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John Profumo, Bobby Baker and JFK


John Simkin

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I have just discovered that J. Edgar Hoover used Dorothy Kilgallen via Richard Berlin, to spread the rumour that JFK was involved in the Profumo case. On 23rd June, 1963, Dorothy Kilgallen published an article in the New York Journal-American: "One of the biggest names in American politics - a man who holds a very high elective office - has been injected into Britain's vice-security scandal." This was a reference to the John Profumo and Christine Keeler affair. Kilgallen went on to describe one of the girls as "a beautiful Chinese-American girl now in London." She added that the "highest authorities" had "identified her as Suzy Chang."

The other interesting point is that on one memo about the Profumo case, Hoover has made a handwritten comment: "Roy Cohn has this info". Why? Well he was Thomas Corbally's attorney. It was Corbally who in January 1963 tipped off the then American ambassador (David Bruce) in London about the Profumo affair.

clearpixel.gifhttp://64.233.169.132/search?q=cache:PuKWN...;cd=2&gl=us

ache:PuKWNJh8mrEJ:www.paperlessarchives.com/rometsch.html+Carroll+Arms+Hotel+Quorum+Club+Washington+DC&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us

The dates of these two docs - October 28 - October 31 meeting, seem to come at critical moments regarding the Cuban backchannel, the maritime attack on Cuba by the Rex and JFK's visit to Democrats in Philadelphia. -BK

Ellen Rometsch

President John Kennedy Administration/Robert Kennedy

FBI Files

478 pages of FBI files covering Ellen Rometsch, archived on CD-ROM. Files date from 1963 to 1987.

Ellen Rometsch was born in Kleinitz Germany, in 1936. After World War II Kleinitz became part of East Germany. In 1955 she immigrated to West Germany. Ellen Rometsch's second husband was Rolf Rometsch, a West German Military aide assigned to Washington, D.C. Mrs. Rometsch arrived in the U.S. on April 6, 1961. She was investigated as an internal security threat, as it was reported that she came from East Germany. The investigation finally determined that Mrs. Rometsch did not pose an internal security threat.

Ellen Rometsch frequented the Quorum Club, a private club in the Carroll Arms Hotel on Capitol Hill run by Lyndon B. Johnson aide Bobby Baker. In his 1978 book, "Wheeling and Dealing: Confessions of a Capitol Hill Operator," Baker referred to the place as where, "membership was comprised of senators, congressmen, lobbyists, Capitol Hill staffers, and other well-connecteds who wanted to enjoy their drinks, meals, poker games, and shared secrets in private accommodations."

According to presidential historian Michael Bechloss, in the summer of 1963, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover went to Robert Kennedy and said, "We have information that not only your brother, the president, but others in Washington have been involved with a woman whom we suspect as a Soviet intelligence agent, someone who is linked to East German intelligence." Bechloss says Robert Kennedy spoke with Senate leaders Everett Dirksen (Republican) and Mike Mansfield (Democrat) and asked them to keep to themselves whatever knowledge they had of this. According to Bechloss, Robert Kennedy also had Rometsch expelled from the United States within a week and flown to West Germany.

The files show a high level of interest in the Ellen Rometsch case. Memos indicate the scope and range of the investigation. Files show that Department of Justice files on Ellen Rometsch were moved to Robert F. Kennedy's personal files. A memo shows that while discussing the Rometsch issue with Attorney General Robert Kennedy, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover broached the subject of the possibility of President John Kennedy replacing him as FBI director. A July 1963 FBI memo calls for an end to the investigation of the Rometsch case. Memos show that after taking office following the assassination of President Kennedy, President Johnson encouraged further investigation into the Rometsch case. Files show that the FBI at least initially did not make files concerning Rometsch available to Robert Kennedy's replacement as attorney general, Nicholas Katzenbach. A memo summarizes a 1965 FBI interview of Robert Kennedy concerning Ellen Rometsch, John F. Kennedy and former publisher of the Washington Post Philip Graham. Files show that the FBI failed to develop any information connecting Rometsch with intelligence activities in the United States. Specific results of the FBI investigation were withheld. The memos however show the dissemination of whatever that information was and the interest of others to see it. A memo indicates that some FBI files on Rometch have been intentionally destroyed by the FBI. Materials show the date and number of pages in the files which are currently heavily redacted or withheld in their entirety, which researchers may want to pursue in the future.

FROM A BOAT AGAINST THE CURRENT: Aug. 21, 08.

Mike T, A JERSEY GUY.

http://64.233.169.132/search?q=cache:sujbY...cd=10&gl=us

Thursday, August 21,

This Day in Presidential History (JFK's East German Mistress-Spy)EllenRomesch.jpg

August 21, 1963—Justice Department officials quietly but hastily deported Ellen Rometsch, a 27-year-old brunette from East Germany, in an attempt to prevent disclosure of possibly the most explosive secret of President John F. Kennedy: his sexual involvement with an alleged Communist spy.

I learned about this scandal in two of the more substantial, less gossip-ridden histories of the Kennedy years: Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-63, by Taylor Branch, and The Crisis Years: Kennedy and Khrushchev, 1960-1963, by Michael Beschloss. Branch and Beschloss write vividly but carefully from oral history memoirs and primary sources, with a view of the President that is sober and balanced. In other words, they have produced neither hagiographies nor anti-Camelot screeds, earning credibility in their accounts of this episode.

Who was Ellen Rometsch? Start with the photo accompanying this blog. She looks like a somewhat more exotic version of Elizabeth Taylor, doesn't she? Or, perhaps, one of the President's other dangerous liaisons, Judith Campbell Exner.

Rometsch's sexual loyalties were as shifting as her political ones. As a teenager she had joined the Communist Party Youth Group. In 1955, she flew to West Germany. With one bad marriage already behind her, she soon wed Rolf Rometsch, a sergeant in the West German air force. His assignment to his country's military mission in Washington brought the couple to the U.S.—and, eventually, Ellen to the attention of the American President.

Even a five-year-old son did not slow her down, as she soon became involved in the swirling excitement of the Quorum Club, located in a three-room suite at the Carroll Arms Hotel, just across the street from the new Senate Office Building. This private social club was run by Bobby Baker, a former aide to Lyndon Johnson now coming under suspicion for influence peddling. The terms that were beginning to be applied to her included "party girl," "courtesan," "hostess," and worse.

The Quorum Club's central location made it convenient—in some cases, too readily so—for the Capitol Hill power players and fixers swirling about. "My wife is fond of the steak and sandwiches," claimed Congressman Bill Ayres.

The affair between Rometsch and JFK appears to have started in 1961 and continued for some time. Its days were numbered once FBI agents got wind of it and interrogated the young woman. Her prior East German background might have been enough to convince director J. Edgar Hoover that she was a spy for East Germany's head, Walter Ulbricht. His leak to this effect, to journalist Courtney Evans, convinced Robert Robert that she had to be deported.

JFK's affairs had the frequent thrill of danger, whether with a twenty-year-old intern in the White House press office (Marion Fahnestock), a Hollywood superstar (Marilyn Monroe), an artist who brought him LSD from Timothy Leary (Mary Pinchot Meyer), and a Mafia moll (Judith Campbell Exner). Yet, judging from his actions around this time--including unusually high interest in the Profumo sex scandal convulsing the United Kingdom at this time--none of them had the sheer political TNT potential of the Rometsch affair.

The problem was that it showed no signs of going away—particularly because of 1) ongoing investigations into the affairs of Bobby Baker, and 2) Hoover's in anything that might give him blackmail material over the President. (As if he didn't already have enough: not only knowledge of Rometsch and Exner, but, dating back to the early 1940s, of Inga Arvad, a Danish woman the FBI suspected of being a Nazi spy--and knew was the paramour of dashing young Lt. John F. Kennedy). In late October, reporter Clark Mollenhoff used a leak from Hoover to charge that "some prominent new frontiersmen from the executive level of government" were involved with the "party girl."

