A little late with this one. Had been anticipating it for months, claimed a copy just days after publication, & minced it within 48 hours before becoming waylaid on reviewing responsibilities.
So this is the first ever book on Mariella Novotny, & it is an absolute avalanche of information on her, her associates & her exploits. The secrecy & scandal enshrouding this crucially significant player in high-stakes shadow games, espionage, blackmail & compromise, & the nature & psychology of the character in question, will convene with other historical figures such as the dreadful Roy Cohn, eccentric scammer & double-agent spy Robert Maxwell, & shady freewheeling fixer David Litvinoff (the latter was a close confidant of Novotny).
This books implications for the modern “kompromat” or “human compromise operations” – aka sexual blackmail over political or business targets – crisis, not to mention the Wexner, Epstein, Maxwell, Mossad perversion that is still very much playing out are considerable. Jennifer Arcuri & Evgeny “Two Beards” Lebedev also radiate a lurid likeness, along with their obvious entrapment of the pathetic Boris Johnson.
Very, very few people have even heard of Mariella Novotny, Stella Capes, Henrietta Chapman Tricesta St. Regis (this will presumably start to change now), & information & trace substance (articles, videos, photographs, documentation) is startlingly rare. This acute paucity is not a natural occurrence. Considerable efforts to erase & quell this woman’s life & activities have been effectuated, with considerable exigency.
That in part is what makes this book so exciting, not to mention the extremely important research it dredges on this dangerously problematic territory & phenomenon.
To those alien to Novotny, a simplified description would be an active expert in sexual compromise operations. A high-society sex party host, a spy, a prostitute for the powerful & wealthy, a collaborating asset or indeed agent for at least one intelligence agency (suspicions that she was with multiple organizations or was open-ended “freelance” are perfectly credulous) & a dominatrix who was regarded as the “Government’s Chief Whip”, as she was apparently giving private, paid-for lashings to half of the Conservative cabinet at the time. Clearly she was a nutter! – super confident & effective, & I suspect a genuine nymphomaniac with other supportive disorders & transgressive proclivities, which probably added to her efficacy & allure in her vocation. I think the simplest reduction would be to say she was an expert in an advanced “prostitution espionage ring” & that she was also a core participant in that who carried out her own hits. Clearly it would appear, the “power trip” & shall we say “meat & potatoes” of her profession seemed to thrill her & spiral out of control.
Mariella died in extremely, extremely suspicious circumstances at her home, ostensibly chocking on desert on her bed. She was shortly due to publish a “tell all” book, which was subsequently never ever issued. The coroner for Novotny was the same guy that performed the autopsy on Princess Diana, Her Majesty´s coroner for Westminster, Dr. Paul Knapman…the official causation in Novotny´s death? “misadventure”.
The author asserts that
“Michael Eddowes, the author and campaigner for miscarriages of justice, tried to ghost her memoir. Masked men came into his home and beat him, giving him a stern warning to back off. So frightened was he that he burnt the manuscripts.”
similar events would befall Roy Cohn’s secretary Christine Seymoure (suspicious death, threats & fires, an unpublished book & destroyed manuscripts).
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01wk2f2 – (a link to a a Adam Curtis video interview clip with Mariella Novotny discussing kompromat).
Stop the clock! Who is writing this book? What brave intrepid soul is peering into the crypt? & shedding visibility on this completely neglected, indeed, concealed, key character of the greater murk? That will be the curious Lillian Pizzichini, who attests to have been researching Novotny for over a decade. Her grandfather, Charlie Taylor, was a London criminal in the 60s who later ended up becoming convicted on behalf of Mariella’s moves. Pizzichini first publication was a book on this figure.
Mariella wrote a lot herself (gossip/culture columns for various periodicals). Her first (& only published) book, 1971’s King’s Road, a semi & often thinly fictionalized account (if at all in places) of her own operations disguised through fabulated muddling & pseudonyms as a “novel” (reviewed here some years back).
This in part is what made her dangerous. She was partially public, provocative & flaunting her “profession” with the written word. A kind of risqué, bête noire, celebrity provocateur pitching as “counterculture”. Gossip columns & newspapers are obviously an ideal medium to assist targeted blackmail, with the disclosure of specific “dirt” … another string to the bow.
Novotny first came to my attention, at least substantially, in Christine Keeler’s Secrets and Lies autobiography. The dramatic revelations were very alarming, as was the dearth of public information/history on her, which could only be the result of concerted & conjoined deliberation.
Mariella was heavily involved with Stephen Ward, as well as with Keeler & Mandy Rice Davies. She was also one of the London girls that went to work in the escort service/brothel attache in Washington. She was joined by the mysterious Suzy Chang aka Suzy Diamond aka Esther Sue Yang Chang. John F Kennedy sunk the hook with both, paying out for the service like a true trick. Orchestrated by the likes of Stephen Ward & the stranger still Harry Alan Towers. Much of the FBI files on this shitshow have been released. The craziness actually computes with official records.
