CODE NAMES:None Known
In the autumn of 1941, Jane's husband became his newspaper's correspondent in Berlin, and she followed him there. After their divorce in 1943, she moved to Denmark, where she was employed at Skandinavisk Telegrambureau (Scandinavian news agency) in Copenhagen. She then returned to Sweden.
During her stay in Berlin, Jane had socialized with diplomats and reporters. This made intelligence officers take an interest in her, particularly Horst Gilbert who had served as an officer in the German army during the First World War. In January 1944 he and Jane (as a courier) succeeded in arranging a meeting with his old friend Kollontai in Stockholm. The same winter Jane had also met Regierungsrat Ernst Züchner at Gilbert's. The two men had discussed the possibility of a separate peace between Germany and the USSR. According to Züchner, Gilbert acted on behalf of admiral Canaris. On 14 Oct 1944 he was shot down in his office in central Copenhagen by a Danish resistance group led by the former nun Ella von Cappeln. He died from his wounds one month later.
In Sweden Horney had connections with Allied intelligence people, like the Special Operations Executive's Head of Danish cases, Ronald Turnbull. She also reported to the Swedish intelligence people Martin Lundqvist and Otto Danielsson. Danielsson considered using her further, as she "did not have moral scruples" when it came to looking up agents and pretending to be enamored with them. When interrogated, Jane informed Säpo that she had helped Gilbert in meeting Kollontai by contacting the TASS correspondent Alexander Pavlov in Stockholm; Pavlov was an agent for NKVD. Reportedly she also informed the Swedish Communist Per Meurling about German troop transports along the east coast of Sweden.
In Stockholm Jane was also in contact with Heinz Thorner, who in August 1944 wanted her help to get photos of German victims of Allied air raids printed in the American magazine Life. This failed, although Jane did fetch the photos in a flat in Rindögatan 42. In the same building she had meetings with members of the German resistance, and here the Norwegian Kai Holst was liquidated in June 1945.
In the summer of 1944, "Flame" informed another member of the Danish resistance, Frode Jakobsen, that he had been ordered to assassinate a Swedish lady, Jane Horney Granberg, and asked how Jakobsen felt about that. "Flame" did not survive the war, but according to Jakobsen he replied that he had never heard of her, and so had no opinion in the matter. "Flame" attempted in vain to assassinate Jane when she visited Copenhagen in July, and in August he left for Stockholm, hoping to succeed there. According to Jakobsen the murder was ordered by the English, via SOE, but in Sweden "Flame" explained that the order came from Denmark. SOE's management in Stockholm reportedly prevented it, and a week later "Flame" returned to Denmark.
On 14 Aug 1944 the illegal paper Information printed a warning against Jane Horney, claiming her to be a spy and informant, and describing her social circle. She was arrested by Swedish police on September 19, but set free after long interrogations.
At a party just after Christmas in 1944, members of the Danish resistance Sven Aage Geisler and Asbjørn Lyhne met Jane, who was attracted by Geisler's charm. Keeping her company in the following weeks, Geisler and Lyhne spent a fortune of the intelligence's money on the hectic Stockholm nightlife. Danes could not execute a Swedish citizen on Swedish territory. Instead they planned to make her trust them, and then lure her into returning to Denmark to clean herself of the allegations of espionage.
On 17 Jan 1945 she took the night train to Malmö, accompanied by Geisler, Lyhne and her friend Bodil Frederiksen (a female member of the Danish resistance who was going home, and thought the same about Jane). In Malmö the four of them spent the night at Grand hotel, where Jane's assassin had checked in already. Here they were waiting for an illegal passage across Øresund. A hotel porter later told the police that he, judging from their behavior, thought Jane and Geisler engaged to be married. When Jane was informed that Geisler and Lyhne were not coming over to Denmark with her, she insisted on hosting a farewell dinner at the hotel Savoy on the evening of January 19. After dinner at 10 p.m. Jane and Frederiksen left with the assassin in different taxis, until they reached Höganäs outside of Helsingborg. Just after midnight they left harbour in the fishing vessel Tärnan (the Tern).
Early in the morning of January 20 Jane was shot, her body entangled in iron chains and dropped in the sea. The murder was claimed to be undertaken on Swedish territory, at Larød north of Helsingborg, while Danish authorities claim that it happened on Danish territory. Those present were probably only the captain on Tärnan and the student "Jens", later identified as Hjalmar Ravnbo, who shot her.
Most likely the Danish intelligence officer Nils Bjarke Schou ordered the murder on behalf of SOE. The historian Hans Christiansen Bjerg claims in his book Ligaen that SOE was behind the assassination, but without sufficient documentation, whereas the journalist Erik Nørgaard in his book seems to think that the initiative came from the Danes, with the Brits taking on the responsibility later on.
Jane's father reported the case to the police. On his request the Swedish Foreign Office undertook an investigation of her death in July 1945. In July 1946 there was a meeting with among others the later prime minister Tage Erlander, Head of the Danish Home Office Eivind Larsen, and Frode Jakobsen. The Danes regarded it as proven that Jane had been a spy for the Germans, therefore was liquidated as an action of war, and that this had taken place in Danish waters. Säpo however doubted that she had been a German agent. As prime minister, Erlander stated in 1956 that Swedish police investigations had not proven her to be a spy: "That does not necessarily imply that she was innocent." In the following year the Malmö police concluded that it was not agent activity, but "love of adventure and sexual desire" which had motivated Jane to contact Germans.
