STAKEKNIFE
Born Federico Scappaticci in the Meadows area of Belfast, his father, Danny, was an Italian immigrant who had come to Ireland in the 1920s. His mother was Mary Murray.
Although his parents said his name was Federico, he always insisted his birth certificate had him called ‘Freddie’. His nickname throughout his life was ‘Scap’.
Despite being only 5 feet 3 inches tall, Freddie was a good footballer. He had trials with Nottingham Forest and his favourite club, Manchester City.
In later years, two of his sons, Freddie Junior and Tony, played for Newry Town FC.
When he left school, Freddie became a bricklayer.
His great hobby was watching James Bond films.
The Troubles in Northern Ireland, erupted in 1969. The following year, Freddie was fined for ‘riotous assembly’.
In 1971, Britain introduced ‘Internment’ (Operation Demetrious) to the province. This meant arrest and imprisonment of suspects without trial.
Freddie was immediately arrested and incarcerated in Long Kesh prison as a suspected member of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) – an illegal organisation. He stayed in prison until 1974.
It was whilst Scappaticci was in prison that he met other IRA men who were to become Republican leaders, such as Gerry Adams and Bobby Sands. Freddie was marked out as a potential figure of importance within the movement.
When Freddie was released from prison, he went back to working on a building site. He also married Sheila Cunningham. They went on to have six children and lived in Riverdale in West Belfast.
In 1978, Freddie was investigated by the authorities for a scam relating to the building trade – a VAT tax evasion. He was arrested but released without charge.
By 1980, Freddie was a leading member of the ISU (Internal Security Unit), for the IRA Northern Command. They were in charge of counter-intelligence and investigating leaks from ‘moles’ (who they called ‘tauts’).
Another member of the ISU, Eamon Collins (who was later exposed as an informant and was executed), described Freddie as, “Small and barrel-chested with classic Mediterranean looks: olive-skinned with tight curly hair.
Collins also noted that Freddie had an air of menace about him and was, “free with his fists.”
It was Freddie’s job to uncover suspected informers, lead inquiries into failed (‘blown’) operations, vet potential recruits and debrief IRA operatives who had been released from custody from the British Army or the police (RUC – Royal Ulster Constabulary). Freddie was the IRA’s chief spy catcher.
Scappaticci headed what was known as the ‘nutting squad’ due to the amount of informers they executed. It is believed that he killed eighteen people in person, including a senior policemen and the informer Joe Fenton.
The Nutting Squad killed about 32 people, including two MI5 operatives and a prosecutor. The British claimed Scappaticci acted as, “Judge, jury and executioner.”
Scappaticci was arrested for drink driving in 1982 but was released without charge.
In 1990, his wife Sheila was taken ill, and Freddie resigned from the IRA.
In 2003, Freddie was exposed as having been the highest British spy within the ranks of the IRA. He was Agent 6126 and his nickname was ‘Stakeknife’.
Scappaticci denied the accusations. The IRA refuted the claim as well.
However, the television programme ‘The Cook Report’ claimed that Freddie had approached them with evidence about senior Sinn Fein politician Martin McGuiness – and his role within the IRA.
They interviewed Scappaticci in a pub car park and secretly recorded him and he gave them intimate details of McGuinness’ involvement in the death of informer Frank Hegarty in 1986. Scappaticci had carried out the interrogation prior to Hegarty’s murder.
The programme also had the Commander of the British Army in Northern Ireland between 1983 and1990, call Scappaticci “The Golden Egg” and “The jewel in the crown of military intelligence.”
The Cook Report broadcast the interview and Freddie immediately fled from Northern Ireland.
Freddie absolutely despised Martin McGuinness. He called him, “An evil man who one minute would be in church and the next would order you to ‘stiff’ someone.”
The following year, Freddie took an enormous risk and flew back to Belfast for an interview with the Sinn Fein leadership. What happened at the meeting is unknown, but he gambled that as the case was now in the public domaine and the Republicans were involved in the Irish peace process, that they wouldn’t dare have him killed. It would have scuppered the talks.
“He was too big an embarrassment to kill. Killing him was to accept that the IRA’s Internal Security Unit (ISU) had been completely compromised by the British.”
Nevertheless, shortly afterwards Freddie fled to Britain and was immediately put under the Witness Protection programme. He left Sheila behind in Belfast, as she refused to join him.
He was able to choose where to live. Freddie decided on Manchester so that he could be close to his brother and also because he could watch his beloved Manchester City.
