ERROL FLYNN CALLED A WARTIME NAZI SPY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000201950001-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 18, 2010
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: March 23, 1980
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/18: CIA-RDP90-00552R000201950001-5
"rrCLE APP ANEV NEW YORK TIMES
QN RAGE - 23 MARCH 1980
ERROL F6YNN CALLED
A WARTIME NAZI SPY
Author Finds Assertion Proved by
Documents and Interviews
link tof a German Cited
By ROBERT LINDSEY
_ SpeciaitoTbeNewYork Ttmes,
LOS ANGEL
r
ES, March 22 - Was Erro
'Flynn, the dashing star.-of Hollywood]
swashbucklers, a German spy before and
during World War UI7 ` :
Charles Higham; a Los Angeles writer,
contends that Mr. Flynn was a Nazi agent
in a biography of the late actor caned
"Errol Flynn The Untold Story," pub-
lished by Doubleday & Co,,Some friends
of 'the late actor, such as David Niven,
have ridiculed the assertion, calling it im-
possible.
.Documents. that, Mr. Higham said he
used in reaching his conclusion indicate
that several of the Australian-born ac-';
tor's actions before and during the war
helped the German -cause and that he
kept a close friendship with a man who
Mr. Flynn had repeatedly been informed
clusive evidence that Mr. Flynn himself
was a German agent and they leave open
the question whether his behavior was an
act of friendship or enact of espionage.
Interviews and Documents
he had arrived at his conclusion through a
process of "detection" aftertalking?.to
many persons who knew the actor, and?
otherpeople, and by examining thousand
of formerly classified Government docu-
ments regarding.- Mr. Flynn and his
friend, Dr. Hermann F. Erben, an Aus-
trian-born physician who now lives in
Vienna and is 82 years old.
"I don't have a document that says A,
B C,. D, E, Errol. Flynn was ' a Nazi
agent," said Mr. Higham, who has also
written biographies of. Katherine Hep-
burn and other film stars. "But I have
pieced together a mosaic that proves that
.The documents; many from the Fed-
eral Bureau of investigation and the
State Department, indicate that Mr.
Flynn, who died in 1959, met Dr. Erben in
1933 and that their friendship continued in
California until after World War II.
Among the documents are Government
papers in which Dr: Erben is reported to
have conceded that he began spying for
the German Government in the mid-
1930's and continued to do so throughout
the war. In the early 1940's Mr. Flynn
made several films that presented the
English as daring heroes and the Nazis as
bumbling villains..
On at. least three occasions, however
the documents Indicate, Mr.--Flyn:a .f
helped Dr. Erben in such a way that it
could be interpreted as helping the Nazi
Spying on Spanish Loyalists."
In 1937 he arranged for the physician to
gain entry to Spain in its civil war, after
the two men had unsuccessfully sought to
fight with the fascist forces of Francisco
Franco.'According to one State Depart-
ment document, Dr. Erben conceded
going to Spain under cover as a photogra-
pher for the 'purpose of "spying upon"
Loyalist forces "and partly upon the Ger-
map.s serving in the Loyalist Army."
The documents indicate that Mr. Flynn
helped Dr. Erben flee to Mexico when he
faced arrest in this country on an immi-
gration matter and on another occasion
helped him obtain a fraudulent passport.
Mr. Hingham called these incidents
"treasonous" because Mr. Flynn, a Brit-
ish subject, took the actions when Eng-
land was at war with Germany.
However, there is nothing in the Gov-
ernment records that links Mr. Flynn
personally to an act of espionage even
though, the records show, he was under
intensive surveillance at the time by the
Federal Bureau of Investigation.
After the war ended, the American au=
thorities disclosed that Dr. Erben was a
member of a large Nazi spy ring that op-
erated in Asia. While continuing to corre-
spond with Mr. Flynn, he became a Gov;;
ernment witness at trials that resulted in'
the conviction of 26 German spies.' He
was then repatriated to Germany, where
he spent almost two years in prison be-
fore being released
Officer's 'Natural Conclusion'
William E. Williamson, a retired mili-
tary officer who commanded a unit that
guarded Dr. Erban during his repatria- f
tion, said that he had spoken at length
with Dr. Erban about his wartime activi-
ties but that the physician had discussed
Mr. Flynn only as a friend and never re-
ferred to the possibility that he might
have been a spy.
Mr. Williamson said, however, that,
based on Mr. Flynn's pattern . of helping
Dr. Erban, he felt "it's a natural conclu-
sion" that "Errol Flynn was a spy." .
Dr. Erban denied last week that Mr.
Flynn had worked under him as a Ger-
man agent.
Mr. Higham's publisher has said it was
satisfied with his research. 'Mr. Higham
used the Freedom of Information Act to
build a. shocking case against Flynn,"
said Ken McCormick, an editor at Dou-
bleday.
Report of Former Employee
While many of the actor's friends have
assailed the report as implausible, one
former employee of Mr. Flynn, . Jane
Chesis of Los Angeles, said in an inter-
view that she believed that the hypothesis
was plausible because of an incident in
1953.
She said that while she was inadvert-
ently locking through a file cabinet in Mr.
Flynn's .apartment that was normally
used only by him she saw a file of letters
postmarked in Argentina containing
what she took to be the names of Ger-
mans. One of the names she noted, she
said, was "Hermann Schwinn." A 'manl
with a similar name was a major World
War II German agent in this country and
after the war went to South America.
While she was reading the letter, she
said, Mr. Flynn entered the room and .
grabbed her and the file of letters and then flung her to the floor, hurting her
enough so that she had to spend the next
day at home. When she returned to the
apartment a day later, she said, the file
was gone.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/18: CIA-RDP90-00552R000201950001-5