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114. Frederick Rutland - Beverly Hills Spy · Who Did What Now With Katie Charlwood

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Speaker 1: You're listening to you an Airwave media podcast. Hello delicious friends,
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Speaker 1: and welcome to Who Did What Now? The history podcast
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Speaker 1: that's not your history class with me, your host Katie Charlwood,
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Speaker 1: history Harlot and reader of books, who, at this moment
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Speaker 1: in time is clearly one Sam Wood. Shot of the picnic.
0:35
Speaker 1: Oh oh, friends, You'll never guess what I did. I
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Speaker 1: just recorded forty minutes, forty full minutes with the microphone
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Speaker 1: on the laptop and not my yetty microphone, because I
0:52
Speaker 1: was like, why is this sounding distorted? Because I was
0:55
Speaker 1: just starting to you know, edit a little bit, and
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Speaker 1: and yeah, I realized that I had been recording with
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Speaker 1: the wrong microphone for the whole bloody time. So I'm
1:09
Speaker 1: not doing the best right now. Oh my goodness, Oh
1:14
Speaker 1: my goodness. That being said, if you want to cheer
1:16
Speaker 1: me up, you could vote for me in the British
1:20
Speaker 1: Podcast Awards. That was a smooth segue, don't you think.
1:24
Speaker 1: So it turns out I'm eligible for it, So I
1:26
Speaker 1: thought why not? It would be so funny because I'm
1:28
Speaker 1: up against like these massive, huge podcasters right with like
1:34
Speaker 1: full equipped studios and teams and researchers. And then you've
1:40
Speaker 1: got me who's recording in a kitchen with a broken
1:43
Speaker 1: window in a field in Ireland? Like, how funny would
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Speaker 1: it be if I got to like the top five? Even,
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Speaker 1: like we have the opportunity to do something fucking hilarious.
1:56
Speaker 1: Also to warn people who think, then I'm really unprofessional
2:01
Speaker 1: because I've called a fuck with a fuck with, Because
2:04
Speaker 1: here's the thing. Anybody who assaults and abuses a vulnerable
2:11
Speaker 1: family member after she suffers a miscarriage, I'm sorry. I
2:16
Speaker 1: get to call you whatever I like. I don't care. Yes,
2:20
Speaker 1: this is in reference to the Merry Toft episode AnyWho
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Speaker 1: vote for me in the British Podcast Awards. Yes, I'll
2:30
Speaker 1: be saying the same thing when the Irish Podcast Awards
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Speaker 1: come out, And yeah, you don't have to be British.
2:34
Speaker 1: You don't have to be Irish. You don't have to
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Speaker 1: be any of these things to vote. You just got
2:38
Speaker 1: to validate your email address, you know, all of your
2:41
Speaker 1: old like MSN accounts that you had your gathering dust
2:45
Speaker 1: just saying you could vote for many of them. As
2:47
Speaker 1: long as you, you know, like prove that you're not
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Speaker 1: I don't know, fake voting, then you're good. I guess. Anyhow,
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Speaker 1: and what is probably the shortest ever into I've ever done.
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Speaker 1: I'm going to quit my jibbil jabba in fact you yes,
3:05
Speaker 1: fact you I will. But first we have got to
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Speaker 1: get our source on. So our main source is actually
3:13
Speaker 1: a book that I was sent and I wouldn't have
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Speaker 1: known this story otherwise, like it just hadn't come up,
3:22
Speaker 1: which is weird because it's so in my wheelhouse that
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Speaker 1: I'm genuinely surprised I didn't see it like beforehand. And
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Speaker 1: it's Beverly Hills Spy by Ronald Rabkin. So now, of
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Speaker 1: course this is not going to be my only source,
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Speaker 1: because you know me, I can't help myself. I got
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Speaker 1: to go digging. So we have information from the Imperial
3:47
Speaker 1: War Museum. We've got articles from the Daily Telegraph, The Guardian,
3:54
Speaker 1: the London Gazette. We've got Rutland of Jrutland by Desmond Young,
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Speaker 1: reassessing pre war Japanese espionage, the Rutland Naval spy case
4:05
Speaker 1: and the Japanese intelligence threat before Pearl Harbor by Max
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Speaker 1: Everest Phillips, Frederick Rutland Tinker Sailor aviator spy by Thomas Bradbeer.
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Speaker 1: British Flying Ace was Spy for Japan by Richard Norton Taylor.
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Speaker 1: And of course we have one of our favorites, History
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Speaker 1: dot Com. You think I wouldn't look at History dot com,
4:30
Speaker 1: of course I did. But remember, are you sitting comfortably good?
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Speaker 1: Then let's begin. Let's do this again. Everything's fine, don't
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Speaker 1: worry about it. Frederick Joseph Rutland was born on the
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Speaker 1: twenty first of October eighteen eighty six in Weymouth, England.
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Speaker 1: For historical timeline context, we are still in the Victorian era.
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Speaker 1: That's right, Queen vic still alive. So Frederick Joseph Rutland.
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Speaker 1: He is one of many children born to a day
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Speaker 1: laborer from Dorset, and being the family of a day laborer,
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Speaker 1: which is not consistent work. They're not exactly flush like
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Speaker 1: they probably got like a wee bit of rudimentary schooling
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Speaker 1: just then you know how to add things and whatnot.
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Speaker 1: But they're not they're not sustaining well, and he's expected
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Speaker 1: to go work with his uncle up in like a
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Speaker 1: mill and stuff, or follow his dad into day laboring,
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Speaker 1: so effectively the family is living hand to mouth. But Weymouth,
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Speaker 1: as it happens, is fairly close to where the Navy
5:45
Speaker 1: are training, and so Rutland just knocks out of that
5:49
Speaker 1: existence and enlists in the Navy at the age of fourteen.
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Speaker 1: Like he's like on the cusp of fifteen and he
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Speaker 1: enlists as a boy seamen. Yes, that is a thing.
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Speaker 1: So he's fifteen ish. He's not quite he is undernourished,
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Speaker 1: which is the gentle term. Basically, he's short for his age.
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Speaker 1: He's scrawny, like, we are very lucky. He does not
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Speaker 1: have rickets, no rickets, no scurvy, like those are you know,
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Speaker 1: those are marks we are not expecting to hit. And
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Speaker 1: yet good. So yeah, he's poorty short and they're like, yeah,
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Speaker 1: seems legit and they've taken one. So he's doing well
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Speaker 1: for himself. Like he thrives in the navy and he
6:42
Speaker 1: is working his way up and he becomes a diver
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Speaker 1: for the British Royal Navy and he is doing well
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Speaker 1: for a man at his station. He gets married to Dorothy,
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Speaker 1: who's a little bit older than him. Actually she's older
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Speaker 1: than him when they marry, and she's a school teacher
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Speaker 1: and they end up having two kids together, Freddie and Barbara.
