Introducing... Codename Badger

Summary

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Toil and Trouble: Introducing... Codename Badger (February 9, 2026)

Overview

In this special introductory episode, Always True Crime presents the first episode of "Codename Badger," an enthralling new series explored by journalist Eugene Henderson and co-producer Andy Clark, with perspectives from Nikki Hibbing, the daughter of one of the key figures. The episode delves into the mysterious circumstances that upended the Mills family’s life in 1955, beginning with the unexplained death of Major Robbie Mills, followed by the sudden appearance of enigmatic “Captain” John Cattell—a man whose stories of espionage, betrayal, and covert operations would shape the family’s destiny for decades.

This is a gripping true crime tale filled with secrecy, manipulation, and trauma, as Henderson and Clark reconstruct a saga stretching from postwar England to the shadowy corridors of British intelligence and beyond.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Tragic Death of Robbie Mills

• Setting the Scene (02:14–03:56)

  • 1955, Torbay, England: Major Robbie Mills, a charismatic and sociable army officer, falls to his death from a gangplank after a party aboard HMS Untiring.
  • "But his death is just the beginning." – Eugene Henderson (03:34)

• Initial Aftermath (03:56–04:40)

  • Robbie’s wife, Josephine, is told it was a tragic accident. Within weeks, a mysterious man appears at her door with an alternative story.

2. Enter: Captain John Cattell

• The Intruder with Secrets (04:41–06:41)

  • John Cattell presents himself as Robbie’s best friend and a military spy, hinting that Robbie’s death was no accident but punishment for being “a liability” to higher powers.
  • “Your children... when remember the traumas we all had when Robbie was alive and the desperate attempt he was making to sort out life and to live it. But in fact he did say to you Joe, didn't he? That he didn't think he'd last very long.” – John Cattell (06:23)

• Josephine’s Vulnerability (07:37)

  • Josephine, a young widow with four children, becomes increasingly reliant on John, seeking answers others won't—or can't—provide.

3. Family Memories: Nikki and Andrew Hibbing

• The Children’s Perspective (08:00–10:25)
  • Nikki, the eldest daughter, and Andrew, her brother, recall John’s unsettling integration into the family. Nikki resents him taking her father’s place and possessions.
  • “He seemed to sort of slot into the house. I think he even sat in my father's chair at the dining table, which I didn’t like.” – Nikki (10:25)
  • Andrew describes John as, “big, powerful, dark... an odd character... we didn’t really get to know him.” (10:38–11:44)

4. Shadows of Espionage

• Covert Operations and Paranoia (12:22–13:15)
  • Josephine spends hours decoding the personal columns in The Daily Telegraph, trying to find hidden messages possibly sent by John.
  • “She never explained what was going on... as if secret messages were being conveyed through this personal column...” – Nikki (12:40)

5. John Cattell’s Extraordinary Past

• Wartime Recollections & SOE Recruitment (13:55–16:02)

  • John recounts his dramatic military career, including a harrowing initiation in the woods, and missions as an SOE agent (Special Operations Executive).
  • “It was a strange kind of initiation really, when you think about it. Being dropped in the woods at night, armed with two knives, knowing a convicted murderer, also armed with two knives, was in the very same woods...” – Actor as John Cattell (16:02)

• Daring Missions (18:22–21:10)

  • Claims of being personally briefed by Churchill, operating under the codename “Badger,” suffering torture and narrowly escaping execution.
  • “The volley filled the air and the wall behind me shuddered and I stood there dazed. The shots had deliberately gone over my head. No bullet had touched me.” – Actor as John Cattell (20:02)
  • Liberation from Buchenwald by Patton’s army (21:10)

6. Strains, Scams, and Scandal

• Turbulence at Home (23:03–24:53)

  • Nikki remembers John’s behaviors: feigning illness after meals, taking her father’s clothes, causing childhood resentment.
  • “She would also give him my father’s clothes....we hadn’t really been offered anything to remember our father by, whereas he seemed to take priority.” – Nikki (24:10)

• John’s Chaotic Life (24:53–26:14)

  • Frequent injuries, late night calls compelling Josephine to bail him from jail, citing espionage-related troubles and car accidents.

