The Men Who Would Be King Club

The Kingdom-making business has been around for a long time. Men like Englishman (and eventually Rajah) Brooke of Sarawak bought a fast ship with a few naval guns. He used them to chase off pirates in exchange for giant chunks of Borneo. William Walker and a bunch of ne'er do wells ran Nicaragua with a Gatling gun and a few Colt Navy pistols. Hell, even I was offered in on a deal to take over a Caribbean island, so there still must be opportunities for adventurers out there.

The late '60s and early '70s were the glory years for mercenaries like "Mad" Mike Hoare, "Black" Jacques Schramme, and Bob Denard. They weren't bright or avaricious enough to grab the main bedroom in the royal palace instead of the barracks the first time around, but it didn't take them long to figure things out. Why support a tin pot ruler so they could continue to loot the national treasury to shop in Paris when you could loot the treasury and go shopping in Paris yourself? So if you want to join "The men who would be king club," here is a short list of the folks who thought big:

One of the more successful attempts was made by Bordeaux native Bob Denard who actually managed to run the Comoros Islands between 1978 and 1989. The Comoros are an Indian Ocean island group just northwest of Madagascar. The major export of the long forgotten islands is ylang-ylang, a rare flower used in the production of aromatic oils. On May 13, 1978, 49-year-old Denard landed with 46 men in a converted trawler named the Massiwa. He had sailed from Europe with his black uniformed crew to claim ownership of this tiny but idyllic group of islands.

Denard had been here before to train the soldiers of Marxist ruler Ali Soilih. Soilih was busy kicking out Ahmed Abdallah. Abdallah fled to Paris and later, short on funds but high on ambition, offered to cut Denard in on the deal if he would return him to power. The deal was rumored to be worth $6 million. Denard enjoyed his new role as "man who would be king." Soilih was a young despot who appointed a 15 year old to run the police department, burnt all government records, and after a witch doctor told him he would be killed by a white man with a black dog, he killed every black dog on the island. Abdallah took all the political heat as his puppet. Denard, a former vacuum cleaner salesman and policeman, had seen what a few trained soldiers could do in his various adventures as a mercenary in Katanga, Yemen and Benin. This time he was in charge. He landed quietly at night and proceeded to the palace to find Soilih in bed with three girls watching a pornographic movie. He shot him, and the next morning drove through town with Soilih's body draped over the hood. Denard had with him a black Alsatian. The crowds cheered and Denard became an able leader of the Comoros for 11 years with 12 other white mercenaries. He took a Comoran wife, bought a villa, converted to Islam and became Said Mustapha Madjoub.

During his reign, South Africa used the Comoros to ship arms to Iraq and monitor ANC training camps in Tanzania, the French used his islands to ship arms to the right wing Renamo guerillas. Finally after he (or someone else) shot the puppet ruler Abdallah in a heated argument, the tide turned against Denard. His presence angered the other African states to such a degree that the French arranged for Denard's resignation in 1989. Denard, disappointed and back in South Africa, spent his evenings planning his return to paradise. Sounds like a great premise for a sequel (See "The Man Who Would Be King Part V.")

The Dogs of War, by Frederick Forsyth, was published in 1974. Forsyth is said to have modeled the lead character in the book after Denard. In the book and in the film, a group of white mercenaries are hired to take over a West African country on behalf of an industrialist who finds it cheaper to take over the country rather than pay for its mineral resources. The movie ends with the mercenaries suddenly having a change of heart and installing an idealistic and honest leader. Naturally, the book and the film are fiction. Well, not completely, said an investigative report by London's Sunday Times. They claimed that The Dogs of War was based on a real incident instigated by the author. The Times claimed that in 1972 Forsyth allegedly put up just under a quarter of a million dollars ($240,000) to overthrow President Francisco Macias Nguema of Equatorial Guinea. Forsyth was no stranger to the murky world of mercenaries, since he had spent considerable time in Nigeria covering the Biafran civil war. While he was there, he met a Scottish mercenary named Alexander Ramsay Gay. Gay was only too happy to train and equip a small group of men who would set up a homeland for the defeated Biafrans. It is reputed that Gay was able to purchase automatic weapons, bazookas and mortars from a Hamburg arms dealer, then hire 13 other mercenaries along with 50 black soldiers from Biafra. They then purchased a ship called the Albatross out of the Spanish port of Fuengirola. The plot was blown when one of the British mercs shot himself after a gunfight with London police. The mercenaries were denied an export permit for their weapons and ammunition, and the ship and crew were arrested in the Canary Islands en route to their target.

Forsyth denies the story or any participation in the plot and admits to nothing more than writing a solidly researched book.

Dublin-born "Mad" Mike Hoare was hired by persons unknown (most say former premier Mancham in cahoots with South Africa) to take over the Seychelles, a nation of 92 islands 1000 miles off East Africa. Hoare served in the Royal Armored Corps in World War II and left with the rank of Major. He emigrated to South Africa after the war and made ends meet by being a safari guide, car dealer and accountant, until he was hired by Moise Tshombe in 1964 to help him defeat rebels. Hoare put together about 200 male white mercenaries and led probably the last efficient use of a mercenary army in Africa-to save lives and put down a revolt in the Belgian Congo.

Hoare's last big gig (Major Hoare does not work too often due to his high price tag) was a Keystone cops affair that would seem to be the result of a bad scriptwriter rather than real political intrigue. They were supposed to overthrow the socialist government of President Albert Rene of the Seychelles and to take control of the idyllic Indian Ocean archipelago. In December of 1981 their plan of flying in as a visiting rugby team quickly unraveled when customs inspectors found heavy weapons in the bottom of their gym bags. A brief shoot-out between the 52 raiders and police ensued on the tarmac with the mercenaries' transportation being quickly hijacked and flown back to safety in South Africa. It was not known for whom or why this was done, but suspicion falls on the South African government. Some analysts believe that Hoare backers were South African businessmen looking for a tax haven. A Durban newspaper charged that several of the mercenaries were South African policemen.

