointed to the two men "Why do you want to do that?" The tion Blake had foreseen came in the and spoke in broken English, "You man's voice became bitter. "You've summer of 1950 when the North two, get me some water." already convinced one of our men that Koreans crossed the demilitarized zone Blake protested. "We can't. We're the South was better than our People's and entered the South. too tired." Democracy. Why am I to trust you?" Captain Vyvyan Holt, head of the "You can walk. You can get me The words came carefully from British Legation in Seoul, was given some water." The guard was pointing Blake's mouth. "At first, I believed in authorization to withdraw his staff as to several 20-gallon drums a few the capitalist system. But now I have the Red army approached the city. hundred yards away. come to believe that the communist Holt chose to remain in the legation "We can't. We're too exhausted. system is the only one which can building with Blake and another em- How can we? Maybe if you gave us establish a better and a more just ployee, Norman Owen, to take care some better food than that bird seed society in this world." of final administrative work. crud that we get all the time, we Tiger ordered some guards to bring It was July 2, 1950, when Holt might." Blake was persistent. — turn to page 34 Blake, from page 32

Blake some food. After lie had finished Berlin and behind the Iron Curtain. West German police. Eitner had made eating, the two men discussed Blake's His wife, Gillian, was unsure of her part of his living by working with change. Blake convinced Tiger of his husband's specific work but suspected British agents. In the process, he desire to help the communists. When that it was related to the spy business would photograph his contacts, make he was offered to be moved out of the because of his odd working hours. tape recordings of his conversations, prison to another camp for defectors, At periodic intervals Blake would and then sell the material to the Rus- he declined and insisted on being re- drive into East Berlin to shop, since sians. One of the men he worked with, turned to his friends. However, he the exchange rate for East and West Blake, he discovered was working for made it clear that he would not in- German marks made it attractive for the Soviets. In order to get a lighter form on them. a low-paid civil servant to go there. prison sentence, he offered this infor- Blake spent another 15 months in His real interest in that sector was his mation to the British. Eitner's report captivity until his repatriation in April, contact, a Russian interpreter named was ignored by them. 1953. He was flown to London where Sova, who worked for the "Chamber In March, 1961, Col. Anthony Al- he arrived as a hero. MI-5 (counter- of Technics." The information that he ster, head of the Polish secret service, intelligence) made a thorough investi- passed on to this man was impressive: fled to the West to avoid a possible gation of his term of captivity but names of agents working in the East, purge of Jews holding high positions could not find anything to indicate the structure of MI-6 in West Berlin, in the communist bloc nations. Alster disloyalty. Only Blake knew of his photographs of secret documents per- had been in charge of agents working • secret defection. Instead of being taining to England's policy on the Ber- in "West Work," the term used to dropped as an intelligence officer, MI-6 lin question. Blake was supplied with describe espionage activities in the decided to keep him. a cigarette lighter containing a hidden West, and had personally met Blake camera and with this he photographed several times. The British authorities fter an extended vacation Blake many of his colleagues. One source were astonished by the information Awas given a position in an un- indicated that he was especially busy the defector had given the commu- publicized department of the Foreign just before the 1959 Geneva confer- nists, and sent out messages calling Office. He then secretly contacted tbe ence on Germany making copies of back all agents who had been in con- Russian embassy and arranged a meet- documents revealing the West's policy tact with Blake. For many it was too ing with one of their men. The Rus- on the matter. Some claim that he late. Authorities claim that in East sians sent a General Korovin (this was tipped off the famous Berlin telephone Berlin alone 42 agents disappeared or the London alias of Nikolay Robin, tap to the East Germans. This was a were arrested by the communists. The who returned to the USSR in 1961 to tunnel extending several hundred feet fate of these men, along with others head the "Executive Action" section into East Berlin where the CIA could in Iron Curtain nations, is unknown, of the KGB, the section concerned tap all of the military phones in the but for many, Blake's betrayal meant with executions and assassinations) to city. death. discuss Blake's offer to hand over During Blake's five year stay in secret documents. Korovin was sur- Berlin, agents working in the East prised when Blake stated that he lake's studies in Lebanon were were disappearing. MI-6 officials were wanted no money for his services. The Bended when he received a