• Criminal Charges and Doubt (26:16–27:10)

  • Arrested for theft (coins from phone boxes; later for shoplifting olives). His defense claims “inadequate personality”. John maintains these are covers for secret missions in Hungary and Budapest.

7. Lasting Trauma and Unresolved Questions

• Josephine’s Sacrifices (27:10–28:55)

  • Josephine gives John large sums of money, holds onto hope for answers about Robbie’s fate, forever absorbed in his mystique.

• Nikki’s Enduring Mystery (28:55–29:07)

  • “We couldn’t process our own grief at losing our father and left… in this complete vacuum.” – Nikki (29:04)

• John’s Final Tapes (29:12–29:39)

  • John leaves cryptic recordings, hinting at secrets too dangerous to share, and possible threats to his own safety.
  • “There’s some things I can't say under pain of imprisonment, without trial or being detained during Her Majesty's pleasure indefinitely.” – John Cattell (29:31)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the impact of secrets:
  "This short tape will be unsatisfactory to people who might hear it in 30, 40, 50 years time. But at this particular moment, it is not a good idea to say anymore." — John Cattell (29:12)

• On inherited trauma:
  "We couldn’t process our own grief at losing our father and left… in this complete vacuum." — Nikki Hibbing (29:04)

• On John’s enigmatic presence:
  "He seemed to sort of slot into the house. I think he even sat in my father's chair at the dining table, which I didn’t like." — Nikki Hibbing (10:25)

• On wartime initiation:
  "Being dropped in the woods at night, armed with two knives, knowing a convicted murderer, also armed with two knives, was in the very same woods..." — Actor as John Cattell (16:02)

• On survivor’s bravado and secrecy:
  "I was not very brave, I can assure you. I tried to be." — John Cattell (29:25)

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Important Timestamps

• 02:14 — HMS Untiring incident & Robbie Mills’ death
• 04:41 — John Cattell’s first visit to Josephine
• 10:25 — Nikki’s childhood discomfort with John in the house
• 13:55–14:34 — John discusses his military recruitment and initiation into SOE
• 16:02 — Dramatic retelling of John’s “initiation”
• 18:22 — Churchill, the codename “Badger," and dangerous missions
• 20:02 — Mock executions by the SS
• 21:10 — Buchenwald liberation recap
• 24:10 — Nikki’s resentment over her father’s clothes
• 26:16 — Phone box theft charge and court drama
• 29:04 — Nikki on lasting family trauma
• 29:12–29:39 — John’s mysterious sign-off and hints at further danger

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Tone & Style

The episode blends evocative oral history with elements of spy thriller and family drama, capturing the bewilderment, sadness, and ongoing mystery that continue to haunt the Hibbing family. Primary voices—Eugene Henderson’s serious, investigative narration and the emotional perspectives from Nikki and Andrew Hibbing—are punctuated by John Cattell’s self-mythologizing explanations, creating a sense of intrigue and unresolved menace.

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Summary

This opening of "Codename Badger" paints a vivid picture of a family ensnared by the aftershocks of war, secrets, and the chaotic orbit of a man who may have been a spy, a conman, or both. The first episode sets the stage for a deeper dive into one of the UK’s most peculiar unsolved postwar mysteries, inviting listeners to follow the threads of obsession, deception, and loss as the story unfolds.

Next time: The investigation continues as Eugene and Andy unearth more evidence—will they crack the enigma behind “Codename Badger,” or will the secrets stay buried forever?

Transcript

[Tom]

Welcome to Always True Crime, a podcast network bringing you gripping real life stories that you won't be able to stop thinking about. Discover your next true crime obsession at Always True crime dot com.

