Of Frank Turple and the Hunter's Lodge

This is an odd story from my youth. Please move it to a more suitable forum... this is the only place I can think of putting it...

When I was about 8 or 9 years old -- 1977-78 -- my mother and I met her boss whilst out shopping in the town of Crewe, England. My mother worked as a cleaner at the time for a place called The Hunter's Lodge. When my mother's boss saw me for the first time she went nuts about how cute she though I was and insisted that I accompany my mother to work.

And so, for a few years, I helped my mother out at the weekends with the general cleaning duties and even at that age I took great pride in polishing the silver

Anyway, this went on until one evening after my mother and I had returned from work when things took a realy bad turn for the worse and shocked the whole area of Crewe & Nantwich in general.

Now, this is where I need some help as it involves an international arms dealer who I remember as Frank Turple. I remember that ITV's World in Action once made a documentary about him, too, in which he was considered one of the most dangerous men in the world.

The problem is, I have been unable to locate the name Frank Turple on the internet anywhere. And so I imagine that I might well have his name wrong.

In any case sometime before the events that were to unfold, my mother found that our neighbour, Gordon had started working there as a bar tender. She found this odd and asked of him... "Weren't you in the S.A.S.?!" Gordon replied that he was "between jobs."

The event itself was unbelivable... still is. One evening the place was held up for whatever reason by Turple's 'men'; the Lodge had recently changed hands to a woman who it turned out was Turple's wife! One of our friends, Peggy, was there at the time and told how the place was stormed by gunmen and they were held hostage at gunpoint. She told how she had to go to the bathroom at one point and how she would never the get the feeling of a gun in her back as she was escorted there.

A few hours later the place was taken by the S.A.S. It would appear that Gordon was there for a good reason and had never left the S.A.S.

So, I need to ask... does anyone remember this guy? I'm sure I have his name right but it's a long time ago. For that matter, is there anyone here other than me who even remembers this incident?

I remember it well, you do have the correct name. Frank was ex CIA and had used his contacts to launch his arms dealing business and also had links with a group of Hit men.

The lodge itself was raided by a special Police squad as was several properties in the UK and in the USA all at the same time. Frank got bail and fled the USA.