tele- disturbed by this, but they were un- deal was made: Korovin would supply gram ordering him back to London. able to find the leak in security. One Blake with the necessary photographic Upon his arrival he was arrested as a equipment in return for copies of all incident took place in the apartment double agent and was formally the documents he could get. Later, in building which housed Blake's family charged for violating the Official Sec- his trial, Blake confessed: "I freely and the families of other British civil rets Act. His trial on May 3, 1961, was admit that there was not an official and military employees. A former So- held in secret and lasted only 69 document on any matter to which I viet secret service official who had de- minutes. The Attorney-General stated had access that was not passed on to fected was being kept there until he that although Blake did not have ac- my Soviet contact." could be flown to England. After cess to documents relating to secret or Blake told his contact of the man's atomic weapons, "He had done most Attorney-General Sir Regi- whereabouts, a special crew was sent serious damage to the interests of this nald Manning Buller summed up to get this defector. One night the country ... He had information of Blake's activities: "He agreed to make man was drugged and carried into the very great importance." For his be- available to the Soviet intelligence Eastern Zone. Later, when confronted trayal Blake was given a sentence of service such information as came his with angry British officials, the Soviets 42 years, the longest one given for way in the course of his activities in explained that they were unable to over a century. Gordon Lonsdale, an- order to promote the cause of com- return the man because he had died other top Soviet spy who was sen- munism . . . and he had access to in- under "interrogation." tenced the month before, received formation of very great importance." Blake left Berlin in September, only 25 years in comparison. In the spring of 1955 Blake, his 1960, and traveled to Shemlan, Leb- Blake was held by the British wife and his two children moved to anon, where he was to study the security service for a half year before West Berlin where he was posted to ^ Arabic language at the Middle East he was sent to prison. Over the serv- the British Military Mission. Again College of Arabic Studies, which was ice's protests, he was sent to Worm- Blake posed as a minor government run by the Foreign Office. This was wood Scrubs Prison where Lonsdale official while gathering and evaluat- to prepare him for intelligence work was being held. Blake quickly ad- ing information supplied from East in an Arab nation. Blake continued to justed to prison life, and to the guards Germany. The intelligence unit which pass on all the information he had he seemed to be a man who had ac- he controlled was mainly interested in collected to Soviet agents in Beirut, information relating to Russian arms. cepted his fate. 20 miles from Shemlan. During this time Blake was also A convicted spy normally would A month after Blake had left Berlin gathering information on the other receive much abuse from fellow pris- a minor spy named Horst Eitner was British intelligence units working in oners, but Blake was an exception. He arrested as a double agent by the — turn to page 36 Blake, from page 34 was respected by his fellow inmates, side world, Blake could have used one word "POLICE" painted on it, near the who knew him as a bright and witty of them as a messenger. Perhaps it prison. The other man, dressed in a person. Many of the "star" prisoners was through one of these men that he prison uniform, would climb over the (first time offenders with long terms) received his final instructions or per- wall and bring Blake out. He would of D Hall would spend their "free haps a saw with which he cut the be flown to East Germany and then association" periods in his book-lined iron bars. to the USSR. The Home Secretary of cell, where they could receive lan- Where Blake went after he got over England, after hearing of this plot, guage instruction or discuss world the wall is another question which has described it as "fantastic, but not im- affairs. Even after his escape, they re- not been answered. One man who possible." mained loyal to him. The London claims knowledge of Blake's escape Another theory is that Blake engi- Observer reported: "It is understood route is Benno Weigl, a stateless neered his own escape, either to flee that the inmates of D Block, almost journalist living in London who had the country or to contact a public to a man, declined to reveal any infor- spent ten years in a Czechoslovakian official in order to obtain a review of mation - if they had it - about Blake. prison as a spy. Using the pseudonym his case. However, he was not a rich To them, he was a popular figure." of Michael Rand, he wrote an article man and did not receive pay for his The officials at Wormwood Scrubs for the West German news magazine espionage activities. He probably were at first apprehensive about hav- Der Spiegel based on three letters he didn't have enough money to pay the ing a man with Blake's reputation in received from three contacts in Czech- scarperers. their