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[Nikki Hibbing]

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[Tom]

Hi, it's Tom from Always True Crime, the podcast network that's packed full of gripping tales of true crime. I want to tell you about the next series that will have you hooked. After listening to toil and trouble, codename Badger uncovers the true story of a mysterious spy who appears at the door of a grieving widow claiming her husband's death is not all that it seems. What follows is a lifetime of secrecy, espionage and control. But who's telling the truth? Here's episode one.

[John Cattell]

I would quote you from Cicero, who said long ago, a nation survives its falls and even the ambitious, but it cannot survive treason from within.

[Angel Soft Advertiser]

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[John Cattell]

39 years ago about the events before and after. But not all, of course.

[Narrator (Eugene Henderson)]

It's 1955 and Royal Navy submarine HMS Untiring lies in a dock in the harbour at Torbay in England. Inside the vessel, several uniformed men attend a meeting. They're not planning post wartime maneuvers or covert ops, rather a party. And even the planning of the party is something of a party. The pink gins are flowing. One of the men is Robbie Mills. He's a dark haired and handsome 38 year old army major. Robbie's gregarious and sociable and perfectly suited for his job on this night organizing a get together with comrades. As the night draws to a close, they begin to make their way unsteadily to land. The submarine's at the surface, but they have to walk down a gangplank to the port. But it's raining and the sea is rough. The gangplank pitches from one side to another. This short walk will be his last. One minute Robbie's there, the next he's gone the meters from shore. But before the nearby crew can do anything, he's vanished beneath the dark waves. He's pulled from the water alive. But it's too late. Within 24 hours, Robbie Mills is dead. But his death is just the beginning. I'm Eugene Henderson and this is codename Badger. A story of secrecy, espionage and control that spans a lifetime. This is episode one, the Stranger. Robbie leaves behind his wife Josephine and four young children. Investigators tell her how he died falling from the gang plank as he left the submarine. The swell had made it unstable and his wife has no reason to disbelieve them. But within weeks of her husband's death, a stranger knocks on the door of Josephine's cottage in Devon. And what he tells her about the death of Major Robbie Mills will change her life forever.

[John Cattell]

But in fact, he did say to you, Joe, didn't he? That he didn't think he'd last very long.

[Andrew Hibbing]

He was big, powerful, dark.

[John Cattell]

I was trained in a very, very hard field. Kind of killer. And a parachutist.

[Narrator (Eugene Henderson)]

The man knocking on Josephine's door introduces himself as Captain John Cattell, Robbie's best friend. During the war, Robbie was stationed at the army's command centre in London, A vast information hub bringing in wartime updates. When the war ended, Robbie returned to the family quarry business. But that wasn't the end of his military career. He remained in the army part time. The man at the door is dashing and charismatic. He and Josephine haven't formally met, but she thinks she remembers him from social events. But he's not just paying his respects. He has an urgent message for Josephine. Her husband was not all he seemed. And his death, it was no accident. John tells her Robbie's work was really a cover story. In fact, he and John both work for the military secret service. But Robbie had got into trouble. His lifestyle had caught up with him. Josephine knows exactly what he's talking about. The fact that Robbie was a womanizer is not a well kept secret. And he was a social animal, always the last to leave a party. John says this was Robbie's downfall. That those who ran the show felt he was a liability. He'd like to tell her more, only it's dangerous for both of them. Possibly deadly.

[John Cattell]

Your children when remember the traumas we all had when Robbie was alive and the desperate attempt he was Making to sort out life and to live it. But in fact he did say to you Joe, didn't he? That he didn't think he'd last very long.

[Narrator (Eugene Henderson)]

That is John Kettle's voice investigating this story. We were given access to hours of tape recordings. In this one he's talking to Josephine, who he calls Joe.

[Nikki Hibbing]

I think I've probably told children that at some time or another seemed that's upset at the idea. Apart from the fact that he was worried what would happen to us.

[John Cattell]

The problem was that Ravi was involved in certain work he wasn't able to talk about. And although he was not employed by the government, he was certainly responsible to them even after the war, as you probably realize now. But of course I am saying nothing that I should not do for fear of repercussions.