The leniency with which the mercenaries were treated back in South Africa adds to that suspicion. The 44 mercenaries who made it back were put on trial (wearing beach shirts and khakis) not for hijacking the Air India aircraft, which would have meant a mandatory five to 30 years in jail; they were charged with kidnapping which requires no mandatory penalty.

The South African Cabinet also approved the freeing on bail of 39 of the 44 mercenaries on the condition they keep a low profile and not discuss the coup attempt. Five mercenaries were arrested in the Seychelles and it is assumed that three others are dead or hiding in the hills.

Others blame ousted Seychelles President James Mancham, who was exiled after Rene's successful 1977 coup. Although Mancham denied the accusation, one of the captured mercenaries had a tape recording of Mancham's victory speech intended for broadcast after the coup. Oops. The soldiers for hire were paid $1000 each and were promised $10,000 if the coup was successful.

Rolf Steiner was a member of Hitler's Youth (Hitler Jugend). He joined the French Foreign Legion at the age of 17 in 1950. He fought at Dien Bien Phu and in Algeria and made the mistake of joining the anti-De Gaulle OAS-finding himself a drummed out corporal chief and a civilian.

In the fall of 1967, Biafra was busy spending oil money and French secret service funds on hiring mercenaries from Swedish pilot Count von Rosen (pilots were paid between $8000 and $10,000 per month in cash to fly in supplies) and paying Swiss public relations firms to publicize their plight. Money flowed freely; grisly battle-scarred veterans like Roger Faulques were paid 100,000 British pounds to hire 100 men for six months but only delivered 49. He was asked to leave, but Steiner, one of the mercenaries he had hired, chose to stay.

In July of 1968 Steiner asked for and was given a group of commando-style soldiers and had great successes against the Russian-backed Nigerians. He was later given the rank of colonel and given command of thousands of soldiers. This created an instant Napoleon complex and Steiner experienced a series of military defeats and routs. He was reigned in by removal of his Steiner Commando Division and after an angry confrontation with the Biafran leader, Sandhurst-educated General Emeka Ojukwa, he was shipped out of the country in handcuffs.

Steiner then showed up in the Southern Sudan among the Anya Na fighting the Islamic North. He taught agriculture, defense, education and other essential civic skills to the animist tribes. For a brief shining moment, he was their de facto leader, until he was captured by the Ugandans and put on trial in Sudan in the mid-'70s. He was released after spending three years in a Sudanese prison where he was tortured and beaten. His captors' favorite tortures were hanging Steiner by his feet and stuffing peppers up (down?) his anus. Some say he was a crazed megalomanic; other say he tried to apply his skills to aid a tiny struggling nation. He died in South Africa of a kidney ailment.

They say sequels are never as interesting as the originals, and, in this case, they're right. Remember Bob Denard (see "The Man Who Would be King: Part I"). It seems that staring out the window got to be too much for him, so at the crusty old age of 66, Denard decided to give it one more go. On October 4, 1995, Denard and a group of 33 mercenaries (mostly French) rented a creaking fishing trawler and sailed back to the Comoros to recapture his little Garden of Eden where he had been King (actually, head of the Presidential Guard, watching over a puppet ruler) from 1978-1989.

They landed at night and quickly sprung their old buddies out of the islands' main jail; then they captured the two airports, the radio station and the barracks. After that, they rousted the doddering, 80-something Said Mohamed Djohar out of bed. By morning, Denard was on top and Djohar was a criminal charged with misrule and stealing government funds.

Two days later, the French government landed 600 troops and after a brief but halfhearted fight, the mercenaries were rounded up and Denard was shipped to France where he will be tried and jailed to keep him from island hopping again.

Papua New Guinea has had a dirty little bush war (as they are called in the trade) festering on the island on Bougainville. A large copper mine owned by Rio Tinto now called (RTZ-CRA) provided 45 percent of PNG's income, and now it was in the hand of a rag tag group of rebels who had the gall to just shut it down. The PNG Defense Force has been trained by the Aussies and the U.S. Special Forces since 1975. Enter Colonel (retired) Tim Spicer, the CEO of Sandlines, a U.K. based security, and Executive Outcomes (run by Chairman Nick van der Berg). Now it seems that EO had invented the equivalent of a Visa card for cash-strapped Third World countries that had rebel problems. He would take your collateral and get a piece of the mining action (or be paid by the mining company direct) in exchange for training and liberation services. In PNG's case about $46 million worth. Now, PNG would have been placed in a dire predicament if the rebels had captured a university or public broadcasting radio station, but luckily they grabbed a gold and copper mine instead that could be put back into business in a jiffy.

Well, this didn't sit well with the PNG military commander who was having a hard time getting bullets and uniforms for his men, let alone fair haired mercenaries complete with Russian gunships. He was a little riled that all this newly found dough was being spent on military tourists and proceeded to lock up the EO mercs and even invited fair haired Colonel Tim to stay behind to answer a few questions. Hell, EO was even going to fly their wounded to Brisbane, Australia, for medical care while the PNG ground pounders had to make do with local quacks. To make a long story short somebody cashed the 50 percent deposit, all the killer boys went back to SA and the rebels on Bougainville had a whoop up to celebrate the easiest victory they ever won. It seems the government figured it might be cheaper to sign a peace deal instead of killing all the islanders with high priced mercenaries. Well, good DP reader, was this a triple layer black op with a positive political spin or a Keystone Kontract Killer escapade? To find out contact: