1
00:00:04,040 --> 00:00:11,240
Welcome to Spycraft, a podcast that
tells gripping life and death spy stories and

2
00:00:11,359 --> 00:00:17,120
the amazing devices and operations that made
them possible. Now let's get started.

3
00:00:20,760 --> 00:00:24,800
Operation Dirty Laundry. You might have
heard of it, but this is actually

4
00:00:24,800 --> 00:00:30,359
a two part story because we actually
have another story within this story. It

5
00:00:30,399 --> 00:00:33,399
was an operation that was carried out
at the Four Square Laundry in Belfast and

6
00:00:33,520 --> 00:00:39,520
was one of the most infamous MRF
m I five operations. MRF, I'm

7
00:00:39,560 --> 00:00:42,920
not sure if you folks are familiar
with it as the Military Reaction Force which

8
00:00:42,960 --> 00:00:47,960
operated in Northern Ireland and small teams
of usually plain closed personnel. It's a

9
00:00:48,039 --> 00:00:52,920
very controversial unit that has been accused
of killing of innocent civilians and other illegal

10
00:00:52,960 --> 00:00:57,679
activities. They claim it's just negative
propaganda. Either way, it's not for

11
00:00:57,759 --> 00:01:02,799
this podcast. Units like m I
five and mr ort to ask with gathering

12
00:01:02,840 --> 00:01:08,560
and analyzing intelligence. The little laundry
Store at the Fourth Square Laundry was located

13
00:01:08,560 --> 00:01:12,519
in the heart of nationalist Belfast.
While at a function as a regular launder

14
00:01:12,599 --> 00:01:17,040
rat, I guess you could say
it was actually an undercover operation led by

15
00:01:17,040 --> 00:01:23,400
the British Intelligence Services. The undercover
operatives utilize the naturally large Bedford Commerce laundry

16
00:01:23,480 --> 00:01:27,480
vans that conceal surveillance teams and equipment. These vans would travel to various Irish

17
00:01:27,560 --> 00:01:34,560
nationalist strongholds in Belfast and offer laundry
services at their cheapest prices around, as

18
00:01:34,560 --> 00:01:38,599
they certainly weren't in to make a
profit. As the van visited addresses,

19
00:01:38,640 --> 00:01:44,480
the driver and Sarah Jane, who's
going to be our protagonist in this story,

20
00:01:44,519 --> 00:01:47,879
both of whom were native to Northern
Ireland, would converse with the local

21
00:01:47,920 --> 00:01:53,280
residents and gather seemingly insignificant information from
them. Later, this would be analyzed

22
00:01:53,319 --> 00:01:57,120
closer and used to complete missing leads
and intelligence from other operations. As the

23
00:01:57,120 --> 00:02:01,840
two undercover agents chatted away, the
British intelligence officers hidden inside the roof of

24
00:02:01,840 --> 00:02:07,039
the van in a compartment specially designed
as an observation post, would gather photographic

25
00:02:07,080 --> 00:02:12,319
intelligence of the area in the form
of vehicles, homes and movements of known

26
00:02:12,520 --> 00:02:17,159
IRA members. The laundry would then
be sent to a British Army headquarters in

27
00:02:17,199 --> 00:02:22,960
the town of Lisburne, where then
the MI five and MIRAF operatives would analyze

28
00:02:22,960 --> 00:02:27,560
the latest laundry lists with old ones. Sudden changes in closed sizes could signal

29
00:02:27,680 --> 00:02:30,560
that there was another person in the
house the team was unaware of. If

30
00:02:30,599 --> 00:02:35,599
a woman whose husband was incarcerated who
had been killed during the troubles handed in

31
00:02:35,639 --> 00:02:38,840
male clothes to be cleaned, this
could signal that there was an IRA militant

32
00:02:38,879 --> 00:02:44,520
inside the home. Most importantly,
all of the clothes were forensically analyzed for

33
00:02:44,639 --> 00:02:49,039
blood, gunpowder and explosives an attempt
to attract insurgeons. Before it was cleaned.