Rushing once again to protect his brother's interest, Bobby Kennedy pursued a two-track course: 1) dispatch an aide to Germany to convince the now-separated, now-annoyed Ellen from going public, and 2) persuade Hoover to steer Congress from investigating. In the second case, Hoover actually sat down privately with Senate leaders Mike Mansfield and Everett Dirksen to convince them that any exposure of this affair would ruin the reputations of senators from both sides of the aisle.You'd think he'd learn from his scrape, but JFK couldn't resist a gibe at the institution in which he sat before becoming President. "Boy, the dirt he (Hoover) has on those senators," he remarked. "You wouldn't believe it."

AND THEN THERE'S JCR:

http://www.newswithviews.com/Ryter/jon192.htm

By Jon Christian Ryter

September 19, 2007

NewsWithViews.com

...In 1962 Baker—still the front man for LBJ's nefarious moneymaking schemes and congressional pimp for powerful Congressmen Senators and even more powerful corporate leaders reportedly linked President John F. Kennedy up with Ellen Romesch, a regular "escort" at the Quorum Club—Baker's private club in the Carroll Arms Hotel on Capitol Hill. In his own memoirs, Baker noted that Kennedy sent him word later that Romesch was the best he ever had. The affair between Kennedy and Romesch continued for quite some time. J. Edgar Hoover uncovered Kennedy's romance with Romesch—who was married to a West German Air Force sergeant who was assigned to the West German military mission in Washington. Ellen Romesch, who was a member of the Communist Youth from her early teens, was believed by the FBI to be a communist agent. Bobby Kennedy had her quietly deported. As Hoover investigated the Quorum Club, he discovered a litany of famous men lined up at the sexual feeding trough—including not only the President but his brother as well. The three names that were connected to the Kennedys were Romesch, Maria Novtny and Suzy Chang. All of them came from communist countries. Hoover suspected all of them were spies. He fed the story—and Bobby Baker's name—to columnist Drew Pearson who, at the urging of Lyndon Johnson, used the material....

More on the Carroll Arms Hotel Bar – Quorum Club –

From: John F. Kennedy: A Biography, by Michael O'Brian, 2006, p. 711

"Baker not only brilliantly guided the Senate's legislative process, he did personal favors for senators, congressmen, lobbyists, and friends. The favor included providing them with women. He helped found the Quorum Club, a private suite in the Carroll Arms Hotel in Washington patronized by legislators and lobbyists on Capitol Hill. There beautiful Ellen Rometsch served as hostess and high-priced call girl. Bill Thompson, always on the lookout for beautiful women to take to the President, spotted Rometsch and arranged through Baker to bring her to the White House.

"She had good manners and she was very accommodating," Baker said of Rometsch. "I must have had fifty friends who went with her, and not one of them ever complained. She was a real joy to be with.....Kennedy understood, said Baker…On July 3, 1963, Hover informed Robert Kennedy that the FBI believes Rometsch was having illicit relations with highly placed government officials. Ominously, the FBI thought she came from East Germany and had formerly worked for Walte Ulbricht, the Communist dictator of East Germany….arranged to have her and he husband quietly sent back to West German in August 1963….The Rometsch story remained quiet until October 26, 1963, when investigative reporter Clark Mollenhoff published a dispatch in the Des Moines Register revealing that the Senate Rules Committee studying the Bobby Baker scandal was also planning to hear testimony about Ellen Rometsch and her abrupt expulsion from the United States. "The evidence is also likely to include identification of several high executive branch officials as friends and associates of [Rometsch], the part-time model and party girl," Mollenhoff wrote.

Mollenhoff's story horrified President Kennedy. In an exceptionally unusual entry in her diary Evelyn Lincoln wrote on October 28, 1963: "The President came in all excited about the news reports concerning the German women and other prostitutes getting mixed up with government officials, Congressmen, etc. He called Mike Mansfield to come to the office to discuss the playing down of this news report." 63

TIME, Friday, Nov. 8, 1963

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,896999-1,00.html

...Among these was a young German woman who was asked to leave the U.S. after FBI agents showed her dossier to other interested authorities. She was Ellen Rometsch, 27, a sometime fashion model and wife of a West German army sergeant who was assigned to his country's military mission in Washington. An ambitious, name-dropping, heavily made-up mother of a five-year-old boy, Elly was a fixture at Washington parties. In September, five weeks after the Rometsches were shipped back to West Germany, her husband Rolf, 25, divorced her on the ground of "conduct contrary to matrimonial rules." Last week, while Elly hid out on her parents' farm near Wuppertal, Rolf spoke ruefully of his Washington experience, said that he "had no idea what was going on behind my back. It's a case of a woman who falls for the temptation of a sweet life her husband can't afford."

The Club. One repository of the sweet life was the Quorum Club, located in a three-room suite at the Carroll Arms Hotel, just across the street from the new Senate Office Building. Elly is remembered as a hostess there.

Bobby Baker was a leading light of the "Q Club." He helped organize it, was a charter member and served on the board of governors. The club, so its charter says, is a place for the pursuit of "literary purposes and promotion of social intercourse." Actually it was open to anyone with a literate bankroll: initiation fee, $100; yearly dues, $50. Among the 197 members are many lobbyists and several governmental figures, including Democratic Senators Frank Church of Idaho, Daniel Brewster of Maryland, J. Howard Edmondson of Oklahoma and Harrison Williams of New Jersey. Among Republican members are two Congressmen, Montana's James Battin and Ohio's William Ayres.

Many members were quick to point out that the club is a handy place to dine ("My wife is fond of the steak and sandwiches," said Bill Ayres) as well as a convenient spot for cocktails. Decorated to the male taste, the club's dimly lit interior sports prints and paintings of women with imposing façades, leather-topped card tables, a well-stocked bar, a piano and, most convenient of all, a buzzer that is wired to the Capitol so that any Senator present can be easily summoned to cast his vote on an impending issue.

The Q Club was a useful spot for meeting influential people in business and politics. Such people, in turn, were useful to Bobby Baker in his breathless pursuit of a buck. It was, by any standard, a successful pursuit, for Baker's net worth rose to something around $2,000,000. That income, presumably, enabled Baker and his wife Dorothy, who has an $11,000-a-year job with a Senate committee, to move recently into a $125,000 house near the home of Bobby's friend and longtime Senate sponsor, Vice President Lyndon Johnson, in Washington's Spring Valley section. ….

…..Obviously, a lot of deep-digging investigating remained to be done before the scandalous skeins of Bobby Baker's high life could be untangled and strung back together in a definitive way. But it was just as certain that the U.S. Senate was doing itself no service by its closed-door, clam-mouthed handling of the case. For the way things were going, instead of only a handful of members suffering embarrassment or worse, the Senate and almost all its members were being subjected to suspicion.

http://emporium.turnpike.net/P/ProRev/suspect.htm

Roll Call was a free paper supported by advertising. Some of the advertising was paid for, some was run and not paid for, and some was published and eaten. Sid was a bachelor whose sole interest in cooking consisted of making coffee when no one else was around to do it for him. Among the purposes of the paper, therefore, was to feed the editor. Sid traded restaurant ads for free meals. It was a shrewd business move. While plenty of advertisers failed to pay for their ads, none refused to serve him….

Sid also found politics funny and had no objections if one of his writers wanted to suggest that the funny had, on a particular occasion, slipped into the absurd. After all, it was Sid who would take me over to the Carroll Arms Hotel to enjoy Mark Russell, a discovery he shamelessly promoted in the paper.