It was now that Freddie admitted he had been recruited, initially by the police (RUC), when he had been arrested for tax fraud. He had been offered immunity from prosecution if he became a low-level informer.
Other accounts suggest that as a young man, he had an affair with the wife of a senior IRA man – and was given a severe beating. This is what caused him to turn and work for the British.
Some Republicans have claimed they never felt he was truly committed to the political or religious cause – he just got involved because he loved violence.
Freddie admitted that it was him who had identified the IRA kidnappers of supermarket magnate, Ben Dunne in 1981.
Freddie also had told the British about the potential kidnapping of a Canadian tycoon who lived outside Dublin, informing them who, when and where, thus preventing the assault from happening.
After that, the police passed his information to the FRU (Forces Research Unit), who ‘controlled’ him. They handled all informers and were a unit of the British Army.
It was revealed that his role unravelled in 1990. The IRA caught a police agent called Sandy Lynch. Scappaticci was given the job of interrogating Lynch. He told the agent that he was going to kill him.
However, the police raided the house and rescued Lynch. Freddie managed to escape but left his fingerprints everywhere. A warrant for his arrest for attempted murder was put out by the police, who were unaware Freddie was himself a British agent.
Someone at MI5 heard about this and informed the FRU. They immediately came up with a cast-iron alibi for Freddie. “He was allowed to be a mass murderer and the controlling mind was the British state.”
However, the fact Freddie seemed to have got away with the crime when there was so much incriminating evidence, began to raise the suspicions of the IRA leadership. It was at this point that he was sidelined – encouraging Freddie to resign, citing his wife’s illness as an excuse.
It also emerged that his 1982 drink driving conviction had been quashed because he was considered amongst the ‘Crown Jewels’ of intelligence. He was reputedly paid £80,000 a year by the British.
In 2014, the British government started an enquiry into the Stakeknife case. It was called ‘Operation Kenova’ and has headed by the retired Chief Constable of Bedfordshire. Freddie refused to co-operate with the investigation.
It was also claimed that because he was so high in the IRA and such a valuable informer, the British (FRU) had eliminated anybody who had threatened to expose him.
An FRU whistleblower said that at one time they had learned that Loyalist paramilitaries planned to kill Freddie. Instead, the FRU fed them information saying they had got the wrong man and their target should be Francisco Notarantonio, a 66-year old retired taxi driver.
Freddie was then moved to Guilford where he lived in a gated community under the name of Frank Conway. He had extremely high hedges around his property and refused to get involved with the rest of the community. He drove an expensive silver Mercedes car.
Once, when a neighbour introduced himself, he forgot his cover name and called himself ‘Michael’. The man said, “It was as if he couldn’t decide who he was.”
Another neighbour said, “He guarded his privacy, which is fine. He was different from the rest of the people round here. He stood out.”
Freddie owned a spaniel and eventually joined a local dog walking group. He had a short romance with one of the ladies he walked with.
On one occasion, he told one of the dog walkers that he used to be a spy – but she just laughed.
The choice of Guilford was ironic, as the IRA had bombed the ‘Horse and Groom’ pub there in 1974, killing five people and wounding 65. It led to the notorious ‘Guilford Four’ case, where four innocent men were imprisoned for years.
Freddie had been an active member of the IRA at the time of the atrocity.
In later years, Scappaticci was charged with alleged sexual offences. It went to trial, but he was discharged by Westminster Court. The Magistrate said to him, “You have not been before the court for fifty years – and that’s good character in my book. I can see you are not a well man at all, with serious health issues and that you lead a lonely life.”
Freddie still remained close to his wife Sheila. They never divorced and used to holiday together.
He made his last visit to his home city of Belfast in 2017, for his 99-year-old father’s funeral and was given extensive police protection.
Freddie was arrested in 2018 for abduction and murder but no charges were brought and he was immediately released.
However, he was arrested again in December 2018 for sexual offences and received a suspended sentence of three months. He said in his defense that he wasn’t harming anybody and it was due to the fact he suffered from depression.
Sheila died in 2019 but despite expectations, Freddie did not go to Belfast for her funeral.
Freddie suffered from a series of strokes following Sheila’s death.
In 2020, the Operation Kenova enquiry came to an end. They had over a thousand witness statements, 50,000 pages of evidence and it had cost £40 million. The enquiry concluded Freddie had ‘probably’ killed dozens of people. However, there was not a single prosecution because of it.
Freddie died a while ago, but still operating under the witness protection programme, information about his death has only just been released. The whereabouts of his burial remains unknown to the public.
RIP –Republican Informing Police
