I feel like I’m poaching in Christopher Othen’s territory. I claim justification: It was Othen who put Frontier Partisans moccasins on the trail that led to the wild and wooly world of Cold Warrior Mitchell WerBell III. Here’s the caper: Reader Brian H. reported going down a rabbit hole after reading the FP post on Othen’s new book, The Men From Miami: American Rebels and Patriots On Both Sides Of Fidel Castros’s Cuban Revolution. His trail led him to Mitch WerBell, a character (literally) out of the pages of Soldier of Fortune Magazine. Brian asked if I had heard of this guy. No, I had not. My turn to dive down the rabbit hole.
What have I come out with, besides dirtying my fluffy white tail, as Robert Downey, Jr.’s Sherlock Holmes would say? Read on…
Mitchell WerBell III was the progeny of a White Russian cavalry officer, an operator with the OSS in the Second World War, a military-skills trainer and covert warrior, and the developer of innovative suppressor technology. He was the founder of the company SIONICS, which is a masterpiece of the acronym-creator’s craft. Stands for “Studies In the Operational Negation of Insurgents and Counter-Subversion.” Ain’t that droll?
I asked my friend Greg Walker about WerBell. He didn’t know him, but he knew plenty ABOUT him — there was one degree of separation through a connection with Robert K. Brown, publisher of Soldier of Fortune. As Greg put it:
“He made the MAC-10 infamous.”
The Mac-10 is a VERY compact submachine gun, most famously chambered in .45 ACP and mated up with a SIONICS suppressor. Badass commando stuff.
The best piece I found on WerBell is from our friends at Rock Island Auction Co.. I can’t do better than this, so I’m going to let them whitewash the fence.
His shadow has loomed over nearly every major global conflict over the past 75 years. He has been paid millions of dollars by Coca-Cola and Hustler Magazine, overthrown multiple communist regimes, and was there the day of the Kennedy assassination. Along with all of this, his suppressor designs revolutionized warfare and changed the world. The story of Mitchell L. WerBell III is one of brilliance, courage, and espionage. Prominent around the military intelligence community, WerBell makes Jack Bauer look like a toddler with a water gun. His service during World War II would help inspire the creation of the C.I.A., his contributions to the advancement of suppressor technology would change the modern concept of combat, and his experiences as a mercenary have enough weight to make skin crawl. An icon of his time and a true American legend, Mitchell WerBell’s life, inventions, and legacy continue to inspire and astonish to this day.
Check this out:
WerBell was an outsized, picaresque character in every way. Far from being the secret world’s ideal “Gray Man,” he was a flamboyant, mustachioed, cigar-chomping swashbuckler. I can’t help thinking that that this persona was quite helpful to him, because he was so larger-than-life that there is simply no way to definitively parse out fact from folklore when it comes to a lot of his activities. And THAT is as Frontier Partisan as it gets.
Matthew says
If someone put WerBell in a novel, I bet he would be considered an unrealistic character. The guy was so larger than life.
Brian H. says
Holy smokes, that was a hot trail eh Jim? Certainly a Partisan story that pops like a sub gun in the night. Or rather, whispers. Ha. The whole story is borderline surreal. There when JFK was killed? The very pinnacle of American conspiracy theory? Then it that gets weirder than that…Larry Flynt’s hitman. Great write up!
Quixotic Mainer says
I ran a semi auto MAC once, kind of clunky for someone brought up in the polymer era, but definitely CQB friendly. Or good for a Capstick style baboon hunt!
Going to have to read up on Werbell. The jump from the white cavalry to the cold war is only the one very full life Kind of puts the past a bit closer.
.I just finished whisper on the night wind, that was fantastic aside from. Making me want to trek when overtime and toddler care take up most of my time.
JimC says
Shoalts is dangerous that way.
Phillip Jones says
Mitch was wooing investors for his MAC-10 and suppressor. They met in a plush NYC hotel room. mitch had stacked NYC phone books on the floor, then called room service. When room service knocked with the order, Mitch emptied 20 rounds in the phone books, then opened the room door for the snacks and beverages. The room service person never batted an eye and when the door closed, investors pulled out their checkbooks.
JimC says
Perfect pitch.
SQUIRE RUSTICUS says
My Grandfather first worked with Warbell, becoming friends with him in China (1945) where they were both stationed with OSS. Lou operated mostly in Indochina at the time but was not a on a DEER TEAM. Lou had a mixed group of commandos he ran around Hanoi to Haiphong up into China. Earlier Lou had been an OSS Jedburgh in Europe (Team MARK) before that point. I do not believe they met before that time.