[Nikki Hibbing]

Yes, I realized that you can then say about half of what ready masses.

[Narrator (Eugene Henderson)]

Josephine is a petite brunette with a slender frame and fresh complexion. She looks much younger than her 34 years now. She's been left with no husband and four young children and she's desperately traumatized. Perhaps this enigmatic stranger's entry into her life will be a blessing.

[Nikki Hibbing]

The first recollection she had of him or I have of was in about the spring of 1956.

[Narrator (Eugene Henderson)]

That's Josephine and Robbie's eldest daughter, Nikki.

[Nikki Hibbing]

Hibben came to the door and she invited him in. Then when he appeared in the house, chatted to her and then went away and then came back and he was there back and forth. He was a man who said he'd been a great friend of my father. Although my mother didn't really have any recollection of him.

[Narrator (Eugene Henderson)]

Nikki is how this story came to me. I'm a journalist who's been in the newspaper business for over 30 years. I'm very lucky to now live in the southwest of France and Nikki is one of my neighbors. Imagine a gray haired, very English doctor enjoying her retirement. She lives in a farmhouse built in 1856 with thick stone walls and dart wood. Out back there was once a vineyard, now rolling fields with sunflowers. Once it became clear Nicky had a story to tell, I enlisted the help of my old friend and radio journalist, Andy Clark. We met way back at university in the mid-1980s.

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[Narrator (Eugene Henderson)]

You know.

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And you've known Nikki then for a few years now?

[Narrator (Eugene Henderson)]

Yeah, about three or four years. Yeah.

[Angel Soft Advertiser]

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[Narrator (Eugene Henderson)]

Yeah. And it's. It's really an untold part of the story because what happened to her mother over the course of five decades is bizarre.

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[Narrator (Eugene Henderson)]

Quite incredible.

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[Narrator (Eugene Henderson)]

Anyway, at the gates.

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Nice bell here. That's a good one, isn't it? Hi, Nikki. Hi. How are you doing?

[Nikki Hibbing]

Thank you.

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[Narrator (Eugene Henderson)]

Andy and I joined Nikki in her farmhouse one warm afternoon in June. She handed us a dossier, hoping to solve a mystery spanning half a century, which ruined more than one life. And she told us about the spy who came calling. When John Cattell burst into Nicky's life, she was only nine.

[Nikki Hibbing]

He seemed to sort of slot into the house. I think he even sat in my father's chair at the dining table, which I didn't like.

[Narrator (Eugene Henderson)]

Nicky's younger brother Andrew, remembers John's arrival and the impact it had on Nicky.

[Andrew Hibbing]

He was big, powerful, dark, and we didn't know get to know him very well in those first few visits. He was sort of in and out or in the spare room for, you know, and we didn't really see much of him. My mother kept him away from us. Later on, we saw a little bit more of him. He kept visiting and my elder sister Nikki, did not like him at all. She was possibly 9 years old, 9, 10. And I think she did not like him replacing my father. But he was odd in the way he talked with my mother, and it was very, very difficult to understand who he was. It was said that he was a friend of my father's, but it, you know, he was an odd character in the family, really.

[Narrator (Eugene Henderson)]

With four young children to raise, Josephine had enough on her plate. But Andrew says her taking in waifs and strays wasn't out of character.

[Andrew Hibbing]

She just looked after people. We had other people who needed looking after. There was a traveling sales lady who was selling mops and brooms and things, and my mother felt sorry for her, so she came and stayed. And strange things happened like that. My mother was a very, very kind.

[Narrator (Eugene Henderson)]

Person and she's entranced with John.

[Nikki Hibbing]

She used to spend a lot of time sitting on her bed upstairs, where she had a telephone on the phone to him, with a newspaper in front of her. The Daily Telegraph.

[Narrator (Eugene Henderson)]

When John wasn't with her, he was using covert methods to communicate, looking in.

