WEBVTT - Will the Real Sidney Reilly Please Stand Up? 0:00:02.400 --> 0:00:06.040 Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shonda land Audio in 0:00:06.120 --> 0:00:17.279 partnership with I Heart Radio. Mr Constantine, Dr t W 0:00:17.560 --> 0:00:22.680 Andrew Sydney Riley on one passport. He traveled under the 0:00:22.680 --> 0:00:26.200 alias George Bergman. The man we're talking about in this 0:00:26.280 --> 0:00:30.640 episode was a British intelligence officer, and he's considered the 0:00:30.720 --> 0:00:35.760 most accomplished spy in history. Most of Riley's account of 0:00:35.800 --> 0:00:39.720 who he was and what he did was probably a lie, 0:00:40.240 --> 0:00:43.599 but we do know about his execution. Ordered by Stalin, 0:00:44.040 --> 0:00:48.320 Welcome to Criminalia. I'm Maria Tremarquis and I'm Holly Frying. 0:00:49.159 --> 0:00:51.559 Many knew the man on the hot seat today as 0:00:51.600 --> 0:00:57.160 Sidney Riley, but he was born Sigmund Georgevitch Rosenbloom. Probably, 0:00:57.840 --> 0:01:00.640 in fact, most of what is known about him should 0:01:00.680 --> 0:01:04.440 probably be qualified as a Probably what else but a 0:01:04.480 --> 0:01:07.399 tangled web would you expect from the most accomplished spy 0:01:07.440 --> 0:01:11.080 in history. Though right much of what historians think they 0:01:11.080 --> 0:01:14.080 know about him may be false. Because Riley was a 0:01:14.120 --> 0:01:18.720 master of deception. Siegmund Rosenbloom turned himself into a man 0:01:18.760 --> 0:01:22.840 with more than a dozen identities. He became a businessman 0:01:23.000 --> 0:01:26.440 and multi lingual Khan man whose real line of work 0:01:26.640 --> 0:01:30.200 was espionage. By the beginning of the twentieth century, he 0:01:30.280 --> 0:01:32.920 was working as an agent for the British Intelligence Agency, 0:01:33.240 --> 0:01:37.280 assigned to spy on expat communities in Paris and London, 0:01:37.440 --> 0:01:40.480 with dispatches to Germany, the Russian Empire, and across the 0:01:40.520 --> 0:01:44.959 Far East, a European term referring to the geographical regions 0:01:44.959 --> 0:01:48.280 that include East and Southeast Asia, as well as the 0:01:48.360 --> 0:01:54.640 Russian Far East. Rosenbloom was born on March seventy four 0:01:55.000 --> 0:01:58.480 into a Polish Jewish family with an estate at Bielsk 0:01:58.760 --> 0:02:03.160 in the Grodno Province of Imperial Russia. Grodno, now a 0:02:03.200 --> 0:02:07.040 city in western Belarus, is near the Polish and Lithuanian borders. 0:02:08.000 --> 0:02:11.119 He was the only son of Paulina and Gregory Rosenbloom, 0:02:11.360 --> 0:02:16.680 a pianist and contractor, respectively. Or maybe he wasn't. Some 0:02:16.800 --> 0:02:21.400 reports suggest he was born in eighteen seventy three in Odessa, Ukraine, 0:02:21.639 --> 0:02:24.920 then part of the Russian Empire. Author Andrew Cook, in 0:02:24.960 --> 0:02:28.040 his book Ace of Spies The True Story of Sidney Riley, 0:02:28.080 --> 0:02:31.799 states that Riley was born on March seventy three as 0:02:31.919 --> 0:02:36.560 Solomon or Shlomo Rosenbloom in the Jewish care soon Berna 0:02:36.880 --> 0:02:41.000 of Imperial Russia. He writes that the man who called 0:02:41.080 --> 0:02:44.680 himself Sidney Riley was the illegitimate son of a woman 0:02:44.760 --> 0:02:49.400 named Paulina, who was Riley's acknowledged mother, and a doctor 0:02:49.440 --> 0:02:54.320 Mikhail Rosenbloom, the first cousin of Riley's presumed father, Gregory. 0:02:54.919 --> 0:02:58.959 Is he right? There's always that? But though, isn't there? 0:03:00.400 --> 0:03:06.080 But uh so? Riley told several wildly different versions of 0:03:06.120 --> 0:03:09.680 his own origin story on purpose. As a spy, he 0:03:09.760 --> 0:03:13.800 always wanted to confuse and mislead other people. He would 0:03:13.800 --> 0:03:15.480 tell the story that he was the son of a 0:03:15.520 --> 0:03:21.359 merchant marine captain and his acknowledged true mother, Paulina. It's 0:03:21.400 --> 0:03:23.320 also said that he claimed to have been born to 0:03:23.400 --> 0:03:27.200 an Irish sea captain, or sometimes it was an Irish clergyman, 0:03:27.680 --> 0:03:30.720 or a habitue of the imperial court of Czar Alexander 0:03:30.800 --> 