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Speaker 1: So basically Frederick Jr. And Barbara so one day he's
7:10
Speaker 1: doing his diving exercises and he sees a plane fly
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Speaker 1: overhead and he decides, that's it, that's what I want
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Speaker 1: to do, Like he is just struck by it, and
7:23
Speaker 1: he has this desire to fly a plane, like like
7:27
Speaker 1: the man. I mean, impulsive is one word, but he's
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Speaker 1: bloody determined, right, So in order to qualify as a pilot,
7:35
Speaker 1: he has to sit this pretty stringent exam. And remember
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Speaker 1: he's not he's not so great with the reading and writing,
7:43
Speaker 1: Like he's not illiterate, right, but he's not like writing
7:48
Speaker 1: any novels anytime soon. So his wife, the school teacher, Dorothy,
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Speaker 1: she helps him, like she helps him study. She like
7:57
Speaker 1: I'm assuming she helps with his penmanship. She is just
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Speaker 1: getting him ready, like she is supporting him one hundred percent.
8:07
Speaker 1: So in nineteen fourteen, when World War two breaks out,
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Speaker 1: he's a flight sub lieutenant in the RNAs, which is
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Speaker 1: the Royal Naval Air Service. Now it does change names
8:19
Speaker 1: a bit throughout this, and I'm going to call it
8:20
Speaker 1: a few things. It's all airplanes, airplanes for British military.
8:27
Speaker 1: Right there you go. So he gets his aviator certificate
8:34
Speaker 1: in nineteen fifteen and then nineteen sixteen he's promoted to lieutenant,
8:39
Speaker 1: so that's in January of that year, and by May
8:44
Speaker 1: he is serving in the Great War. He is a
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Speaker 1: pilot on a seaplane tender, the HMS Engadeen, and it's
8:55
Speaker 1: only what five years old at this point because it
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Speaker 1: was I think commissioned in So he's a pilot on it.
9:04
Speaker 1: And on this seaplanetender you've got two short type one
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Speaker 1: eight fours and two sop with baby floatplanes. So these planes,
9:17
Speaker 1: how I put this, they're not the most structurally sound
9:22
Speaker 1: aviation machines. They were made of wood and canvas and
9:27
Speaker 1: helped together with string. Now I think technically rope, that
9:32
Speaker 1: being said, on occasion it was string because these planes
9:37
Speaker 1: they are notorious for breaking down, which is unsurprising because
9:43
Speaker 1: they're made of lollipop sticks and napkins. But yeah, he
9:48
Speaker 1: flies them, which honestly you have to be either brave
9:52
Speaker 1: or crazy to do. So it is a fine line
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Speaker 1: and he crosses both of them consistently. So these plans
10:03
Speaker 1: they had to be like winched or hoisted down like
10:07
Speaker 1: into the water in order to fly, because you couldn't
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Speaker 1: just like fly off the deck like that wasn't something
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Speaker 1: you could do, Like they hadn't figured that out yet,
10:17
Speaker 1: because remember aviation at this point still fairly new, still
10:22
Speaker 1: a fairly new concept. And yeah, Rutland, he's lucky because
10:26
Speaker 1: he is like technologically minded and he had found ways
10:31
Speaker 1: to like update like stuff on the planes, like the
10:34
Speaker 1: radio for example, because he known as his radio was
10:36
Speaker 1: a bit dodgy, so he updated his, and then he
10:41
Speaker 1: updated someone else's, and then he went to like his
10:46
Speaker 1: higher ups and they ended up updating the radios for
10:49
Speaker 1: like all of the fleet. And you remember as well,
10:51
Speaker 1: the radios what like thirty forty years old at this point,
10:54
Speaker 1: Like it's not like an old technology. Like this guy
10:59
Speaker 1: has such a fantastic brain and he is hungry for this,
11:04
Speaker 1: you know. Soirtieth of May nineteen sixteen, the Battle of Jutland.
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Speaker 1: This is like the most important mission for the Royal
11:17
Speaker 1: Navy flying cores. Like to date, you've got one hundred
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Speaker 1: and fifty British ships on one side and ninety nine
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Speaker 1: German ships on the other, so you've got fifty one
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Speaker 1: more ships. You should be winning this, Like that's how
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Speaker 1: they see it. And his mission in this is to
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Speaker 1: fly about and gather intel. So he's supposed to fly
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Speaker 1: about and follow the German ships through the fog because
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Speaker 1: it's foggy as fuck, and he's supposed to radio back
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Speaker 1: their positions to the fleet. Now, surprise, surprise, his plane
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Speaker 1: breaks down, not because it's shot down, but because you know,
11:57
Speaker 1: it has the structural integrity of a blue pee project.
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Speaker 1: So yeah, it breaks down. Like they try and shoot him.
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Speaker 1: The German Navy tried to shoot him down and they
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Speaker 1: fail because he really is just that good. And also
12:12
Speaker 1: they hadn't really designed their guns to aim up at
12:16
Speaker 1: that point like they were expected to aim out, you know.
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Speaker 1: So it gets to the point where he has to
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Speaker 1: like fix his plane, like climb outside of his plane,
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Speaker 1: fix it to get back up in the air. So
12:30
Speaker 1: during this battle, one of the British ships takes like
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Speaker 1: heavy damage, like massive damage, and it has to be
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Speaker 1: tugged back and it is brought back on the HMS Engadine. Now,
12:42
Speaker 1: at this point when this is happening, he's frustrated because
12:46
Speaker 1: he was hoping to go out and do like more missions,
12:49
Speaker 1: but he's basically relegated to being on the ship at
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Speaker 1: this point, and he's like hm, because it's later that day,
12:54
Speaker 1: he's getting kind of antsy. So he's there helping out
12:58
Speaker 1: and they're passing body of injured meting of injured sailors,
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Speaker 1: like they're passing them from ship to ship, so the
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Speaker 1: ship that is damaged, they're passing them on to, you know,
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Speaker 1: the good ship. So sometimes they're on like stretchers. Sometimes
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Speaker 1: they're just trying to like lug them over. And one
13:17
Speaker 1: man like he tumbles over the edge and into the water.
13:21
Speaker 1: Now you've got some people who are just continuing to
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Speaker 1: do their job. They're continuing to pass eople over and
13:26
Speaker 1: others are kind of like frozen, apart from Rutland, who
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Speaker 1: like quick as a flash, ties a rope around his
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Speaker 1: waist and dives into the water. Like no one else
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Speaker 1: considers this like this is like wild to them, But
13:45
Speaker 1: for him this just seemed like an automatic thing to
13:48
Speaker 1: do because he was a diver in the navy. He
13:52
Speaker 1: was a strong swimmer and he knew he could do it.