[Nikki Hibbing]

The personal column, trying to find or trying to understand secret messages. It seemed to be. She never explained what was going on, but she would sit there for a long, long time and most days, as if secret messages were being Conveyed through this personal column of the Daily Telegraph.

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[John Cattell]

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[Nikki Hibbing]

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[Narrator (Eugene Henderson)]

Simple. John had had a remarkable military career, beginning in the Army.

[John Cattell]

The war was on and everybody who was fit had to go into the Army.

[Narrator (Eugene Henderson)]

This is the real John speaking to an American radio station.

[John Cattell]

I went into the army as a driver in the Royal Army Service Corps. I had been in the Officers Training Court School, which gave me some advantage.

[Narrator (Eugene Henderson)]

But then he was handpicked for something else.

[John Cattell]

I went before the Commission Board and was rejected on the grounds that I was not officer material and so very unhappy. I went back to being an ordinary soldier. But eventually I was commissioned and I got into an organization called Special Operations Executive.

[Narrator (Eugene Henderson)]

The Special Operations Executive, or soe, a clandestine British military unit whose mission was to disrupt and destroy behind enemy lines.

[Tom]

Special Operations Executive was an organization that was created in July 1940 in order to plug a gap.

[Narrator (Eugene Henderson)]

This is spy expert and author Nigel West.

[Tom]

It's worth explaining that at the beginning of the Second World War, the British Secret Intelligence Service operated quite widely around the world. But it operated somewhat transparently through a cover organization which was the passport control officers. It became a very important organization. It trained tens of thousands of agents and operated literally across the world, across the Middle east and the Far East.

[Narrator (Eugene Henderson)]

John's accounts of his time in the SOE were incredible. At just 18, he had been working as a driver in the army when an officer approached him and suggested he could be useful in the cloak and dagger world of the soe. But first he would have to undergo the most incredible test of bravery. These are John's words, voiced by actor Guy Harris. We'll tell you when you're hearing the real John.

[Angel Soft Advertiser]

It was a strange kind of initiation really, when you think about it. Being dropped in the woods at night, armed with two knives, knowing a convicted murderer, also armed with two knives was in the very same woods. He'd been told he'd been given his freedom. If he killed me, I knew this was a lie. But he didn't know that. And what did it matter? It was kill or be killed. I told myself killing this man would be self preservation, not murder. It was a clear night. I knew that if I backed up to a tree, he wouldn't be able to attack from behind. But then I wouldn't be able to see him coming either. So I climbed. And waited. And waited. Hours passed. I slowed my breathing and despite my stiffening body, I focused on the sounds around me. I smelt him first. The breeze carried him to me. And then I saw him, tall but slight, with blonde hair. As he passed beneath me, I jumped for him. He went down and I heard him gasp. I went down too, but was up first. We circled each other, knives held low. As he lunged, I caught his wrist and pulled him forward so that I could kick him and throw him over my head to the ground. I was on him, my left knee in his back and left forearm under his chin. I swiftly drew the knife across his throat. I stood over this dying man with no idea of the journey that was about to begin.

[Narrator (Eugene Henderson)]

Initiation complete. Naturally, the details of John's wartime experiences were shrouded in secrecy. But he spoke of receiving the orders for his first mission to the Netherlands in person from Winston Churchill at 10 Downing Street.

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I said, Sir, I don't know how to speak Dutch. Churchill replied, you have a week to learn.

[Narrator (Eugene Henderson)]

He was also handed his codename, Badger. These bodies show the scars of battle.

[Nikki Hibbing]

They told us that he'd had a bayonet which had had sliced his stomach and there was the scar from it. And as a result he had a very small stomach and couldn't really eat very much.

[Narrator (Eugene Henderson)]

He told them he had received the baner injury at the Battle of Arnhem in 1944, during Operation Market Garden, the planned Allied push through the Netherlands into Germany. On a heavily fortified bridge, he single handedly captured a machine gun and killed Nazi General Major Friedrich Kassan and three soldiers. It was this action that won him one of Britain's highest military honors, the Military Cross. But he was injured in the gunfire exchange and taken to hospital, where he was captured and his fate seemingly sealed.