0:03:34.800 the Third of Russia. Riley himself really liked to tell 0:03:34.880 --> 0:03:39.240 one particular origin story that historians know today just absolutely 0:03:39.280 --> 0:03:43.160 does not add up. His birth name, he claimed was Georgie, 0:03:43.200 --> 0:03:46.960 and he told this tale about his beginnings once while 0:03:47.000 --> 0:03:50.480 attending a chemistry course in Vienna. He was called back 0:03:50.520 --> 0:03:54.440 to Odessa for his mother's funeral, and during the ceremony, 0:03:54.560 --> 0:03:58.520 as Riley told it, his uncle revealed that the child Georgie, 0:03:58.720 --> 0:04:01.440 was actually the result of an affair between his mother 0:04:01.520 --> 0:04:04.600 and a doctor rosen Bloom, a Jewish physician who had 0:04:04.640 --> 0:04:09.160 treated her for an unknown condition. Riley claimed he chose 0:04:09.240 --> 0:04:13.040 to take the doctor's name, but recent evidence suggests that 0:04:13.080 --> 0:04:16.680 though Riley never wavered from his deception, and he told 0:04:16.720 --> 0:04:19.919 this story a lot, the doctor rosen Bloom in the 0:04:19.960 --> 0:04:24.080 original tale that he told was a fabrication. The doctor 0:04:24.160 --> 0:04:26.839 in question was Riley's uncle that he used as a 0:04:26.960 --> 0:04:29.880 character in his yarn. The whole thing was just false. 0:04:29.920 --> 0:04:32.840 He had borrowed from reality and twisted it into something new. 0:04:33.960 --> 0:04:37.320 Riley's tale continued because he also claimed that he faked 0:04:37.360 --> 0:04:40.400 his death in Odessa's harbor and stowed away a board 0:04:40.400 --> 0:04:43.560 of ship bound for South America. He claimed to have 0:04:43.640 --> 0:04:46.920 saved three British officers on an expedition into the Amazon, 0:04:47.320 --> 0:04:50.839 who then offered him passage to England in gratitude. That 0:04:50.839 --> 0:04:54.600 would have happened right around, but there are no records 0:04:54.640 --> 0:04:58.520 to substantiate these claims. We do know, though, that Riley 0:04:58.600 --> 0:05:03.320 did arrive in England in and it wasn't long before 0:05:03.360 --> 0:05:08.200 he became involved in clandestine affairs. Before the Russo Japanese War. 0:05:08.360 --> 0:05:11.560 He spied for, actually he spied for a few places. 0:05:11.600 --> 0:05:15.320 He's fined for both the British and Japanese. In Port Arthur. 0:05:16.200 --> 0:05:19.359 There he's still Russian plans for the Harvard Defenses, passing 0:05:19.360 --> 0:05:23.080 them to the Japanese for a naval attack. When several 0:05:23.120 --> 0:05:25.919 British ship building firms discovered that Riley had gotten the 0:05:25.920 --> 0:05:29.479 contracts for the Germans instead of the British, they considered 0:05:29.520 --> 0:05:33.640 his actions to be bordering on treason, But that accusation 0:05:33.680 --> 0:05:36.880 felt at the side when the Admiralty began receiving copies 0:05:37.040 --> 0:05:41.599 of German naval plans. He'd posed as a welder in 0:05:41.600 --> 0:05:46.640 the corrupt gun works, supposedly stealing German armament plans. But most, 0:05:47.680 --> 0:05:52.400 maybe all, of Riley's actual accomplishments are murky and controversial. 0:05:52.520 --> 0:05:56.320 So we're really not even going to talk about his assignments, 0:05:56.520 --> 0:05:58.920 not many of them, at least, because we'd be fighting 0:05:59.080 --> 0:06:02.120 with what might be act and what might be fiction. 0:06:02.920 --> 0:06:05.239 To talk about Riley is to talk about his legend. 0:06:05.960 --> 0:06:08.799 Some historians see him playing a double role in some events, 0:06:08.880 --> 0:06:11.400 such as selling munitions to both the Germans and the 0:06:11.480 --> 0:06:15.440 Russians during the First World War. Historians have also established 0:06:15.480 --> 0:06:18.200 that Riley was entrusted by the British Secret Service with 0:06:18.400 --> 0:06:21.679 espionage and Russia through relationships he was able to develop 0:06:21.760 --> 0:06:26.880 through his miracle cure business. Uh, you did not mishear 0:06:26.960 --> 0:06:29.839 that that was his miracle cure business. And if you 0:06:29.880 --> 0:06:34.159 were not expecting that, neither were we. By eighteen ninety six, 0:06:34.440 --> 0:06:39.159 Riley had also established