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Speaker 1: So he leaps off of a ship that is tugging
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Speaker 1: another ship away from the German Navy, I might add,
14:05
Speaker 1: and so he just like dives into the water, swims
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Speaker 1: towards the unconscious man, gets a grip on him and
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Speaker 1: like tells them to tug them up, like hoist them
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Speaker 1: back up the ship, and so at one point they're
14:18
Speaker 1: just like hanging like halfway up like the side of
14:24
Speaker 1: the ship, and because of the way like the other
14:28
Speaker 1: ship is being tugged, it gets very very close to
14:32
Speaker 1: crushing them. Now luckily they both get up and everyone's
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Speaker 1: just like astounded. They're like, he is a hero. And
14:39
Speaker 1: the news of this gets back home like the Rutland
14:43
Speaker 1: of Drutland, like perfect, you know, rhyming newspapers, the press
14:49
Speaker 1: they love it, because of course they do. It's a
14:52
Speaker 1: war hero situation. It's the stuff you reading adventure magazines,
14:56
Speaker 1: you know, like this is you know, the heroic war stories.
15:01
Speaker 1: That's the things you want to hear that build up morale,
15:04
Speaker 1: not all quiet on the Western front, which is you
15:08
Speaker 1: know horror. I mean that's the thing about true horror,
15:12
Speaker 1: Like it's from real life, you know. So yeah, he
15:18
Speaker 1: is so like popular like his like I say, crewe
15:26
Speaker 1: like the people that are on like the same ranking
15:29
Speaker 1: as him. They aren't too keen on him. They think
15:32
Speaker 1: that he's controlling, that he likes to micro manage. They
15:38
Speaker 1: didn't know the term micro manage, but that's what it is.
15:40
Speaker 1: He's very opinionated. He's also very charming, and he loves attention.
15:46
Speaker 1: So when reporters are coming on, like he doesn't let
15:49
Speaker 1: anybody talk to them but him. Like he makes a
15:51
Speaker 1: big deal about himself, which fair enough. You know, you
15:54
Speaker 1: did dive into water during a battle or just after
15:58
Speaker 1: a battle and say, unconscious man, you saved you know,
16:02
Speaker 1: a fellow soldier or naval man whatever, like you saved
16:07
Speaker 1: your comrade, you know. And so he's kind of a
16:11
Speaker 1: big deal. And so for everything he did that day,
16:15
Speaker 1: from like the reconnaissance to you know, saving that dude's life,
16:20
Speaker 1: he earns the Distinguished Service Cross and the Gold Albert
16:25
Speaker 1: Medal first class. So the Gold Albert Medal is given
16:30
Speaker 1: for extreme heroic daring and saving the lives of others.
16:36
Speaker 1: Now he does let this go to his heroe bit
16:38
Speaker 1: because as you would, you know, I'm a kind of
16:42
Speaker 1: a big deal. So yeah, he is continuing to work
16:46
Speaker 1: with the Navy and he's working on planes because he's
16:50
Speaker 1: like there has to be a way for us to
16:53
Speaker 1: fly a plane like from a ship, because he's like
16:57
Speaker 1: this is not working for us, like even from my
17:00
Speaker 1: time management perspective, Like he's trying to work out the kinks.
17:03
Speaker 1: He's like, the time that's wasted. Lowering it into the
17:06
Speaker 1: water is just too much, and so he ends up
17:11
Speaker 1: flying from a I'm gonna call it a platform, but
17:14
Speaker 1: that is me being very generous. It is more than
17:17
Speaker 1: a plank, but I think less than a board. It's
17:23
Speaker 1: effectively there's two long guns on the ship and they
17:27
Speaker 1: put this like piece of wood like in that gap
17:36
Speaker 1: between them, and he basically flies a plane off of it.
17:39
Speaker 1: And that's like a nineteen seventeen and like again, brave crazy,
17:43
Speaker 1: like no one else could really do it, like people
17:45
Speaker 1: had really hurt themselves trying to. But he ends up
17:50
Speaker 1: just like going for it. So the admirals absolutely adore him.
17:57
Speaker 1: They think he is the bee's knees, like he's really
18:00
Speaker 1: good for publicity. And again his fellow officers and whatnot,
18:05
Speaker 1: they're just not into it. And it's not just because
18:09
Speaker 1: he's a bit of a dick. It's also cause, as
18:12
Speaker 1: far as they're concerned, he's common as muck because remember
18:18
Speaker 1: he's probably got a regional accent. He's from Dorset. It's
18:22
Speaker 1: probably a really bad Dorset impression anyone from like Weymouth.
18:25
Speaker 1: I'm so sorry, but yeah, they don't like him because
18:30
Speaker 1: they're hardy, doughty. You know, they're from Cambridge and Oxford
18:35
Speaker 1: and these high education places. You know, they went to
18:38
Speaker 1: a higher education. But they're also like really young, they're
18:43
Speaker 1: just fresh out of like UNI College, and he is,
18:48
Speaker 1: you know, he's thirty at this point, thirty one, I
18:50
Speaker 1: think at this point, and so they think he's old
18:54
Speaker 1: and he's common and we are better than him. So
18:58
Speaker 1: most of the men in the RNAF like they see
19:03
Speaker 1: themselves as above him, right, they're just they're just posh
19:07
Speaker 1: really so. But he's continuing to work. He's doing a
19:10
Speaker 1: lot of technical stuff. He's improving seaplanes and aircraft carriers
19:14
Speaker 1: and the like. And then sort of the RNAF it
19:18
Speaker 1: becomes the new Royal Air Force and they tell him
19:23
Speaker 1: effectively that he's gone as far as he's gonna go,
19:26
Speaker 1: Like he's not going to advance anymore, he's not going
19:29
Speaker 1: to go any higher. And they don't specifically say that
19:34
Speaker 1: it's a class thing, but it's totally a class thing.
19:38
Speaker 1: And what they say things is like, well how many
19:41
Speaker 1: gem and pretends to do show down and he's like none,
19:46
Speaker 1: because I was flying a paper bag, like what you
19:51
Speaker 1: know it was. It's one of those things like how
19:52
Speaker 1: long is a piece of string? Like it's a nonsense question,
19:57
Speaker 1: and it's just another way to put a barrier, and
20:00
Speaker 1: sort of because they don't like social mobility. First of all,
20:04
Speaker 1: they're just just bigotry in one for a minute. Now,
20:09
Speaker 1: it doesn't help, am I add that he violates a
20:15
Speaker 1: social norm. You know, he does something that's a bit taboo,
20:19
Speaker 1: which is wife swaps with another officer. And I don't
20:23
Speaker 1: mean like put their carcays in a bowl grabbing a pineapple.
20:28
Speaker 1: No no, no, no, no, no, no no no, They
20:32
Speaker 1: literally swap wives. His Dorothy moves out and the other
20:38
Speaker 1: Dorothy moves in. Yes, they are both called Dorothy. It
20:42
Speaker 1: was a popular name back then. Clearly, now this again
20:47
Speaker 1: super taboo. You don't do that. He has broken one
20:52
Speaker 1: of the unwritten rules, although I'm pretty sure it is
20:55
Speaker 1: written down somewhere. So he is at this point mad
21:03
Speaker 1: like because he is really really capable, he's really skilled,
21:07
Speaker 1: he's technologically minded, he's always thinking of ways to improve,
21:12
Speaker 1: and he was so ready to serve his country, and
21:16
Speaker 1: he wanted the recognition for that, the reward and recognition
21:19
Speaker 1: which I get absolutely but he's been told that they're
21:24
Speaker 1: just not gonna let him go up any further, that
21:27
Speaker 1: they are holding him back even though you know, supposed
21:32
Speaker 1: to be a meritocra say, he's supposed to move up
21:34
Speaker 1: that ladder, but they're just knocking out the wrungs on
21:37
Speaker 1: top of them. And so he is at this point incensed.