34
00:02:49,960 --> 00:02:53,159
It was neatly floated and handed back
to the customer. You can see

35
00:02:53,199 --> 00:03:00,120
how so much information can be gathered
just simply from clothes, but information and

36
00:03:00,199 --> 00:03:04,759
from your house, your car,
all that can provide a lot of details,

37
00:03:05,039 --> 00:03:07,840
especially for INTEL services. But what
are the stories that really stands out

38
00:03:07,840 --> 00:03:13,479
in this operation was that the IRA
uncovered the four Square Laundry operation through a

39
00:03:13,520 --> 00:03:17,080
man named Shamus Wright on February fifth
of nineteen seventy two. Right had been

40
00:03:17,199 --> 00:03:22,560
arrested by the British Army has subsequently
disappeared for six months before arriving home.

41
00:03:22,639 --> 00:03:28,879
Unexpectedly, the IRA swooped on Right
immediately and interrogated him. Right admitted to

42
00:03:28,919 --> 00:03:31,479
being involved with the MRF and offered
his services to the IRA as a double

43
00:03:31,520 --> 00:03:37,639
agent. On the morning of September
of October second, nineteen seventy two,

44
00:03:38,039 --> 00:03:40,919
the four Square Laundry Van was carrying
out its undercover operation and heading towards a

45
00:03:42,039 --> 00:03:46,520
nationalist stronghold of Belfast known as the
Twin Broke Estate, and this is where

46
00:03:46,520 --> 00:03:51,039
our protagonist Sarah Jane Walkee left a
van and visited a house to collect laundry

47
00:03:51,039 --> 00:03:53,680
from a female customer. The two
began small talk while the van waited.

48
00:03:53,759 --> 00:04:00,680
Nearby, a SAS soldier named Stuart
Telford was out the week. All of

49
00:04:00,719 --> 00:04:04,759
a sudden, the van was ambushed
by the IRA insurgents, who sprayed it

50
00:04:04,800 --> 00:04:11,280
with assault rifle rounds and unfortunately,
the SAS agent, Stuart Telford, was

51
00:04:11,360 --> 00:04:16,720
killed instantly. The IRA claims that
two British intelligence officers who were positions in

52
00:04:16,800 --> 00:04:20,160
the hidden compartment under the roof are
also killed, but this was never proven.

53
00:04:20,879 --> 00:04:25,319
As Sarah Jane turned to face the
heavily armed insurgents, she was two

54
00:04:25,480 --> 00:04:30,600
was shot, but she was tough
as nails and rather than go down without

55
00:04:30,600 --> 00:04:33,879
a fight, she drew her concealed
nine millimeter Browning high power handgun and engaged

56
00:04:33,920 --> 00:04:39,279
the IRA single handedly, just like
you see in the movies, until the

57
00:04:39,279 --> 00:04:44,480
gunmen were forced to retreat to a
waiting car and flee the scene. As

58
00:04:44,519 --> 00:04:47,879
I'm telling you, folks, it's
just like a movie. She was wounded,

59
00:04:48,079 --> 00:04:51,519
but again she managed to get her
weapon. The following year she was

60
00:04:51,560 --> 00:04:59,519
awarded the Military Medal for Bravery under
fire. Shamus Wright, who leaked the

61
00:04:59,519 --> 00:05:02,480
information on the British operation, was
abducted by the IRA and murdered with a

62
00:05:02,519 --> 00:05:05,800
bullet to the head. For decades, he was a statistic of one of

63
00:05:05,800 --> 00:05:10,639
the many disappeared people of the conflict
in Northern Ireland until his body was recovered

64
00:05:11,319 --> 00:05:18,839
in twenty fifteen. And Sarah Jane
Workee was the first member of wra Ac

65
00:05:19,439 --> 00:05:24,040
Women's Royal Army Corps to receive the
military decoration, making here one of the

66
00:05:24,040 --> 00:05:29,199
most deadly women in British military history. Thanks for listening, everybody,