28-03-2009, 01:41 PM
Just came across this in my travels today. The article is about 20 years old, Lobster number 2, 1983 by Stephen Dorril. It would be interesting to see what he thinks now.
____________________________________________________
Maria Novotny: From Prague With
Love
Stephen Dorril
In February this year, unnoticed by the press, a funeral took place in a quiet Sussex
village. In attendance were some famous names from London society of the fifties and
sixties, and two men in regulation dark suits from an undisclosed department of the
Security Services. They had been contacts for the deceased, Maria Novotny, who
made headlines in the sixties through her 'relationship' with President John Kennedy,
and her involvement in the Profumo affair.
Novotny's own accounts of the two episodes have tended to be dismissed, and
reasonably so, as they appeared in the sensationalist press. (1) But one man, Michael
Eddowes, took her very seriously indeed, claiming to have spent over $100,000 of his
own money following up leads generated by her story. To Eddowes, Novotny was the
link to a Soviet plot to discredit Western leaders:
"I had discovered that the group in London who had destroyed Profumo
had sent a young woman, Maria Novotny, to destroy the character of
President Kennedy. She was the cousin of President Novotny of
Czechoslovakia. This is fact." (2)
When Eddowes expanded his theory to include the assassination of Kennedy, it took
on a distinctly bizarre look.
Eddowes' book, November 22nd: How They Killed Kennedy (3) suggested that Lee
Harvey Oswald had been replaced by a look-a-like KGB agent when he went to the
Soviet Union. (4) Following this to its logical conclusion, Eddowes reportedly spent
over $10,000 in October 1981 on legal fees and exhumation costs involved in reopening
Oswald's grave. (5) He arranged for a new autopsy with the consent of Marina
Porter (Oswald) to see if the grave contained Oswald or a double. (6) Inevitably such
ideas have meant that Eddowes has been portrayed as an 'assassination loony'. But he
had at one time been a respected solicitor; obtained a Royal Pardon for Timothy Evans
who was mistakenly hanged for the Christie murders; and wrote a best-selling book on
the case, A Man On Your Conscience.
Was Eddowes just muddying the water with disinformation on the assassination, or
had he really uncovered evidence to confirm his theories? Strangely, although central
to his theory on the assassination, Novotny is only briefly mentioned in the
introduction to his book. One would have thought that everything that could be said on
the Prufumo affair had been told, but new evidence, primarily from Nigel West (7) and
Novotny herself, undermines the conclusions of the Denning Report. It also provides
background to, and some justification for Eddowes' line of enquiry; even though in the
end we can dismiss the Eddowes' claims because he misunderstood the role of Stephen
Ward.
This article is also an account of Maria Novotny's own life, which confirms at least a
part of the articles in the sensationalist press. (8) There are no tidy ends to this account
and if it is largely speculative - so be it; for the true story of the Profumo affair has yet
to be revealed. I take it that readers have a basic knowledge of the Profumo affair and
can read between the lines for themselves.
Maria Novotny knew little of her own background: it wasn't until this year that her
husband learned her real name. Maria Stella Novotny was born on the 9th of May
1941 in Prague. Her father was brother to the President of Czechoslovakia, and they
lived in the Royal palace until she was 6 years old, when the Soviet Union moved in.
Because the President supported the Communists, this family tie would explain why
Eddowes thought she had been chosen to destroy Kennedy. But what Eddowes didn't
know was that Maria's father was actively anti-Communist. Although opposed to each
other politically, the brothers remained friends, the President warning Maria's father
that the Soviets were liable to arrest him, and advising him to leave the country.
Instead, he joined the underground, making arrangements for Maria to leave the
country with the family agent, called Rutter.
They escaped in a railway truck hiding under some corn, crossing the border into
Austria. Unfortunately they ended up in the Soviet sector where they were put in a
displaced persons camp.
In 1948 Maria was released, apparently through the efforts of a Mrs Capes, who had
known her father when he was in England, studying at university. How this was
achieved is not known, but Maria was brought to England where she lived as the
daughter of Mrs Capes. When she became a teenager she went into modelling and was
determined to make it into a successful career.
When only 18 she met Horace 'Hod' Dibden (9), then aged 57, at the Black Sheep
Club (10) in Piccadilly, which he helped run. An expert on English antiques and
furniture, he had many friends on the London scene, including Stephen Ward, who he
had known since the war; and, interestingly, Michael Eddowes, who had given up his
solicitor's practice and become the owner of a chain of restaurants. Hod and Eddowes
had known each other for twenty years.
Hod and Maria were married in January 1960. The marriage was conditional on her
being allowed to carry on her own life. She appears to have been a highly intelligent,
very beautiful young girl, determined to get on in the world, hoping to use Hod's
contacts and money to climb the social ladder. In her personal account she claims to
have been a virgin at the time, and, in reality, rather turned off by sexual relations. To
her, sex was a 'game' designed to shock other people: she took her pleasure watching
the reactions of people to situations she had organised. After the honeymoon they were
regulars on the night club scene. One particular party in February 1960, given by an
American millionaire, Huntingdon Hartford, was a turning point.
Among the guests were Stephen Ward and a more 'sinister' man, Harry Alan Towers,
who claimed to be a film producer and owner of a modelling agency. Maria and
Towers didn't meet at the party, but Towers must have recognised her: four days later
a letter arrived suggesting a meeting at Claridges to discuss some possible modelling
work. The letter was actually signed by Tower's mother, Margaret, who Novotny
claims had an extraordinary influence over him, and from whom he took his
instructions. At the meeting Towers was brisk to the point of rudeness. He told her that
he could make her a top television model doing commercials in America. Although
she didn't like Towers, she found it difficult to turn down the contract, which offered
upwards of $50,000 a year.
Over the next days the contract was sorted out and Maria was introduced to some of
Towers' friends, one of whom tried to have sex with her in Paris. Towers, over the
next year, made no sexual advances towards Maria but didn't mind pushing his friends
on her. She signed to Towers' modelling agency and he gave her a large deposit. The
day she left for New York Stephen Ward went to a dinner party with her at which he
made some sketches of her. Maria claimed that Ward and Towers knew each other. To
Eddowes this provided a link between the Kennedy and Profumo episodes. Hod also
thought that Ward and Towers knew each other at this time.
Towers flew ahead a few days earlier and met Maria at what became Kennedy Airport.
Almost immediately they were arguing with each other, and Maria became doubly
suspicious of him when he told her to sign a hotel register as Maria Novotny. Up til
then she had been known as Maria Chapman, Hod's family name. Towers insisted that
while she was in America she should use Novotny. What else, she thought, did Towers
know of her background?
At first her modelling career went well and they went to the usual round of parties. But
it seems that modelling offers were the result of her sleeping with television producers.
After two weeks Towers arranged a lunch for her with Peter Lawford, the brother-inlaw
of President John Kennedy. Towers claimed that it would do her modelling career
good if she got to know Kennedy. Maria didn't see the connection at the time; it was
only later that she realised that Towers had engineered the meeting for other purposes.
On reflection, it spelt blackmail to Maria and Eddowes.
Unknown to her at the time she was scheduled to be the replacement for Simone
McQueen, a TV weather forecaster, who had just finished with Kennedy. Lawford
took her to parties and she briefly met Kennedy at one and arranged to meet him
again. They were more intimate at a party where the singer, Vic Damone, was the
host. She was introduced to Kennedy and almost immediately shown into a bedroom
where she went to bed with him. They weren't gone very long before there was a
commotion in the main room. Damone's Asian girlfriend had made an unsuccessful
suicide attempt and had been found in the bathroom with her wrists slashed. The
apartment quickly emptied, Kennedy disappearing with a bodyguard and his
associates.
