In September 1920, a British spy was trying to make his way into the upper echelons of the Irish republican movement, but he was detected and sent back to England. His real name was JL Gooding, but he had many aliases including Frank Digby Hardy. Read my Irishman's Diary about him in today's Irish Times here.
JL Gooding (aka Frank Digby Hardy) (1868-1930). Image source.
Gooding was something of a chancer. He spent several periods in prison for his crimes (mostly fraud and deception, but also bigamy), yet seems to have been able to fool people into going along with his little schemes over and over again.
I came across one case where he persuaded a pub landlady in a rural part of Ireland to pay him for barrels of Guinness (which were hard to find at the time). He said that he had a connection in the business and that could secure a delivery of the porter, but of course he failed to deliver. He nearly got away with it, but was located and tried to blame it on his "connection", saying the man had disappeared.
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