5 Nov 1925 Jahr - Death of Sidney Reilly (C aged 24)

Beschreibung:

Sidney George Reilly MC —known as "Ace of Spies"—was a Russian-born adventurer and secret agent employed by Scotland Yard's Special Branch and later by the Foreign Section of the British Secret Service Bureau, the precursor to the modern British Secret Intelligence ServiceReilly was executed in a forest near Moscow on Thursday, 5 November 1925.[154] Eyewitness Boris Gudz claimed the execution was supervised by an OGPU officer, Grigory Feduleev, while another OGPU officer, Grigory Syroezhkin, fired the final shot into Reilly's chest. Gudz also confirmed that the order to kill Reilly came from Stalin directly.

Within months after his execution, various outlets of the British and American press carried an obituary notice: "REILLY—On the 28th of September, killed near the village of Allekul, Russia, by S. R. U. Troops. Captain Sidney George Reilly, M. C., beloved husband of Pepita Reilly."[137] Two months later, on 17 January 1926, The New York Times reprinted this obituary notice and, citing unnamed sources in the intelligence community, the paper asserted that Reilly had been somehow involved in the still ongoing scandal of the Zinoviev Letter,[6] a fraudulent document published by the British Daily Mail newspaper a year prior during the general election in 1924.[139]

After Reilly's death there were various rumours about his survival;[clarification needed] Reilly's wife Pepita Bobadilla claimed to possess evidence indicating that Reilly was still alive as late as 1932.[9][15] Others speculated that the unscrupulous Reilly had defected to the opposition, becoming an adviser to Soviet intelligence.[12][155][f] Despite such unfavourable rumours the international press quickly turned Reilly into a household name, lauding him as a masterful spy and chronicling his many espionage adventures with numerous embellishments. Contemporary newspapers dubbed him "the greatest spy in history" and "the Scarlet Pimpernel of Red Russia".[15] In May 1931, The London Evening Standard published an illustrated serial headlined "Master Spy" which sensationalised his many exploits as well as outright invented others.[citation needed]

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