The incident was hushed up. The quick departure may have had something to do with
the fact that, according to Maria, one of J. Edgar Hoover' s men was known to attend
these parties. Word would have quickly reached Hoover who would have no doubt
added it to his files on the Kennedy brothers.
Maria continued to see Kennedy and his brother, Robert, though I doubt that there is
much truth in the published accounts of her relationship with Robert. Her own account
rarely mentions him - or, for that matter, the sensational claims of her involvement
with UN officials. The latter appears to have involved Towers' other girls.
At the end of the year Hod arrived in New York to buy antiques. At this time Maria
had had enough of Towers. Her modelling career was nowhere in sight. She decided to
leave Towers and move into Hod's apartment near the UN building. Towers was
extremely angry and determined to make her stay in his flat. But as he was commuting
between London and New York at this time, he had little real control over her. She
moved in with Hod.
During this period when Towers would later be accused of running a vice-ring at the
UN building, he was in constant touch with his mother - and one other person, Leslie
Chateris.
This was presumably an innocent relationship since Towers said he wanted to buy the
TV rights to The Saint. But Towers did get Maria to take a package to Chateris in Los
Angeles. To Maria, Tower's business seemed to have little to do with television or
films.
Shortly after the disagreement Maria returned to his luxurious Manhattan apartment to
pick up the rest of her clothes. Towers was surprisingly good-natured, apologising for
his previous loss of temper, saying he would make it up to her. That night he said she
could use his apartment for a night with a boyfriend. When he arrived they went into a
bedroom, at which point he tried to persuade her to accept $100 for sexual relations.
Eventually, after some persuasion, she accepted. He then showed her his badge and
told her she was under arrest. He left the room fetching in other officers who were
lining the corridor.
Searching the apartment they found Towers hiding, shaking under some suitcases in a
lobby. Maria was taken to a police station and interrogated for four hours, going
through three different agencies. Finally she was released on bail.
At her apartment the next day plain clothed policemen interviewed her and at FBI
headquarters she was shown pictures of many girls and asked if she knew them. It was
clear that the FBI wanted Towers. Several charges were to be made against him and
they wanted her to testify against him. But before they could, Towers escaped from
America after bail, reputedly a very large sum, had been put up.
Towers was accused of running a vice-ring involving UN officials. Hod and Maria
were shown immigration files on Towers which, according to Hod, showed Towers'
links with Eastern Europe. When Eddowes went to New York he met John Malone,
head of the New York FBI, and they apparently had three two hour interviews.
Eddowes was shown FBI, Immigration, and, possibly, CIA files on Towers and
Novotny. These proved to Eddowes satisfaction that Towers was working for the
Soviets; that Novotny had been used to get close to Kennedy for possible blackmail -
probably because of her Czech background. (For some reason Novotny believed that
photos existed of her love making sessions taken from hidden cameras in the UN
building.)
It was reported that on leaving America Towers went to Prague, Moscow, and Peking,
stopping for a time in southern Ireland before residing in Canada. (11) Novotny was
held as a material witness and charged with being a wayward minor. According to
Hod, it was rumoured at the time that Kennedy himself had intervened to stop the
charges.
By now Novotny was determined to leave America: Towers was hardly likely to
return. She had in her own words, become a political pawn, with the State police, FBI
and Immigration officials claiming jurisdiction over her. She escaped by buying a
boarding ticket for the Queen Mary and staying on board when it sailed. Rather
implausibly an officer let her stay on board without saying anything when she told him
she had lost her passport. A rumour reached the papers that the CIA had helped her
escape. Hod met her off the boat in England having flown ahead.
One of the first people she met in London, around April 1961, was Stephen Ward, who
invited her to a reception at the Soviet Embassy. Ward pestered her daily to meet the
Soviet diplomat Eugene Ivanov, but she refused. She had had enough problems in
New York, and a solicitor friend (possibly Eddowes) warned her not to get involved
with political figures. Hod went in her place to the Embassy reception (with Gilbert
Harding) where he met Ivanov. Ward didn't give up though. After Ivanov he switched
to Profumo, introducing Maria as 'the girl who made an impact on the Kennedy clan'.
Unknown to her, he was also playing up her relationship with the Czech President.
These attempts to link Novotny to Profumo and Ivanov (which she later saw as
deliberate) took place before the famous Keeler meeting, suggesting at the very least,
that the Denning report (12) was less than adequate.
She was eventually tricked into seeing Ivanov at a party at Cliveden. Ward introduced
her to a surprise guest and quickly left the room. The guest was Ivanov. What came
next was a shock because Ivanov knew details of her background and told her he could
arrange for her to visit Czechoslovakia to see relatives. He painted a rosy picture of
life in the country and of the Communist Party. She declined his offers and after some
further efforts at persuasion she left the room to join the others. She learned later that
he was particularly interested in her experiences in America.
Behind the sexual affairs and personal intrigues of Ward, Profumo and Ivanov were
the British Security Services; and further back, and probably not apparent to the
participants, was the wider intelligence battle between East and West. It is worth going
into some detail on this area as it provides clues to Novotny's true position.(13)
In April 1961 the West's most important Soviet spy, Oleg Penkovsky, arrived in
London on a Trade Mission, staying until May 6th. The material he gave to MI6 and
CIA representatives was to prove vital to resolving the Cuban missile crisis: Kennedy
would base his final decisions on the Penkovsky material. (14) During this particular
visit he was debriefed at an all-night session during which he provided details on the
KGB and GRU men at the Soviet Embassy in London. Amongst them was Ivanov
whom he had known as a student. It is also worth noting that he had told MI6 that
there was a traitor in the top ranks of MI5. Although no MI5 men took part in the
debriefings of Penkovsky, they did play a leading role in the Profumo/Ivanov episode
based on details he provided.
Ivanov's cover for his intelligence role was that of Naval Attache. But he was no runof-
the-mill intelligence officer. His father-in-law was Alexander Gorkin, Chairman of
the Soviet Supreme Court. It is also believed that Ivanov played a prominent role in
Nasser's coup in Egypt. According to Nigel West (15) he had been identified by 'D'
branch as an intelligence officer when he first arrived in London on the 27th March
1960. Penkovsky described him as a man who liked women and a good party,
suggesting that he might be a profitable target. So the watchers began trailing him.
Here West's revisionist account starts to break down. It seems incredible that Ivanov
was able to meet so many celebrities without MI5 keeping some tabs on him if they
knew he was a spy. It is claimed that in June 1961 Ivanov led them to a house at 17
Wimpole Mews. By checking the electoral roll they found it was the home of Stephen
Ward, who they contacted on June 8th. But that is virtually impossible because Ward
didn't move into the flat until June 1st (16), which would have given him no time to be
put on the register. Also according to MI5, on West's account, Ward was unknown to
Registry. But Lee Tracey (17) an MI6 contract employee working at the Daily Mirror
on organised vice, has revealed that he was assigned by MI6 to compile a profile on
Stephen Ward six years before the scandal broke. Nothing ever appeared in the paper
but a full report went to MI6 who hoped that some juicy target might be sexually
compromised inside the Ward circle. (Which suggests either MI5 and MI6 didn't
exchange material or someone is lying - or both.) MI5 made some discreet enquiries of
Ward which revealed that he had many important people as friends, including the third
Viscount Astor, who was known to MI5. Novotny has said that she saw reports which
showed that Bill Astor was controlling Ward, and that her meeting at Cliveden with
Ivanov had been arranged by Astor.
