His neighbors in Guildford, a dormitory town in the southwest of London, knew him as Frank Conway, a retired guy with a platinum-colored Mercedes, a furious Manchester City fan, whose only company was a cocker spaniel. For the British agency services, however, he was Stakeknife, the most important agent who managed to infiltrate the IRA and for years kept Margaret Thatcher informed of the armed gang’s strategy.
The price of having eyes and ears within the republican organization was, however, terrible, as a police report now confirms as a result of an investigation (the “Kenova operation”) that lasted seven years, interviewed a thousand witnesses and accumulated 50,000 pages of testimonials, at a cost of fifty million euros. So that in the end no one is accused of anything, because the State considers that it goes against that catch-all that is used for what is convenient: “national security.”
Even today, a quarter of a century after the Good Friday Agreement, more than forty since he was recruited by MI5 and almost one after his death (as Frank Conway) last April, British intelligence still has black marks on all his files the real name of his agent, and he does not confirm but neither does he deny what everyone unofficially knows: that it was Freddie Scappaticci, the son of an Italian immigrant who was born in the nationalist neighborhoods of west Belfast, he signed up to the IRA and prospered until rubbing shoulders with its top bosses, Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness.
After being in and out of prison a couple of times in the sixties and seventies, Scappaticci – a father of six – put aside his activities in the paramilitary group for a time to make money with a fraudulent real estate business. Hunted by the authorities, and in view of his background, MI5 offered him the alternative of remaining free if he became their agent, with the good fortune that not only did he say yes, but also soon his “career” in the IRA provisionals took off, taking charge of the Internal Security Unit, dedicated to discovering spies and informants, punishing them and executing them.
The state security services were faced with the dilemma that Stakeknife was providing them with invaluable information, but at the same time he carried out his role as an IRA inquisitor with great viciousness, torturing suspects, dumping their bodies on rural roads in Ulster and teaching to relatives photos of their mutilated bodies. He is credited with up to 35 murders, including those of falsely accused innocents.
The British State entered into the dirty war in Ulster, arming and providing information to loyalist paramilitaries to assassinate IRA militants, under the pretext of “saving lives” (those of potential victims of terrorist attacks). But Stakeknife’s sadistic behavior was too much even for some members of the intelligence services, and the cause of internal disputes and divisions. Although in the end the opinion of those who wanted to continue counting on him always prevailed.
The executioner in charge of hunting down spies within the IRA was himself, in one of the many ironies and contradictions of the troubles, at the service of MI5. Not only for money – although he earned the equivalent of one hundred thousand euros per year at the time – but also for the excitement of a double life, for feeling like James Bond. He had not been able to be a footballer (he did a trial with Nottingham Forest who rejected him with the advice that he lose a few kilos), being a bricklayer was a pain, so he opted to be a secret agent.
The IRA began to suspect Freddie Scappatici well into the nineties, when British intelligence was deeply infiltrated in the organization to the point of almost paralyzing it. His bosses learned that a fingerprint of his had been found by the police on a hidden microphone planted in a home, and they were upset that he was not arrested or even interrogated. They had no evidence against him, but something definitely smelled like singeing.
The IRA, however, never went after Stakeknife, who was saved by the peace process by the bell, or perhaps official recognition of having been infiltrated at the highest level would have been too embarrassing for the group. The British State also left him alone. Arrested in 2018 on suspicion of kidnapping and murder, pressure at the highest level meant that he was only convicted of possession of pornographic material, and released with his memories and his conscience.
Stakeknife, Freddie or Frank saved some lives by warning MI5 of future attacks, but he had license to kill at will in his other role as Torquemada of the IRA in order to preserve his identity secret. In the Ulster War the State also stained its hands with blood.