The Carroll Arms had been a 'railroad hotel,' situated between Union Station and the halls of Congress. Shelby Scates in his book, Maurice Rosenblatt and the Fall of Joseph McCarthy, reported that rooms in the hotel - where McCarthy aides Roy Cohn and David Schine lived on the top floor - went for as little as $10 a night as late as 1961. On the second floor was the notorious Quorum Club, a hangout for favored lobbyists of Senate Secretary and LBJ capo Bobby Baker. And in the bar was piano-playing comedian Russell who later told Scates that In those days there was no satire on television, no irreverence. The barometer was good old Bob Hope."

Francis R. Valeo, Secretary to the Majority 1963-1966

Interview, US Senate Historical Office. http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/resources/pdf/valeo_interview__07.pdf

The Carroll Arms Hotel Bar standup piano player Mark Russell is still at it:

http://www.markrussell.net/

Mark's playing standup piano at the Omni Shoreham TONIGHT!

December 15 Washington, DC Omni Shoreham Hotel 7 & 9 pm 202-756-5210

After serving his full hitch he found himself in the smoke-filled bars of Washington, DC, singing his funny songs. When he got a job in a Capitol Hill bar he first thing he thought was "I've started at the bottom but I've managed to work my way down."

YULK, YULK, YULK

Mark Russell's answer to the frequently asked question, "Do you have any writers?" is "Oh, yes...I have 535 writers. One hundred in the Senate and 435 in the House of Representatives."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Russell

The American Side of the Affair seems centered around the Quorum Club and Carroll Arms Hotel. BK

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I thought I would summarize what we now know about the Profumo case today.

Stephen Ward was involved in recruiting young women to take part in sex parties held for the ruling elite in Britain. One of the women who held these parties was called Mariella Novotny, who had an expensive home in London provided by a wealthy night-club owner, Horace Dibben. These parties were attended by several ministers in the government.

Ward was in constant contact with a man who was known as “Woods”. At his trial Ward said that he had contact with Woods at Room 393 at the War Office. According to Christine Keeler in her autobiography, Ward used to meet Woods at their flat. Ward told Keeler that Woods was interested in the names of the people who went to these sex parties.

Ward told the court that in early 1961 he informed Woods that John Profumo, the War Minister and Eugene Ivanov, an naval attaché at the Soviet embassy, were attending these parties.

In 1987 an investigation by the Sunday Times identified “Woods” as being Keith Wagstaffe, an MI5 officer working for DI Operations, a section of the Counter-Intelligence branch. We know from Stephen Ward’s unpublished memoir, and from the report provided by MI5 for the government inquiry held by Lord Denning, that the intelligence services were especially interested in the activities of Eugene Ivanov, who they rightly considered was spying for the KGB. In one of these early meetings Ward asked if he should continue seeing Ivanov. Wagstaffe replied that he should but he needed to keep him informed about Ivanov’s activities. The authors of the two main books about the case, An Affair of State and Honeytrap, claim that MI5 were attempting to entrap Ivanov is some sort of sex scandal in order to backmail him into becoming a double-agent. They are surely right about this.

We also know that the FBI were monitoring the women that Ward was using to entrap Ivanov. Mariella Novotny, Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies all visited the United States between 1960-62 and that released FBI documents show that they were suspected of having sex with leading politicians, including John and Robert Kennedy.

Mandy Rice-Davies, one of the prostitutes, involved in this “honeytrap” pointed out in her book published in 1980 that Ivanov resisted their advances. Keeler later claimed that she had sex with Ivanov on one occasion but most people who investigated this case, suspect that she was lying. This is also the view of Rice-Davies. It would seem that the “honeytrap” was not working.

Keith Wagstaffe was refused permission by MI5 to talk to the Sunday Times in 1987. However, unofficially, he did provide Philip Knightley, the journalist working on the case, with some key information.

We now know for example that Ward warned MI5 that John Profumo had become embroiled in this “honeytrap”. However, it was sometime afterwards that Profumo was warned about this and he broke off contact with Keeler. This suggests to me that the intention of this honeytrap was to compromise politicians as well as KGB agents.

This is also the case in the United States. Bobby Baker, who used some of the same girls as Stephen Ward, was mainly interested in entrapping politicians. It is assumed, that this enabled Lyndon Johnson and J. Edgar Hoover to blackmail these politicians. John and Robert Kennedy both became victims of this plot.

One of the most interesting aspects of this US/UK honeytrap operation was the use of Mariella Novotny. It was not just enough to have evidence that politicians were having sex with prostitutes. It was vitally important to persuade them that were involved in a relationship with a KGB spy. The reality is that Mariella Novotny was not a KGB spy. In fact, Mariella Novotny was not even her right-name. Her birth certificate states that she was Stella Capes and she was born in the East End of London in 1942.

It was later claimed that her grandfather was Antonín Novotny, the President of Czechoslovakia from 1957 to 1968 and the General Secretary of the Communist Party from 1953 to 1968. If this is the case, and Mariella Novotny was a KGB spy, why would she make it easy for the intelligence services, by changing her name to indicate a link with a communist regime? It makes no sense at all, unless the real motive, was to aquire information to blackmail senior politicians with this story.

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I thought I would summarize what we now know about the Profumo case today.

Stephen Ward was involved in recruiting young women to take part in sex parties held for the ruling elite in Britain. One of the women who held these parties was called Mariella Novotny, who had an expensive home in London provided by a wealthy night-club owner, Horace Dibben. These parties were attended by several ministers in the government.

Ward was in constant contact with a man who was known as "Woods". At his trial Ward said that he had contact with Woods at Room 393 at the War Office. According to Christine Keeler in her autobiography, Ward used to meet Woods at their flat. Ward told Keeler that Woods was interested in the names of the people who went to these sex parties.

Ward told the court that in early 1961 he informed Woods that John Profumo, the War Minister and Eugene Ivanov, an naval attaché at the Soviet embassy, were attending these parties.

In 1987 an investigation by the Sunday Times identified "Woods" as being Keith Wagstaffe, an MI5 officer working for DI Operations, a section of the Counter-Intelligence branch. We know from Stephen Ward's unpublished memoir, and from the report provided by MI5 for the government inquiry held by Lord Denning, that the intelligence services were especially interested in the activities of Eugene Ivanov, who they rightly considered was spying for the KGB. In one of these early meetings Ward asked if he should continue seeing Ivanov. Wagstaffe replied that he should but he needed to keep him informed about Ivanov's activities. The authors of the two main books about the case, An Affair of State and Honeytrap, claim that MI5 were attempting to entrap Ivanov is some sort of sex scandal in order to backmail him into becoming a double-agent. They are surely right about this.

We also know that the FBI were monitoring the women that Ward was using to entrap Ivanov. Mariella Novotny, Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies all visited the United States between 1960-62 and that released FBI documents show that they were suspected of having sex with leading politicians, including John and Robert Kennedy.

Mandy Rice-Davies, one of the prostitutes, involved in this "honeytrap" pointed out in her book published in 1980 that Ivanov resisted their advances. Keeler later claimed that she had sex with Ivanov on one occasion but most people who investigated this case, suspect that she was lying. This is also the view of Rice-Davies. It would seem that the "honeytrap" was not working.

Keith Wagstaffe was refused permission by MI5 to talk to the Sunday Times in 1987. However, unofficially, he did provide Philip Knightley, the journalist working on the case, with some key information.

We now know for example that Ward warned MI5 that John Profumo had become embroiled in this "honeytrap". However, it was sometime afterwards that Profumo was warned about this and he broke off contact with Keeler. This suggests to me that the intention of this honeytrap was to compromise politicians as well as KGB agents.

This is also the case in the United States. Bobby Baker, who used some of the same girls as Stephen Ward, was mainly interested in entrapping politicians. It is assumed, that this enabled Lyndon Johnson and J. Edgar Hoover to blackmail these politicians. John and Robert Kennedy both became victims of this plot.

