New Britain Herald Newspaper, July 20, 1928, Page 19

owWineandWorne War Hero, Millionaire, King of an Island Before He Was 20, Then the Lion of Society ~and the Ladies, Until- Jean Gillesple, the Pretty Dancer Who Failed to Win McCartney from His Life of Crime, - LONDON. ROM war hero, cited for brilliance and gallantry, to thief and betrayer of his country’s secrets—a spy! That is the gamut of fame run by Wil fred McCartney, once glorified by a na- tion as “Fighting Mac,” now a degraded prisoner, a man willing, for the sake of a few shekels, to sell his honor. In many instances, his history closely parallels that of Amcrica’s Benedict Ar- nold. Both were men conspicuous for bravery under fire; one was feted by the belles of New York and Saratoga—the other lionized by Mayfair beauties; both terminated brilliant ~ social careers by turning traitor to the countries they had formerly defended with their lives. It is a strange, colorful story that takes Wilfred from the luxurious home of his childhood, through the rigors of war, through romantic triumphs to squalor and eventually, prison stripes. Wilfred’s father was a traction mag- nate who controlled great iriterests. The boy, his pet, had traveled most of the world over when still a child. He was being educated in the costly manner that befits the sons of English gentlemen when the war broke out. At the time he was on a vacation in the United States with his father. Back he had to go to school. But “Fighting Mac’s” blood was up, and one fine day when the roll call was read, he did not answer his name. Although only fifteen years old, he had run away to enlist. His war adventures read more like ro- mance than cold sober fact, but actually, by the force of his own personality, he had quelled a rebellion on Zea, an island owned by the Greeks, and, having been decorated and publicly thanked by Veni- zelos, was made the island's Governor— at sixteen years of age! When he had testored peace and seen to it that Zea was being run in perfect fashion, yielding its quota of men and produce for the army, he was sent to quell a rebellion of the Turks in the Near East. - He fought gallautly, but he was of the type that can stand the dunfen of war lnmlfiely better than '.hoge of peace. 8o long as he could distinguish himself as a soldier, succeed in making hairbreadth escapes, pit his forces 2geinst those of the strong men m against him, he was, radoxically enough, m{g. It was the ure of women, of bfl:ht lights, of hectic pleasure, that he could na resist. He was badly woundel once but in- sisted upon returning to the front. He was taken prisoner and while being trans- rted_from one prison camp to another, r:npt Nrom the moving train, escaped from the guards who set up a hue and cry for him, and miracylously got back to Eng- land. But a second wound which affected his health forced him to cease fighting and take on the less strenuous but still more dangerous job of King's Messen- ger. Secret documents of the utmost impor tance were intmnerto his care, and to obtain possession of these, enemy vernments would not have ked at murder. By the time the war ended. red MeCartney's father was dead and had left Mm his m:fn!flc!em fortune, Wiifred had more money than he knew what te do with. At this time, though barely twenty, he had been Governor of Zea, the hero of two up- risings, and well known to the heads of the Secret Bervice, particularly the chief, Sir Wyndham Childs. He was both liked and trusted. Had he had any ambition, there were those who would have used* their influence and experience gladly to help him. He could have associated with people to whom his money meant little and who would have been his friends for his own sake, But Wilfred had that strange and baf- fling misfortune, yet little understood, though not unknown to psychologists—a dual personality. Naturallihwhen he returned to Eng. land with brilliant war record mz\rE- ing him as one of the most promising youths of the aristocracy, every drawing- room in Mayfair, every salon in Bel- gravia was open to him. Lord Lonsdale wanted him for sport. Lady Londonderry wanted him for so- ciety, The Duchess of Portland wanted him for charities. And almost every peer and peeress wanted him for something or other. The Xonnger ladies wanted him for & husband. There was much glamor in being seen about with such a distin- guished personage as McCartney. His weekly dinners at Kettner's, that most {ashionable of restaurants, were marked by the presence of personages who play their parts at the Court of St. James's, But the curious twist in his mind would not let him remain satisfied—made him yearn for more worlds to conquer. Every- thing came too easily. Life was no longer inter- esting to “Fight- ing Mac.” And so he drifted out of -it, seeking out the sort of places those who visited Kettrer's did not know. Hq met the beautiftl ad- venturess, Jose- phine O’'Dare, who has earned the reputation of having made ore crooks than any living woman in Eu- rope. It was said that McCartpey's first real plunge into the under- world was in the wake of the daz- zling Josephine, who hoaxed so- ciety and actu- ally entertained in her drawing £ room the wealthy aristocrats that her gang contem- plated robbing. When Jose- phine finally crashed, Wilfred was still intoxi- cated with the new and dizzy life that he led, and although his for- mer associates were turning distinctly cold shoulders toward him, he did not pull up. Instead of wisely heeding this warning signal of his former associates, he plunged even deeper into the shadowy world of his adoption. Thus he was atten- tive to pretty Colleen O’Keefe, the fascinating dancer who created a scene and had 8 flare-up with the police when she refused to leave the stage upon which she appeared draped only in a trans- parent scarf. He loved Colleen because she fed his vanity. She was continually the subject Betrau dEfig|and§“Be B8 nedictArnold I Bankrupt and Desperate, He Fell r from Mayfair to the Underworld and Sold His THE ARROW OF FATE. Dramatic High Lights in the Rise and Crash of (1) Youthful War Hero; (2) Go Saciety Lion and Vi men; Thief; (8) » Traitor Who Sold His Country’s on Years as a Spy, break. Mac” McCartney. an lsland at 16; (3) (4) Broke, Desperate, a Secrets to Russia; (6) T of rumors. Her name was coupled with McCartney's and people spoke of her daring with bated breath. And he en- Jjoyed that. So long as he was the domi- nant personality in the picture, he didn't care whether people approved or disap- proved of him. Insignificance was his nightmare. Eventually, of course, he quarreled with Colleen. * She tried his Jealousy too far by appearing at a party and doing her famous scarf dance Trying to put a brave face on what was really despair, McCartney took a sheer drop from the fringe of the underworld into {ta nethermost depths. He forgot all about his former circle of friends, and his business associates. Rarely sober, he became the rey of un- scrupulous usurers whose n idea was possession of his money. A brief romance with another dancer, Jean Gillesple, redeemed for a little from the people whese dupe he had become, but even this did not e uip him to withstand the lure of the half world to which he had grown to belong, Jean found herself cast aside, not for one woman more beautiful, more facinating than herself, but for many ‘ ‘women. “Mac” built a house mod- eled upon an Oriental pal- ace, marble halls, swimming pool of pink marble, gor- geous silken draperies. Per- sian rugs, the women's quarters apart from his own and, to gratify his insane de- sire for aggrandizement, reigned there as Pasha. The love of power that had raised him to the Gov- ernorship of Zea, now cast him down, lower, lower, ever lower, until he reached degraded depths. His first affray with the police came when he was mixed up in the notori- ous case of Mr. A. He was warned that if he did not cease to consort with cer- tain people involved he A Portrait of the Marquise de Casa Maury, One of McCartney's Former Associates, ho Friendship for Him Cooled When He d Her orld. ©®Madame Yevonde London. Left: Wilfred M!:Cirtn'-y. Ended in Disgrace. © Barratts, Photo Press, L. might be impeached for conspiracy. This warning, however, did not change his mode of living, until he awoke one morn- ing to find that he had gambled away the traction magnate’s millions. Directly the news leaked out that the erstwhile milliopaire was hardly good for “Fighting ictim of Intrig Disgrace, Heart! Notorious Adventuress, Josephine O’'Dare, Through Whom NicCartney First Plunged Into the 8 drink, he found himself at a dis- count. Gratitude is a luxury that only the rich can afford. His “friends” were too busy looking for another easy mark to take any heed of him. Desperate, his rflde in the dust, his nerves shaken, he lost his head and broke into a prominent jeweler's lho':. An amateur, he was caught