In one of those intriguing coincidences, Astor played a role in Ivanov's attempts to
intervene in the Cuban Missile Crisis. On the Thursday evening of the Cuba week,
Astor suggested Ivanov should meet 'Boofy' Gore, the Earl of Arran. At the time it
seemed to be an eccentric choice for behind - the - scenes diplomacy. But in reality it
was spot on. For besides having easy access to Lord Home, then the Foreign
Secretary, he was the first cousin of Sir David Ormsby-Gore the British Ambassador
to America. Gore was a close friend of Kennedy - so intimately tied up in the decision
making around the missile crisis (assuring Kennedy of the value of the Penkovsky
material) that he was invited to the President's nuclear shelter if things went bad. (18)
It was the Missile Crisis that persuaded Eddowes that Khrushchev was behind the
assassination of JFK.
It is possible that MI5 have said they used the electoral register to trace Ward to
protect the real source. It is said that Ward was introduced to Ivanov by (Sir) Colin
Coote, editor of the Daily Telegraph, in January 1961. There are conflicting stories
about the origins of this meeting, but it has something to do with Ward doing sketches
of Soviet diplomats. He did sketches of many famous people though he was only an
average artist. (19) Coote had contacts in the Soviet Embassy and, interestingly, he
was a golfing friend of the Director of MI5, Sir Roger Hollis. (20) Coote arranged a
meeting at the Garrick Club. Accompanying Ward to this lunch was David Floyd, the
Telegraph's correspondent on Soviet Affairs. Floyd was on the books of the IRD. (2I)
IRD, run by the Foreign Office, was a Cold War propaganda outfit which had a close
relationship with MI6; and, especially with section IX which dealt with the Soviet
Union. Was the meeting set up by the intelligence services or did Floyd supply a
report to section IX?
Officially Ward was employed by MI5 on June 8th 1961 to help in the entrapment of
Ivanov, hopefully to compromise him with the help of his girls. Ward's friends didn't
know this. On the contrary many, including Hod and Maria, believed that he could be
working for the Soviets. Hod was astonished when told of Ward's real role. He still
believes Ward was murdered to keep him quiet. "It wasn't in his character to commit
suicide."
In London Hod and Maria set up dinner parties (22) at which many famous people
attended. About half of these parties appear to have included sexual games afterwards.
Ward was a frequent guest but as far as is known he never actually had sexual
relations with the girls. It was at one of these dinner parties that the famous Ministerin-
the-mask incident occurred; though in reality it was very different to the accounts of
Keeler and Rice-Davies. (They, incidentally, never met Novotny.) Hod had met Keeler
one night when Profumo picked her up at Ward's flat. According to Hod, Mandy Rice-
Davies learned of the mask incident from Ward when he returned to their flat that
night. Maria says:
"I lied to Lord Denning, but not about a politician. My lies were to
protect someone from ruin and a criminal charge. A Member of
Parliament was present, William Rees-Davies, MP for Thanet, but he was
not in the disguise."
On December 14th 1962 Christine Keeler ran into an old friend - Michael Eddowes -
and, according to him, the whole story of her involvement with Profumo and Ivanov
came out. This included Ivanov's request that Keeler ask Profumo when the allies were
going to let West Germany have nuclear warheads. Eddowes says he made out a 6-
page report which eventually reached the Security Services. Nothing came of it
because MI5 believed that Profumo had told the Prime Minister of this twin
relationship, while Profumo assumed MI5 had told him. It wasn't until Eddowes wrote
to Macmillan on June 13th that the affair was finally exposed. On Friday June 14th he
released the full text of the letter to the Evening Standard and the media scramble
began. Ward had been trying to get Novotny to meet Ivanov up until his departure. He
left shortly after the Edgecombe shooting incident at Wimpole Mews. But what
happened to Ivanov I haven't discovered. Officially he was recalled to Moscow,
although Mandy Rice-Davies (who is not reliable) recounts a different tale. In 1977
two men interviewed her about the Profumo Affair in Israel, where she lived for a
time. At first they claimed to be journalists from Time magazine; then private
investigators. Eventually one of them said " I was with the CIA for 25 years. I spent a
lot of time in London - I was involved in the George Raft affair at the Colony Club."
When she mentioned Ivanov he said "We took him...we... the CIA. We couldn't let
him go. We didn't know what he had and what he didn't have and we didn't want to
take any chances. Let's say he was an involuntary defector." (23)
It would be around this time that Eddowes started to put together the Novotny
connection, eventually going to New York at the invitation of the Journal - American,
to follow up leads. The one piece of information which he said he was after, could be
details of the background of Harry Towers, which were given to him by 'contacts'.
Eddowes did attempt to write a book with Maria Novotny on this whole affair and in
the late sixties they were three quarters of the way through it when strange things
started to happen. Eddowes rang Hod one day from his house telling him that two men
had broken into his flat, beating him badly, leaving him bleeding on his bed. They
warned him to stay away from the subject. The day before Maria had narrowly
escaped a serious accident in her car when the steering failed. Bolts in the steering
column had been cut. Eddowes, by this time an old man, was scared and burned the
manuscript, and would pursue the matter no further. This would explain the brevity of
the Novotny sections in his books on the Kennedy assassination.
Maria doesn't appear to have changed her lifestyle very much in the later sixties. She
did try to become a novelist, writing many books. But only one, a Harold Robbins type
version of her own life, got published. She also had a regular column in the magazine
Club International for a time, exploiting incidents from her own life.
It was whilst researching a book, apparently on brothels, around 1970, that she came
into contact with British Intelligence. At a brothel she found that it was a set-up, with
two-way mirrors and hidden microphones, used by the Security Services to
compromise clients. She was invited to help them with similar work and seems to have
been employed as a high-class companion/whore to people of interest to the services.
Particular cases involved compromising the head of a Caribbean island which the
Foreign Office hoped to stop going independent. It did little good: it went independent
the following year. Cameras had been hidden in a bedroom at Brown's Hotel when he
came across for a diplomatic meeting.
In 1978 (24) she was involved in the break-up of a massive fraud. She had been put
onto the activities of Taylor and Ash by Billy Hill, the former London underworld
boss, who thought there was the making of another Kray-type gang, whose brutality
went against the old-time ideals. She was asked to become involved with Taylor, and
was friendly with him for two years. In court Taylor claimed:
"I have been set up by Henrietta Chapman, also known as Maria
Novotny, who is working for British intelligence."
The judge told him to sit down and stop being silly. Novotny was outside, waiting to
give evidence against him, but following this outburst was advised not to, since she
might be used again. A few days later on his way home from court, Taylor collapsed at
Waterloo Station. He died later in hospital. Officially a heart attack, it has been
suggested by some that he was killed with a poisoned umbrella.
Following this case she was asked by the Chief Constable of Kent to help with
enquiries into corruption in Scotland Yard. She became very friendly with top
detectives and reported direct to the Chief Constable. It is known that she made visits
to Southern Ireland and Ulster, apparently involved in intelligence operations. She also
arranged parties in Europe for Common Market MPs and diplomats. Whether this or
many of the other episodes were actually done on behalf of British Intelligence is not
known. (25)
Maria Stella Novotny died on the 20th February 1983. She had had a heavy cold
during the day and ate little. Taking some food later she died choking on a milk
pudding. Shortly after her death her house was burgled and all her files and large dayto-
day diaries from the early sixties to the seventies were stolen. Recently Hod claims
to have given her address books to the members of an undisclosed Secret Service
department.
Unfortunately I have been unable to track down Eddowes - if he is still alive. One can
see now from where he received his basic ideas. A Czech girl with supposed
Communist background, used by a group of men also with alleged Communist links
(Towers and Ward), controlled by a Soviet intelligence agent (Ivanov), who claimed to
have direct access to Khrushchev. All this was linked in his mind through the Cuban
Missile Crisis, to the assassination of JFK. Where the evidence for that link is no one
knows. Obviously, though, it falls down with the recent revelation that Ward worked
for British Intelligence. But that raises a whole load of other questions.....
Notes
1. News of The World (1961), Saturday Titbits (1972), The Globe (US) 1980. She
has written a book - Kings Road (1977) - which deals with this period but it is a
highly fictionalised account.
