THE SPY AND THE PINK GERANIUMS AN ALICE-IN-WONDERLAND PRISON BREAK

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000400110014-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 5, 1999
• Sequence Number: 14
• Publication Date: November 1, 1966
• Content Type: MAGAZINE

GPYRGHT
Sanitized - Approved$* RIIe e.:
CPYRGIJT . ?,_i P DtANE
using a nylon ro;:.: ladder rein- cast douot on Blake's indictment
fnrratt wick lk.-., m needles. lie' ,,,e .$.hn woln a hie nano .tn,-.h
.
v
c
or
jt::,:h,.,i 1S feet down to a concrete British: sec: : s,,rvice would use a
.?o.,rtyard without straining, any hot of do not have money, I know. Even
,endons, then sprinted across the I also think the British secret if they. had the moneyo they
courtyard and cl: ;:oed the outer service is being decent in making) wouldn't and rescue arrange an
underground
wall between two watch towers, ' the escape incredible enough to
taciturn Intel- B
that Blake was a
:. r :uah" who had held himself . ums. What. makes Britons such cape tails, those trying to engineer
aloof f:or., :allow ?risoners un- marvellous commandos or secretTit risk long sentences.
til ti;;; S-_.L.:.ay of his escape agents is their mischievousness. Blake had no money to buy this
when he car: ; .. ;?,'.o the corri- They are pranksters to a man, sort of underworld loyalty - at
whic:, v.' cozily used as a, and this characteristic has always his trial and in the subsequent
sort of y all the har- served them well since it baffles ~ House of Commons debate, it was
,;c;;ed cri,,;ia;.:.,.:,? .acted gregar- more solid nations like the Soviet stated again and again that Blake
iously on made sure Union or Germany. So pink geran- had been paid nothing by the Rus-
he was "noticed" at 5:30 p.m., it:;pis it tc he; any other secret sians for his spying, that he had
and son-.e time later rushed out of ! service N. have used a paper acted because of his fervent con-
his cell, info the corridor, pushed 'r.g with s,......~ in it, or an old can version to communism.
out t*he bars (which by then were . or so:,yet:;u~~; une commonly sees His wife would not pay the un-
being described as broken), tl::?on :: sway i.'. open spaces. The derworld. He has been suing per
His mother and sister
di
e
or
f
CPYRGHT
CPYRGHT
then jump-ea-fro;-,, the top of the cle :: i .:,,.-aually. They can't
wall to the loos c: a waging car very well exonerate hint; the Lord
lake escaped ::om Worm- in the de. ?,.ith a pot of pink shirty at th; t. Taking Blake out as
woo: Scrubs prison I talked geraniums. The Scotland Yard de- j a corpse might have raised ques-
aboa ; it with, t:,ree people, includ- 'tecuves ,r.,:dered earlier this j tions; they would have had to re-
ing Charles Taylor, former corre- year were said to have some pos- fuse his blood relatives permission
spondent of The Globe and Mail in sible connection with Blake. to bury the body.
Peking, and Cliford Solway, a tel. By the uesday after the es- Zscape it had to be, and proba-
othn producer. But that is' cape, th;a c.u..Ui;u:ous story leaking J ,y not by Blake. He is not the sort
another story. officially .lie media was getting who jumps IS feet unharmed onto
The news of the escape was giv- { better and hatter: Blake had had concrete. Like any star, he had a
en to the world in stages. The first a cell furnis:,ac :th considerable stunt man "stand-in"; it would not
bulletins came over the radio, say- luxuries aiw. a Bikhara rug. The -have been too difficult to effect a
ng that :.lake had sawn through business about his being an aloof, substitution, someone athletic
the bars of his cell. Then we were taciturn intellectual was dropped ? ,enough for the acrobatics of the
.o;d that he had, in fact; sawn and he was described as the life., grand finale.
through the bars o the corridor on and soul of the sail's social set, a Why do 'l give the credit to M15?
which his cell stood. Then "offi chap wlio 1,eid parties for his fel-. Let's consider the other possibili-
cials" speculated that the convicts low prisoners in a room decorated ? ties. The train ;?obbers and other
in the prison mig lit have helped with sn in:4 a o- Saint Paul. And' criminals have escaped, after all.
Blake for humanitc,dan reasons,, so it wer,r, he official leaks Why couldn't else underworld have
taking pity on him because.of his' merrily the story less ere- taken Blake cut? But why does the
long sentence. dible ever v :.::v.
CY04VClli1? touch underworld ta,:e someone out? For
?~ money. Via the underworld route
The crowning touch, in my vier an escape costs a great eat deal, Peo-
The next inst:.lment revealed the tradem :: k of British intelli. ple must be paid to create diver-
ence - is the not of pink gerani. sions, to bribe guards. if the es-
"
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