himself as a consulting chemist. Within 0:06:39.320 --> 0:06:42.560 nine months of his company's launch, he became a fellow 0:06:42.680 --> 0:06:45.760 of the Chemistry Society and a member of the Institute 0:06:45.760 --> 0:06:49.640 of Chemistry. His business, though, was not what it appeared 0:06:49.680 --> 0:06:53.680 to be. He was manufacturing and distributing so called miracle 0:06:53.800 --> 0:06:57.599 cures to an unsuspecting public. Literally, he was a snake 0:06:57.640 --> 0:07:01.560 oil salesman. And that is how Ryle met his first wife. 0:07:02.680 --> 0:07:04.520 And on that thought, we're going to take a break 0:07:04.680 --> 0:07:07.000 for a word from our sponsor, and when we're back, 0:07:07.520 --> 0:07:12.240 we'll talk about how Riley's personal relationships were as murky 0:07:12.600 --> 0:07:30.559 as his work. Welcome back to CRIMINALLYA Let's talk about 0:07:30.560 --> 0:07:36.800 how Sigmund Rosenbloom got his first British passport allegedly in 0:07:38.600 --> 0:07:43.120 Riley met year old Margaret Thomas. The short version of 0:07:43.160 --> 0:07:46.239 the story is that he married the widow Margaret Thomas 0:07:46.280 --> 0:07:52.240 at the Holborn Registry office in London on August, but 0:07:52.360 --> 0:07:55.400 there's a whole lot more to it than that. There 0:07:55.440 --> 0:07:59.320 are many versions and many tales of Riley the Womanizer. 0:08:00.080 --> 0:08:03.480 Many historians believe Riley and Margaret had an affair while 0:08:03.520 --> 0:08:06.720 she was married to sixty three year old Reverend Hugh Thomas. 0:08:07.520 --> 0:08:11.040 Riley and the Reverend met in London through Riley's Ozone 0:08:11.080 --> 0:08:15.880 Preparations company, which peddled all sorts of fake cures. The 0:08:15.960 --> 0:08:20.400 reverend had kidney inflammation, which was reportedly attributed to Bright's disease, 0:08:20.920 --> 0:08:25.320 and he was intrigued by the cures Riley could offer him. 0:08:25.400 --> 0:08:28.480 Thomas introduced Riley to Margaret at his manor house, and 0:08:28.520 --> 0:08:31.680 an affair developed between the two over the next few months. 0:08:32.360 --> 0:08:36.360 On March four, the Reverend updated his will and appointed 0:08:36.400 --> 0:08:40.520 Margaret as executor. A week after finalizing that new will, 0:08:40.559 --> 0:08:43.240 Reverend Thomas traveled with his nurse to the new Haven 0:08:43.280 --> 0:08:48.200 Harbor Station hotel. On March twelve, in that same hotel, 0:08:48.440 --> 0:08:51.720 the reverend was found dead in his room. No one, 0:08:52.120 --> 0:08:56.000 it seems, could remember any specific details, but there had 0:08:56.040 --> 0:08:59.719 been a doctor, doctor T. W Andrew, who matched the 0:08:59.720 --> 0:09:02.760 physical description of Sidney Riley, who had appeared at the 0:09:02.800 --> 0:09:08.160 hotel to certify Thomas's death as influenza. Among the documents 0:09:08.160 --> 0:09:10.440 he signed was one claiming that there was no need 0:09:10.520 --> 0:09:14.800 for an inquest. Records indicate that no one calling themselves 0:09:14.920 --> 0:09:18.000 Dr T w Andrew existed in the British Empire. In 0:09:18.440 --> 0:09:26.200 or around about six weeks later, Margaret inherited roughly eight 0:09:26.240 --> 0:09:31.160 hundred thousand pounds. The Metropolitan Police, whom Riley may or 0:09:31.240 --> 0:09:34.120 may not have been connected to, did not try to 0:09:34.160 --> 0:09:38.480 locate or investigate a doctor T. W Andrew, nor did 0:09:38.480 --> 0:09:41.480 they investigate the nurse who Margaret had hired to care 0:09:41.559 --> 0:09:44.920 for her husband, even though the nurse was previously linked 0:09:44.960 --> 0:09:49.400 to the arsenic poisoning of a former patient. A few 0:09:49.440 --> 0:09:55.000 months later, on August, Riley and Margaret got married. Giles Milton, 0:09:55.160 --> 0:09:58.480 the author of Russian Roulette, How British Spies Thwarted Lennon's 0:09:58.480 --> 0:10:02.280 global Plot, has quote All accounts agree that he had 0:10:02.320 --> 0:10:06.480 a seductive charm, loving women as he loved himself, a 0:10:06.559 --> 0:10:10.760 string of mistresses would fall under his spell. Monogamy did 0:10:10.800 --> 0:10:13.760 not come naturally to Riley, and although he was usually 0:10:13.800 --> 0:10:17.200 fastidious in his choice of women, it did not prevent 0:10:17.280 --> 0:10:20.280 him from cavorting around London on one of his visits 0:10:20.520 --> 0:10:25.080 with a common tart named Plugger. Margaret was the first 0:10:25.160 --> 0:10:29.920 of an unverifiable number of Riley's wives and mistresses. Estimates 0:10:29.920 --> 0:10:32.080 suggests he may have had three or four wives and 0:10:32.080 --> 0:10:36.480 at least six regular mistresses. His relationships are as elusive 0:10:36.520 --> 0:10:39.800 to pin down as his work. At least two of 0:10:39.920 --> 0:10:43.160 Riley's marriages were witnessed by members of the British Secret 0:10:43.200 --> 0:10:46.400 Intelligence Service, who knew that they were big amous, but 0:10:46.480 --> 0:10:49.880 said nothing because they too were involved in the deception. 0:10:50.960 --> 0:10:53.400 He once entertained the wife of the assistant to a 0:10:53.480 --> 0:10:57.960 Russian minister, a woman named Nadine Messino. Not long after 0:10:58.000 --> 0:11:02.239 she met Riley, he reportedly planted stories in Russian newspapers 0:11:02.280 --> 0:11:05.960 claiming that his wife, Margaret, had died in a train crash, 0:11:06.040 --> 0:11:08.640 and he then paid Nadine's husband a large sum of 0:11:08.679 --> 0:11:12.559 money to divorce her. Nadine and Riley married in New 0:11:12.600 --> 0:11:17.120 York City in nineteen sixteen, Margaret, though had not died 0:11:17.280 --> 0:11:22.800 and Riley was committing bigamy. In nineteen Riley and Nadine divorced, 0:11:22.960 --> 0:11:26.960 and although Riley was still legally married to Margaret, in 0:11:27.800 --> 0:11:30.760 two he committed bigamy again when he married a young 0:11:30.800 --> 0:11:36.560 actress named Pepita Bobadilla Nelly Louise Burton. Pepita described their 0:11:36.600 --> 0:11:39.880 first meeting in Berlin, quote, for a moment, his eyes 0:11:39.920 --> 0:11:43.040 held mine and I felt a delicious drill run through me. 0:11:44.280 --> 0:11:48.080 And that's the thing about Riley. Through the accounts of 0:11:48.120 --> 0:11:51.800 those who knew him, we know that Riley's character definitely 0:11:51.920 --> 0:11:57.200 left an impression. He was suave, self confident, and charming. 0:11:57.679 --> 0:12:01.079 It said he was generous with his friends, he enjoyed gambling, 0:12:01.200 --> 0:12:04.680 both with his money and with his life, but he 0:12:04.679 --> 0:12:08.600 could also be cold and pragmatic, capable of using any 0:12:08.640 --> 0:12:12.360 means necessary to get what he wanted. On his personal 0:12:12.400 --> 0:12:15.920 stationary was the motto mundo no la fetus, which translates 0:12:15.960 --> 0:12:19.120 as put no faith in the world, or even more simply, 0:12:19.520 --> 0:12:23.320 trust no one. According to Richard B. Spence, the author 0:12:23.400 --> 0:12:26.400 of Trust No One. The Secret World of Sydney Riley, 0:12:26.520 --> 0:12:30.640 Riley was a quote, mercenary of a rather specialized sort, 0:12:31.360 --> 0:12:35.240 a freelance entrepreneur in the business of information and influence. 0:12:36.320 --> 0:12:39.360 Commenting on his own character, Riley was known to describe 0:12:39.440 --> 0:12:44.319 himself as quote a practical man. But back to Margaret. 0:12:44.800 --> 0:12:48.560 There were many women. But marrying Margaret gave Riley the 0:12:48.600 --> 0:12:50.880 wealth that he had desired at a time when he 0:12:50.960 --> 0:12:54.280 really needed it for travel, and it also provided a 0:12:54.360 --> 0:12:58.480 pretext to discard his identity of Sigmund Rosenblue for a 0:12:58.600 --> 0:13:03.640 fresh new I Wish origin story. Marriage helped him craft 0:13:03.679 --> 0:13:08.200 the identity of Sydney George Riley. Riley was a surname 0:13:08.240 --> 0:13:12.280 in Margaret's family, or maybe it wasn't marriage that had 0:13:12.320 --> 0:13:15.280 anything to do with that first passport of questionable origin. 