2. Radio Interview: Chicago WGN 1977
3. Known in the USA as The Oswald File (NY 1978). He has also personally
published Khrushchev Killed Kennedy (1975). Does anyone have a copy?
4. Although it would be stretching the evidence to suggest Oswald had been
replaced by a double, there are some strange aspects to his trip to the Soviet
Union. His height, recorded on various official documents, varies quite
considerably, and there are marked differences between photos of Oswald in
the USSR and in the USA. (See The Many Faces of Lee Harvey Oswald - Jack
White US 1979)
5. A large section of articles dealing with the exhumation are in The Continuing
Enquiry Vol. V1 No 3 October 1981.
6. The new autopsy appeared to answer all the doubts that it was Oswald in the
grave. But, incredibly, this has now come into question. The skull shows no
signs of the original 1963 autopsy. Switched heads? It's all getting too crazy!
7. MI5 1945-72: A Matter of Trust Chapter 6. West's books are badly written.
New material comes in small doses - basically to tease whilst the real 'game' is
a continuing battle of sources, occasionally played over the dead body of Roger
Hollis. It's a battle of the right wings. Chapman Pincher (Their Trade is
Treachery NEL 1982), against aspiring Tory, Rupert Allason. ('West'). There
are political and ideological motives to 'West's' books contrary to what some
journalists believe. Notice how his books are so well received by the media
whilst better and more important books - Verrier/Bloch and Fitzgerald/Faligot -
suffer something like an unofficial D Notice. Is there any truth to the rumour
that the recently arrested 'mole' in MI5 is one of 'West's' sources?
8. This account is taken from interviews with her husband and access to her own
hand-written journal, letters etc.
9. There was nothing unusual in this relationship for Hod. In the late 1940s he
had taken the 16 year old Patsy Morgan, daughter of a Coventry grocer, and
given her the Pygmalion treatment. Rather the same approach as Stephen
Ward. (See The Evil Firm: The Rise and Fall of the Brothers Kray - Brian
McConnell, London 1969, p34)
10.Hod had helped to run Esmeralda's Barn, a night-club in Knightsbridge.
Originally he designed it for society girl Esmeralda. In another bizarre incident
on the night of its opening, she was found dead, accidentally gassed, on her bed
with her lesbian lover. Patsy Morgan-Dibden was the main attraction of the
club, so when she ran away from Hod to Europe, he gave it up. Protection for
the club was provided by Billy Hill who ran the London underworld with his
rival, Jack Spot. Hod returned to the business in the late 1950s with the Black
Sheep Club. Esmeralda's Barn was eventually owned by the Kray twins who
purchased it on the advice of Peter Rachman. (The Profession of Violence,
John Pearson, London 1973). A good introduction to this whole
Ward/Rachman/Criminal underworld nexus is Rachman, Shirley Green,
London 1981. The media created 'Rachmanism' - a device designed to ease
attention away from the real crooks, and a godsend to Labour's election hopes
at the time.
11.Towers decided to return to the States in 1980 to face charges of bail jumping
and contempt of court. As part of the deal, an address book which reportedly
contains the names of every politician for whom he allegedly procured call
girls will forever remain sealed away. Mary De Bourgon, Assistant D.A.: "It
will never be opened in a court of law." (The Globe (US) December 9th 1980).
Novotny was friendly with other politicians and lawyers.
"Their names didn't mean all that much then but now many of
them are big shots, in very high places."
Obviously association with one of Towers' girls would have people worried,
especially so when she adds:
"I kept a diary of all my appointments in the UN building ...I
understand the diary is now in the hands of the CIA."
12.Lord Denning's Report (HMSO 1963). Novotny was interviewed by Denning
but she says the report was already written. He refused to accept her
allegations, seemingly turned off by the details of the sexual games.
13.Kennedy's other 'relationships' certainly weren't ordinary and could explain
why Novotny's could be important. In 1964, a year after the assassination,
Mary Meyer [Pinchot], an intimate friend of JFK'S was mysteriously shot to
death. Shortly after, her personal diaries were taken from her home by James
Angleton (at the time head of CIA's Counter Intelligence Branch), a friend of
the Meyer family. Angleton destroyed the diary, and though involved in the
CIA's investigation of the assassination, has refused to comment: on the Meyer
episode. (See Washington Post February 23rd 1976. Coincidence or
Conspiracy Bernard Fensterwald (US 1977)
Judith Exner had been introduced to JFK by friend Frank Sinatra, and had an
affair with him through 1961 and '62. She also knew Sam Giancana and John
Roselli intimately, both of whom were involved in the CIA/Mafia plots against
Castro. (And both of whom were murdered just before going to testify before
the House Select Committee on Assassinations.) It has been suggested that
Giancana used his close friend Sinatra to place a girl near the President,
perhaps to blackmail him.
In another strange twist, Robert Maheu, Howard Hughes' man, who had also
been involved in the CIA/Mafia plots, had been involved in a highly
questionable CIA operation. "Taxpayers monies were spent to provide Heads
of State with female companions and to pay people with questionable
reputations to make pornographic movies for blackmail (against Heads of
State)."
See final Report of the House Select Committee on Intelligence: Village Voice
Feb l6th 1976 page 72.
On Exner see My Story Judith Exner (NY 1977).
And, of course, there was Marilyn Monroe, who Novotny claimed to have met
a few times when MM was having an affair with both Kennedy brothers. It has
been claimed that she died in mysterious circumstances and had knowledge of
Mafia and Teamster affairs, contained (again) in diaries. See: Who Killed
Marilyn, and Did The Kennedy's Know, Tony Sciacca (NY 1976): Marilyn
Monroe S. Periglio (Seville, 1982): and, for this whole Maheu/Mafia/
CIA/Kennedy's/Monroe mess, best of all is Jim Hougan's Spooks (London
1979).
14.Through The Looking Glass Anthony Verrier (London 1983) Chapter 6.
15.West, ibid page 17: also How MI5 Sacrificed Stephen Ward (Sunday Times
28/11/82)
16.Scandal '63: A Study of The Profumo Affair Clive Irving et al (London 1963) p
13
17.Secrets That Won't Be Told, Duncan Campbell (New Statesman 20th February
1981)
18.Verrier ibid.
19.Ward told Hod that he picked up girls in coffee bars, doing quick sketches of
them to introduce himself. Ward said this was how he met Keeler in a cafe in
Staines, Middlesex, and that he (Ward) was instrumental in obtaining a job for
her at Murray's Club, contrary to published stories.
20.West ibid p145
21.See The Ministry of Truth, in Leveller No 64 (1981) and British Intelligence
and Covert Action Bloch/Fitzgerald (London 1983) p 91.
22.Among those attending the Novotny parties were Walter Flack, Charles Clore's
partner; Bill Astor; Sir William Emirs Williams, the Secretary General of the
Arts Council; Sheila Scott; Nicholas Egon; Lord Asquith; Bobby Moore;
Eustace Chesser; Douglas Fairbanks Jnr; Felix Topolski; Simon Harcourt-
Smith; Lord Belper and many others.
23.Mandy Mandy Rice-Davies with Sheila Flack (London, 1980) p123. She
reveals that she knew next to nothing - though perhaps others thought she did.
She claims that she was refused a visa to the USA, and when in 1974 she tried
to see her (she claims CIA) files they had disappeared (pl21). She claims she
was interviewed by MI6 at Century House - unusually, since it is usually left to
Special Branch to sort out security cases.
