Secret documents reveal blackmail bid by 'heroes' in Scots spy saga

In reality, Dundee tram conductor John Curran and his shopworker wife, Mary, were opportunistic fantasists engaged in a cynical plot to extort cash from the security services, newly released government files reveal.

As Britain prepared for war, ministers and senior officials at the War Office and MI5 became engaged in a lengthy battle with the couple, who lived with their four children in a two-room tenement flat, over whether they should be compensated for their part in helping to expose city hairdresser and German spy, Jessie Jordan.

The previously secret documents show the couple - far from being plucky patriots dedicated to defending Britain from the Nazi threat - were ‘nosey neighbours’ hellbent on cashing-in on Jordan’s notoriety.

Persistently denied a cash reward for snooping on Jordan, the couple went as far as ‘blackmailing’ the security services, with threats to expose its supposed incompetence in tackling Nazi espionage.

The case reached the desk of Britain’s most senior spy chief, MI5 founder Colonel Sir Vernon Kell, who eventually succumbed, agreeing to pay the Currans £20 to silence them.
Glasgow-born Jordan was convicted of spying for Germany in February 1938 and sentenced to four years hard labour.

The former housemaid, who had married a waiter from Hamburg, was exposed as a main link between UK and New York spy cells and the Abwehr offices in Hamburg, Germany.

Employed in Jordan’s salon, Mrs Curran became suspicious and began spying on her boss, secretly tracking her movements, and even rifling through her handbag.

Among Jordan’s possessions, she found a map marked with the locations of several military installations across the UK which she and her husband took to the police.

Following Jordan’s conviction, the Currans claimed full credit for exposing the Nazi spy and became overnight celebrities after selling their story for £25 to the Daily Record, which ran a series of sensational articles over several days.

Following the spy’s conviction, they wrote to the Undersecretary of State at the War Office in London, demanding payment of 100 Guineas plus expenses in recognition of the ‘vital part we played in the case of Mrs Jessie Jordan… which led to the exposure of the vast espionage organization in America’.

Expenses included £3 and 12s for phone calls which they estimated ran to 18 per week over a six-month period; four shillings for bus and tram fares, £4 to cover Mrs Curran’s wages while working in Jordan’s hairdressing salon and an unspecified sum to cover ‘preparation for new underclothes and all other sundries when cited for trial to travel to Edinburgh’.

Mr Curran also wrote to the Criminal Investigation Department of MI5 to say he planned to sell his story to an American newspaper and wanted to know ‘if in doing so I am not incriminating myself under the Official Secrets Act, 1911-1920.’

He added: ‘I do not want to do anything that is not in keeping with the duty of a patriotic citizen, so I hope you will advise me accordingly.’

However, government files reveal that when the couple came forward with their ‘evidence’, MI5 was already aware of Jordan’s activities and had her under surveillance, and that their activities played little part in her capture and arrest.

An MI5 minute signed by Vernon Kell said: ‘It is not correct that the claimants kept a close watch on Mrs Jordan’s movements. Between 18 November 1937 and the time of her arrest at the beginning of March 1938 they were seen by the local Police on only two occasions.

‘The question of a reward was considered after Mrs Jordan’s conviction and we came to the conclusion that it was not justified, especially in view of Mr and Mrs Curran’s articles on the part they alleged they played in the case, which…has obviously been prompted by their desire for publicity.’

In a letter to Joseph Neilans, the chief constable of the City of Dundee Police, in April 1939, Vernon Kell sought clarity on the couple’s expenses claim, observing: ‘Item 4 is not without humour, although Mrs Curran has failed to assess the value of her “new underclothes”.’

He added: ‘Perhaps you could warn him not to make a fool of himself as, no doubt, during the forthcoming trial in the United States, the fact will emerge that we knew of Mrs Jordan’s activities a good many months before we ever heard of Curran’s or his wife’s existence.’

In reply, Neilans said: ‘I can only say that I consider the claim to be absurd. Item No 4 is not worthy of comment but shows the mentality of the people with whom we are dealing. In my opinion the matter should be allowed to drop as their claim is absolutely preposterous.’

Another MI5 minute from March 1939 said Mrs Curran had previously been employed at a local cinema, adding: ‘During that time money was found to be missing from the pockets and/or handbags of fellow workers and Mrs Curran was apparently suspected of having employed the same tactics as at her former employer’s, Mrs Jordan.’

With no money forthcoming Mr Curran wrote to Sir Victor Warrender, Financial Secretary to the War Office, reiterating his demand for recompense for ‘the long months of our vigil’

He said: ‘I am sick of this shilly shallying and am convinced it is high time the public were let in on the whole case and especially on what to expect from the authorities, should any of them be patriotic enough to become involved in such a case and, believe me, when the truth is made known in full, even you shall get your eyes opened in certain matters.

‘Unless I hear from you definitely as to your department’s intentions within a fortnight, rest assured I’m having the whole case taken up in the House of Commons.’

In another letter in January 1939 Curran warned that if no cash was forthcoming, he would make public that MI5 had allowed Jordan to travel to Germany while it had he under surveillance.

He wrote: ‘What was the intelligence department thinking of in allowing her to travel about without warning the chief constable of her character? What will the general public think of such neglect if we make it known? And, believe me, this is only one of the many things that can be brought to light to prove that the said department was grossly negligent if they maintain they were aware of her movements.’

Following advice from the Treasury Solicitor, that the couple may be entitled to make a legal claim for remuneration, a senior War Office official was dispatched north to Dundee with a cheque for £20 to silence them.

An internal MI5 minute from April 1939 – just a few months before the outbreak of the Second World War – said the Currans’ letter ‘amounts practically to blackmail'.

It added: ‘Sir Vernon Kell agrees that, for the sake of bringing this unsatisfactory case to an end, this office should pay the expenses…without disputing them, although they are quite unreasonable. At any rate, this should effectively cut the ground from underneath the Currans’ feet.’