0:13:16.040 --> 0:13:19.240 Author Richard B. Spence writes of the Riley name quote 0:13:19.679 --> 0:13:24.120 in eight he became Sydney George Riley by receiving a 0:13:24.200 --> 0:13:27.560 passport in that name, though he never legally adopted it 0:13:27.679 --> 0:13:32.800 or became a British subject a patron. Possibly his way 0:13:32.960 --> 0:13:38.960 into British intelligence was Sir Henry Josier, powerful Secretary of 0:13:39.080 --> 0:13:43.400 Lords connected to the War Office Intelligence branch. With his 0:13:43.480 --> 0:13:48.079 strong Jewish features and accented English Riley was an unconvincing Englishman, 0:13:48.440 --> 0:13:53.199 but this became his favorite of many alternative identities. Riley's 0:13:53.240 --> 0:13:55.880 new British passport could also have been a cover identity 0:13:55.880 --> 0:13:58.880 created by William Melville, who was the first chief of 0:13:58.960 --> 0:14:01.839 the British Secrets Ervice Bureau, which was the precursor to 0:14:02.120 --> 0:14:05.720 m I five. According to True Prime author Brian Mariner, 0:14:06.320 --> 0:14:11.040 and we definitely believe this Riley quote possessed passports in 0:14:11.280 --> 0:14:15.800 eleven different names. Allegedly he spied for at least four countries, 0:14:15.840 --> 0:14:19.480 and we think that number is higher than four. Secret 0:14:19.560 --> 0:14:23.400 Intelligence Service Captain Mansfield Smith coming one set of Riley 0:14:23.440 --> 0:14:26.760 that he was quote a man of indomitable courage, a 0:14:26.880 --> 0:14:29.800 genius as an agent, but a sinister man who I 0:14:29.840 --> 0:14:33.400 could never bring myself to holy trust. It's believed that 0:14:33.440 --> 0:14:36.000 as well as working for the British government, Riley was 0:14:36.040 --> 0:14:39.960 also spying for the Czarist regime of Imperial Russia. The 0:14:40.040 --> 0:14:44.640 newly named Sidney Riley, with his new bride, moved to St. Petersburg, 0:14:44.720 --> 0:14:49.280 where he immediately became friendly with members of the revolutionary underground. 0:14:50.120 --> 0:14:53.640 Richard Deacon, author of a history of the Russian Secret Service, 0:14:53.960 --> 0:14:57.320 writes that quote he was certainly being well paid. As 0:14:57.360 --> 0:15:00.160 of nineteen o six, he had a lavish apart mean 0:15:00.200 --> 0:15:03.760 in St. Petersburg, a splendid art collection, and was a 0:15:03.760 --> 0:15:07.840 member of the most exclusive club in the city. Although 0:15:07.920 --> 0:15:12.040 still married, Margaret becomes less of a character in Riley's story. 0:15:12.160 --> 0:15:16.400 Around this time. She remained in St. Petersburg while Riley 0:15:16.400 --> 0:15:19.720 went on assignments from the British Secret Service Bureau. One 0:15:19.760 --> 0:15:23.320 early assignment, it's reported, was to survey the Caucuses for 0:15:23.360 --> 0:15:27.680 its oil deposits, compile a resource perspectus, and report the 0:15:27.720 --> 0:15:30.880 findings to the British government. Such the life of a 0:15:30.920 --> 0:15:36.040 burgeoning spy, Riley, who spoke several languages, including German, used 0:15:36.040 --> 0:15:38.520 his linguistic skills to join the German army on the 0:15:38.560 --> 0:15:41.080 Western Front. After the First World War broke out in 0:15:41.280 --> 0:15:45.680 nineteen fourteen, Great Britain received detailed information from him on 0:15:45.760 --> 0:15:49.600 German troops which he sent. It said by carrier pigeon, 0:15:51.040 --> 0:15:53.000 we are going to take a quick break here for 0:15:53.040 --> 0:15:57.480 a word from our sponsor. Many modern historians consider Riley 0:15:57.520 --> 0:16:01.480 to be the first twentieth century super spy, but was 0:16:01.520 --> 0:16:18.600 he the inspiration for the character James Bond? Welcome Back 0:16:18.600 --> 0:16:23.400 to criminalia. Let's talk about Riley's arrest and execution and 0:16:23.440 --> 0:16:27.000 how he may have been undermined by another British agent. 0:16:29.480 --> 0:16:32.520 Riley returned to Russia in the aftermath of the Bolshevik 0:16:32.600 --> 0:16:36.040 Revolution in an attempt to both give aid to anti 0:16:36.080 --> 0:16:39.160 Bolsheviks and to top of Vladimir Lenin, the head of 0:16:39.200 --> 0:16:43.320 the Bolshevik Party. The most often cited plan is this 0:16:43.840 --> 0:16:46.960 he had prepared a covert plot to use the disillusioned 0:16:46.960 --> 0:16:50.520 guards protecting the Kremlin to kill key figures in the 0:16:50.560 --> 0:16:54.560 Soviet government, including Lenin, at a meeting at the Bolshoi Theater. 