24.Times 1978: April 4/5/25; May 6/12/26; June 10/14/17/23
25.Times May 6th 1978
____________________________________________________
Maria Novotny: From Prague With
Love
Stephen Dorril
In February this year, unnoticed by the press, a funeral took place in a quiet Sussex
village. In attendance were some famous names from London society of the fifties and
sixties, and two men in regulation dark suits from an undisclosed department of the
Security Services. They had been contacts for the deceased, Maria Novotny, who
made headlines in the sixties through her 'relationship' with President John Kennedy,
and her involvement in the Profumo affair.
Novotny's own accounts of the two episodes have tended to be dismissed, and
reasonably so, as they appeared in the sensationalist press. (1) But one man, Michael
Eddowes, took her very seriously indeed, claiming to have spent over $100,000 of his
own money following up leads generated by her story. To Eddowes, Novotny was the
link to a Soviet plot to discredit Western leaders:
"I had discovered that the group in London who had destroyed Profumo
had sent a young woman, Maria Novotny, to destroy the character of
President Kennedy. She was the cousin of President Novotny of
Czechoslovakia. This is fact." (2)
When Eddowes expanded his theory to include the assassination of Kennedy, it took
on a distinctly bizarre look.
Eddowes' book, November 22nd: How They Killed Kennedy (3) suggested that Lee
Harvey Oswald had been replaced by a look-a-like KGB agent when he went to the
Soviet Union. (4) Following this to its logical conclusion, Eddowes reportedly spent
over $10,000 in October 1981 on legal fees and exhumation costs involved in reopening
Oswald's grave. (5) He arranged for a new autopsy with the consent of Marina
Porter (Oswald) to see if the grave contained Oswald or a double. (6) Inevitably such
ideas have meant that Eddowes has been portrayed as an 'assassination loony'. But he
had at one time been a respected solicitor; obtained a Royal Pardon for Timothy Evans
who was mistakenly hanged for the Christie murders; and wrote a best-selling book on
the case, A Man On Your Conscience.
Was Eddowes just muddying the water with disinformation on the assassination, or
had he really uncovered evidence to confirm his theories? Strangely, although central
to his theory on the assassination, Novotny is only briefly mentioned in the
introduction to his book. One would have thought that everything that could be said on
the Prufumo affair had been told, but new evidence, primarily from Nigel West (7) and
Novotny herself, undermines the conclusions of the Denning Report. It also provides
background to, and some justification for Eddowes' line of enquiry; even though in the
end we can dismiss the Eddowes' claims because he misunderstood the role of Stephen
Ward.
This article is also an account of Maria Novotny's own life, which confirms at least a
part of the articles in the sensationalist press. (8) There are no tidy ends to this account
and if it is largely speculative - so be it; for the true story of the Profumo affair has yet
to be revealed. I take it that readers have a basic knowledge of the Profumo affair and
can read between the lines for themselves.
Maria Novotny knew little of her own background: it wasn't until this year that her
husband learned her real name. Maria Stella Novotny was born on the 9th of May
1941 in Prague. Her father was brother to the President of Czechoslovakia, and they
lived in the Royal palace until she was 6 years old, when the Soviet Union moved in.
Because the President supported the Communists, this family tie would explain why
Eddowes thought she had been chosen to destroy Kennedy. But what Eddowes didn't
know was that Maria's father was actively anti-Communist. Although opposed to each
other politically, the brothers remained friends, the President warning Maria's father
that the Soviets were liable to arrest him, and advising him to leave the country.
Instead, he joined the underground, making arrangements for Maria to leave the
country with the family agent, called Rutter.
They escaped in a railway truck hiding under some corn, crossing the border into
Austria. Unfortunately they ended up in the Soviet sector where they were put in a
displaced persons camp.
In 1948 Maria was released, apparently through the efforts of a Mrs Capes, who had
known her father when he was in England, studying at university. How this was
achieved is not known, but Maria was brought to England where she lived as the
daughter of Mrs Capes. When she became a teenager she went into modelling and was
determined to make it into a successful career.
When only 18 she met Horace 'Hod' Dibden (9), then aged 57, at the Black Sheep
Club (10) in Piccadilly, which he helped run. An expert on English antiques and
furniture, he had many friends on the London scene, including Stephen Ward, who he
had known since the war; and, interestingly, Michael Eddowes, who had given up his
solicitor's practice and become the owner of a chain of restaurants. Hod and Eddowes
had known each other for twenty years.
Hod and Maria were married in January 1960. The marriage was conditional on her
being allowed to carry on her own life. She appears to have been a highly intelligent,
very beautiful young girl, determined to get on in the world, hoping to use Hod's
contacts and money to climb the social ladder. In her personal account she claims to
have been a virgin at the time, and, in reality, rather turned off by sexual relations. To
her, sex was a 'game' designed to shock other people: she took her pleasure watching
the reactions of people to situations she had organised. After the honeymoon they were
regulars on the night club scene. One particular party in February 1960, given by an
American millionaire, Huntingdon Hartford, was a turning point.
Among the guests were Stephen Ward and a more 'sinister' man, Harry Alan Towers,
who claimed to be a film producer and owner of a modelling agency. Maria and
Towers didn't meet at the party, but Towers must have recognised her: four days later
a letter arrived suggesting a meeting at Claridges to discuss some possible modelling
work. The letter was actually signed by Tower's mother, Margaret, who Novotny
claims had an extraordinary influence over him, and from whom he took his
instructions. At the meeting Towers was brisk to the point of rudeness. He told her that
he could make her a top television model doing commercials in America. Although
she didn't like Towers, she found it difficult to turn down the contract, which offered
upwards of $50,000 a year.
Over the next days the contract was sorted out and Maria was introduced to some of
Towers' friends, one of whom tried to have sex with her in Paris. Towers, over the
next year, made no sexual advances towards Maria but didn't mind pushing his friends
on her. She signed to Towers' modelling agency and he gave her a large deposit. The
day she left for New York Stephen Ward went to a dinner party with her at which he
made some sketches of her. Maria claimed that Ward and Towers knew each other. To
Eddowes this provided a link between the Kennedy and Profumo episodes. Hod also
thought that Ward and Towers knew each other at this time.
Towers flew ahead a few days earlier and met Maria at what became Kennedy Airport.
Almost immediately they were arguing with each other, and Maria became doubly
suspicious of him when he told her to sign a hotel register as Maria Novotny. Up til
then she had been known as Maria Chapman, Hod's family name. Towers insisted that
while she was in America she should use Novotny. What else, she thought, did Towers
know of her background?
At first her modelling career went well and they went to the usual round of parties. But
it seems that modelling offers were the result of her sleeping with television producers.
After two weeks Towers arranged a lunch for her with Peter Lawford, the brother-inlaw
of President John Kennedy. Towers claimed that it would do her modelling career
good if she got to know Kennedy. Maria didn't see the connection at the time; it was
only later that she realised that Towers had engineered the meeting for other purposes.
On reflection, it spelt blackmail to Maria and Eddowes.
Unknown to her at the time she was scheduled to be the replacement for Simone
McQueen, a TV weather forecaster, who had just finished with Kennedy. Lawford
took her to parties and she briefly met Kennedy at one and arranged to meet him
again. They were more intimate at a party where the singer, Vic Damone, was the
host. She was introduced to Kennedy and almost immediately shown into a bedroom
where she went to bed with him. They weren't gone very long before there was a
commotion in the main room. Damone's Asian girlfriend had made an unsuccessful
suicide attempt and had been found in the bathroom with her wrists slashed. The
apartment quickly emptied, Kennedy disappearing with a bodyguard and his
associates.
The incident was hushed up. The quick departure may have had something to do with
the fact that, according to Maria, one of J. Edgar Hoover' s men was known to attend
these parties. Word would have quickly reached Hoover who would have no doubt
added it to his files on the Kennedy brothers.
Maria continued to see Kennedy and his brother, Robert, though I doubt that there is
much truth in the published accounts of her relationship with Robert. Her own account
rarely mentions him - or, for that matter, the sensational claims of her involvement
with UN officials. The latter appears to have involved Towers' other girls.