The legend is that the OSS hands in China, at least at one time were paid in 5 lb. bags of opium. As Chinese money became worthless, the exchange rate shifting daily, opium was one of the only item that held value.
My Grandfather and Warbell had a close friendship, and although considered an eccentric I believe General Warbell to have been a complete professional. The suppressors, arms, and expertise speak for themselves.
I had a MAC-10 made by Texas Military in the 80’s and found it simple, well built (except for the spacer), and trustworthy. It was a weapon made for shooting your way out of a bad situation, or taking over a room in as during a Coup.
As with many of these men, they lived amazing lives. The type of man OSS was looking for was self assured type A personalities, that could operate on foreign soils, alone or in teams. British Intelligence and SOE trainers tended to wish for OSS to be made up of educated Ivy League gentlemen like William Colby, but most that Ive met were more like Mitch Warbell, Douglas Bazata, Lou Conein. Many drank hard, fought hard, lived hard.
Warbell and Lou would work together off and on over the years, I believe becoming two of the first trainers for the Phoenix Project. When my grandfather retired from CIA, and went back to Vietnam as a private businessman, he may have been working for Mitch Warbell ? Later when my grandfather became Director of Special Operations for the DEA, Mitch Warbell had his offices (B F Fox ???) next to the DEA safe house, and Warbell sold equipment to the DEA.
Later there was a falling out, as there often is in the Spook World. Their relation became strained.
In the early 80’s I tried to have my Grandfather arrange for me to attend the commando training camp run by Scionics-Cobray at Powder Springs, Georgia (I believe), heard nothing back, then found that Mitchel Livingston Warbell had passed away.
I had got to hear Mitch Warbell,( as Lou called him) from my grandfather, thinking Warbell a very interesting person I always wanted to meet.
The sad part of it all, is that these men lived amazing lives, often the lives of ten men. A real truthful first hand experince book will never probably be written. Conspiracy theorist write books about these men, putting them into places, involving them in deeds, that they were not involved in. Then those writing books afterward regurgitate the same vile crap. Most of the people that really knew these men are mostly gone, and would not tell the whole story anyway.
Sorry about my rambling statement, I am as you can see, not much of a writer myself…..
JimC says
Thank you for this, and for stopping by the campfire.
Ugly Hombre says
Really interesting thread, Werbell was a very interesting man still shrouded in mystery- a anti-Communist Russian American whose father was a Czarist cavalry office. He knew the reality of Communist evil and terror. Worse that the National Socialist SOB’s. Werbell hired Jason Lau a Hong Kong trained Wing Chun fighter to teach at the Powder Springs commando school. Lau is still teaching he also knows North Shaolin but don’t know if he is teaching that out.
http://www.chocheung-wingchun.com/lineage.html
The Werbell family also ran Brigade Quartermaster’s a military supply outfit for many years they put out a mail order catalog chock full of good stuff. It was a favorite of GI’s for many years it was going strong into the 90’s but I think the family sold the company.
Thanks for posting Squire enjoyed reading-
JimC says
Didn’t know about Brigade Quartermaster. I remember that outfit.
Ugly Hombre says
http://www.chocheung-wingchun.com/lineage.html
“During the NYC blackout in 1977, Grandmaster Lau and his disciples patrolled the neighborhood, protecting it from the looting and theft which occurred throughout the rest of the city. For these actions in preserving the neighborhood, he was awarded the Certification of Recognition from the New York City Police Department.
As his reputation began to spread, he came to the attention of retired General Mitchell Livingston WerBell III, a world famous counter-terrorist specialist, OSS operative, Soldier of Fortune, Paramilitary Trainer and firearms engineer, who was scouting for instructors for his counter-terrorist training camp, SIONICS, in Powder Springs, Georgia. As an instructor and operator for SIONICS, Grandmaster Lau adopted his Wing Chun skills to the arena of warfare. He trained the students in hand-to-hand combat, unconventional weapons, night operations and evasive driving techniques. He so impressed the General with his abilities that he soon became the camp’s chief instructor and the General’s personal bodyguard.
Shortly after General WerBell’s death in 1983, Grandmaster Lau again opened a Wing Chun academy, this time in Smyrna, Georgia. He has taught Wing Chun for over 40 years, teaching both at his academy, and also using his skills to train the Fulton County (Atlanta) Sheriff’s Special Emergency Response Teams. His school and his reputation has grown in the Atlanta area, and he was often featured in news specials, magazine and newspaper”
Addendum:
I am wondering why the Tongs in east and west coast China Towns are not cleaning out the coward thugs who are robbing and beating the defenseless old people and women in he community.? In years past that never would have happened- what changed?