One of the most interesting aspects of this US/UK honeytrap operation was the use of Mariella Novotny. It was not just enough to have evidence that politicians were having sex with prostitutes. It was vitally important to persuade them that were involved in a relationship with a KGB spy. The reality is that Mariella Novotny was not a KGB spy. In fact, Mariella Novotny was not even her right-name. Her birth certificate states that she was Stella Capes and she was born in the East End of London in 1942.

It was later claimed that her grandfather was Antonín Novotny, the President of Czechoslovakia from 1957 to 1968 and the General Secretary of the Communist Party from 1953 to 1968. If this is the case, and Mariella Novotny was a KGB spy, why would she make it easy for the intelligence services, by changing her name to indicate a link with a communist regime? It makes no sense at all, unless the real motive, was to aquire information to blackmail senior politicians with this story.

John,

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I thought I would summarize what we now know about the Profumo case today.

Stephen Ward was involved in recruiting young women to take part in sex parties held for the ruling elite in Britain. One of the women who held these parties was called Mariella Novotny, who had an expensive home in London provided by a wealthy night-club owner, Horace Dibben. These parties were attended by several ministers in the government.

Ward was in constant contact with a man who was known as "Woods". At his trial Ward said that he had contact with Woods at Room 393 at the War Office. According to Christine Keeler in her autobiography, Ward used to meet Woods at their flat. Ward told Keeler that Woods was interested in the names of the people who went to these sex parties.

Ward told the court that in early 1961 he informed Woods that John Profumo, the War Minister and Eugene Ivanov, an naval attaché at the Soviet embassy, were attending these parties.

In 1987 an investigation by the Sunday Times identified "Woods" as being Keith Wagstaffe, an MI5 officer working for DI Operations, a section of the Counter-Intelligence branch. We know from Stephen Ward's unpublished memoir, and from the report provided by MI5 for the government inquiry held by Lord Denning, that the intelligence services were especially interested in the activities of Eugene Ivanov, who they rightly considered was spying for the KGB. In one of these early meetings Ward asked if he should continue seeing Ivanov. Wagstaffe replied that he should but he needed to keep him informed about Ivanov's activities. The authors of the two main books about the case, An Affair of State and Honeytrap, claim that MI5 were attempting to entrap Ivanov is some sort of sex scandal in order to backmail him into becoming a double-agent. They are surely right about this.

We also know that the FBI were monitoring the women that Ward was using to entrap Ivanov. Mariella Novotny, Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies all visited the United States between 1960-62 and that released FBI documents show that they were suspected of having sex with leading politicians, including John and Robert Kennedy.

Mandy Rice-Davies, one of the prostitutes, involved in this "honeytrap" pointed out in her book published in 1980 that Ivanov resisted their advances. Keeler later claimed that she had sex with Ivanov on one occasion but most people who investigated this case, suspect that she was lying. This is also the view of Rice-Davies. It would seem that the "honeytrap" was not working.

Keith Wagstaffe was refused permission by MI5 to talk to the Sunday Times in 1987. However, unofficially, he did provide Philip Knightley, the journalist working on the case, with some key information.

We now know for example that Ward warned MI5 that John Profumo had become embroiled in this "honeytrap". However, it was sometime afterwards that Profumo was warned about this and he broke off contact with Keeler. This suggests to me that the intention of this honeytrap was to compromise politicians as well as KGB agents.

This is also the case in the United States. Bobby Baker, who used some of the same girls as Stephen Ward, was mainly interested in entrapping politicians. It is assumed, that this enabled Lyndon Johnson and J. Edgar Hoover to blackmail these politicians. John and Robert Kennedy both became victims of this plot.

One of the most interesting aspects of this US/UK honeytrap operation was the use of Mariella Novotny. It was not just enough to have evidence that politicians were having sex with prostitutes. It was vitally important to persuade them that were involved in a relationship with a KGB spy. The reality is that Mariella Novotny was not a KGB spy. In fact, Mariella Novotny was not even her right-name. Her birth certificate states that she was Stella Capes and she was born in the East End of London in 1942.

It was later claimed that her grandfather was Antonín Novotny, the President of Czechoslovakia from 1957 to 1968 and the General Secretary of the Communist Party from 1953 to 1968. If this is the case, and Mariella Novotny was a KGB spy, why would she make it easy for the intelligence services, by changing her name to indicate a link with a communist regime? It makes no sense at all, unless the real motive, was to aquire information to blackmail senior politicians with this story.

John,

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I thought I would summarize what we now know about the Profumo case today.

Stephen Ward was involved in recruiting young women to take part in sex parties held for the ruling elite in Britain. One of the women who held these parties was called Mariella Novotny, who had an expensive home in London provided by a wealthy night-club owner, Horace Dibben. These parties were attended by several ministers in the government.

Ward was in constant contact with a man who was known as "Woods". At his trial Ward said that he had contact with Woods at Room 393 at the War Office. According to Christine Keeler in her autobiography, Ward used to meet Woods at their flat. Ward told Keeler that Woods was interested in the names of the people who went to these sex parties.

Ward told the court that in early 1961 he informed Woods that John Profumo, the War Minister and Eugene Ivanov, an naval attaché at the Soviet embassy, were attending these parties.

In 1987 an investigation by the Sunday Times identified "Woods" as being Keith Wagstaffe, an MI5 officer working for DI Operations, a section of the Counter-Intelligence branch. We know from Stephen Ward's unpublished memoir, and from the report provided by MI5 for the government inquiry held by Lord Denning, that the intelligence services were especially interested in the activities of Eugene Ivanov, who they rightly considered was spying for the KGB. In one of these early meetings Ward asked if he should continue seeing Ivanov. Wagstaffe replied that he should but he needed to keep him informed about Ivanov's activities. The authors of the two main books about the case, An Affair of State and Honeytrap, claim that MI5 were attempting to entrap Ivanov is some sort of sex scandal in order to backmail him into becoming a double-agent. They are surely right about this.

We also know that the FBI were monitoring the women that Ward was using to entrap Ivanov. Mariella Novotny, Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies all visited the United States between 1960-62 and that released FBI documents show that they were suspected of having sex with leading politicians, including John and Robert Kennedy.

Mandy Rice-Davies, one of the prostitutes, involved in this "honeytrap" pointed out in her book published in 1980 that Ivanov resisted their advances. Keeler later claimed that she had sex with Ivanov on one occasion but most people who investigated this case, suspect that she was lying. This is also the view of Rice-Davies. It would seem that the "honeytrap" was not working.

Keith Wagstaffe was refused permission by MI5 to talk to the Sunday Times in 1987. However, unofficially, he did provide Philip Knightley, the journalist working on the case, with some key information.

We now know for example that Ward warned MI5 that John Profumo had become embroiled in this "honeytrap". However, it was sometime afterwards that Profumo was warned about this and he broke off contact with Keeler. This suggests to me that the intention of this honeytrap was to compromise politicians as well as KGB agents.

This is also the case in the United States. Bobby Baker, who used some of the same girls as Stephen Ward, was mainly interested in entrapping politicians. It is assumed, that this enabled Lyndon Johnson and J. Edgar Hoover to blackmail these politicians. John and Robert Kennedy both became victims of this plot.

One of the most interesting aspects of this US/UK honeytrap operation was the use of Mariella Novotny. It was not just enough to have evidence that politicians were having sex with prostitutes. It was vitally important to persuade them that were involved in a relationship with a KGB spy. The reality is that Mariella Novotny was not a KGB spy. In fact, Mariella Novotny was not even her right-name. Her birth certificate states that she was Stella Capes and she was born in the East End of London in 1942.