Many suspect this is why Mariella later “choked on trifle” just before her memoir was released. Yvonne Brooks & Ronna Riccardo, also “Stephen’s girls”, would also die in peculiar circumstances/apparent suicide.
Bad shit.
& it gets even badder, specifically when you take into account Mariella’s truly revolting counterpart, accomplice & husband – Horace Dibben. This man, along with the ultra-disreputable Harry Towers, is another barely-traceable spectre of the past, whom seem to have simply vanished. Pizzichini completes a huge feat by covering them both extensively. Hod married Mariella when she was 17, & he was 56! a perverse matrimony. together they became famous for organizing orgies for well-connected clients & doyens of the political establishment in London in the 60s & onwards.
Horace Dibben is a really, really, really unpleasant & dark man.
Long before the idiocy of QAnon cack & the slew of counterfeit conspiracy confection & diversion that is spewing all over the internet by idiots that do not help in destroying the matter of organized, serious sexual abuse & sex-trafficking, some credible threads on accusations of Satanism/occultism being mingled with sex acts by prominent members of establishment were in circulation. To be absolutely clear, these are only very small occurrences & do not reflect the larger trend of organized abuse, at least to my research on the matter. On the contrary, I would say that “occultism” &/or Satanism feature only in a very small representation of cases & I think there is currently a scapegoat trend concerning this ideology. Saying that, I am always, always on the look-out for any credible evidence or links to this subject. Horace Dibben is a guy I have wanted more information on for ages, & I was well aware of the allegations from Keeler’s autobiography, first published in 2002, that Horace was a committed cultist who would run satanic themed sex parties with Mariella.
Well, despite clear hesitance & duress, Pizzichini confirms this in droves. Although she never elaborates with exactitude or details, the book is laced with affirmations of his regular & deep commitment to the occult. Furthermore, we get to learn what a complete freak this guy was – a voyeur & a sado-masochist with paedophilic characteristics (it is never explained or expanded, but is clearly stated). Although the author seems semi-reluctant to provide examples, we learn that being tied to trees naked & flogged with briars until he streams blood by Mariella, or sitting in leather-body-suits masturbating whilst watching her fornicate with other men are part of the repertoire.
As the Novotny Papers concludes, both Mariella & Hod were close with David Litvinoff. The extremely misleading, glossed-whitewash – “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” by Keiron Pim attempts to skew & bury “The Procurer”´s reputation & shenanigans under a bouquet of relentless ersatz confection & sleight of page. The Novotny Papers does not repeat this dishonest charade & misrepresentation.
What are we left with here? An extraordinary trove of research basically. Plenty missing, plenty only adumbrated, but scores & scores of truly incredible investigation & uncovering. As a reference to the sordid scourge of “sexual blackmail”, institutional corruption, espionage, & the rot of the swinging sixties London & its positively uncool underworld, this is indispensable script.
Conterminous sections on Novotny’s work with Operation Countryman (which saw a task force of South West police personnel come in to investigate the crime syndicate of the Metropolitan Police after yet further, severe public scandal involving high level criminality, corruption & murder) as well as the riveting Hungarian Circle (which reeks of Robert Maxwell’s Eastern European money laundering operations) chronicle & Mariella’s love affair with Eddy Chapman – Agent Zigzag. Speaking of Robert Maxwell, it would seem that both he & Mariella originated from the same country (Czechoslovakia) before emigrating to Britain. Both would go on to lead extraordinarily insane lives. The intersection & analogy, including the disgraced fathers now disgraced daughter (Ghislaine) is exceptional. & whilst Mariella compromised JFK with the assistance of Suzy Chang, Jenifer Arcuri has reversed the maneuver (over the Atlantic) on the treacherous Boris Johnson, quite possibly with the assistance of Milo Yiannopoulos in bisexual “technology lessons”.
Ain’t shit changed but the tether.
One last word, as everybody will be asking – any reported relation/interaction between Jimmy Savile & Mariella Novotny/Horace Dibben? I have detected nothing (here or elsewhere). & not in any way to reduce or condone Mariella than anything but a head-case, but Savile was servicing an even sicker crowd. They were running what we would call “rival operations” & Savile would “procure” whilst Novotny would “ensnare” & or/service. We definitely need to know more about the nature of Horace Dibben’s occultism & who else was involved.
“Their home was filled with TV personalities, embassy officials, a famous one-armed barrister, and a clutch of MPs. They gossiped and buzzed with anticipation among Hod’s collection of fine art and antique furniture. Ward [Stephen], the connoisseur of orgies, was in his element.
‘It would be humbug if I did not confess that I looked forward to the sex orgies,’ he wrote in his unpublished memoir. ‘I have been to every type of of that party – those specialising in certain perversions and those given in an elaborate setting where all the formalities were observed.’”
Lillian Pizzichini, 2021, Amberley Publishing, 248 pages.