At the end of the year Hod arrived in New York to buy antiques. At this time Maria
had had enough of Towers. Her modelling career was nowhere in sight. She decided to
leave Towers and move into Hod's apartment near the UN building. Towers was
extremely angry and determined to make her stay in his flat. But as he was commuting
between London and New York at this time, he had little real control over her. She
moved in with Hod.
During this period when Towers would later be accused of running a vice-ring at the
UN building, he was in constant touch with his mother - and one other person, Leslie
Chateris.
This was presumably an innocent relationship since Towers said he wanted to buy the
TV rights to The Saint. But Towers did get Maria to take a package to Chateris in Los
Angeles. To Maria, Tower's business seemed to have little to do with television or
films.
Shortly after the disagreement Maria returned to his luxurious Manhattan apartment to
pick up the rest of her clothes. Towers was surprisingly good-natured, apologising for
his previous loss of temper, saying he would make it up to her. That night he said she
could use his apartment for a night with a boyfriend. When he arrived they went into a
bedroom, at which point he tried to persuade her to accept $100 for sexual relations.
Eventually, after some persuasion, she accepted. He then showed her his badge and
told her she was under arrest. He left the room fetching in other officers who were
lining the corridor.
Searching the apartment they found Towers hiding, shaking under some suitcases in a
lobby. Maria was taken to a police station and interrogated for four hours, going
through three different agencies. Finally she was released on bail.
At her apartment the next day plain clothed policemen interviewed her and at FBI
headquarters she was shown pictures of many girls and asked if she knew them. It was
clear that the FBI wanted Towers. Several charges were to be made against him and
they wanted her to testify against him. But before they could, Towers escaped from
America after bail, reputedly a very large sum, had been put up.
Towers was accused of running a vice-ring involving UN officials. Hod and Maria
were shown immigration files on Towers which, according to Hod, showed Towers'
links with Eastern Europe. When Eddowes went to New York he met John Malone,
head of the New York FBI, and they apparently had three two hour interviews.
Eddowes was shown FBI, Immigration, and, possibly, CIA files on Towers and
Novotny. These proved to Eddowes satisfaction that Towers was working for the
Soviets; that Novotny had been used to get close to Kennedy for possible blackmail -
probably because of her Czech background. (For some reason Novotny believed that
photos existed of her love making sessions taken from hidden cameras in the UN
building.)
It was reported that on leaving America Towers went to Prague, Moscow, and Peking,
stopping for a time in southern Ireland before residing in Canada. (11) Novotny was
held as a material witness and charged with being a wayward minor. According to
Hod, it was rumoured at the time that Kennedy himself had intervened to stop the
charges.
By now Novotny was determined to leave America: Towers was hardly likely to
return. She had in her own words, become a political pawn, with the State police, FBI
and Immigration officials claiming jurisdiction over her. She escaped by buying a
boarding ticket for the Queen Mary and staying on board when it sailed. Rather
implausibly an officer let her stay on board without saying anything when she told him
she had lost her passport. A rumour reached the papers that the CIA had helped her
escape. Hod met her off the boat in England having flown ahead.
One of the first people she met in London, around April 1961, was Stephen Ward, who
invited her to a reception at the Soviet Embassy. Ward pestered her daily to meet the
Soviet diplomat Eugene Ivanov, but she refused. She had had enough problems in
New York, and a solicitor friend (possibly Eddowes) warned her not to get involved
with political figures. Hod went in her place to the Embassy reception (with Gilbert
Harding) where he met Ivanov. Ward didn't give up though. After Ivanov he switched
to Profumo, introducing Maria as 'the girl who made an impact on the Kennedy clan'.
Unknown to her, he was also playing up her relationship with the Czech President.
These attempts to link Novotny to Profumo and Ivanov (which she later saw as
deliberate) took place before the famous Keeler meeting, suggesting at the very least,
that the Denning report (12) was less than adequate.
She was eventually tricked into seeing Ivanov at a party at Cliveden. Ward introduced
her to a surprise guest and quickly left the room. The guest was Ivanov. What came
next was a shock because Ivanov knew details of her background and told her he could
arrange for her to visit Czechoslovakia to see relatives. He painted a rosy picture of
life in the country and of the Communist Party. She declined his offers and after some
further efforts at persuasion she left the room to join the others. She learned later that
he was particularly interested in her experiences in America.
Behind the sexual affairs and personal intrigues of Ward, Profumo and Ivanov were
the British Security Services; and further back, and probably not apparent to the
participants, was the wider intelligence battle between East and West. It is worth going
into some detail on this area as it provides clues to Novotny's true position.(13)
In April 1961 the West's most important Soviet spy, Oleg Penkovsky, arrived in
London on a Trade Mission, staying until May 6th. The material he gave to MI6 and
CIA representatives was to prove vital to resolving the Cuban missile crisis: Kennedy
would base his final decisions on the Penkovsky material. (14) During this particular
visit he was debriefed at an all-night session during which he provided details on the
KGB and GRU men at the Soviet Embassy in London. Amongst them was Ivanov
whom he had known as a student. It is also worth noting that he had told MI6 that
there was a traitor in the top ranks of MI5. Although no MI5 men took part in the
debriefings of Penkovsky, they did play a leading role in the Profumo/Ivanov episode
based on details he provided.
Ivanov's cover for his intelligence role was that of Naval Attache. But he was no runof-
the-mill intelligence officer. His father-in-law was Alexander Gorkin, Chairman of
the Soviet Supreme Court. It is also believed that Ivanov played a prominent role in
Nasser's coup in Egypt. According to Nigel West (15) he had been identified by 'D'
branch as an intelligence officer when he first arrived in London on the 27th March
1960. Penkovsky described him as a man who liked women and a good party,
suggesting that he might be a profitable target. So the watchers began trailing him.
Here West's revisionist account starts to break down. It seems incredible that Ivanov
was able to meet so many celebrities without MI5 keeping some tabs on him if they
knew he was a spy. It is claimed that in June 1961 Ivanov led them to a house at 17
Wimpole Mews. By checking the electoral roll they found it was the home of Stephen
Ward, who they contacted on June 8th. But that is virtually impossible because Ward
didn't move into the flat until June 1st (16), which would have given him no time to be
put on the register. Also according to MI5, on West's account, Ward was unknown to
Registry. But Lee Tracey (17) an MI6 contract employee working at the Daily Mirror
on organised vice, has revealed that he was assigned by MI6 to compile a profile on
Stephen Ward six years before the scandal broke. Nothing ever appeared in the paper
but a full report went to MI6 who hoped that some juicy target might be sexually
compromised inside the Ward circle. (Which suggests either MI5 and MI6 didn't
exchange material or someone is lying - or both.) MI5 made some discreet enquiries of
Ward which revealed that he had many important people as friends, including the third
Viscount Astor, who was known to MI5. Novotny has said that she saw reports which
showed that Bill Astor was controlling Ward, and that her meeting at Cliveden with
Ivanov had been arranged by Astor.
In one of those intriguing coincidences, Astor played a role in Ivanov's attempts to
intervene in the Cuban Missile Crisis. On the Thursday evening of the Cuba week,
Astor suggested Ivanov should meet 'Boofy' Gore, the Earl of Arran. At the time it
seemed to be an eccentric choice for behind - the - scenes diplomacy. But in reality it
was spot on. For besides having easy access to Lord Home, then the Foreign
Secretary, he was the first cousin of Sir David Ormsby-Gore the British Ambassador
to America. Gore was a close friend of Kennedy - so intimately tied up in the decision
making around the missile crisis (assuring Kennedy of the value of the Penkovsky
material) that he was invited to the President's nuclear shelter if things went bad. (18)
It was the Missile Crisis that persuaded Eddowes that Khrushchev was behind the
assassination of JFK.