21:41
Speaker 1: He's been there for years, like it's nineteen twenty two,
21:47
Speaker 1: and he is steaming out of his ears, and he
21:53
Speaker 1: just gets so frustrated, he's so angry, like it is
21:57
Speaker 1: bubbling up inside him that he I mean, he makes
22:01
Speaker 1: a choice, and that choice is to walk into the
22:06
Speaker 1: office of the Japanese Navy in Westminster and says to
22:11
Speaker 1: the man at the desk, I'd like to talk to
22:15
Speaker 1: you and that delicious friends, I think is a really
22:20
Speaker 1: good time for a little commercial break. We'll be right back,
22:32
Speaker 1: and we are back. So Frederick Joseph Rutland, he has
22:37
Speaker 1: sauntered into a Japanese Navy office in London because he
22:41
Speaker 1: wants to have a wee chat. And these two Japanese
22:45
Speaker 1: officers know exactly who Rutland is and they are very
22:50
Speaker 1: very excited to talk to him, and they straight up
22:54
Speaker 1: offer him a job as an advisor on their new
22:57
Speaker 1: Paris Strike Force of the Japanese name, like the Japanese
23:02
Speaker 1: Naval Academy was based off of the British one. Like
23:05
Speaker 1: they're this close, they're this tight. So I think for
23:09
Speaker 1: Rutland as well, it was easy to justify it because
23:13
Speaker 1: they're not enemies, they're allies. You know, he's not going
23:17
Speaker 1: against Britain by doing this. He's just going to someone
23:22
Speaker 1: who values him and will be happy to use his
23:26
Speaker 1: expertise and his skills and give him that, you know,
23:30
Speaker 1: praise and reward and recognition that he wants. Like again,
23:33
Speaker 1: very easy to justify. So he ends up resigning from
23:38
Speaker 1: the RAF and he gets a petition of divorce from
23:44
Speaker 1: original Dorothy naming him as an adulterer, and he doesn't
23:48
Speaker 1: contest it. He's like, yeah, fair enough. So they get
23:51
Speaker 1: a divorce and then he remarries like other Dorothy, so
23:56
Speaker 1: Dorothy two point zero. So they're married, and I think
24:01
Speaker 1: they're in France for like a little bit before they
24:04
Speaker 1: end up in Japan because the ref they are a
24:07
Speaker 1: wee bit sus and they don't want to like release
24:13
Speaker 1: his passport just yet, so they hold off on it.
24:17
Speaker 1: But Japan decide to be a wee bit sneaky, So
24:22
Speaker 1: in order to get Rutland over to Japan, they say
24:25
Speaker 1: that he's working for Mitsubishi, like I don't know, doing
24:29
Speaker 1: radios or like fixing machinery or whatever Mitsubushi was doing
24:35
Speaker 1: in Japan in the nineteen twenties. So he is getting
24:40
Speaker 1: a job with them, which is a private company. So
24:43
Speaker 1: like all legal documents, if you looked at them, he
24:45
Speaker 1: would be being paid by Mitsubishi. I've just mispronounced, I'm sure,
24:52
Speaker 1: so publicly he is working for Mitsubishi, and privately he
24:58
Speaker 1: is building the Japanese naval air arm And like m
25:03
Speaker 1: I five again, they're suspicious. They've held his passport for
25:06
Speaker 1: a while, but they cannot justify it because he's off
25:10
Speaker 1: to work with a Japanese company, a private company. They
25:15
Speaker 1: can't stop him. Now m I five does not find
25:20
Speaker 1: out what he's doing, and they don't find out like
25:25
Speaker 1: for decades, like they only find out like some of
25:28
Speaker 1: this stuff they was doing when the Imperial War records
25:32
Speaker 1: are like unsealed, like I think some of it was
25:36
Speaker 1: in the nineties, like it was, it was, it was
25:38
Speaker 1: a long time. So he ends up moving to Japan,
25:42
Speaker 1: which is like a lot of British people moved to Japan.
25:46
Speaker 1: It was a very like normal thing. Loads of people
25:49
Speaker 1: moved there and he was working on like landing gears
25:53
Speaker 1: for playing like through mitsubushes. So it's it's like I
25:58
Speaker 1: heard about this. It's like semi legit, like he's not
26:01
Speaker 1: doing anything untoward at the minute. He's just you know,
26:06
Speaker 1: finding a way to get there really and he is
26:09
Speaker 1: loving life. He's pals with all the top admirals. He
26:13
Speaker 1: is needed, you know, they need him and his expertise.
26:17
Speaker 1: And at this point he is just improving their navy
26:21
Speaker 1: and so he's teaching pilots how to land on aircraft carriers,
26:26
Speaker 1: like he's working on hydraulic shots, weight distribution, had a
26:30
Speaker 1: land where to fly from all of it. And the
26:35
Speaker 1: thing about Japan again, lots of British people visiting, especially
26:38
Speaker 1: British naval officers, and it's not gone unnoticed that in Japan,
26:44
Speaker 1: Rutland was like Robin Shoulders with like high ranking Japanese
26:47
Speaker 1: admirals and that he's like basically getting VIP treatment wherever
26:52
Speaker 1: they see him, and so like the rumors swirl and
26:58
Speaker 1: remember as well, he's like being a visually paid by Mitsubishi,
27:01
Speaker 1: but he's also being like paper envelope, paper envelope, Brian envelope,
27:07
Speaker 1: like under the table by the Japanese Navy, and he
27:15
Speaker 1: is making bank. Now eventually he's like done, you know,
27:20
Speaker 1: he's he's improved it to a point. And by nineteen
27:23
Speaker 1: twenty eight he moves back to the UK and ends
27:26
Speaker 1: up working in his brother in law's truck manufacturing business.
27:31
Speaker 1: And he is bored as fuck, Like he feels like
27:36
Speaker 1: he is watching paint dry, Like he's also a bit
27:39
Speaker 1: of an adrenaline jrunkie, Like he likes the excitement of it,
27:42
Speaker 1: like it's the concept of it being a bit naughty,
27:45
Speaker 1: like ooh, giggle, giggle, like as opposed to it being
27:49
Speaker 1: anything sort of sinister. So he's not he's not happy.