0:16:55.440 --> 0:16:58.480 In a twist of fate, his preparations were undermined by 0:16:58.520 --> 0:17:03.520 another assassination attempt on Lenin, this by Fanny Kaplan, which 0:17:03.520 --> 0:17:06.159 triggered the Red Terror that resulted in the deaths of 0:17:06.240 --> 0:17:11.320 hundreds of thousands of suspected counter revolutionaries. Once news reached 0:17:11.320 --> 0:17:15.119 the press, Riley was vilified as a key conspirator and 0:17:15.200 --> 0:17:18.760 he was sentenced to death in absentia. A man hunt 0:17:18.840 --> 0:17:21.480 was ordered, but Riley had vanished by the time the 0:17:21.520 --> 0:17:27.920 secret police reached to St. Petersburg apartment. Riley escaped through Finland, 0:17:28.000 --> 0:17:30.600 but he was lured back to Russia by a faith 0:17:30.880 --> 0:17:36.520 organization created by the Joint State Political Directorate to capture him. 0:17:36.560 --> 0:17:39.240 The Joint State Political Directorate, or o g p U 0:17:39.400 --> 0:17:42.760 as it was called, was the intelligence and State Security 0:17:42.800 --> 0:17:45.720 Service and secret police of the Soviet Union from nine 0:17:46.800 --> 0:17:52.359 to nine thirty four. Earnest Boys, the British Secret Intelligence 0:17:52.400 --> 0:17:55.560 Service station chief in Helsinki, wrote to Riley asking him 0:17:55.600 --> 0:17:58.200 if he would meet the leaders of the Monarchist Union 0:17:58.280 --> 0:18:02.280 of Central Russia, a right wing nationalist organization out of Moscow. 0:18:03.160 --> 0:18:06.879 Riley replied, quote, much as I am concerned about my 0:18:06.880 --> 0:18:09.720 own personal affairs, which as you know, are in a 0:18:09.800 --> 0:18:13.080 hellish state, I am, at any moment, if I see 0:18:13.119 --> 0:18:16.280 the right people and prospects of real action, prepared to 0:18:16.359 --> 0:18:20.200 check everything else and devote myself entirely to the syndicate's interests. 0:18:20.840 --> 0:18:23.080 I was fifty one yesterday and I want to do 0:18:23.160 --> 0:18:26.639 something worthwhile while I can. He met with Boys in 0:18:26.680 --> 0:18:33.680 Paris before crossing the Finish border on September. Two days later, 0:18:34.080 --> 0:18:36.960 during that meeting in a safe house outside of Moscow, 0:18:37.320 --> 0:18:40.159 he was arrested by the Russian secret police for his 0:18:40.240 --> 0:18:44.360 attempts to overthrow the Bolshevik government. Riley had been one 0:18:44.960 --> 0:18:47.879 percent convinced that he would be meeting with the leaders 0:18:47.920 --> 0:18:51.639 of an anti Bolshevik group. There were claims that Boyce 0:18:51.760 --> 0:18:54.120 was a double agent and had been paid for information 0:18:54.200 --> 0:18:58.440 about British intelligence agents, but this, like other stories, has 0:18:58.520 --> 0:19:02.720 many versions. In this version of Riley's life story, Voice 0:19:02.800 --> 0:19:05.879 may have been responsible for betraying him through a counter 0:19:06.000 --> 0:19:11.520 intelligence operation run by Soviet agents. That operation, called Operation Trust, 0:19:11.960 --> 0:19:14.919 ran from nineteen twenty one to nineteen twenty six, and 0:19:15.000 --> 0:19:18.359 it was created specifically to tease out the man the 0:19:18.440 --> 0:19:22.840 Soviet intelligence groups considered their most formidable enemy, and that 0:19:22.920 --> 0:19:27.640 was British agent Sydney Riley. Riley was brought to the 0:19:27.720 --> 0:19:31.320 Yanka prison in Moscow, and the man incarcerated in Cell 0:19:31.440 --> 0:19:36.679 seventy three was kept a closely guarded secret. According to 0:19:36.760 --> 0:19:40.760 the Soviet account of his interrogation, Riley wasn't physically tortured, 0:19:40.800 --> 0:19:44.720 but he was subjected to severe psychological torture, including a 0:19:44.800 --> 0:19:49.760 mock execution, an act that terrified him enough to possibly 0:19:50.280 --> 0:19:53.720 sign a confession. Though he was willing to give full 0:19:53.840 --> 0:19:58.760 information on the British and American intelligence services, Riley's appeal failed. 