Zaharoff, Basil

Aleister Crowley, Sidney Reilly, Basil Zaharoff ... 

The simple fact was that the British Intelhgence Service didn t trust him and never had. Nor did others. A 1918 report compiled by the US Navy s Office of Naval Intelligence probably came closest to the mark when it labeled him and his dubious cronies as international confidence men of the highest class (Spence, 2002 144). Reilly was always more a con man and crook than a spy. Bribery, blackmail and even murder were his standard operating procedure. As we shall see, Reilly s System mimicked that of his erstwhile employer and probable mentor, Basil Zaharoff... 

The last in our rogues Uery, Basil Zaharoff, has the longest and, arguably, the most intriguing history. The standard version is that he came into the world in 1849 as the humble Zacharias Basileios Zaharoff, a... 

Casino Royale, which suggests Zaharoff as yet another source of inspiration for La Chif e. Like Zaharoff, Le Chiffie s past is an enigma, and also like Sir Basil Zaharoff, he is suspected of Jewish-Polish origins. 

Allfrey, Anthony. 1989. Man of Arms The Life and Legend of Sir Basil Zaharoff. London Weidenfeld Nicolson. 

McCormick, Donald. 1965. Peddler of Death The Life and Times of Sir Basil Zaharoff. New Yoik Holt, Rinehart and Winston. 

Pearson, John. 1966. The Life of Ian Fleming. New York McGraw-Hill. Rochat-Cenise, Charles. 1943. Roi desArmes La vie de Basile Zaharoff. Bienne Editions du Chandlier. 

Tallas, George and Stephen, Anthony. 2007. Peddler of Wars Sir Basil Zaharoff Story. Bloomington, IN AuthorHouse. 

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