It is possible that MI5 have said they used the electoral register to trace Ward to
protect the real source. It is said that Ward was introduced to Ivanov by (Sir) Colin
Coote, editor of the Daily Telegraph, in January 1961. There are conflicting stories
about the origins of this meeting, but it has something to do with Ward doing sketches
of Soviet diplomats. He did sketches of many famous people though he was only an
average artist. (19) Coote had contacts in the Soviet Embassy and, interestingly, he
was a golfing friend of the Director of MI5, Sir Roger Hollis. (20) Coote arranged a
meeting at the Garrick Club. Accompanying Ward to this lunch was David Floyd, the
Telegraph's correspondent on Soviet Affairs. Floyd was on the books of the IRD. (2I)
IRD, run by the Foreign Office, was a Cold War propaganda outfit which had a close
relationship with MI6; and, especially with section IX which dealt with the Soviet
Union. Was the meeting set up by the intelligence services or did Floyd supply a
report to section IX?
Officially Ward was employed by MI5 on June 8th 1961 to help in the entrapment of
Ivanov, hopefully to compromise him with the help of his girls. Ward's friends didn't
know this. On the contrary many, including Hod and Maria, believed that he could be
working for the Soviets. Hod was astonished when told of Ward's real role. He still
believes Ward was murdered to keep him quiet. "It wasn't in his character to commit
suicide."
In London Hod and Maria set up dinner parties (22) at which many famous people
attended. About half of these parties appear to have included sexual games afterwards.
Ward was a frequent guest but as far as is known he never actually had sexual
relations with the girls. It was at one of these dinner parties that the famous Ministerin-
the-mask incident occurred; though in reality it was very different to the accounts of
Keeler and Rice-Davies. (They, incidentally, never met Novotny.) Hod had met Keeler
one night when Profumo picked her up at Ward's flat. According to Hod, Mandy Rice-
Davies learned of the mask incident from Ward when he returned to their flat that
night. Maria says:
"I lied to Lord Denning, but not about a politician. My lies were to
protect someone from ruin and a criminal charge. A Member of
Parliament was present, William Rees-Davies, MP for Thanet, but he was
not in the disguise."
On December 14th 1962 Christine Keeler ran into an old friend - Michael Eddowes -
and, according to him, the whole story of her involvement with Profumo and Ivanov
came out. This included Ivanov's request that Keeler ask Profumo when the allies were
going to let West Germany have nuclear warheads. Eddowes says he made out a 6-
page report which eventually reached the Security Services. Nothing came of it
because MI5 believed that Profumo had told the Prime Minister of this twin
relationship, while Profumo assumed MI5 had told him. It wasn't until Eddowes wrote
to Macmillan on June 13th that the affair was finally exposed. On Friday June 14th he
released the full text of the letter to the Evening Standard and the media scramble
began. Ward had been trying to get Novotny to meet Ivanov up until his departure. He
left shortly after the Edgecombe shooting incident at Wimpole Mews. But what
happened to Ivanov I haven't discovered. Officially he was recalled to Moscow,
although Mandy Rice-Davies (who is not reliable) recounts a different tale. In 1977
two men interviewed her about the Profumo Affair in Israel, where she lived for a
time. At first they claimed to be journalists from Time magazine; then private
investigators. Eventually one of them said " I was with the CIA for 25 years. I spent a
lot of time in London - I was involved in the George Raft affair at the Colony Club."
When she mentioned Ivanov he said "We took him...we... the CIA. We couldn't let
him go. We didn't know what he had and what he didn't have and we didn't want to
take any chances. Let's say he was an involuntary defector." (23)
It would be around this time that Eddowes started to put together the Novotny
connection, eventually going to New York at the invitation of the Journal - American,
to follow up leads. The one piece of information which he said he was after, could be
details of the background of Harry Towers, which were given to him by 'contacts'.
Eddowes did attempt to write a book with Maria Novotny on this whole affair and in
the late sixties they were three quarters of the way through it when strange things
started to happen. Eddowes rang Hod one day from his house telling him that two men
had broken into his flat, beating him badly, leaving him bleeding on his bed. They
warned him to stay away from the subject. The day before Maria had narrowly
escaped a serious accident in her car when the steering failed. Bolts in the steering
column had been cut. Eddowes, by this time an old man, was scared and burned the
manuscript, and would pursue the matter no further. This would explain the brevity of
the Novotny sections in his books on the Kennedy assassination.
Maria doesn't appear to have changed her lifestyle very much in the later sixties. She
did try to become a novelist, writing many books. But only one, a Harold Robbins type
version of her own life, got published. She also had a regular column in the magazine
Club International for a time, exploiting incidents from her own life.
It was whilst researching a book, apparently on brothels, around 1970, that she came
into contact with British Intelligence. At a brothel she found that it was a set-up, with
two-way mirrors and hidden microphones, used by the Security Services to
compromise clients. She was invited to help them with similar work and seems to have
been employed as a high-class companion/whore to people of interest to the services.
Particular cases involved compromising the head of a Caribbean island which the
Foreign Office hoped to stop going independent. It did little good: it went independent
the following year. Cameras had been hidden in a bedroom at Brown's Hotel when he
came across for a diplomatic meeting.
In 1978 (24) she was involved in the break-up of a massive fraud. She had been put
onto the activities of Taylor and Ash by Billy Hill, the former London underworld
boss, who thought there was the making of another Kray-type gang, whose brutality
went against the old-time ideals. She was asked to become involved with Taylor, and
was friendly with him for two years. In court Taylor claimed:
"I have been set up by Henrietta Chapman, also known as Maria
Novotny, who is working for British intelligence."
The judge told him to sit down and stop being silly. Novotny was outside, waiting to
give evidence against him, but following this outburst was advised not to, since she
might be used again. A few days later on his way home from court, Taylor collapsed at
Waterloo Station. He died later in hospital. Officially a heart attack, it has been
suggested by some that he was killed with a poisoned umbrella.
Following this case she was asked by the Chief Constable of Kent to help with
enquiries into corruption in Scotland Yard. She became very friendly with top
detectives and reported direct to the Chief Constable. It is known that she made visits
to Southern Ireland and Ulster, apparently involved in intelligence operations. She also
arranged parties in Europe for Common Market MPs and diplomats. Whether this or
many of the other episodes were actually done on behalf of British Intelligence is not
known. (25)
Maria Stella Novotny died on the 20th February 1983. She had had a heavy cold
during the day and ate little. Taking some food later she died choking on a milk
pudding. Shortly after her death her house was burgled and all her files and large dayto-
day diaries from the early sixties to the seventies were stolen. Recently Hod claims
to have given her address books to the members of an undisclosed Secret Service
department.
Unfortunately I have been unable to track down Eddowes - if he is still alive. One can
see now from where he received his basic ideas. A Czech girl with supposed
Communist background, used by a group of men also with alleged Communist links
(Towers and Ward), controlled by a Soviet intelligence agent (Ivanov), who claimed to
have direct access to Khrushchev. All this was linked in his mind through the Cuban
Missile Crisis, to the assassination of JFK. Where the evidence for that link is no one
knows. Obviously, though, it falls down with the recent revelation that Ward worked
for British Intelligence. But that raises a whole load of other questions.....
Notes
1. News of The World (1961), Saturday Titbits (1972), The Globe (US) 1980. She
has written a book - Kings Road (1977) - which deals with this period but it is a
highly fictionalised account.
2. Radio Interview: Chicago WGN 1977
3. Known in the USA as The Oswald File (NY 1978). He has also personally
published Khrushchev Killed Kennedy (1975). Does anyone have a copy?