27:56
Speaker 1: I mean, it's fine. He's fine. I mean he's not
28:02
Speaker 1: exactly the best salesman, interestingly, even though he does have
28:05
Speaker 1: the gift of the gab. But he's just so him,
28:09
Speaker 1: you know. But then an interesting offer comes his way. Basically,
28:19
Speaker 1: the Japanese Navy show up in nineteen thirty one and
28:23
Speaker 1: they want him to move to la and work as
28:27
Speaker 1: an emissary for them. So heal's the thing. Many of
28:32
Speaker 1: the militaries like of this. You are there aware at
28:36
Speaker 1: this point that fighter planes are the next step in warfare.
28:42
Speaker 1: And the relationship between Japan and the US had not
28:46
Speaker 1: been going well, so like in the twenties, the US
28:51
Speaker 1: had banned Japanese immigration and all this like legislation is
28:56
Speaker 1: happening like through Hawaii and the West Coast with like
29:01
Speaker 1: hundreds of Japanese Americans being placed under surveillance for being
29:05
Speaker 1: Japanese Americans. But here's the thing, right, a lot of
29:11
Speaker 1: these Japanese Americans, because they lived in America, like they
29:17
Speaker 1: wouldn't have been so trusted by like, you know, traditional Japanese,
29:25
Speaker 1: like especially second and third generation. They're just like no, no,
29:30
Speaker 1: thank you, Like there wouldn't have been that bond or
29:33
Speaker 1: that trust, you know, because a lot of Japanese Americans
29:38
Speaker 1: would see themselves first and foremost as Americans, you know,
29:44
Speaker 1: so that it's just a weird thing to do. Anywhow.
29:49
Speaker 1: Because of all of this, Japanese intelligence officers were very
29:56
Speaker 1: determined to invest any heavily decorated white man and charming
30:03
Speaker 1: war hero for the Allies. Don't be suspicious, don't be
30:08
Speaker 1: suspicious domus vicious drums drummers, because who is going to
30:14
Speaker 1: suspect British war hero as being a Japanese spy? Like,
30:20
Speaker 1: it's weird. Like you probably read British War hero Japanese
30:25
Speaker 1: spy and you're like, and he's not Japanese. No, he
30:28
Speaker 1: has no connection to Japan. No, he just kind of
30:32
Speaker 1: joined yep. Okay, weird, right, It's not something that used
30:36
Speaker 1: to automatically joined the dogs off, especially in the nineteen thirties.
30:40
Speaker 1: You're like, seems seems off, you know, So Rutland he
30:46
Speaker 1: heads over to Los Angeles in nineteen thirty three, but yeah,
30:49
Speaker 1: mean he takes a pitt stop in Japan obviously to
30:52
Speaker 1: discuss his mission with Japanese officials. So he's supposed to
30:57
Speaker 1: go and set up and build like sources and networks
31:01
Speaker 1: in the USA while we're porting back to Tokyo about
31:05
Speaker 1: the United States war preparations. And from the get go
31:10
Speaker 1: he was to collect pictures and technical information of the
31:14
Speaker 1: Navy ships and aircraft in LA like in Long Beach,
31:18
Speaker 1: you've got like the warplane factories Lockheed in Douglas. They're
31:23
Speaker 1: in like Santa Monica and bard Bank, and of course Hawaii,
31:28
Speaker 1: which had the US Pacific fleet. So he gets set
31:32
Speaker 1: up with his cover of a trading company. I say
31:36
Speaker 1: cover because they just they just give him so much money.
31:39
Speaker 1: So like he's like, I'm in stocks and shells and bats.
31:43
Speaker 1: I don't know why I've give him a transit that
31:44
Speaker 1: I get accent because he's from Like, I don't know
31:48
Speaker 1: what accent this is supposed to be. But this is
31:50
Speaker 1: offensive to everybody. I think it's it's I think I've
31:53
Speaker 1: tried to make it Yorkshire. That sounds wrong? Done it?
31:56
Speaker 1: Oh god? What was that? And that was scuse? That
32:00
Speaker 1: was bad? That was That's a bad accent. I'm not
32:03
Speaker 1: great at accents, lads. You should know it at this point.
32:08
Speaker 1: So out of everybody they could have picked, why Rutland one,
32:12
Speaker 1: Like they've known him for years, he helped brother Navy.
32:14
Speaker 1: They know he can do a good job. In two
32:18
Speaker 1: He's pretty easy pickings. Like like, if you want to
32:22
Speaker 1: make someone join your sitide, it helps that they've been
32:25
Speaker 1: overlooked by their own country and have felt that they
32:29
Speaker 1: have been slighted by the very people they tried to serve,
32:33
Speaker 1: you know, especially when he is clearly capable and skilled
32:37
Speaker 1: and intelligent and they just kind of went, no, they're
32:40
Speaker 1: common you can eat like what. So, yeah, Japan scooped
32:46
Speaker 1: him up and he gets paid. He gets paid like
32:51
Speaker 1: ten times the amount like the top admirals would get paid.
32:55
Speaker 1: He earns six thousand, two hundred pounds in his first year,
33:01
Speaker 1: which like if you want to convert into like modern money,
33:05
Speaker 1: like in today's money, it's dollars. I think it's like
33:08
Speaker 1: half a million, like half a million dollars like a year.
33:13
Speaker 1: Oh and I have a fun fact for you. The
33:15
Speaker 1: person who issued his checks was izuk oh No, the
33:21
Speaker 1: parent of Yoko oh No. If you don't know who
33:27
Speaker 1: that is, google the Beatles and the Yoko problem, because
33:32
Speaker 1: it's it's a whole thing, lads. So, the director of
33:36
Speaker 1: the Japanese Naval Intelligence Takasu, told Rutland that all communications
33:42
Speaker 1: were to recur out with the embassy in Washington to
33:45
Speaker 1: avoid suspicion, which, honestly, yeah, seems like a smart move.
33:51
Speaker 1: Takasu also decided that Rutland would meet with officials once
33:55
Speaker 1: a year at locations like across like America and Asia. Obviously,
34:01
Speaker 1: info needs to be passed like more than just like annually,
34:05
Speaker 1: like once a year. Doesn't quite cut it when you're
34:07
Speaker 1: trying to, you know, steal state secrets. And so he
34:11
Speaker 1: would send handwritten letters to a dead jop in Japan,
34:15
Speaker 1: and he would receive stuff via a post office box.
34:21
Speaker 1: So the letters would always start with like dear Fred,
34:24
Speaker 1: which seems fair enough because his name's Frederick, so dear
34:28
Speaker 1: Fred and it sound Augie, which I don't know what
34:33
Speaker 1: ogie is meant to be, but I'm sure they had
34:35
Speaker 1: a really fun reason for using it. So they're a
34:40
Speaker 1: contingency plan actually as well if war broke out, and
34:44
Speaker 1: that was he was to get his spy on and
34:47
Speaker 1: deliver the info to the Japanese embassy in Ottawa and Canada.
34:53
Speaker 1: Now through all of this, of course he needs a
34:56
Speaker 1: code name, a Japanese spy name. Of course he does,
34:59
Speaker 1: and it's Shinkawa, which means New River. And I would
35:03
Speaker 1: like to apologize to anybody who speaks Japanese because I
35:07
Speaker 1: know it's tonal and I have probably buggered it up.
