15. A Spy Disguised as a Priest
In 1905, Sidney Reilly reportedly disguised himself as a priest in the French Riviera, in order to get close to businessman William Knox D’Arcy. D’Arcy held Persia’s oil concession, and Reilly inveigled him to sell the concession to Britain, despite fierce French competition. A year later, Reilly relocated to St. Petersburg, where he befriended Russian revolutionaries. He reportedly spied on and reported on them to both British intelligence and the Tsarist Okhrana – the selfsame secret police whose unwelcome attentions had forced him to flee his homeland a decade earlier.
The master spy also developed a reputation as a smooth womanizer. As one account put it: “he had a seductive charm, loving women as he loved himself. A string of mistresses would fall under his spell. Monogamy did not come naturally to Reilly and although he was usually fastidious in his choice of women, it did not prevent him from cavorting around London on one of his visits with a common tart named Plugger. How she acquired her nom de travail can only be imagined“.
