One of the books I’m reading, Conspiracy Files, has an interesting bit of “trivia” about the always popular character James Bond. It seems that James Bond was invented by a chap named Ian Fleming. Fleming came from a respected aristocratic family, and served in British intelligence during World War II. This book claims that Fleming, a skilled writer, created essentially as propaganda on behalf of MI6 to give it a better public image.

A little digging into Ian Fleming also reveals some other interesting connections.

The “Fleming flair” also proved valuable in one other aspect: writing. As assistant to Admiral Godfrey, Fleming wrote countless memos and reports. His style and elegant arguments, plus his seemingly limitless knowledge of his subjects made the usual dry missives a pleasure to read. Eventually, Fleming wrote memos to William “Wild Bill” Donovan on how to set up the OSS, forerunner to the CIA. For that bit of work, Fleming received a revolver engraved with the thanks: “For Special Services.”

Also interesting is some of the activity surrounding Rudolf Hess. Hess was one of Hitler’s closest associates, even taking dictation from Hitler when he wrote Mein Kampf in prison. In 1933, Hess became Deputy Fuhrer. In 1941 Hess secretly flew to Britain with the supposed intention of negotating a truce. Supposedly this was all just an elaborate ruse though:

It appears Fleming, Knight and others had earlier devised this outrageous plan to lure Rudolf Hess to England by slipping him false astrological information. They believed that Rudolf Hess was ‘the’ gullible Nazi leader they were looking for and it proved true. The data which they fed into the Nazi astrological circles claimed that six planets in the sign of Taurus when coinciding with a full moon implied success for a secret meeting to end the war.

Hess had already learned that a plot to overthrow Churchill’s government was being planned in Scotland. Now, with the astrological advice heralding success, Hess was confident and wanted to be personally involved.

Anyway, the Brits captured him, but then something strange happened.

During the interrogation Rudolf Hess spoke in strange ramblings which some viewed as occult. Ian Fleming, who was involved with those interrogations, decided that help was needed. But who could he get who might understand these occult ramblings? Fleming thought about it and then suggested to his boss, Rear Admiral John Godfrey, “that Crowley should be allowed to interview Hess about the role of the occult in Nazism.” Fleming thought Crowley would be able to obtain further details on the influence of astrology with the Nazi leaders. It seemed like a good idea at the time. However it was his friend, Maxwell Knight, who spoke strongly against Crowley’s involvement with Hess. It is said that Knight had no intention of allowing Crowley near Rudolf Hess, even though some historians have indicated that Crowley actually was a MI6 agent who spied on the Nazis and Communists in pre-war Berlin for the British government. Still, some members of the British Government, like Fleming, actually believed that Crowley could have helped in understanding Hess and other Nazi leaders. Both sides argued over this issue but Knight won out. In the end, Crowley was never summoned.

Fleming is said to have contacted Crowley regardless, who agreed to offer his services. Some people say that Crowley in fact had been an asset of British intelligence for years already before this - although I’ve also seen it said that his file was marked “Use with extreme caution”. Supposedly Fleming later modeled his first James Bond villain after Crowley, naming him Le Chiffre and changing most identifying personal details. Though Fleming said to have been something of a fan of Crowley’s, he had no trouble at all killing him off in the novel Casino Royale. A single shot is fired and:

“and suddenly Le Chiffre had grown another eye, a third eye on a level with the other two, right where the thick nose started to jut out below the forehead. It was a small black eye, without eyelashes or eyebrows.”

Weird stuff.