35:12
Speaker 1: So nineteen thirty three moves to La A couple of
35:16
Speaker 1: months in Dorothy two point zero joins him along with
35:20
Speaker 1: his kids from his previous marriage, Freddie and Barbara. Like
35:24
Speaker 1: he was feeling a bit bad because he felt like
35:26
Speaker 1: he neglected them, which was also one of the reasons
35:29
Speaker 1: why he moved back to the UK because he thought
35:33
Speaker 1: family but that didn't quite go as he planned. So yeah,
35:38
Speaker 1: Dorothy and Frederick they have no kids in Japan. Don't
35:43
Speaker 1: know why, could be many reasons, but when they get
35:47
Speaker 1: to LA they end up having two, David and Annabelle. Now,
35:53
Speaker 1: when you've got a family, you need a house. So
35:56
Speaker 1: in nineteen thirty four he buys a house in Warbler
35:59
Speaker 1: Place in the Hills, which is massive. It's got a pool,
36:04
Speaker 1: a whole lot, and he founded his company Rutland, Edwards
36:10
Speaker 1: and Company near the LA Stock Exchange. And as kids
36:15
Speaker 1: they go to exclusive private schools and he joins social clubs,
36:19
Speaker 1: including the del Monte Club and the British United Services Club,
36:26
Speaker 1: whose patrons include the stars of the day, which honestly
36:31
Speaker 1: a bit off. It's like the hey Man Woman Haters
36:33
Speaker 1: Club because like no woman allowed, like well, no wives
36:37
Speaker 1: or girlfriends allowed, like you know, wink wink. So see
36:43
Speaker 1: a lot of the silent film stars of the era
36:46
Speaker 1: are British. You've got Ero Flynn, Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff
36:52
Speaker 1: and Charlie Chaplin, and they are able to elbow with Rutland.
36:57
Speaker 1: So they hang out at the club, they eat, drink,
37:00
Speaker 1: share stories, have a good time and they are dressed
37:03
Speaker 1: to the nines. They're in tuxedos or they're in like
37:07
Speaker 1: military uniforms, so like Army, Navy, the kilt. If you're Scottish,
37:13
Speaker 1: if you could where we're kilt, you did where we're
37:16
Speaker 1: kilt because kilts are cool. They are fight me. So
37:21
Speaker 1: a lot of the guys are actually originally from a
37:24
Speaker 1: lower social class in Britain, but they're having a fab
37:28
Speaker 1: time in Hollywood, and Rutland fits right in. So they
37:33
Speaker 1: have these massive parties and he's inviting people to his
37:35
Speaker 1: house and he'd be out drinking with like Charlie Chaplin
37:39
Speaker 1: and a bunch of US admirals and he's good, he's charming,
37:45
Speaker 1: he can tell a yarn like and people know him
37:49
Speaker 1: because he's Rutland from Chutland. So he's easy to dine
37:53
Speaker 1: out on that awe bit because the admirals, even like
37:57
Speaker 1: the younger ones, like they would know story of him,
38:00
Speaker 1: like from when they were going through academy and whatnot.
38:03
Speaker 1: Rutland from Jutland a World War One aviation hero and
38:09
Speaker 1: like they would tell the stories to like the US admirals,
38:12
Speaker 1: and you know, it would just be like a whole thing.
38:16
Speaker 1: So he was really lucky because he was so clever
38:18
Speaker 1: and he was in such a good position to do it.
38:21
Speaker 1: Is he would get a lot of his information by
38:24
Speaker 1: just drinking with the right people. So he'd get drunk
38:27
Speaker 1: with these guys, he'd share stories. He'd talk about flying
38:31
Speaker 1: in the war and my plane would do this, and
38:34
Speaker 1: my plan would do that. What would you plan do?
38:37
Speaker 1: Don't know why I made him a cockney, but yeah,
38:40
Speaker 1: you would like tell stories like this would do this,
38:42
Speaker 1: this would do that? What is yours like? And so
38:44
Speaker 1: obviously these guys want to impress this like hero like
38:48
Speaker 1: they want to do that, and so they would tell
38:51
Speaker 1: him and so he would just gather information. So he's
38:55
Speaker 1: collecting infu And he would go on holiday once a
38:59
Speaker 1: year at least, stopping off in Hawaii and taking his kids.
39:04
Speaker 1: You know, it's such a normal thing to do, not
39:07
Speaker 1: suspicious at all. So not only does he have his
39:10
Speaker 1: like stocks and shells stuff going on is like trading business,
39:15
Speaker 1: but he diversifies because of course he does. And you know,
39:19
Speaker 1: he's Rutland from Jugland, and he sets up an aircraft
39:23
Speaker 1: sales company and rents off his space just across the
39:27
Speaker 1: runway from the Douglas Aircraft Company plant, so not only
39:33
Speaker 1: can he just look and see what's going on, but
39:37
Speaker 1: also he can shoot the shit with the Douglas employees
39:41
Speaker 1: down at the Del Monte Club. So Japan is super
39:46
Speaker 1: interested in what's happening at the Lockheed plant in Burbank
39:49
Speaker 1: because they're working on the P three eight, which is
39:54
Speaker 1: a twin piston engined fighter. Naturally, because Japan wants this information,
40:02
Speaker 1: Rutland's gonna go get it and he finds an employee
40:05
Speaker 1: to Greece up so get drunk with them, buddy, buddy, buddy,
40:12
Speaker 1: And this guy tells him that Lockheed needs a janitor,
40:15
Speaker 1: and he's like, I know a guy. And the guy
40:18
Speaker 1: in question is Raymond Alexander Barry, an ex Ira man,
40:26
Speaker 1: so like he's like this grumpy, you know, former member
40:31
Speaker 1: of the Irish Republican Army, like he would have fought
40:35
Speaker 1: in the Irish War of Independence, Like that's what he
40:40
Speaker 1: would have done. And so he goes over to the
40:45
Speaker 1: States and he's like friends with like Boris Karloff and
40:49
Speaker 1: so he's got this resume his CV and they're like,
40:53
Speaker 1: he knows, like all of these stars, he hobbed up
40:56
Speaker 1: with them. Why does he want to be a janitor?
41:00
Speaker 1: And he's like, I just need the job now his
41:04
Speaker 1: reasons for doing it him's to say, but Barry, he
41:09
Speaker 1: becomes a janitor and he steals info on the P
41:14
Speaker 1: three eight Lightning and pretty sharper. She's under suspicion because
41:18
Speaker 1: they're like, hey, this info got leaked not long after
41:21
Speaker 1: this guy started working here. But I think we have
41:24
Speaker 1: to take a moment because Rotland is not an idiot.
41:28
Speaker 1: He's not an idiot, Like he knows that, you know,
41:31
Speaker 1: the War of Independence happened, the Irish War of Independence happened,
41:36
Speaker 1: and he would have known, you know, what the Iray was.
