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Mohrbooks Literary Agency
Sebastian Ritscher |
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DEAD DOUBLES
The Extraordinary Worldwide Hunt for One of the Cold War's Most Notorious Spy Rings
The Portland Spy Ring was a group of five KGB spies (two British, one American, one Canadian, one Russian) who stole important secrets for years, including key information from the submarine research establishment in Portland, England. Their trial was one of the most important spy cases from the early Cold War that seized international attention and revealed the deeply shadowy world of the long-term illegal, operating under false identity.
THE PORTLAND SPY RING was one of the most infamous espionage cases from the Cold War. People the world over were shocked when its exposure revealed the shadowy world of deep cover KGB 'illegals' - spies operating under false identities stolen from the dead.
The CIA's revelation to MI5 in 1960 that a KGB agent was stealing crucial secrets from the world-leading submarine research base at Portland in Dorset looked initially like a dangerous but contained lapse of security by a British man and his mistress. But the couple were tailed by MI5 'watchers' to a covert meeting with a Canadian businessman, Gordon Lonsdale. The unsuspecting Lonsdale in turn led MI5's spycatchers to an innocent-looking couple in suburban Ruislip called the Krogers.
But within weeks the CIA rang the alarm - their critical source of intelligence was to defect within hours - and MI5 was forced to act immediately. The Krogers were exposed as two of the most important Russian 'illegals' ever, whom the Americans had been hunting for years. And Lonsdale was no Canadian, but a senior KGB controller.
This astonishing but true story of MI5's spyhunt is straight from the world of John le Carré and is told here for the first time using hitherto secret MI5 and FBI files, private family archives and original interviews. Its tentacles stretch around the world - from America, to the USSR, Canada, New Zealand, Europe and the UK. DEAD DOUBLES is a gripping episode of Cold War history, and a case that fully justified the West's paranoia about infiltration and treachery.
Trevor Barnes studied espionage and the early history of the CIA as a history student at the University of Cambridge and as a Kennedy Scholar at Harvard. His research was published in The Historical Journal. Subsequently he worked as a BBC radio and TV journalist on programmes including Radio 4's Today and BBC Two's Newsnight. He is the author of three crime novels and also researched and wrote Trial at Torun, a radio play about the trial in Poland of a secret service murder case. He lives in West London.
The CIA's revelation to MI5 in 1960 that a KGB agent was stealing crucial secrets from the world-leading submarine research base at Portland in Dorset looked initially like a dangerous but contained lapse of security by a British man and his mistress. But the couple were tailed by MI5 'watchers' to a covert meeting with a Canadian businessman, Gordon Lonsdale. The unsuspecting Lonsdale in turn led MI5's spycatchers to an innocent-looking couple in suburban Ruislip called the Krogers.
But within weeks the CIA rang the alarm - their critical source of intelligence was to defect within hours - and MI5 was forced to act immediately. The Krogers were exposed as two of the most important Russian 'illegals' ever, whom the Americans had been hunting for years. And Lonsdale was no Canadian, but a senior KGB controller.
This astonishing but true story of MI5's spyhunt is straight from the world of John le Carré and is told here for the first time using hitherto secret MI5 and FBI files, private family archives and original interviews. Its tentacles stretch around the world - from America, to the USSR, Canada, New Zealand, Europe and the UK. DEAD DOUBLES is a gripping episode of Cold War history, and a case that fully justified the West's paranoia about infiltration and treachery.
Trevor Barnes studied espionage and the early history of the CIA as a history student at the University of Cambridge and as a Kennedy Scholar at Harvard. His research was published in The Historical Journal. Subsequently he worked as a BBC radio and TV journalist on programmes including Radio 4's Today and BBC Two's Newsnight. He is the author of three crime novels and also researched and wrote Trial at Torun, a radio play about the trial in Poland of a secret service murder case. He lives in West London.
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Book
Published 2020-09-03 by Weidenfeld & Nicolson |
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Book
Published 2020-09-03 by Weidenfeld & Nicolson |