[Angel Soft Advertiser]

A German staff car was waiting and the rope around my neck was tied to the bumper with about two feet of slack. I hung onto the rope and tried to keep up with the car. I'm sure I made a pathetic sight to anyone on the street. And I'm also sure that I was being used as an example of what could happen to those who incurred the wrath of the Germans. Once the car stopped suddenly and I banged into it, my nose was bruised and bloody.

[Narrator (Eugene Henderson)]

John suffered days of brutal torture at the hands of fanatical SS officers. After a trial lasting just 12 minutes, he was sentenced to death for crimes against the Third Reich. Before dawn, he was marched outside to face the firing squad.

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The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not be in want. He restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his namesake. I was reciting the 23rd Psalm over and over to myself. Placed against the wall, I leaned back to conceal the fact I was shaking. I hoped it would be quick. An SS officer came forward and offered me a blindfold. But I shook my head that I did not want it. I heard the click of rifles and a moment later the order to fire. The volley filled the air and the wall behind me shuddered and I stood there dazed. The shots had deliberately gone over my head. No bullet had touched me.

[Narrator (Eugene Henderson)]

Over the following days, John somehow survived four more mock executions until he was driven to Buchenwald concentration camp, one of the first and largest of the Nazi concentration camps in Germany. By the end of the war, almost 57,000 people died there. He survived for many months, but only just.

[John Cattell]

I didn't know many British troops got to Buchenwald as prisoners.

[Narrator (Eugene Henderson)]

Here's John speaking to an American radio station.

[John Cattell]

Well, I think there were more than one realized. Henri Pilloway sounds very French, but Henri was British and in the same organization as myself. Wing Commander Yeo Thomas, the Frenchman, he was also there. Colonel Perkins, he was the man who warned me. He said this is the worst concentration camp in Germany. Have no doubts. I was only there less than six months because we were liberated by General George Patton's 3rd Army. In April 45, Buchenwald was liberated and.

[Narrator (Eugene Henderson)]

John's war was finally over. It's a little more than a decade later when John arrived in Josephine's life. She knows he has a wife and two, two young children, so the relationship is platonic. He's there on Robbie's behalf and he seems vulnerable himself. He tells her his experiences as a prisoner of war are still physically impacting him. He frequently vomits up meals, unable to hold them down due to the damage the bayonet has done to his stomach. Something that rather galled Nicky.

[Nikki Hibbing]

He had these substantial breakfasts and then a little while later he would make quite a thing of going to the loo and making vomiting sounds and as if he was not able to keep it down, which seemed to me very sad because my mother had made him a big meal and if he couldn't keep it down, I thought as a child he shouldn't really have eaten it all.

[Narrator (Eugene Henderson)]

There's a picture of nine year old Nicky with John around this time. She's in riding gear, tweed jacket, riding breeches and a hat. Johnny's standing next to her with a hand cupped around the back of her neck. He's handsome, with brul creamed hair, a large mustache and round tortoise shell glasses. He's stylish too, in houndstooth slacks and a wool jumper. But Nikki looks uneasy. She is smiling, but barely. And she looks like the minute the camera's gone, she will duck away from the large hand resting on her. She'd lost her own father just months before.

[Nikki Hibbing]

I didn't take to him. I didn't. She would be very kind to him. She would feed him, but she would also give him my father's clothes. And I remember her taking him upstairs to my father's wardrobe and offering him the shirts and clothes that were in there. And I felt very miffed at the time because as children we hadn't really been offered anything to remember our father by, whereas he seemed to take priority and I didn't like it at all. So she just welcomed him in.

[Narrator (Eugene Henderson)]

His presence in the house is chaotic. He frequently arrives in Josephine's home with injuries.

[Nikki Hibbing]

He would appear at the door with various wounds. Afterwards, we discovered that she would repair his wounds and look after him. There was one time he had a burnt hand and he said it was a petrol bomb he'd been handling. And my brother remembers he came to stay for two or three days and mother looked after his burnt hands.