41:43
Speaker 1: And still he's like, I'm going to get a member
41:45
Speaker 1: of the IRA to break him to an aircraft plant
41:53
Speaker 1: and steal files. Like okay, let's do it. I mean
41:59
Speaker 1: sure it's all for a laugh, isn't it. But yeah,
42:05
Speaker 1: things start to unravel around about here because they're like, hey,
42:10
Speaker 1: how does this happen? And also a Japanese spy is
42:16
Speaker 1: so excited about his new position right because he's been
42:19
Speaker 1: you know, he's moving up the ranks, he's been promoted.
42:22
Speaker 1: And he gets drunk and crashes his car and dies,
42:28
Speaker 1: which is sad but also inconvenient because along with him
42:34
Speaker 1: in the car is a briefcase which has a list
42:37
Speaker 1: of names, one of which being Frederick Joseph Rutland. So
42:45
Speaker 1: m I five. You know, their their ears are like
42:49
Speaker 1: upway a bit. They're like, oh, what's going on here?
42:51
Speaker 1: Like so there's a whisper, there's a concept, they have
42:54
Speaker 1: an idea. Meanwhile, Rutland is actually traveling to Juba. I
43:00
Speaker 1: think he's in Japan in September when World War two
43:04
Speaker 1: breaks out, and he's got his daughter Barbara with him,
43:07
Speaker 1: like he's trying to do a whole reconnecting thing and
43:10
Speaker 1: also spy. You know, he's trying to have it all,
43:14
Speaker 1: you know, Like isn't that what feminism is? A bit sorry,
43:22
Speaker 1: So when he's in Japan again he's not a stupid man,
43:27
Speaker 1: he notices that society has gotten very militant. There's a
43:34
Speaker 1: very high military presence, and even the way society is
43:38
Speaker 1: like He's like, oh, they're soldiers everywhere. There's a lot
43:41
Speaker 1: going on. Things are very strict, like he senses what's happening.
43:46
Speaker 1: He knows trouble is brewing, like and he's preparing for that.
43:51
Speaker 1: But more on that in a moment, because before we
43:55
Speaker 1: get into that, we get to talk about this. So
43:58
Speaker 1: before the Five or I or OSS or whatever have
44:03
Speaker 1: a whiff of what Rutland is doing, it's Hollywood that
44:08
Speaker 1: clocks them. So basically, he would go out to dinner
44:11
Speaker 1: with everybody and he was always picking up the tab.
44:14
Speaker 1: But these fellas he was hanging out with felt that
44:17
Speaker 1: it was a wee bit suspicious that he was a
44:19
Speaker 1: shareholder who literally never tried to sell them any shales,
44:24
Speaker 1: because you know, that's what they do, that's generally what
44:28
Speaker 1: you do, and like you try and sell things to
44:31
Speaker 1: the rich people. The second thing is that there's a
44:35
Speaker 1: war on and all of these stars are out doing
44:38
Speaker 1: like British Rescue, British War relaf war bonds, like they're
44:43
Speaker 1: all raising money, and they find it super super shady
44:48
Speaker 1: that he isn't raising money for the war effort, and
44:52
Speaker 1: his actor friends turn him in to the FBI under
44:58
Speaker 1: the orders of one j Edgar Hoover. Rutland's phone is
45:03
Speaker 1: tapped and so they are listening to him, and they
45:06
Speaker 1: are convinced they have enough evidence to get them, and
45:11
Speaker 1: they are ready to swip in until the Office of
45:16
Speaker 1: Naval Intelligence steps in. The Southern California ONI Chief Captain
45:24
Speaker 1: Ellis Sacharias sends a teletype claiming that Rutland is a
45:30
Speaker 1: double agent. Basically, what happened was when he saw what
45:35
Speaker 1: was happening in Japan, his hackles are up right, because
45:39
Speaker 1: remember he's been watching this unfold and he has been
45:42
Speaker 1: an active participant in it, and so he says, fuck
45:46
Speaker 1: this for a game of soldiers, and he contacts the
45:49
Speaker 1: US Navy warning them about a Japanese attack. He says, historically,
45:56
Speaker 1: Japan has always attacked first and attacked STRITI Like, initially,
46:01
Speaker 1: he's trying to get like a proper job in the
46:03
Speaker 1: US Navy. He's like, let me help you, I know
46:07
Speaker 1: my stuff. But at this point he's old, like he's
46:11
Speaker 1: an older gentleman. They're like, yeah, you're a little bit
46:16
Speaker 1: mature for this. You know, you've aged out a wee bit.
46:21
Speaker 1: And on top of this, they're like, yeah, we can't
46:24
Speaker 1: really trust you because we're super suspicious because you worked
46:27
Speaker 1: with the Japanese. But the Navy don't give him like
46:30
Speaker 1: an official job, not really, and the US ends up
46:36
Speaker 1: telling the UK that they have enough evidence to shoot
46:40
Speaker 1: him for treason, even though he's not a US citizen,
46:45
Speaker 1: So I think it's something other than treason. Really, Now
46:51
Speaker 1: the UK thinks this is rhetorical, or at least they
46:54
Speaker 1: hope it is, but they really want to keep the
46:58
Speaker 1: US on side because they want them to join the
47:01
Speaker 1: war in fight the Nazis. But also they're not keying
47:06
Speaker 1: on negative press again, they're all about morale and the
47:09
Speaker 1: war effort. So they try to lure him back to
47:12
Speaker 1: Britain by offering him a job, and it works, so
47:17
Speaker 1: like they fly him over, and here's the thing. It
47:22
Speaker 1: is a very difficult and complicated thing to do because
47:26
Speaker 1: you've got German U boats, you've got like an active
47:29
Speaker 1: war happening. And they are flying him back like a VIP,
47:34
Speaker 1: like he's getting first class treatment all the way there.
47:38
Speaker 1: And when he lands in Ireland because the plane has
47:41
Speaker 1: to refuel after crossing the Atlantic, they confiscate his passport
47:47
Speaker 1: and they're like, oh, it's just what we do. Don't
47:49
Speaker 1: worry about it, because like initially they're like, you're a
47:52
Speaker 1: free citizen. Don't worry. You know, everything's chill, Like this
47:56
Speaker 1: is totally legitimate and is no form of subterfugeon whatsoever.
48:02
Speaker 1: It's just totally normal to not be allowed to travel
48:04
Speaker 1: anywhere because travel is restricted because war. And he's like,
48:10
Speaker 1: that seems fair enough. Yeah, So when he ends up
48:14
Speaker 1: in England, he's interrogated by mi I five and he
48:17
Speaker 1: just offers to work as a double agent for them.
48:19
Speaker 1: He's like, listen, I've got the connections, I've got the skills.
48:22
Speaker 1: I'm supposed to be set up in this place in Mexico.
