The Spying Cat (ONC 2023 Shortlister)

Author's Note & Historical Fun Facts!

If you've made it this far - welcome, and thank you! As of today (May 31st, 2023) The Spying Cat is an ONC 2023 shortlister and I couldn't be prouder! I had started scribbling this story in a notebook, breathing new life into character notes I'd made nearly ten years ago, and eventually hit publish on a whim in February.

I wasn't sure whether I'd be able to finish the story on time, but...for the first time ever, I did. I met the deadline, and the wordcount, and that alone was achievement enough for me, after a period of creative drought. Then, out of the blue, I made the ONC longlist! And today I learned I also made the shortlist!!

So, I figured it was time to celebrate with some historical snippets I dug out during my research, which honestly built the story for me once I put my characters at their disposal. All the little tidbits I stumbled across fit like the pieces of a puzzle in the universe I was imagining.

Special shoutout here to the historical TV series Warrior, The English and The Gilded Age (among others), for putting me in the mood to write and teaching me some historical facts, which directly informed some of my own research. And, of course, Wikipedia - the easiest source for historical information, which often comes with valuable citations and which can then be cross-referenced with targeted online searches.

If you have any questions, feel free to drop a comment or more! I can keep adding to this in case you're interested in more details about anything else :)

- The Special Branch unit of the London Metropolitan Police was formed in 1883, in response to the so-called Fenian dynamite campaign carried out by Irish anarchists throughout the 1880s. It was one of the first (if not the first) counter-terrorism organizations in the world. In 1893, William Melville was appointed superintendent of this unit.

- William Melville (1850 – 1918) was one of the founding members of the Special Branch. He uncovered the Walsall Plot and foiled several assassination attempts. In 1896, he recruited Shlomo Rosenblum (aka Sidney Reilly), the superspy who became the inspiration for James Bond

It is also believed that Melville himself was the inspiration behind Bond's handler M, as this seems to have been Melville's own codename. Melville eventually went on to work in intelligence for the War Office and he's believed to have become the head of the British Secret Service Bureau, the precursor to MI6.

- The Walsall Plot was uncovered in 1892, when a group of anarchists (some of them French) were arrested for plotting to build explosives. The quite explicit and gruesome pamphlet, The Anarchist Feast at The Opera, was found in their possession and read aloud in court. It described, step by step, to build bombs from easily available ingredients and how to compromise the theatre's gas supply (for maximum incendiary impact), and also went into disturbing detail about the smell of burning flesh and the sound of people screaming for their lives.

- Henri le Caron (1841 – 1894) was an English spy who had infiltrated Irish organizations in the United States, such as the Fenian Brotherhood and Clan na Gael. His involvement is reported to have caused the failure of the Fenian dynamite campaign (1881 – 1885). In the late 1880s, he was summoned back to the UK in order to testify in a trial, which blew his cover as a spy. This led to espionage accusations arising against Dr Cronin in Chicago.

In 1892, he published his autobiography Twenty-Five Years in the Secret Service, which seems to have been rather popular at the time (now available to read for free on Project Gutenberg).

- Patrick Henry Cronin (1846 – 1889) was a doctor of Irish origins who was murdered in Chicago in 1889. He had joined the Irish organization Clan na Gael and entered into conflict with some of its leading figures, who were in favour of terrorist attacks to support the Irish cause. Cronin was against this and accused the Clan na Gael leadership of embezzlement.

This led to his expulsion from the organization, and subsequent murder, because his former peers believed him to be a spy. His murder trial was, at the time, the longest-running in US history and with the biggest jury selection process (because of the extensive press coverage).

Detective Daniel Coughlin, of the Chicago Police Department, was one of the committee members who had decided on Cronin's expulsion, then went on to (unsuccessfully) investigate Cronin's disappearance. After Cronin's body was found, Detective Coughlin was one of the people charged with the murder, but walked free after a retrial a couple of years later.

- In the early 1890s, Oscar Wilde (1854 – 1900) was particularly renowned for the plays he wrote, although his only novel had just been published in 1891. It seems that in the summer of 1892, he was writing the play A Woman of No Importance in Norfolk, which premiered in 1893 at the Haymarket Theatre, in London.

In 1895, against the advice of his friends, Wilde sued the Marquess of Queensberry for libel. This trial, one of the first 'celebrity trials,' led to Wilde being convicted of gross indecency and sentenced to two years of hard labour. He died in exile 3 years after his release.

- William Waldorf 'Willy' Astor, 1st Viscount Astor (1848 – 1919) was an American businessman from the wealthy Astor family, who moved to the UK after a falling-out with his aunt Caroline (Caroline 'Lina' Schermerhorn Astor belonged to the Gilded Age elite who basically dictated the social pecking order in New York City at the time). He built the Waldorf hotel in New York, which overshadowed his aunt's mansion, who then moved away and had the Astoria hotel built instead to rival the Waldorf.

Willy Astor became a British subject and was made Baron, then Viscount, for his generous contributions to war charities during WWI. His cousin, John Jacob 'Jack' Astor (1864 – 1912) was born only one year earlier than our fictional Benedict Hawkins, attended Harvard College and died on the Titanic in 1912. He was the richest passenger on board. His pregnant wife escaped on one of the lifeboats.

- The Pinkerton Detective Agency, established around 1850, hired women detectives very early on. One of the first was Kate Warne (1833 – 1868), who responded to a Pinkerton ad in the newspaper. Apparently, the founder Allan Pinkerton was surprised to see she had not come looking for clerical work – but to become a detective.

She argued that women make better spies, because they are excellent observers, with an eye for detail, and have access to places and people to which men do not. Her arguments convinced Pinkerton and he hired her, eventually putting her in charge of his Female Detective Bureau. She reportedly helped prevent the secessionist plot to assassinate Abraham Lincoln in 1861 as he travelled through Baltimore for his inauguration in Washington.

Kate Warne was adept at disguises and undercover work, and pretended to be the caring sister of an invalid brother (Lincoln in disguise). She is said to have stayed awake all night to guard Lincoln on the train, which inspired the Pinkerton slogan: we never sleep. A Kate Warne biopic is currently in development, set to star Emily Blunt.

- Pawnee Scouts (among other groups of Native American Scouts) were recruited by the United States Army in the second half of the 19th century, to aid in the ongoing conflicts between settlers and Native Americans. Because of their own wars against other Native American tribes (such as the Sioux or the Cheyene), many Pawnee men were more than willing to serve for pay.

The mythological story about the hawk comes from an 1893 source I found online, an article titled Pawnee Mythology by anthropologist George Bird Grinnell (1849 – 1938) published in The Journal of American Folklore. It describes, among others, the meaning and importance of different animals (such as the buffalo, bear, wolf, eagle, deer, hawk etc) and one origin story in particular depicts the people's journey to finding a suitable homeland. Among the animals who intervene to help is a hawk, who parts a river so that the people can pass. The hawk also symbolizes bravery. 

- Johnson's First Aid Cabinet was put together by Johnson & Johnson company founder, Robert Wood Johnson (1845 - 1910), who came to the idea after a conversation during a train journey with a railway surgeon. The doctor explained how critical immediate care was in the very dangerous realm of building railroads, and how difficult it was to provide it in these isolated regions in the American West.

The First Aid Cabinet was released in 1888, after Johnson asked several doctors for advice as to what they would need in it. It was originally designed for emergency care for railway workers, then evolved into kits for homes, schools, travellers, cars and eventually planes.