At the meeting in July 1946, Frode Jakobsen presented both a written and an oral statement about the Horney case. It was untrue at central points, and Swedish police continued their investigation well into the 1950s. In October 1947 Asbjørn Lyhne (who in May that year had been sentenced to three months of jail for forging of documents) claimed to the police in Helsingborg to have participated in the murder. He claimed to be the one who had pretended to be Horney's boyfriend during the last two weeks ahead of the liquidation. Later however he tried to withdraw his confession. He was saved with the help of a phone call from Frode Jakobsen. In September 1983 Jakobsen explained about the phone call to the newspaper B.T. According to Jakobsen, Swedish police did not let Lyhne go until Jakobsen had assured them that the confession was "just bragging". Afterwards he had enjoined on Lyhne that he would be unable to help him a second time. About Geisler and Lyhne he stated that they were not "someone one wanted to have involved". Lyhne explained Jakobsen's helpfulness by claiming that he "knew something" about Jakobsen. In September 1948 Sven Aage Geisler was arrested in Malmö, suspected of the murder, but he denied this. Geisler was found killed in Denmark in November 1968.
Some contend that HorJaneey was not killed, but was replaced by her friend Bodil Frederiksen, who was killed in her place. Under this theory, Jane was taken to England, where she became a spy in service of the British intelligence during the Cold War, and died 3 Apr 2003, but this is not confirmed or considered to be likely, as Bodil Frederiksen is known to have lived until 1963. No documentation exists to prove that Jane was alive after January 1945. All documentation stating otherwise has been revealed as falsified.
An alternative theory is that her 1945 death was falsified as a deception prior to her involvement in the smuggling of Danish Princess Margrethe and another royal family member to safety in Sweden. This same source claims that Jane Horney is a pseudonym; she was actually named Janina Radziwill-Hamilton, daughter of Major Count Michael Jacek Radziwill-Hamilton. This version states that she died on 3 Apr 2003 in London of a heart attack at the age of 84 years.
Early in the morning of January 20 Jane was shot, her body entangled in iron chains and dropped in the sea. The murder was claimed to be undertaken on Swedish territory, at Larød north of Helsingborg, while Danish authorities claim that it happened on Danish territory. Those present were probably only the captain on Tärnan and the student "Jens", later identified as Hjalmar Ravnbo, who shot her.
Most likely the Danish intelligence officer Nils Bjarke Schou ordered the murder on behalf of SOE. The historian Hans Christiansen Bjerg claims in his book Ligaen that SOE was behind the assassination, but without sufficient documentation, whereas the journalist Erik Nørgaard in his book seems to think that the initiative came from the Danes, with the Brits taking on the responsibility later on.
Jane's father reported the case to the police. On his request the Swedish Foreign Office undertook an investigation of her death in July 1945. In July 1946 there was a meeting with among others the later prime minister Tage Erlander, Head of the Danish Home Office Eivind Larsen, and Frode Jakobsen. The Danes regarded it as proven that Jane had been a spy for the Germans, therefore was liquidated as an action of war, and that this had taken place in Danish waters. Säpo however doubted that she had been a German agent. As prime minister, Erlander stated in 1956 that Swedish police investigations had not proven her to be a spy: "That does not necessarily imply that she was innocent." In the following year the Malmö police concluded that it was not agent activity, but "love of adventure and sexual desire" which had motivated Jane to contact Germans.
At the meeting in July 1946, Frode Jakobsen presented both a written and an oral statement about the Horney case. It was untrue at central points, and Swedish police continued their investigation well into the 1950s. In October 1947 Asbjørn Lyhne (who in May that year had been sentenced to three months of jail for forging of documents) claimed to the police in Helsingborg to have participated in the murder. He claimed to be the one who had pretended to be Horney's boyfriend during the last two weeks ahead of the liquidation. Later however he tried to withdraw his confession. He was saved with the help of a phone call from Frode Jakobsen. In September 1983 Jakobsen explained about the phone call to the newspaper B.T. According to Jakobsen, Swedish police did not let Lyhne go until Jakobsen had assured them that the confession was "just bragging". Afterwards he had enjoined on Lyhne that he would be unable to help him a second time. About Geisler and Lyhne he stated that they were not "someone one wanted to have involved". Lyhne explained Jakobsen's helpfulness by claiming that he "knew something" about Jakobsen. In September 1948 Sven Aage Geisler was arrested in Malmö, suspected of the murder, but he denied this. Geisler was found killed in Denmark in November 1968.
Some contend that HorJaneey was not killed, but was replaced by her friend Bodil Frederiksen, who was killed in her place. Under this theory, Jane was taken to England, where she became a spy in service of the British intelligence during the Cold War, and died 3 Apr 2003, but this is not confirmed or considered to be likely, as Bodil Frederiksen is known to have lived until 1963. No documentation exists to prove that Jane was alive after January 1945. All documentation stating otherwise has been revealed as falsified.
An alternative theory is that her 1945 death was falsified as a deception prior to her involvement in the smuggling of Danish Princess Margrethe and another royal family member to safety in Sweden. This same source claims that Jane Horney is a pseudonym; she was actually named Janina Radziwill-Hamilton, daughter of Major Count Michael Jacek Radziwill-Hamilton. This version states that she died on 3 Apr 2003 in London of a heart attack at the age of 84 years.
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