Hilaire du Berrier

Hilaire du Berrier (November 1, 1906 – October 12, 2002) was an American barnstorming pilot, mercenary adventurer, journalist, and spy.

[4][better source needed] He found employment as a commercial artist in Chicago, working part time for ad agencies and department stores.

[citation needed] According to du Berrier, he met exiled Spanish king Alfonso XIII by chance while walking down the Rue de Rivoli, and said he had a "lifetime follower" after that.

[4][6] In the Spanish Civil War, du Berrier tried to join the Nationalists' air force, but was prevented because he was on an Italian blacklist.

But, he wrote, he was pardoned by Alberto Bayo, because the Republicans felt that executing an American citizen would cost them support, especially from first lady Eleanor Roosevelt.

[4][8][better source needed] Living in London afterward, he caught the attention of British intelligence, which assessed that he was a "mercenary adventurer".

Afterward, according to du Berrier, he traveled in Central Europe and the Balkans, representing a Dutch aircraft company, and then moved to Shanghai, China.

[5] In wartime Shanghai, du Berrier was an Axis agent and a pimp, according to research described by the British historian Bernard Wasserstein.

[9][5] A 1941 Shanghai police report said that before World War II du Berrier had been an agent of the Japanese intelligence service.

[10] Initially during World War II, du Berrier attempted to join French and British forces but was rejected.

[14] Du Berrier appeared as himself in a 1982 documentary published by Western Goals Foundation titled No Place to Hide: The Strategy & Tactics of Terrorism, written, produced, and hosted by G. Edward Griffin and directed by Dick Quincer.