48:25
Speaker 1: You know, I can sort you out. And they're just
48:29
Speaker 1: not having it. They're not keen on this situation. And
48:33
Speaker 1: as they're like trying to accuse him of a crime,
48:37
Speaker 1: they realize they can't because he hasn't done anything to Britain.
48:45
Speaker 1: He hasn't committed any acts of treason against the government
48:48
Speaker 1: or his majesty. He hasn't sold any UK secrets military
48:53
Speaker 1: or otherwise. And when he worked for Japan or the
48:57
Speaker 1: Japanese Navy, Japan and the UK were allies, so he
49:04
Speaker 1: wasn't working with the enemy. So technically he hadn't done anything,
49:11
Speaker 1: and he was just kind of free Ish. But then
49:17
Speaker 1: on the seventh of December nineteen forty one, just as
49:22
Speaker 1: he predicted, like he had given them a timeline as well.
49:25
Speaker 1: He was like, hey, I think an attack is going
49:28
Speaker 1: to happen like during this and so yes, on the
49:32
Speaker 1: seventh of December nineteen forty one, the Imperial Japanese Navy
49:37
Speaker 1: Air Service hit Pearl Harbor with a surprise military strike.
49:43
Speaker 1: And this changes everything, Like the USA just gears up
49:49
Speaker 1: and it is ready to go to war, but now
49:51
Speaker 1: it's fighting on like two fronts. Well more, actually there's
49:55
Speaker 1: loads of fronts, but like two main ones, you know,
49:58
Speaker 1: but they're more focused on the Japanese out of it.
50:00
Speaker 1: They're like the Pacific is where where they're at because
50:04
Speaker 1: their priority is revenge. So Rutland is then detained under
50:11
Speaker 1: the Defense Regulation eighteen B, which basically locks people up
50:17
Speaker 1: without trial as enemies of the state. And so he
50:21
Speaker 1: is thrown in jail in Brixton Prison, and he stayed
50:25
Speaker 1: there for two years. And while he's there, like fascist
50:31
Speaker 1: and suspected Nazi spyes, like they were in and out
50:37
Speaker 1: and all of this is basically kept stump, like he's
50:40
Speaker 1: there for two years and the info just doesn't get out.
50:44
Speaker 1: You know, if there wasn't a war going on, this
50:47
Speaker 1: kind of information would have been just everywhere. But there's
50:50
Speaker 1: a war. There's like a whole press issue there, and yeah,
50:55
Speaker 1: they're trying to keep it quiet because they don't want
50:58
Speaker 1: the embarrassment of it, and like they're trying to keep
51:01
Speaker 1: this as low as possible. But then it hits the
51:03
Speaker 1: House of Commons and a bunch of Rutland's old pals
51:07
Speaker 1: in the Navy. They think he's he's getting, you know,
51:10
Speaker 1: the short end of the stick. His daughter ends up
51:14
Speaker 1: returning from the US like well he's in Brixton Prison
51:17
Speaker 1: to try and get him to clear his name, and
51:20
Speaker 1: he has to explain to her that, like, I can't
51:24
Speaker 1: clear my name because I haven't actually been accused of anything.
51:30
Speaker 1: Like he's not been accused of anything. They haven't got
51:34
Speaker 1: anything on him, so I mean, it's easy to maintain
51:38
Speaker 1: your innocence when you haven't been charged with a crime.
51:43
Speaker 1: Like he's there, and like these like known fascists and
51:51
Speaker 1: not actual Nazi spies are free before he is, Like
51:55
Speaker 1: it's wild. He's also not a young man at this point,
51:59
Speaker 1: and yet he's in this prison longer than a lot
52:02
Speaker 1: of these arseholes, all right, Like I'm not condoning what
52:05
Speaker 1: he did, like this is not good by any stretch
52:08
Speaker 1: of the imagination. But also he did try and turn
52:12
Speaker 1: the tide and nobody listened to him. So by the
52:18
Speaker 1: end of the war he's released with no charge ever
52:21
Speaker 1: brought against him, and understandably he never returns to the US,
52:29
Speaker 1: probably because he's not allowed one into probably felt a
52:33
Speaker 1: little bit embarrassed. And the money, well, the money's all
52:37
Speaker 1: tied up there. That was there, and that's hopefully, I
52:41
Speaker 1: think in the possession of Dorothy and the kids who
52:45
Speaker 1: stay in la like they don't come back to Britain,
52:49
Speaker 1: whether it's from shame or whether they just preferred to
52:53
Speaker 1: be out there, because like for his kids, that's all
52:55
Speaker 1: they've ever known, like his second lot of kids. Unsurprisingly,
53:01
Speaker 1: Rutland spends the next years just bitter and angry, like
53:07
Speaker 1: he's disgraced, he's feeling shitty, because of course he is,
53:12
Speaker 1: and eventually it all gets too much for him and
53:16
Speaker 1: on the twenty eighth of January nineteen forty nine, Frederick
53:21
Speaker 1: Joseph Rutland dies by suicide in Wales by inhaling gas.
53:29
Speaker 1: In a note addressed to Freddy, his eldest son, It reads,
53:35
Speaker 1: my life has been an adventurous one, always full of excitement.
53:40
Speaker 1: I have always told myself that so long as life
53:43
Speaker 1: was worth loving, I would love it to the full,
53:47
Speaker 1: and when no longer held interest, it would be time
53:51
Speaker 1: to go. And so ends the story of Frederick, Joseph
53:59
Speaker 1: Rutland and Rutland of Drutland, Agent Shinkawa and Beverly Hills Spy.
54:10
Speaker 1: If you liked my retelling of this episode, feel free
54:13
Speaker 1: to write in review five stars, vote for me in
54:15
Speaker 1: the Irish Podcast Awards, or if you're in Donegall or
54:18
Speaker 1: you're Doneygall adjacent, come see my live show. Yeah that
54:23
Speaker 1: was a very very sharp tone change from the end.
54:27
Speaker 1: And yeah you can follow me on all the socials, threads, Instagram,
54:33
Speaker 1: meta stuff, TikTok, all the stuff. And yeah, I guess
54:40
Speaker 1: it's recommendation time. So for reading, obviously I'm going to
54:45
Speaker 1: recommend Beverly Hill Spy by Ronald Drabkin. It's it's a
54:49
Speaker 1: good decent read, go read it, get it from your library.
54:52
Speaker 1: It still counts. And so for listening, I am going
54:59
Speaker 1: to I recommend my new comfort podcast which is Red Handed,
55:04
Speaker 1: which I have wotted listening to for so long because
55:07
Speaker 1: I wasn't really sure I was going to be into it.
55:11
Speaker 1: And then I started listening to those two women talk
55:14
Speaker 1: and honestly so soothing. And for watching, I am going
55:20
Speaker 1: to tell you to watch something ridiculous, which is Space Cadet.
55:24
Speaker 1: Watch the silly movie, let yourself have some joy in
55:28
Speaker 1: your life. And with that, I'm going to say good night,
55:34
Speaker 1: Adios alvois of where is my friends? Bye bye