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New revelations have emerged about the life of a celebrated wartime double-agent who began his complicated deception in Jersey.
Eddie Chapman, a safebreaker who was imprisoned in Jersey when occupying forces arrived in June 1940, was freed after offering to spy for the Germans. After training in France, he was then parachuted into the England, to immediately hand himself into the authorities and start spying against the Nazi regime.
His incredible story formed the basis of the bestselling book ‘Agent Zigzag’ by Ben Macintyre. So convincing was Chapman’s deception was that he was awarded the Iron Cross – one of only a handful of UK citizens to be given one of Germany’s highest honours for bravery.
Now, the Times newspaper has revealed that Chapman created and gave away at least three fakes of the medal, including one to his former MI5 case officer and another to a lawyer who defended him in the 1970s.
On Chapman’s recently discovered fraud, Mr Macintrye said: “Even from beyond the grave Eddie Chapman is still working as a con man.”
Co Durham-born Chapman fled to Jersey in 1940 after skipping bail in Scotland after being charged with blowing up the safe of the headquarters of the Edinburgh Co-operative Society.
Chapman was dining with his lover and future fiancée Betty Farmer, whom he met in Jersey, at the Hotel de la Plage when undercover police came to arrest him.
The former soldier escaped through the dining room window but was caught later that evening while trying to burgle a house.
Imprisoned in Newgate Street prison – where he shared a cell with Buchenwald survivor and post-war actor Anthony Faramus – Chapman was transferred to prison in Paris, where he convinced his captors to train him as a spy.
He twice parachuted into England and also operated in Portugal and Norway. Post-war, he returned to crime although his unique contribution to the war effort meant he was often treated leniently.
Chapman died in 1997 aged 83.
Prisoner 'zigzagged' to freedom in Nazi spy pact
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