Virtual Talk: “Agent Jack” with Robert Hutton

Eric Roberts was a balding, seemingly inconsequential bank clerk from Cornwall, England. But, he had a winning smile and an uncanny ability to make people trust him.  He also had an extraordinary amount of nerve—something you needed when you were a British spy.  His code name was Agent Jack. Posing as Jack King, he helped uncover and neutralize the threat of fascism on British shores during WWII—which wasn’t as invisible as people thought at the time. In 2014, declassified MI5 files revealed the enemy—a very large enemy—was hiding in plain sight.  Some were Germans living in Britain; most were ordinary British citizens—factory workers, office clerks, shopkeepers—who were willing to help and even risk their lives for the Nazi cause. Roberts’ assignment was to ferret them out and get them to spill their secrets–while keeping his own. In fact, his work was so secret and sensitive that even Winston Churchill didn’t have a clue who he was. Well, Agent Jack not only penetrated the Communist Party and the British Union of Fascists; he also played his greatest role for M15–Hitler’s man in London.  It’s said that the transcripts of his eavesdropped conversations with these fanatics will make your hair stand on end.

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