It was later claimed that her grandfather was Antonín Novotny, the President of Czechoslovakia from 1957 to 1968 and the General Secretary of the Communist Party from 1953 to 1968. If this is the case, and Mariella Novotny was a KGB spy, why would she make it easy for the intelligence services, by changing her name to indicate a link with a communist regime? It makes no sense at all, unless the real motive, was to aquire information to blackmail senior politicians with this story.

John, you left out Ellem Rometsch, the juciest part on this side, and the key JFK/RFK connection with Bobby Baker and the Quorum Club.

I sent an email to Mark Russell, the stand-up piano player, who fails to mention he got his start at the Carroll Arms Hotel in his bio, but he hasn't responded.

BK

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John, you left out Ellem Rometsch, the juciest part on this side, and the key JFK/RFK connection with Bobby Baker and the Quorum Club.

I left her out because I could not find any evidence that she was involved in the Profumo Scandal. However, I suspect, like Mariella Novotny and Suzy Chang, she was not really a KGB spy. However, it was important to make the Kennedy brothers believe she was part of a spy ring.

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John, you left out Ellem Rometsch, the juciest part on this side, and the key JFK/RFK connection with Bobby Baker and the Quorum Club.

I left her out because I could not find any evidence that she was involved in the Profumo Scandal. However, I suspect, like Mariella Novotny and Suzy Chang, she was not really a KGB spy. However, it was important to make the Kennedy brothers believe she was part of a spy ring.

Thanks John,

You do have Bobby Baker and JFK as part of the title of your thread and she was the bait from the DC "Honey Trap."

While the whole Profumo scandal and their parties are interesting, the Rometsch/Baker/JFK angle seems to be the most significant aspect of the whole affair, at least from this side.

BK

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http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:cPHOxh...cd=15&gl=us

David Bruce was mentioned as being one of the first infomred of the Profumo affair.

He was OSS, with Hemingway in Paris.

Lovett also important for bringing Dillon, Bundy, McNamara and Rusk into JFK's cabinet.

BK

http://cryptome.org/ic-black5601.htm#report

xxx

CIA's OSS Records at the National Archives

One of the most important declassification projects of the late 20th Century is drawing to a close. In the early 1970s a CIA team reviewed and declassified records of CIA's predecessor organizations, the Coordinator of Information (COI), the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the Strategic Services Unit (SSU), and the Central Intelligence Group (CIG). Together these records provide an official documentary record of US intelligence and its operations during World War II and the early postwar period. In the early 1980s the CIA History Staff, at the request of DCI William Casey, arranged for the transfer of these OSS and other records to the National Archives and Records Administration. To date, CIA has declassified and transferred some 3,800 cubic feet (over 8 million pages) of textual records.

The National Archives has placed all of the OSS records, including those from COI, SSU, and CIG in Record Group 226. This same Record Group includes 1,700 cubic feet of material from the OSS Research and Analysis Branch that the State Department transferred to the Archives following OSS's disbandment in 1945. RG 226 is one of the most frequently used collections at the National Archives, and it was CIA's first grand-scale effort to declassify intelligence records for public use. A team of four former CIA and OSS officers is still working on this declassification project and hopes to finish soon. When they complete this project, NARA will hold 95 percent of the original records from the World War II period that CIA has had in its custody.

The Elusive ``Bruce-Lovett Report''

Judging by the number of presidential and congressional commissions, panels, boards, and committees formed to study CIA's mission and purpose, one could conclude that the Agency is one of the most studied of all federal agencies. The best known studies are closely identified with their principal authors or sponsors. Hence we have the ``Church Committee'' report (1976), the ``Schlesinger'' report (1971), and the ``Dulles-Jackson- Correa'' report (1949). The final product of the ongoing Presidential Commission to study the future of the intelligence community will undoubtedly be remembered as the ``Aspin Commission'' report.

These reports make fascinating reading as well as invaluable sources for the CIA History Staff. The Staff recently ran across a reference to another item, the so- called ``Bruce-Lovett'' report, that it would very much like to read--if we could find it! The report is mentioned in Peter Grose's recent biography Gentleman Spy: The Life of Allen Dulles. According to Grose, two American elder statesmen, David Bruce and Robert Lovett, prepared a report for President Dwight Eisenhower in the fall of 1956 that criticized CIA's alleged fascination with ``kingmaking'' in the Third World and complained that a ``horde of CIA representatives'' was mounting foreign political intrigues at the expense of gathering hard intelligence on the Soviet Union.

The History Staff decided to get a copy of the report and see what the two former diplomats had really said. The first place to look was the CIA files on the President's Board of Consultants on Foreign Intelligence Activities (PBCFIA). Bruce and Lovett had been charter members of this blue-ribbon panel. There was no reference to such a report. We then checked with the Eisenhower Library and National Archives, which holds the PBCFIA records, but came up emptyhanded. The Virginia Historical Society, the custodian of David Bruce's papers, did not have a copy either.

Having reached a dead end, we consulted the author of the Dulles biography, Peter Grose. Grose told us that he had not seen the report itself but had used notes made from it by historian Arthur M. Schlesinger for Robert F. Kennedy and His Times (1978). Professor Schlesinger informed us that that he had seen the report in Robert Kennedy's papers before they were deposited at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston. He had loaned Grose his notes and does not have a copy of these notes or of the report itself. This raises an interesting question: how did a report on the CIA written for President Eisenhower in 1956 end up in the RFK papers? We think we have the answer. Robert Lovett was asked to testify before Gen. Maxwell Taylor's board of inquiry on the 1961 Bay of Pigs operation. Robert Kennedy was on that board and may have asked Lovett for a copy of the report. But we do not have the answer to another question: where is the ``Bruce-Lovett'' report? The JFK Presidential Library has searched the RFK papers without success. Surely the report will turn up some day, even if one government agency and four separate archives so far haven't been able to find it. But this episode helps to prove one of the few Iron Laws of History: the official who keeps the best records gets to tell the story.

Edited by William Kelly
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While the whole Profumo scandal and their parties are interesting, the Rometsch/Baker/JFK angle seems to be the most significant aspect of the whole affair, at least from this side.

Ellen Rometsch is discussed here in some detail. However, I have recently discovered that some of the information I posted on this thread is incorrect. For example, Mariella Novotny and Suzy Chang, were not born in communist countries, and that the FBI had no real evidence that they were KGB agents.

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=2637

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Members of the forum might be interested in an internal memo produced by J. Edgar Hoover on the Profumo Scandal in June, 1963:

For information. John Profumo was British Minister of War until his recent resignation following disclosure of his relations with Christine Keeler. Stephen Ward, London osteopath, has been arrested in London charged with living on the earnings of Keeler and Marilyn Rice-Davies, prostitutes. Ward's operations reportedly part of a large vice ring involving many people including many prominent people in the U.S. and England including other Ministers of British Cabinet not yet identified. Other individuals involved include Yevgeny Ivanov, aka Eugene Ivanov, former Soviet Naval Attache, London, who patronised Keeler and who reportedly requested Keeler to obtain information from Profumo; Thomas J. Corbally, U.S. citizen engaged in business in Britain, who reportedly gave wild parties in his flat; Michael H. B. Eddowes, British attorney for Keeler, now in the U.S. representing her interests re sale of her story to publications; Horace Dibben, British citizen, in whose residence sex orgies were held is husband of Maria Novotny; Maria Novotny is prostitute who operated in NYC, was arrested on March three, one nine six one, and was victim in white slave case involving her procurer, Alan Towers. She fled to England and has participated in orgies at Ward residence. Alan Towers was in NYC for two years prior to his arrest in above white slave case. He jumped bail and is now a bureau fugitive. He is reportedly now permanently residing behind Iron Curtain. Novotny alleges Towers was a Soviet agent and that Soviets wanted information for purposes of compromise of prominent individuals; Lord Astor of England on whose Cliveden Estate sex orgies reportedly occurred: it was here that Profumo first met Keeler; Douglas Fairbanks, Jnr, movie actor; Earl Felton, American screen writer; and many others also involved.