prison. However, their attitude oslovakia. Philip Deane believes that the es- soon changed and he was given some According to Weigl, the operation, cape, along with Blake's activities as of the privileges the other prisoners which cost 14,000 pounds ($39,200), a spy, has been one gigantic plot had. He was allowed to keep a short- was planned and financed by the carried out by MI-6. Rather than be- wave receiver in his cell for language Russian officials in England and car- ing a double agent, argues Deane, studies. Many of the guards were ried out by "middle men." After Blake Blake was really a triple agent, feed- charmed by his warm personality. To got over the wall at Wormwood ing his Russian contact with specially the prison officials, Blake was a model Scrubs, he was picked up, given new prepared information. When the So- prisoner. clothes and dark glasses, driven to a viets began to doubt his reliability, local airport and put on a plane head- MI-6 "arrested" him and then con- lake remained a model prisoner ing for Frankfurt. After landing in ducted a show trial in order to con- Buntil his escape in 1966. that German city, he was met by two vince them of his loyalty to commu- The most widely accepted theory Czech officials who gave him a nism. Deane bases all this on the be- on how Blake escaped states that the paper guaranteeing him political asy- lief that the conditions and brutality operation was planned by the Soviet lum in the USSR (and presumably Blake had met in Korea could not KGB and carried out by "scarperers," in any other communist nation). From have convinced him that communism professional escape artists, perhaps the Frankfort he was driven to the Ger- could produce "a more just society." same ones who liberated several of the man-Czech border, where he crossed Also, he states that Blake was never "Great Train" robbers from prison. at Schirnding, using an English pass- away from his fellow prisoners for any Since Blake would not have any use- port and a visitor's visa. Once across longer period of time, thereby exclud- ful information for the communists, the border, he was driven to Prague ing the possibility of brainwashing. the motive behind the breakout was to where he was housed at the "Inter- Deane's theory would explain why he demonstrate the power of the KGB national" and "Prague" hotels while was kept by MI-6 instead of being and to reassure its agents working in conferring with East German and automatically dropped upon his re- the West that they would not be Russian officials. Then, on Novem- turn from Korea. abandoned if caught. ber 3, he was driven to an airport and There has been speculation that transported by helicopter to East Ber- ecently, a spokesman for Scot- Blake might have received escape in- lin, where he is supposedly residing Rland Yards announced that they structions through the shortwave re- now. While Weigl claims that this had intercepted a letter from Blake ceiver in his cell. It was capable of story is the truth (he burned the three addressed to his mother, who still re- picking up the low band broadcast letters before Scotland Yard officials sides in England. The letter stated which would normally be used for could see them), he purports to have that he was fine and that he would such transmissions. In a room located no knowledge of Blake's escape from soon be moving to some Eastern one-half mile from Wormwood Scrubs, the prison itself. European country. The letter was police found a crude broadcasting an- Two incidents which took place in mailed from Egypt. tenna made of bamboo and wire. Also, 1964 might substantiate communist In the 1960's the people of the they found 14 wrappers from 100- backing of the escape. In 1963 an in- Free World suddenly became aware pound notes. Prison officials claim that mate escaped from an English prison of the cold world of espionage. There the long distance and the high wall and made his way to East Germany. was the U-2 affair, which broke up a around the place would shield radio After a year's stay there, he was hand- "Summit" meeting. There was the waves from inside receivers. However, ed back to British officials in West Wennestrom case, where a ranking many prisoners claim that inmates •Berlin. During his interrogation he NATO general turned out to be work- have regularly monitored police radio stated that the East Germans were ing for the Russians. There was also messages. interested in prison security and how Oleg Penkovsky, a top Russian official A more practical way for Blake to to overcome it. He was forced to who passed information to the CIA. get information was through the write seveval papers on this topic. All of these cases ended with either "trusted men" who were housed out- Also during that year two ex-prisoners imprisonment (Wennerstrom), ex- side the prison. These prisoners were confessed to the police that they were change (Powers for Abel) or execu- allowed to dress in civilian clothes accomplices in a plot to spring Blake tion (Penkovsky). and worked away from the prison. from prison. One of them would land Only one spy — George Blake - has Since they had contact with the out- a helicopter, which would have the been able to escape from the cold.