36. The Smooth Talking Womanizer
In 1906, Sidney Reilly relocated to St. Petersburg, where he befriended Russian revolutionaries. He reportedly spied on and reported on them to both British intelligence and the Tsarist secret police, the Okhrana, whose attentions had caused him to flee his homeland a decade earlier.
Reilly also developed a reputation as a smooth-talking womanizer. As one account put it: “he had a seductive charm, loving women as he loved himself. A string of mistresses would fall under his spell. Monogamy did not come naturally to Reilly and although he was usually fastidious in his choice of women, it did not prevent him from cavorting around London on one of his visits with a common tart named Plugger. How she acquired her nom de travail can only be imagined“.