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When John Profumo resigned on 5th June, after confessing that he lied to the House of Commons, the matter could have come to an end. However, someone decided that it would be a good idea to prosecute Stephen Ward. It was this decision that eventually brought down the Conservative government.

To understand what happened it is necessary to go back to 27th March, 1963, when Henry Brooke, the Home Secretary, summoned Roger Hollis, the head of MI5, and Joseph Simpson, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, to a meeting in his office. Philip Knightley pointed out in An Affair of State (1987): "All these people are now dead and the only account of what took place is a semi-official one leaked in 1982 by MI5. According to this account, when Brooke tackled Hollis on the rumour that MI5 had been sending anonymous letters to Mrs Profumo, Hollis vigorously denied it."

Roger Hollis then told Henry Brooke that Christine Keeler had been having a sexual relationship with John Profumo. At the same time Keeler was believed to be having an affair with Eugene Ivanov, a Soviet spy. According to Keeler, Stephen Ward had asked her "to find out, through pillow talk, from Jack Profumo when nuclear warheads were being moved to Germany." Hollis added that "in any court case that might be brought against Ward over the accusation all the witnesses would be completely unreliable" and therefore he rejected the idea of using the Official Secrets Act against Ward.

Henry Brooke then asked the Police Commissioner's view on this. Joseph Simpson agreed with Roger Hollis about the unreliable witnesses but added that it might be possible to get a conviction against Ward with a charge of living off immoral earnings. However, he added, that given the evidence available, a conviction was unlikely. Despite this response, Brooke urged Simpson to carry out a full investigation into Ward's activities.

Commander Fred C. Pennington was ordered to assemble a team to investigate Ward. The team was headed by Chief Inspector Samuel Herbert and included John Burrows, Arthur Eustace and Mike Glasse. Pennington told Herbert and his colleagues: "we've received this tip-off, but there'll be nothing in it." Glasse later told Philip Knightley that he thought that this was "a hint not to try too hard."

However, for some reason Herbert decided that Ward would be prosecuted. What is more, Herbert was willing to do all he could to make sure that Ward was convicted.

It emerged later that Herbert installed a spy in Ward's home during the investigation. Herbert recruited Wendy Davies, a twenty-year old barmaid at the Duke of Marlborough pub, near Ward's flat. Davies knew Ward who had sketched her several times in the past. Davies later recalled: "I went to Stephen's flat practically every night up to his arrest. Each time I tried to listen in to telephone conversations, and to what Stephen was saying to friends who called. When I got back to my flat I wrote everything down in an exercise book, and rang the police the next day. I gave them a lot of information."

Herbert interviewed Christine Keeler at her home on 1st April 1963. Four days later she was taken to Marylebone Police Station. Herbert told her that the police would need a complete list of men with whom she had sex or who had given her money during the time she knew Ward. This list included the names of John Profumo, Charles Clore and Jim Eynan.

On 23rd April Mandy Rice-Davies was arrested at Heathrow Airport on the way to Spain for a holiday, and formerly charged her with "possessing a document so closely resembling a driving licence as to be calculated to deceive." The magistrate fixed bail at £2,000. She later commented that "not only did I not have that much money, but the policeman in charge made it very clear to me that i would be wasting my energy trying to rustle it up." Rice-Davies spent the next nine days in Holloway Prison.

While she was in custody Rice-Davies was visited by Chief Inspector Herbert. His first words were: "Mandy, you don't like it in here very much, do you? Then you help us, and we'll help you." Herbert made it clear that Christine Keeler was helping them into their investigation into Stephen Ward. When she provided the information required she would be released from prison.

At first Mandy Rice-Davies refused to cooperate but as she later pointed out: "I was ready to kick the system any way I could. But ten days of being locked up alters the perspective. Anger was replaced by fear. I was ready to do anything to get out." Rice-Davies added: "Although I was certain nothing I could say about Stephen could damage him any way... I felt I was being coerced into something, being pointed in a predetermined direction." Herbert asked Rice-Davies for a list of men with whom she had sex or who had given her money during the time she knew Ward. This list included the names of Peter Rachman and Emil Savundra.

Herbert personally interviewed Christine Keeler twenty-four times during the investigation. Other senior detectives had interrogated her on fourteen other occasions. Herbert told Keeler that unless her evidence in court matched her statements "you might well find yourself standing beside Stephen Ward in the dock."

Mandy Rice-Davies appeared in court on 1st May 1963. She was found guilty and fined £42. Rice-Davies immediately took a plane to Majorca. A few days later Herbert telephoned her and said: "They would be sending out my ticket, they wanted me back in London, and if I didn't go voluntarily they would issue a warrant for extradition." Despite the fact that there was no extradition arrangement between the two countries, Rice-Davies decided to return to England. On her arrival at Heathrow Airport she was arrested and charged with stealing a television set valued at £82. This was the set that Peter Rachman had hired for her flat. According to Rice-Davies: "I had signed the hire papers, and after he'd died I had never been allowed to remove the set." Chief Inspector Herbert arranged for Rice-Davies passport to be taken from her. She was released on the understanding that she would give evidence in court against Stephen Ward.

Chief Inspector Herbert also interviewed Vasco Lazzolo, who was one of Ward's friends who agreed to testify for the defence. Herbert told Lazzolo that if he was determined to give evidence on Ward's behalf, then he might have to be discredited. Herbert warned that the police might have to "find" some pornographic material in his studio and prosecute him.

Herbert needed more evidence against Stephen Ward. He therefore arrested Ronna Ricardo was arrested by the police and agreed to give evidence against Ward. Ricardo was known as "Ronna the Lash", and specialised in flagellation. Trevor Kempson, a journalist, who was working for the News of the World claimed: "She used to carry her equipment round in a leather bag. She was well known for the use of the whip, and I heard that several of Ward's friends used to like it rough."

At the Ward committal proceedings, Ronna Ricardo provided evidence that suggested that he had been living off her immoral earnings. She quoted Ward as saying that it "would be worth my while" to attend a party at Cliveden. Ricardo claimed that she visited Ward's home in London three times. On one occasion, she had sex with a man in Ward's bedroom after being given £25."

Ricardo told Ludovic Kennedy that the police interviewed her nine times in order that she gave a statement that provided evidence that suggested that Ward was living off immoral earnings. Ricardo confessed to another researcher, Anthony Summers that: "Stephen didn't have to ponce - he was dead rich, a real gentleman; a shoulder for me to cry on for me, for a long time." Ricardo also told Summers that Chief Inspector Samuel Herbert was one of her clients.

Two days before Ward's trial, Ronna Ricardo made a new statement to the police. "I want to say that most of the evidence I gave at Marylebone Court was untrue. I want to say I never met a man in Stephen Ward's flat except my friend 'Silky' Hawkins. He is the only man I have ever had intercourse with in Ward's flat. It is true that I never paid Ward any money received from men with whom I have had intercourse. I have only been in Ward's flat once and that was with 'Silky'. Ward was there and Michelle."

It later emerged that Ricardo decided to tell the truth after being interviewed by Tom Mangold of the Daily Express. "There were two strands running through the thing, it seemed to me. There was some sort of intelligence connection, which I could not understand at the time. The other thing, the thing that was clear, was that Ward was being made a scapegoat for everyone else's sins. So that the public would excuse them. If the myth about Ward could be built up properly, the myth that he was a revolting fellow, a true pimp, then police would feel that other men, like Profumo and Astor, had been corrupted by him. But he wasn't a ponce. He was no more a pimp than hundreds of other men in London. But when the state wants to act against an individual, it can do it."