immedi- ately. The trial he neme: to enjoy. His passion for being the center of at- tention had not abated. He stood, a handsome figure, in perfectly tailored clothes, a monocle pressed under a tilted eyebrow, nonchalant, joking. Answering learned counsel as to wh; he had committed the crime, he drawled, “l was-er-a trifle hungry, and-er-my friends-er told me that there was noth- Blasted by British A Coprrieht, 1838, Isteruational Featare Secries, Ins., Gress Britaia Rights Beserved Hele Made by the Explosion Soviet Trading Del Underworld. ing more nourishing than-er diamonds.” Once out of prison, he had all the spoiled child’s fury against a socicty that had punished him. He turned a profes- sional Communist, not because he be- lieved in Com- munism, he later admitted, but be- cavse there was “more in it"” and at the same time it gratified his desire to retali- ate upon socicty. From this it was but a short step to trying to pro- cure secret in- formation for the benefit of Rus. sia, an act of treachery in which he ~ was within an ace of succeeding. But he failed, and with a con- federate, named Hansen, was ar- rested. Between first jail tence and espionage er, he had a lovely Irish actress who his sen- his disa real activi- 8. She is now heartbroken penniless nnd stranded. There is a grim smile in the fact that it was McCartney’s former friend, Sir Wyndham Childs, who tracked him down. But there is no smile at all in the grimmer revelation that this man who once fought a splendid fight for his country should now sell her for himself. But did he fight for his country? Or did he fight in reality to assert that which has been both the cause of his rise and fall—his passionate love of self? Like his historic fore-runner, whose history his so closely foll his villainy was defeated and he is paying in full for his misdeeds—ten years in jaill Country's Secrets for a () “Benedict Arnold enedict Arnold, Hero, Gentleman ” [ ~-Judas! CROSS history’s pages is written unforgettably the story—tragic in its defeated enthusiasm, heartbreak- ing in its fruitless endeavor and its event- ual frustration—of America's arch trai- tor, Benedict Arnold, whose crowded life has been summed up by one histori: “Hero, Gentleman—Judas!” o Adventurous and spirited, at fifteen, Arnold, like “Fighting Mac,” ran away from his home at New Haven to take part in an expedition against the French. ut restless under restraint, he soom returned home. When the report of Lexington’s first encounter echoed around the world, Ar nold was busy tending shop in his com- bination drug and book store at New Haven. Fired with the news of that first I stand, he led the local militia company, - of which he was captain, to Cambridge and proposed to the Massachusetts Come mittee of Safety an expedition against Crown Point and Ticonderoga. After a delay of four days, the offer was ac- cepted and as Colonel of Massachusetts Militia, he was directed to enlist the western part of Massachusetts for the adventure. Later, as Brigadier General, he com- manded the unsuccessful attack on Mon- treal and was forced to remain in Can- ada until the following June to await the coming of Montgomery and reinforee ments. In later engngements, Arnold’s bril- hiznt exploits drew attention to him as one of the most promising of the Con- tinental officers and won for him the fricndship of Washington. Two months later, he took command of the militia after the dcath of General Wooster, and defeated the British at Ridgefield, In recognition of this service, he wag made a Major General. But ill-treatment at the hands of General Gates, whose jealousy had been aroused, led to a quar- rel which terminated in Arnold being re- lieved in command. In June, 1778, Washington placed him in command at Philade!phia. Charges of misconduct were brought against him, The court acquitted him of all intentional wrong, but apparently in deference to Pennsylvania authoritics, directed Wash- ington to reprimand him. Outraged and insulted, Arnold then conceived his despicable plot for revenge. With betrayal in view, he sought and_ob~ tained from Washington the command of West Point, the key to the Hudson. The rest is horrible~fact. The” British Major Andre was intercej with soeret papers that completely ##riminated Arnold, whe eard of th} apture in time to escape to England to live mistrusted by the ene- mics of “his country and despised by the compatriots at whose side he had fought so well. \ |