The Other Face Of “Searchlight” –
A List Of Palpable Errors

 

[The following critique was first published in August 1994 as Appendix C to Alexander Baron’s unauthorised biography of Ray Hill, Liars Ought To Have Good Memories; it is reproduced here with some minor corrections and augmentations.]

The authors of this pamphlet are uncredited, but I was informed by Nick Griffin that Patrick Harrington researched it and he wrote it. Without wishing to curry favour with Griffin or slag off the totally insincere Harrington I can truthfully state that it is better written than researched.

Page 5 claims that Searchlight magazine was founded in the mid 60s. Actually a broadsheet was published, once a year, from 1965-8. (1)

The origins of the Searchlight organisation are shrouded in mystery but it was probably set up soon after Colin Jordan’s July 1962 “Free Britain From Jewish Control” rally.

Page 7: Company director Leslie Jacobs is said to have put up £1,000 bail for Gable et al. He actually provided a surety of £250 for each of the three. (2) Each man provided his own bail. (3) This error is traceable to Focal Point, May 30, 1981, page 5, where David Irving reports that bail was set at nearly £1,000. Gable was said also to have been “linked” to the 62 Group. He was actually a member. (4)

Page 9: Searchlight’s controllers have always denied that Dave Roberts was a member of their editorial board, which is probably technically correct as the magazine has always been under the firm control of Ludmer, now fortunately deceased, and Gable, regretably still with us. However, he was definitely feeding them “information” on the extreme right from 1974 to 1976.

Page 10: Roberts was not convicted of conspiracy to burn down an Asian restaurant. This error is again traceable to Irving. (5) He was actually convicted of conspiracy to assault the staff of the Bombay restaurant. He was given a suspended sentence, which he later served, his co-conspirators were both jailed. (6)

Page 17: the photographer shown here is not Michael Cohen but David Hoffman. Although he is Jewish, he is, as far as I know, an otherwise respectable photographer. He is a member of the NUJ London Freelance Branch, and has a substantial picture library; he specialises in social issues.

Page 23: The letter on British Democratic Party headed notepaper reproduced here contains a number of spurious allegations against Ray Hill, which, if made against someone with only a slightly less tainted character – like Dr Crippen – would be libellous. Hill was never a member of the National Socialist Movement, so he didn’t make genocidal remarks to the Daily Sketch in 1964. The claim that he had a Negro mistress is a wild fiction, and one that is almost certainly based on the spurious claim attributed to Hill in the Leicester Mercury of June 7 1968 and September 16, 1969, that he had fostered a Negro child “for many years”. Hill’s chronology proves this claim to have been a lie. He has no convictions for unlawful sexual intercourse or bank robbery, in Leicester or anywhere else. Likewise, he has no conviction for embezzlement, but only because he jumped bail in South Africa.

Page 24: The Guardian article reproduced here was actually published on May 11th 1979 and not April 18th.

Page 30: The observation is made that Hill’s knowledge of and qualifications to speak on the National Front are zero. (7) This is valid, indeed, as we have clearly demonstrated, the Ray Hill legend has really been built on his intense involvement with the British Movement between November 1968 and December 1969, and even that was purely local. Also on page 30, the claim is repeated that Hill defrauded a bank in Leicester and that it was this that led to his emigrating to South Africa. Again, we have found no evidence of this.

Page 31 raises many interesting points, not the least of which is the question of how an unemployed family man could afford to drink heavily and buy a Rover! The authors might have added that before he “came out” Hill, by his own account, “bought myself a small property in another part of the country”, (see the book, page 14). It is not clear if this was the boarding house his wife subsequently ran, but it is clear that Hill – his and Searchlight’s claims to the contrary – did exceedingly well out of his tall tales before the publication of his lie-ridden book, which, presumably, also brought in a shekel or two.


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