Article Review – The Guardian Another great article came out on August 28, 2016 via The Guardian. This one was written by Ian Cobain, author of Cruel Britannia. The Guardian Article is entitled Secrecy and firing squads: Britain’s ruthless war on Nazi spies. The article begins with the story of the first four spies who
Article Review – National Archives Blog Another pleasant surprise – a National Archives blog on the case of German spy, Josef Jakobs. The blog post was written by Dr. Richard Dunley at the National Archives and is well researched. Given that the National Archives has the voluminous declassified MI5 files on Josef as well as
Article Review – National Archives Blog – Shot at the Tower – 2016 08 15 Read More »
Every few months, I sieve through the internet searching for new articles, blog posts or websites that mention Josef Jakobs. There are usually a few. Sometimes they are accurate, sometimes not so much. Often they are simply a regurgitation of previous information, and the errors multiply. The Hagley Woods Mystery – The Unredacted blog This
Errors Abound around Josef Jakobs Read More »
A few weeks ago, I received a kind email from Scott Allsop, a UK history teacher. Since April of this year, Scott has been hosting a daily podcast about significant or interesting historical events. He wanted to let me know that he would be posting a podcast about Josef Jakobs’ execution on 15 August. Scott’s
Podcast – On This Day in History: Execution of Josef Jakobs – HistoryPod – Scott Allsop Read More »
Latchmere House. Ham Common. Camp 020. Whatever you want to call it, the grounds of MI5’s secret interrogation centre in Richmond had a long, and sometimes grim history. I’ve been meaning to write a blog posting about Josef’s time at Latchmere House, but in the meantime, came across a blog written by Steve Woodbridge, a
Blog Review – Secrets & Spies: Latchmere House Read More »
Quick! Who was the last person executed in the Tower of London? Tick. Tick. Tick. The clock timer is counting down. It’s a trivia question and one that few people answer correctly. Some might remember Anne Boleyn from the time of the Tudors. Others might think of Catherine Howard. Few would think that the last
Final Jeopardy for Josef Jakobs Read More »
Every once in a while, I dig around the internet, turning over stones and looking for new and interesting tidbits about Josef and his associates. This morning I came across a January 2015 BBC article entitled “English murder mysteries that have baffled detectives”. Naturally, the article included the case of Bella in the Wych Elm.
BBC Article – Unsolved English Murder Mysteries – 13 January 2015 Read More »
On 2 July, 2014, the Daily Mail published an article which outlined the story of Carl Hans Lody. The article was prompted by the discovery, in the Guards Museum, of a letter written by Lody to the Commander of the 3rd Battalion Grenadier Guards, thanking him and his men for their kindness. The letter was
Daily Mail Article – German Spy – Carl Hans Lody Read More »
I came across a blog article last year entitled: Josef Jakobs – The Last Execution at the Tower of London. The author of the blog, Robert Walsh, outlines the story of Josef Jakobs. The account, while quite readable, suffers from several factual errors, inconsistencies and spelling mistakes. Date of execution – Walsh correctly says that
A Review of Robert Walsh’s article on Josef Jakobs Read More »
A friend of mine recently told me that the Josef Jakobs files at the National Archives had been digitized. I took a look and, sure enough, it is now possible to purchase the KV 2 files for the princely sum of £3.30 each, which I think works out to just over $5 CAN. Twelve years
Digitization at the National Archives Read More »