[Narrator (Eugene Henderson)]

Josephine is captivated by John, but also keenly aware that he is the key to unlocking the mystery of her husband's death. The chaos he brings to her door will be worth it when she finally gets answers.

[Andrew Hibbing]

There was general talk that he was in some way covert and he was being followed and he was being. You know, he had car accidents and people were beating him up.

[Narrator (Eugene Henderson)]

Then late one night, John calls.

[Nikki Hibbing]

He would ring her in the. At midnight, you know, she was a widow, four children, stuck in a remote village in Devon. And he would ring her, expecting her pay for him to be bailed from the police station.

[Narrator (Eugene Henderson)]

He's been arrested.

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[Narrator (Eugene Henderson)]

He's been taken in for questioning after a police sting investigating thefts of coins from phone boxes. John's arrested coming out of a phone kiosk with a pocket full of marked coins planted by police. In court, his lawyer says the accused is described as having an inadequate personality. He's sentenced to six months in Exeter Prison. Or is he?

[John Cattell]

West Hungary is rebel controlled.

[Narrator (Eugene Henderson)]

From the uniforms of border Guards, from the flags, the red star has been ripped. The hated symbol of Communism is effaced wherever found. John says it's a cover allowing him to leave the country undetected and travel to Budapest, where the Soviet tanks are rolling in. He's sent into the city to collect a precious roll of microfilm. In the process, he shoots dead two Soviet soldiers before making his escape via Vienna and back to the uk. John spending less and less time with Josephine. However, he's not home with his wife and children either. He's taken a number of flats in smart areas of London, close to the HQ at British Overseas Intelligence. But he's increasingly in trouble at work. He says the powers that be are using ever more sinister tactics to intimidate him, pulling him over, even jailing him in 1969 on trumped up charges, this time shoplifting olives from an upmarket store on the Kings Road in Chelsea. Josephine drives through the night to Malibu Court to support him. She's now working at the RAF research center at Boscombe, down with burgeoning computer technology, which means she's also bound by the Official Secrets Act. So she understands that the secrets he's carrying about Robbie must go with him to the grave. Then, in the 1974, John contacts Josephine. He needs cash, a lot of cash. More than £2,000. He can't say why, but it's vitally important. It's a huge amount, around 20 grand in today's money. But she gives it to him. Then he's gone. The handsome stranger with a secret who turned up on Josephine mills doorstep almost 20 years earlier has reshaped her entire life.

[Nikki Hibbing]

We couldn't process our own grief at.

[Narrator (Eugene Henderson)]

Losing our father and left Nikki Hibbing with a mystery she's still trying to solve 70 years later.

[Nikki Hibbing]

We were just left in this complete vacuum.

[Narrator (Eugene Henderson)]

Johnny's now gone and wherever he is, can he get a message through to Josephine?

[John Cattell]

This short tape will be unsatisfactory to people who might hear it in 30, 40, 50 years time. But at this particular moment, it is not a good idea to say anymore.

[Narrator (Eugene Henderson)]

Could he have been killed in the service of his queen and country?

[John Cattell]

I was not very brave, I can assure you. I tried to be.

[Narrator (Eugene Henderson)]

Has his double life finally caught up with him?

[John Cattell]

There's some things I can't say under pain of imprisonment, without trial or being determined during her maddister's pleasure indefinitely.

[Narrator (Eugene Henderson)]

That's next time on Codename Badger. This has been codename Badger an audio always production presented and produced by me, Eugene Henderson and Andy Clark. Our executive producer is Ailsa Rochester. Sound designed by Craig Edmond.

[Tom]

To hear the next episode, search for codename Badger. Wherever you get your podcasts or to listen to all episodes right now. Search for Always True Crime on Patreon.

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[Tom]

Want more True Crime? This podcast and loads more are part of the Always True Crime network. It's packed with box sets to binge and twisted tales you won't find anywhere else. Find your next podcast obsession at Always truecrime. Com.