In late June 1941, MI5 made a request to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to have German spy Josef Jakobs tried by court martial, rather than by a civilian court. The DPP forwarded the request to the Attorney General for his approval, which was granted on June 24, 1941. The very next day, the […]
The British Security Service (MI5) needed to jump through several bureaucratic hoops in order to have German spy Josef Jakobs tried by court martial. Their application for a court martial first landed on the desk of the the Director of Public Prosecutions who, after reviewing it, sent it on to the Attorney General on June
For a variety of reasons, MI5 decided that Josef Jakobs was the ideal candidate to be tried by a military court martial. Primary among those reasons was the fact that Josef was an “enemy alien”, i.e. a citizen of a country with whom Britain was at war, in this case, Germany. Other “enemy aliens” had
The Rocky Road to Josef Jakob’s Court Martial: the Director of Public Prosecutions Read More »
N.B. See my February 12, 2017 blog for a break in the case. In addition to the 1936 diary, the Birmingham Police sent a small black notebook to MI5. The envelope noted “One diary and one notebook containing suspicious entries. See B’ham City Police report dated 5th June 1941”. The cover note that accompanied the
Kenneth C. Howard’s Little Black Book Read More »
N.B. See my February 12, 2017 blog for a break in the case. If you were to visit the National Archives at Kew in London, and order file KV 2/27, you would receive a box containing some of the spy paraphernalia of German spy Josef Jakobs. Two small notebooks within that box would perplex you,
The Mysterious Diary of Kenneth C. Howard Read More »
One of the last people to see Josef Jakobs alive on the fateful morning of his execution was Lt. Col. William Edward Hinchley-Cooke. Cookie, as he was affectionately known by his MI5 colleagues, later noted that he was impressed by Josef’s calm pluck on the morning of August 15. In fact, Cookie was fluent in
Britain’s Spy-Catcher – Lt. Col. William Edward Hinchley Cooke Read More »
After the previous post on Colonel R.W.G. Stephens was published, a magazine I had ordered online almost a month previous finally came in the mail. It had a four page article on Robin Stephens written by Chris Bilham. Review The article was quite extensive and stitched together the scanty facts of Robin’s life into a
Article Review – Medal News – Two Gurkha Officers: Part II – May 2014 Read More »
When Josef Jakobs arrived at Camp 020 in 1941, he was interrogated by Tin-Eye Stephens, commandant of the Camp. Lt. Col. Stephens was a fearsome man who had little patience for fools and was rather xenophobic in his relations with people of other nationalities, particularly Germans. Who was this man and how did he come
Interrogator at Camp 020 – Lt. Col. Robin William George Stephens Read More »
William Reginald Huleatt Heddy was born on 30 December 1890 in London His parents were William Jackson Heddy and Laura Mary Latter. The family lived in Kensington with their servants and were quite well to-do as William Sr. was a surgical physician. While career options for William’s three sisters were limited, young William was destined
W.R.H. Heddy – Coroner at the Post-Mortem of German Spy Josef Jakobs Read More »
Josef Jakobs was executed by firing squad at 7:12 am on Friday 15 August 1941, at the Tower of London. After the execution, a post-mortem was conducted and on Monday 18 August 1941, Jakobs was buried at St. Mary’s Cemetery in Kensal Green. There is some uncertainty as to who conducted the post-mortem on Jakobs.
Who performed the post-mortem on executed German spy Josef Jakobs? Read More »