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London Sets Trial for Alleged Arsonist in Fire at Synagogue

August 16, 1965
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The only suspect arrested to date in the spate of arson attacks on London synagogues during the past 11 months will go on trial in Old Bailey next month on charges of setting fire to a synagogue last July 9. Aubrey Desmond Cadogan, 39, a textile company executive, was committed for trial after a hearing this weekend on charges of breaking into the Palmers Green and Southgate district synagogue, and setting it afire with oil. Cadogan pleaded not guilty and was held for trial, without bail. He has been under arrest five weeks.

Cadogan testified that his car, which Police Constable Anderson said he saw parked in a road near the synagogue the night of the fire, had been stolen. The constable identified Cadogan as the man he saw walking away from the road with an oil can in his hand shortly before the synagogue blaze was discovered. Prosecutor David Hopkin told the hearing that anti-Semitic and pro-German literature was found in Cadogan’s office.

In a related development, John Tyndall, British neo-Nazi and former associate of self-styled British “fuehrer” Colin Jordan, charged that a group of Jews was responsible for an attack by an unidentified gunman who drove by the bookstore owned by Tyndall, and fired several bullets into its windows. One bullet was reported to have missed him by inches. The Viking bookshop was opened by Tyndall recently to disseminate anti-Semitic propaganda. Tyndall said he was “sure” that a Jewish organization was responsible. The person he said was the leader of the alleged Jewish anti-fascist group, whose name was not disclosed, denied belonging to any such organization.

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