On 3rd July, 1963, Vickie Barrett was arrested for soliciting. While being interviewed, Barrett claimed she knew Stephen Ward. She told the police that she was picked up by Ward in Oxford Street in January 1963. Barrett was taken back to his flat where she had sex with a friend of his. Afterwards, she said, Ward told her that the man had paid him and he would save the money for her. Over the next two and a half months, according to Barrett some two or three times a week, the same thing would happen. Barrett claimed that during this time, Ward never paid her any money for these acts of prostitution.

The trial of Stephen Ward began at the Old Bailey on 22nd July 1963. Rebecca West was one of the journalists covering the case. She described Barrett looking like "a photograph from a famine relief fund appeal." Ludovic Kennedy, the author of The Trial of Stephen Ward (1964) commented: "She came into the witness-box, a little whey-faced blonde, wearing a sort of green raincoat with a white scarf round her neck; and when she turned to face the court and while she was giving the oath, one's impression was one of shock; shock that Ward, whom one had believed to be a man of some fastidiousness in his tastes, had sunk so low. For of all the whores the prosecution had paraded or were still to parade before us this one was the bottom of the barrel."

At the trial Vickie Barrett claimed that Ward had picked her up in Oxford Street and had taken her home to have sex with his friends. Barrett was unable to name any of these men. She added that Ward was paid by these friends and he kept some of the money for her in a little drawer. Ward admitted knowing Barrett and having sex with her. However, he denied arranging for her to have sex with other men or taking money from her. Sylvia Parker, who had been staying at Ward's flat at the time Barrett claimed she was brought there to have sex with other men. She called Barrett's statements "untrue, a complete load of rubbish".

Christine Keeler claims that she had never seen Barrett before: "She (Barrett) described Stephen handing out horsewhips, canes, contraceptives and coffee and how, having collected her weapons, she had treated the waiting clients. It sounded, and was, nonsense. I had lived with Stephen and never seen any evidence of anything like that." Mandy Rice-Davies agreed with Keeler: "Much of what she (Barrett) said was discredited. It was obvious to anyone that Stephen, with the police breathing down his neck and the press on his doorstep, would hardly have the opportunity or the inclination for this sort of thing."

Ronna Ricardo gave evidence on the second day of the trial. Ludovic Kennedy, the author of The Trial of Stephen Ward (1964) commented that unlike Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies "she made no pretensions about not being a tart." Kennedy added "She had dyed red hair and a pink jumper and a total lack of any sort of finesse".

While being cross-examined by Melvyn Griffith-Jones Ricardo claimed she had told untruths about Stephen Ward in her statement on 5th April because of threats made by the police. "The statements which I have made to the police were untrue. I made them because I did not want my young sister to go to a remand home or my baby taken away from me. Mr. Herbert told me they would take my sister away and take my baby if I didn't make the statements."

As Mandy Rice-Davies pointed out: "When Ronna Ricardo, who had provided strong evidence against him at the early hearing, came into court she swore under oath that her earlier evidence had been false. She had lied to satisfy the police, that they had threatened her, if she refused, with taking her baby and her young sister into care. Despite the most aggressive attack from Mr Griffith Jones, and barely concealed hostility from the judge, she stuck to her story, that this was the truth and the earlier story she had told was lies." As Ricardo later told Anthony Summers: "Stephen was a good friend of mine. But Inspector Herbert was a good friend as well, so it was complicated."

Stephen Ward told his defence counsel, James Burge: "One of my great perils is that at least half a dozen of the (witnesses) are lying and their motives vary from malice to cupidity and fear... In the case of both Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies there is absolutely no doubt that they are committed to stories which are already sold or could be sold to newspapers and that my conviction would free these newspapers to print stories which they would otherwise be quite unable to print (for libel reasons)."

Stephen Ward was very upset by the judge's summing-up that included the following: "If Stephen Ward was telling the truth in the witness box, there are in this city many witnesses of high estate and low who could have come and testified in support of his evidence." Several people present in the court claimed that Judge Archie Pellow Marshall was clearly biased against Ward. France Soir reported: "However impartial he tried to appear, Judge Marshall was betrayed by his voice."

That night Ward wrote to his friend, Noel Howard-Jones: "It is really more than I can stand - the horror, day after day at the court and in the streets. It is not only fear, it is a wish not to let them get me. I would rather get myself. I do hope I have not let people down too much. I tried to do my stuff but after Marshall's summing-up, I've given up all hope." Ward then took an overdose of sleeping tablets. He was in a coma when the jury reached their verdict of guilty of the charge of living on the immoral earnings of Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies on Wednesday 31st July. However, he was found not guilty of the charges relating to Ronna Ricardo and Vickie Barrett. Three days later, Ward died in St Stephen's Hospital.

In his book, The Trial of Stephen Ward (1964), Ludovic Kennedy considers the guilty verdict of Ward to be a miscarriage of justice. In An Affair of State (1987), the journalist, Philip Knightley argues: "Witnesses were pressured by the police into giving false evidence. Those who had anything favourable to say were silenced. And when it looked as though Ward might still survive, the Lord Chief Justice shocked the legal profession with an unprecedented intervention to ensure Ward would be found guilty."Ward's defence team found suicide notes addressed to Vickie Barrett, Ronna Ricardo, Melvyn Griffith-Jones, James Burge and Lord Denning: Barrett's letter said: "I don't know what it was or who it was that made you do what you did. But if you have any decency left, you should tell the truth like Ronna Ricardo. You owe this not to me, but to everyone who may be treated like you or like me in the future."

The letter was passed to Barry O'Brien, a journalist who worked for the Daily Telegraph. He later recalled: "We were alone in the room. I told her that Dr. Ward had died and that on the night he had taken the overdose he had written her a letter. I told her that I had a photograph copy of the letter with me and gave it to her. She was greatly shocked at learning Dr. Ward was dead."

O'Brien claimed that Vickie Barrett responded with the following words: "It was all lies. But I never thought he would die. I didn't want him to die. It was not all lies. I did go to the flat but it was only to do business with Stephen Ward. It was not true I went with other men." Barrett admitted that she had been coerced into giving her evidence by the police. According to O'Brien she told him that Herbert had threatened that if she did not do what he wanted she would never be able to show her face in Notting Hill again. Barrett agreed to go to see Ward's solicitor, then went to another room to get her coat. According to O'Brien, an older women who was living in the house came out, and said: "Miss Barrett was not going anywhere." Barrett later retracted her retraction.

According to Sergeant Mike Glasse, all the police officers had been told before Ward's trial that if the prosecution was successful they would receive promotions, "but not immediately, because it would not look good." Samuel Herbert was promoted to the rank of Superintendent.

Samuel Herbert died of a heart attack on 16th April 1966. In his will he left only £300, which was commensurate with the police salaries at that time. However, after his death his bank account was discovered to contain no less than £30,000 (660,000 by today's values). According to Philip Knightley: "By coincidence, in the tape recordings which Christine Keeler made with her manager, Robin Drury, Keeler says that John Lewis, Ward's bitter enemy, had offered her £30,000 for information leading to Ward's conviction and the bringing down of the Conservative Government."

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/SPYherbert.htm

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In 1987 Tony Summers and Stephen Dorril published their book on the John Profumo/Stephen Ward case, Honeytrap. During their research they managed to speak to several members of MI5, including Keith Wagstaffe, Ward’s case-officer. The book confirms that Ward had been involved in an operation that was attempting to persuade Eugene Ivanov to become a double-agent.

As a result of the book being published the authors were contacted by a former MI6 officer who claimed that Ward was murdered by a contract agent called Stanley Rytter, whose cover was as a freelance journalist and photographer. Rytter had died in 1984 but Summers and Dorril investigate the allegation and got the story confirmed by one of his associates, Serge Paplinski.