4. Although it would be stretching the evidence to suggest Oswald had been
replaced by a double, there are some strange aspects to his trip to the Soviet
Union. His height, recorded on various official documents, varies quite
considerably, and there are marked differences between photos of Oswald in
the USSR and in the USA. (See The Many Faces of Lee Harvey Oswald - Jack
White US 1979)
5. A large section of articles dealing with the exhumation are in The Continuing
Enquiry Vol. V1 No 3 October 1981.
6. The new autopsy appeared to answer all the doubts that it was Oswald in the
grave. But, incredibly, this has now come into question. The skull shows no
signs of the original 1963 autopsy. Switched heads? It's all getting too crazy!
7. MI5 1945-72: A Matter of Trust Chapter 6. West's books are badly written.
New material comes in small doses - basically to tease whilst the real 'game' is
a continuing battle of sources, occasionally played over the dead body of Roger
Hollis. It's a battle of the right wings. Chapman Pincher (Their Trade is
Treachery NEL 1982), against aspiring Tory, Rupert Allason. ('West'). There
are political and ideological motives to 'West's' books contrary to what some
journalists believe. Notice how his books are so well received by the media
whilst better and more important books - Verrier/Bloch and Fitzgerald/Faligot -
suffer something like an unofficial D Notice. Is there any truth to the rumour
that the recently arrested 'mole' in MI5 is one of 'West's' sources?
8. This account is taken from interviews with her husband and access to her own
hand-written journal, letters etc.
9. There was nothing unusual in this relationship for Hod. In the late 1940s he
had taken the 16 year old Patsy Morgan, daughter of a Coventry grocer, and
given her the Pygmalion treatment. Rather the same approach as Stephen
Ward. (See The Evil Firm: The Rise and Fall of the Brothers Kray - Brian
McConnell, London 1969, p34)
10.Hod had helped to run Esmeralda's Barn, a night-club in Knightsbridge.
Originally he designed it for society girl Esmeralda. In another bizarre incident
on the night of its opening, she was found dead, accidentally gassed, on her bed
with her lesbian lover. Patsy Morgan-Dibden was the main attraction of the
club, so when she ran away from Hod to Europe, he gave it up. Protection for
the club was provided by Billy Hill who ran the London underworld with his
rival, Jack Spot. Hod returned to the business in the late 1950s with the Black
Sheep Club. Esmeralda's Barn was eventually owned by the Kray twins who
purchased it on the advice of Peter Rachman. (The Profession of Violence,
John Pearson, London 1973). A good introduction to this whole
Ward/Rachman/Criminal underworld nexus is Rachman, Shirley Green,
London 1981. The media created 'Rachmanism' - a device designed to ease
attention away from the real crooks, and a godsend to Labour's election hopes
at the time.
11.Towers decided to return to the States in 1980 to face charges of bail jumping
and contempt of court. As part of the deal, an address book which reportedly
contains the names of every politician for whom he allegedly procured call
girls will forever remain sealed away. Mary De Bourgon, Assistant D.A.: "It
will never be opened in a court of law." (The Globe (US) December 9th 1980).
Novotny was friendly with other politicians and lawyers.
"Their names didn't mean all that much then but now many of
them are big shots, in very high places."
Obviously association with one of Towers' girls would have people worried,
especially so when she adds:
"I kept a diary of all my appointments in the UN building ...I
understand the diary is now in the hands of the CIA."
12.Lord Denning's Report (HMSO 1963). Novotny was interviewed by Denning
but she says the report was already written. He refused to accept her
allegations, seemingly turned off by the details of the sexual games.
13.Kennedy's other 'relationships' certainly weren't ordinary and could explain
why Novotny's could be important. In 1964, a year after the assassination,
Mary Meyer [Pinchot], an intimate friend of JFK'S was mysteriously shot to
death. Shortly after, her personal diaries were taken from her home by James
Angleton (at the time head of CIA's Counter Intelligence Branch), a friend of
the Meyer family. Angleton destroyed the diary, and though involved in the
CIA's investigation of the assassination, has refused to comment: on the Meyer
episode. (See Washington Post February 23rd 1976. Coincidence or
Conspiracy Bernard Fensterwald (US 1977)
Judith Exner had been introduced to JFK by friend Frank Sinatra, and had an
affair with him through 1961 and '62. She also knew Sam Giancana and John
Roselli intimately, both of whom were involved in the CIA/Mafia plots against
Castro. (And both of whom were murdered just before going to testify before
the House Select Committee on Assassinations.) It has been suggested that
Giancana used his close friend Sinatra to place a girl near the President,
perhaps to blackmail him.
In another strange twist, Robert Maheu, Howard Hughes' man, who had also
been involved in the CIA/Mafia plots, had been involved in a highly
questionable CIA operation. "Taxpayers monies were spent to provide Heads
of State with female companions and to pay people with questionable
reputations to make pornographic movies for blackmail (against Heads of
State)."
See final Report of the House Select Committee on Intelligence: Village Voice
Feb l6th 1976 page 72.
On Exner see My Story Judith Exner (NY 1977).
And, of course, there was Marilyn Monroe, who Novotny claimed to have met
a few times when MM was having an affair with both Kennedy brothers. It has
been claimed that she died in mysterious circumstances and had knowledge of
Mafia and Teamster affairs, contained (again) in diaries. See: Who Killed
Marilyn, and Did The Kennedy's Know, Tony Sciacca (NY 1976): Marilyn
Monroe S. Periglio (Seville, 1982): and, for this whole Maheu/Mafia/
CIA/Kennedy's/Monroe mess, best of all is Jim Hougan's Spooks (London
1979).
14.Through The Looking Glass Anthony Verrier (London 1983) Chapter 6.
15.West, ibid page 17: also How MI5 Sacrificed Stephen Ward (Sunday Times
28/11/82)
16.Scandal '63: A Study of The Profumo Affair Clive Irving et al (London 1963) p
13
17.Secrets That Won't Be Told, Duncan Campbell (New Statesman 20th February
1981)
18.Verrier ibid.
19.Ward told Hod that he picked up girls in coffee bars, doing quick sketches of
them to introduce himself. Ward said this was how he met Keeler in a cafe in
Staines, Middlesex, and that he (Ward) was instrumental in obtaining a job for
her at Murray's Club, contrary to published stories.
20.West ibid p145
21.See The Ministry of Truth, in Leveller No 64 (1981) and British Intelligence
and Covert Action Bloch/Fitzgerald (London 1983) p 91.
22.Among those attending the Novotny parties were Walter Flack, Charles Clore's
partner; Bill Astor; Sir William Emirs Williams, the Secretary General of the
Arts Council; Sheila Scott; Nicholas Egon; Lord Asquith; Bobby Moore;
Eustace Chesser; Douglas Fairbanks Jnr; Felix Topolski; Simon Harcourt-
Smith; Lord Belper and many others.
23.Mandy Mandy Rice-Davies with Sheila Flack (London, 1980) p123. She
reveals that she knew next to nothing - though perhaps others thought she did.
She claims that she was refused a visa to the USA, and when in 1974 she tried
to see her (she claims CIA) files they had disappeared (pl21). She claims she
was interviewed by MI6 at Century House - unusually, since it is usually left to
Special Branch to sort out security cases.
24.Times 1978: April 4/5/25; May 6/12/26; June 10/14/17/23
25.Times May 6th 1978
"The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it." Karl Marx
"He would, wouldn't he?" Mandy Rice-Davies. When asked in court whether she knew that Lord Astor had denied having sex with her.
“I think it would be a good idea” Ghandi, when asked about Western Civilisation.
"He would, wouldn't he?" Mandy Rice-Davies. When asked in court whether she knew that Lord Astor had denied having sex with her.
“I think it would be a good idea” Ghandi, when asked about Western Civilisation.