0:20:00.320 --> 0:20:03.600 Riley was regularly taken from the Lebyanka prison after dark 0:20:03.720 --> 0:20:06.480 and driven to the Soko Niki district for walks in 0:20:06.520 --> 0:20:10.199 the woods. Riley was always dressed in the uniform of 0:20:10.240 --> 0:20:13.640 the Soviet Secret Police for these outings. He was a 0:20:13.680 --> 0:20:16.359 secret prisoner, so all of this was so that his 0:20:16.480 --> 0:20:20.560 movements could be concealed. By November four, it was decided 0:20:20.600 --> 0:20:23.280 that Riley had nothing left to give, and it was 0:20:23.359 --> 0:20:26.600 believed that the longer he remained alive, the greater the 0:20:26.720 --> 0:20:31.160 chance word of his incarceration would leak out. Stalin it said, 0:20:31.280 --> 0:20:36.399 Quote anticipated this situation and ordered his execution on the 0:20:36.480 --> 0:20:40.399 evening of November five, thinking that he was going for 0:20:40.440 --> 0:20:43.320 another walk in the woods. Riley was shot in the 0:20:43.359 --> 0:20:48.120 back as he walked away from the car. A few 0:20:48.200 --> 0:20:51.679 years after Riley's death, in May of n one, the 0:20:51.840 --> 0:20:56.480 London Evening Standard published what they call a master Spy cereal, 0:20:56.920 --> 0:21:01.879 in which they read articles glorifying Riley's exploits. That twenty 0:21:02.000 --> 0:21:05.720 years after his execution, a young naval officer named Ian 0:21:05.760 --> 0:21:09.000 Fleming was working with the Director of Naval Intelligence during 0:21:09.040 --> 0:21:12.920 the Second World War. While doing his work coordinating Allied 0:21:13.040 --> 0:21:17.600 espionage and occupied Europe, Fleming discovered the legend of a 0:21:17.760 --> 0:21:22.240 spy code named ST One in the archives, and ST 0:21:22.440 --> 0:21:27.199 One was that's right, Sidney Riley. Years later, Fleming admitted 0:21:27.240 --> 0:21:30.359 to a friend that his character James Bond was largely 0:21:30.440 --> 0:21:34.159 based on Riley, but even so, he said, quote, James 0:21:34.160 --> 0:21:36.560 Bond is just a piece of nonsense I dreamed up. 0:21:36.920 --> 0:21:42.120 He's not Sidney Riley. You know. Today many historians consider 0:21:42.200 --> 0:21:46.159 Riley to be the first twentieth century super spy. In 0:21:46.200 --> 0:21:48.879 the century since his death, the truth of his life 0:21:49.240 --> 0:21:51.840 is still quite difficult to distinguish from the lies that 0:21:51.880 --> 0:21:56.159 he told. His reputation, though, has held fast among members 0:21:56.160 --> 0:22:00.320 of the intelligence community. One former British Secret intel Leigant 0:22:00.359 --> 0:22:04.520 Service officer stated quote he was very, very good, a 0:22:04.560 --> 0:22:08.119 bit of a crook, you could almost say, certainly sharp practice, 0:22:08.600 --> 0:22:13.200 but as an agent he was superb. While Agent Double 0:22:13.240 --> 0:22:16.639 O seven may have accomplished his assignments with the gadgets 0:22:16.640 --> 0:22:20.159 provided by the creative and innovative character of Q, we 0:22:20.280 --> 0:22:23.560 can't confirm if he drank a Martini shaken not stirred. 0:22:24.359 --> 0:22:27.960 World War One spy Sidney Riley's accomplishments were due to 0:22:28.080 --> 0:22:31.720 his cunning, his wits, his appeal among women, and a 0:22:31.800 --> 0:22:41.560 complete lack of a moral compass. There's a pretty obvious 0:22:41.640 --> 0:22:45.600 connection as we walk into the perfecty poor with James 0:22:45.600 --> 0:22:49.720 Bond and alcohol, right obviously, yes, yes, for anyone who 0:22:49.840 --> 0:22:55.600 doesn't know, James Bond's martini, which is called a vesper, 0:22:56.240 --> 0:22:58.399 was a made up drink. It was not like a 0:22:58.480 --> 0:23:02.720 drink he was plucking out of historical drink books. That 0:23:02.880 --> 0:23:05.399 is a made up drink, the books in the films. 0:23:05.840 --> 0:23:09.920 That drink, in case you're curious, was three ounces of jim, 0:23:10.520 --> 0:23:13.600 one ounce of vodka, a half ounce of Lillt blanc 0:23:13.720 --> 0:23:16.280 or driver mouth, and then a lemon peel for garnish. 0:23:16.320 --> 0:23:19.280 It's a lot of alcohol, yes, and I thought, let's 0:23:19.320 --> 0:23:22.440 do that, but we're gonna do it a little bit differently, 0:23:23.240 --> 0:23:25.359 and we're switching ours up in a way that James 0:23:25.359 --> 0:23:29.240 Bond would probably be horrified by. I love to horrify 0:23:29.320 --> 0:23:32.320 a made up person. So here we go. We are 0:23:32.320 --> 0:23:36.960 calling this Riley's vesper, and it's really a very close one. 0:23:37.080 --> 0:23:39.719 So it's the three ounces of gin, one ounce of vodka. 