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In 1987 Tony Summers and Stephen Dorril published their book on the John Profumo/Stephen Ward case, Honeytrap. During their research they managed to speak to several members of MI5, including Keith Wagstaffe, Ward’s case-officer. The book confirms that Ward had been involved in an operation that was attempting to persuade Eugene Ivanov to become a double-agent.

As a result of the book being published the authors were contacted by a former MI6 officer who claimed that Ward was murdered by a contract agent called Stanley Rytter, whose cover was as a freelance journalist and photographer. Rytter had died in 1984 but Summers and Dorril investigate the allegation and got the story confirmed by one of his associates, Serge Paplinski.

Stephen Ward was very upset by the judge's summing-up that included the following: "If Stephen Ward was telling the truth in the witness box, there are in this city many witnesses of high estate and low who could have come and testified in support of his evidence." Several people present in the court claimed that Judge Archie Pellow Marshall was clearly biased against Ward. France Soir reported: "However impartial he tried to appear, Judge Marshall was betrayed by his voice."

After the day's court proceedings, Ward contacted Tom Critchley, a Home Office official working with Lord Denning on the official investigation. Later, Critchley refused to comment what was said in that telephone conversation.

That night Stephen Ward took an overdose of sleeping tablets. He was in a coma when the jury reached their verdict of guilty of the charge of living on the immoral earnings of Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies on Wednesday 31st July. Three days later, Ward died in St Stephen's Hospital.

The entertainer Michael Bentine, who worked as an intelligence officer for MI9 under Airey Neave during the Second World War and had known Ward for sometime, kept up his contacts after the war, later commented: "A Special Branch friend of mine told me Ward was assisted in his dying. I think he was murdered."

Paul Mann, a close friend of Stephen Ward, says he was told shortly after his death, that "Ward was injected with an air bubble, by hypodermic, with the intention of causing a fatal embolism. The needle broke, and the assassins left in a hurry. It was enough, though, to send the drugged Ward on his way. It was a botched affair."

In 1987 Anthony Summers and Stephen Dorril published their book on the Stephen Ward case, Honeytrap. During their research they managed to speak to several members of MI5, including Keith Wagstaffe, Ward’s case-officer. The book confirms that Ward had been involved in an operation that was attempting to persuade Eugene Ivanov to become a double-agent.

As a result of the book being published the authors were contacted by a former MI6 officer who claimed that Ward was murdered by Rytter. He told them: "Stanley Rytter is the one who killed Ward. I know because he told me.... I wasn't there. But Rytter was with Ward the night he died, and Rytter told me he was paid to kill Ward. He was paid by our mob."

The intelligence officer then went on to say: "It was decided that Ward had to die.... He admitted (Rytter) that Ward was killed on the instructions of his department. He convinced Ward that he ought to have a good night's sleep and take some sleeping pills. The agent said he let Ward doze off and then woke him again and told him to take his tablets. Another half an hour later or two, he woke Ward again, and told him he'd forgotten to take his sleeping pills. So it went on - till Ward had overdosed. It might sound far-fetched, but it's the easiest thing in the world to do. Once the victim is drowsy he will agree to almost anything."

Serge Paplinski told Anthony Summers and Stephen Dorril "Stanley (Rytter) was there with Ward on the last night... he always said that Ward was poisoned." His daughter, Yvonne Rytter recalled being taken to St Stephen's Hospital as Ward was dying. She recalls someone coming up and saying; "That's it. He's dead."

Stanley Rytter died following a stroke in 1984.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/SPYrytter.htm

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  • 2 months later...

Ellen Rometsch was born in Kleinitz Germany, in 1936. After World War II Kleinitz became part of East Germany. In 1955 she immigrated to West Germany. Ellen Rometsch's second husband was Rolf Rometsch, a West German Military aide assigned to Washington, D.C. Mrs. Rometsch arrived in the U.S. on April 6, 1961. She was investigated as an internal security threat, as it was reported that she came from East Germany. The investigation finally determined that Mrs. Rometsch did not pose an internal security threat.

Ellen Rometsch frequented the Quorum Club, a private club in the Carroll Arms Hotel on Capitol Hill run by Lyndon B. Johnson aide Bobby Baker. In his 1978 book, "Wheeling and Dealing: Confessions of a Capitol Hill Operator," Baker referred to the place as where, "membership was comprised of senators, congressmen, lobbyists, Capitol Hill staffers, and other well-connecteds who wanted to enjoy their drinks, meals, poker games, and shared secrets in private accommodations."

Mark Russell Reminisces about the old Carroll Arms Hotel bar

- sorry it's taken so long to get them to you.

I was hired as a piano player at the Carroll Arms Hotel in June of 1958. I was in a small dining room which seated maybe 50 people and had a bar. The hotel had a 100 rooms and it was diagonally across the street from the Russell Senate Office Building.

There was only one senate office building, then.. There are three now. I worked from 5pm , the start of the cocktail hour until 2 in the morning - which was closing time. Except on Saturdays. We closed at midnight on Saturday since at the time there was a midnight curfew in Washington, DC.

The customers were primarily customers employed on Capitol Hill. Senators and their staff and the lobbyists. The lobbyists were always the one's who picked up the checks.

Eisenhower was president, Nixon was vice president. Nixon had a little hideaway office upstairs. He could come in then with little hoopla. I remember seeing him and he actually put catsup on his cottage cheese. This later became legend, but I saw it. Off in the corner, often working with a pile of papers, was Bobby Kennedy, who at the time was a legal counsel to a senate investigative committee, the same committee once chaired by Joseph McCarthy.

Bobby would nurse a beer for a couple of hours. Beer was 45 cents; mix drinks were 75 cents. But he'd be back in the corner working - not a celebrity - just an assistant to a committee. If he had a couple of beers - for 90 cents, he'd write a check.

Other customers included Sen. Thomas Dodd, the father of current senator Christopher Dodd. There was also freshman senator from NJ named Harrison Williams. He would later become embroiled in the ABSCAM scandal of the 70s. He left the senate in disgrace. He had shown great promise. Good looking, great speaking voice.

Hubert Humphrey would come in - always very talkative, glad-handing the crowd. And I must say, people drank to excess in there, including me. It was party time every night. I was just the piano player; at the beginning I did almost nothing political. As a matter of fact I was advised that if I really wanted to hold the crowd's attention - then I should talk about them. So I started to pay attention to what was going on in Congress, specifically the Senate. I would go to hearings in the SOB across the street – generally to the Caucus Room - with the big chandelier. You could just walk in then off the street and just sit down. When the hearings would end, the participants would come across the street to the Carroll Arms for cocktails.

The first hearing I went to was an investigation of the Teamster's Union. Afterwards, everyone would gather in the bar; the teamsters on one side of the room; the investigators on the other and they'd stare each other down. I didn't know who was who at first. I remember one guy - swarthy, smoking a big cigar. I thought it was a teamster. It was Pierre Salinger.

Other people: Congressman Bob Michel. He was a great singer. And I would accompany him. We sang. Lots of singing in the room. Once, Sen. Lyndon Johnson came in and saw a group of his staff singing and drinking. He ordered them all back to work.

The way I got the job was through Sid Yudain. He was the founder of "Roll Call" the Capitol Hill newspaper. He heard me someplace and recommended to the manger that he hire me. I stayed there for three years until 1961 when I went over to the Shoreham where I stayed until 1981.

I perform only intermittently in Washington now. Hope this is what you wanted. To give you an idea - sort of a flavor of what it was back in the day.

[Thanks Mark. I've asked him about Bobby Baker, Roy Cohen and the girls, but he hasn't gotten back to me yet. At first he thought I was Billy Kelly, "the great Boston comedian," who must be the guy whose always getting me in trouble. BK]

Edited by William Kelly
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