Flynn behind plot to kill King—report

Press, 9 June 1980, Page 8

Flynn behind plot to kill King—report

NZPA-Reuter London I The film star, Errol Flynn, ' financed an abortive plot to assassinate King George VI and. his Queen during a visit to America before the start pf World War Two, a Brit-i ish newspaper said yester- ! dav.

The “News of the World” said the link between Flynn and the plot was “spelt out” in British MIS intelligence files and was confirmed by the author, Charles Higham, whose book “Errol Flynn: The untold story” alleges that the actor was a Nazi German spy during the war. The newspaper asserts that Flynn had many contacts with the Irish Republican Army chief-of-Staff, Sean Russell, who allegedly was the mastermind behind the assassination plot against the Royal couple. i

Russell* collected more than $200,000 from supporters in Hollywood and San Francisco for a huge I.R.A. terrorist bombing campaign against Britain, the newspaper alleged, and that “most of the money came; directly from Flynn.” |

Higham was quoted by the “News of the World” as saying: “I’ve verified that Flynn liad I.R.A. connections through Sean Russell.” The newspaper said that British Intelligence spies had “bugged” a meeting between Russell and Flynn in a hotel i room in Lisbon, Portugal, l

land that Russell also met a close friend of Flynn’s, Hermann Schwinn, identified by the newspaper as the head of Nazi spies on the west coast of the United States. , The paper said Schwinn [and Russeli discussed the plan to bomb the King and Queen as they crossed the Canadian border into the ■ United States on their way from Windsor, Ontario, to Detroit.

i But the room they met in [was bugged by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and , Russell was arrested when he arrived in Detroit, the report said.

“Because of pressure from influential Americans, Russell was only charged with breaking immigration laws and was allowed bail," the “News of the World” said. MIS files showed that i Flynn’s contacts smuggled Russell onto a liner bound for Italy.

I The newspaper quoted I Flynn’s Hollywood friends as saying the actor named his son “Sean” in honour of Russell, who died while trying to return to Ireland on a voyage from Berlin.

; The “News of the World” ■ said the MIS files “confirm recently released F. 8.1. reports revealing Flynn’s connections with top Nazis," reportedly showing Flynn’s trips to and from Germany and Paris in the company of high-ranking officials before the war broke out. Flynn died in 1959.