0:23:39.960 --> 0:23:43.040 Please drink responsibly. This is a lot of drink. Instead 0:23:43.200 --> 0:23:46.600 of that driver mouth, we're going to do grapefruit liqueur. 0:23:46.720 --> 0:23:51.760 Here because that yeah, you still get like a bright 0:23:51.960 --> 0:23:54.760 kind of cutting flavor, but it's nice and it's got 0:23:54.760 --> 0:23:57.920 a juiciness to it. I would bump that up from 0:23:57.920 --> 0:24:01.040 half an ounce to more like three quarters because it 0:24:01.160 --> 0:24:04.280 just helps balance out all of that gin and vodka. 0:24:04.560 --> 0:24:07.159 And I would almost like do this and pour it 0:24:07.200 --> 0:24:09.480 into two glasses and share it with somebody, because that's 0:24:09.720 --> 0:24:13.520 that's a lot of liquor, a lot of it's almost 0:24:13.560 --> 0:24:16.200 five ounces of just spirit at that point. And then 0:24:16.240 --> 0:24:19.720 do your lemon peel or I did one in prep 0:24:19.800 --> 0:24:23.159 for this to test it, where I did a lemon 0:24:23.320 --> 0:24:26.119 and a grapefruit peel and I expressed a little of 0:24:26.119 --> 0:24:28.520 each on top and stuck him on a cute pick 0:24:28.560 --> 0:24:30.680 and made a cute thing. You are going to shake 0:24:30.720 --> 0:24:34.679 this like the Dickens in a shaker with ice the 0:24:34.800 --> 0:24:37.160 point for that shake and not stir. To say, when 0:24:37.160 --> 0:24:39.439 you shake it, you're getting more dilution of all of 0:24:39.440 --> 0:24:41.720 that alcohol a little bit because some of the ice 0:24:41.720 --> 0:24:43.480 will break down and it will water it down a 0:24:43.480 --> 0:24:45.800 little bit, which you do actually want in some occasions. 0:24:46.160 --> 0:24:48.840 And then some people like to double strain of martini 0:24:48.920 --> 0:24:50.879 like this. You can if you want. I just did it. 0:24:50.960 --> 0:24:55.160 Once into a pre chilled glass, because that that very 0:24:55.200 --> 0:24:58.080 cold glass is going to keep this tasting nice and 0:24:58.119 --> 0:25:01.440 crisp for you, and not that, oh, that just tastes 0:25:01.480 --> 0:25:04.679 like a lot of alcohol. It's really fascinating how temperature 0:25:04.720 --> 0:25:07.360 shifts your perception of flavor when it comes to alcohol. 0:25:07.600 --> 0:25:09.639 It's a good one, but it is very much like 0:25:10.240 --> 0:25:13.800 a heavy hitter. The one thing that my my beloved 0:25:13.880 --> 0:25:16.199 noted when he and I were testing this was that 0:25:16.280 --> 0:25:20.200 the smell of the grapefruit actually for him countered that 0:25:20.320 --> 0:25:24.160 heavy punch of alcohol, like just that aroma of it 0:25:24.200 --> 0:25:27.040 really like it does something else to your palate, and 0:25:27.119 --> 0:25:29.000 he found it to not be as biting as like 0:25:29.080 --> 0:25:32.200 just drinking that much straight alcohol. So the mock tail 0:25:32.280 --> 0:25:34.960 for this is very different, obviously because this thing is 0:25:35.000 --> 0:25:38.480 all alcohol, but it's also very fun. It's very easy. Also, 0:25:39.000 --> 0:25:42.359 you're just gonna use grapefruit syrup. You can pre buy it. 0:25:42.440 --> 0:25:45.240 You can also make grapefruit sorr it pretty easily, and 0:25:45.280 --> 0:25:48.560 then you can add either club soda or ginger ale 0:25:48.680 --> 0:25:50.800 to it and just make a beautiful grape fruit soda. 0:25:51.560 --> 0:25:55.080 If you are not opposed to using bidders, because they 0:25:55.080 --> 0:25:58.200 do have a slight minuscule alcohol content, a couple of 0:25:58.280 --> 0:26:00.840 dashes of angist or Bidders did something very cool in this, 0:26:00.960 --> 0:26:03.280 and it made it like a really yummy drink that 0:26:03.359 --> 0:26:05.840 kind of has that little bit of bite of an 0:26:05.880 --> 0:26:12.120 actual alcoholic cocktail, but instead it is well mocktail a refresher. 0:26:12.320 --> 0:26:14.679 Grapefruit is another flavor that I used to dislike, and 0:26:14.720 --> 0:26:17.200 I have come around on I'm still not gonna eat 0:26:17.240 --> 0:26:19.680 a grapefruit, but if you mix it with vodka, I'll 0:26:19.720 --> 0:26:22.440