James Bond Literary Wikia
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James Bond Literary Wikia
SPECTRE
Founder Ernst Stavro Blofeld
Leader Ernst Stavro Blofeld
Headquarters Paris, France
Status Defunct
Appearances
Novel(s) Thunderball
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
You Only Live Twice

SPECTRE (an acronym of Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion) is a global terrorist organisation. SPECTRE was founded and led by evil genius and villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld. SPECTRE is not aligned to any nation or political ideology and works purely for personal gain and profit.

SPECTRE's physical headquarters is in Paris, operating behind a front organisation aiding refugees (Firco).

Ideology[]

SPECTRE is effectively a commercial enterprise led by Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Their top-level members were 21 individuals, 18 of whom handled day-to-day affairs and were drawn in groups of three from six of the world's greatest criminal organisations—the former Gestapo, SMERSH, Marshal Tito's secret police, the Sicilian Mafia, the Unione Corse, and a massive heroin-smuggling ring based in Turkey.

History[]

Violet-Scented Breath

The SPECTRE meeting before Plan Omega

SPECTRE's first and last appearance as a worldwide power is in the novel Thunderball, published in 1961. In the novel, SPECTRE, headed by Blofeld, attempts to conduct nuclear blackmail against NATO. Apparently disbanded afterwards, SPECTRE is said to be active again in the next book, The Spy Who Loved Me, although the organisation is not involved in the plot. Bond describes investigating their activities in Toronto before the story begins.

In On Her Majesty's Secret Service, the second chapter of what is known as the "Blofeld Trilogy", Blofeld has revived SPECTRE and is hired by an unnamed country or party (though the Soviet Union is implied) is executing a plan to ruin British agriculture, and Blofeld's final appearance, sans SPECTRE, is in the final novel of the trilogy, You Only Live Twice.

Later, the John Gardner Bond novel, For Special Services introduces a revived SPECTRE led by Blofeld's daughter, Nena Bismaquer. Although Bond ultimately prevents SPECTRE from reforming, it continued, under the leadership of Tamil Rahani, to play a part in Role of Honour and Nobody Lives For Ever. The next Bond novelist, Raymond Benson, reintroduces Irma Bunt, Blofeld's assistant, in his short story "Blast From the Past", which is a sequel to You Only Live Twice.

Members[]

Name No. Description
Ernst Stavro Blofeld Ernst Stavro Blofeld 2 Leader and founder of SPECTRE.
Largo Emilio Largo 1 Second-in-command of SPECTRE and designated by Blofeld to oversee all field operations for Plan Omega.
Fonda 4 An Italian who recruited Petacchi for the plot.
Pierre Borraud Pierre Borraud 12 A member of the Unione Corse; had sex with a girl that he kidnapped for ransom. As a punishment, Blofeld electrocuted Borraud and returned half of the ransom money to the girl's father as compensation.
Marius Domingue 7 Another Unione Corse man; highly trustworthy, but singled out by Blofeld for a lecture in order to throw Borraud off guard.
Strelik 10 A former SMERSH member; shot dead by Largo for questioning the loyalty of the other SPECTRE members.
Unknown 11 Another ex-SMERSH operative.
Kotze 5 Formerly known as Emil Traut; an East German physicist who defected to the West. Later defects to NATO and reveals all he knows about SPECTRE.
Unknown 6 Kills Lippe at the behest of Blofeld for being unreliable.
Unknown 14 A former Gestapo officer.
Unknown 17 Finds Domino scanning the Disco Volante with a Geiger counter in search of the stolen atomic bombs; reports her to Largo, who takes her prisoner and tortures her.
Maslov 18 Formerly known as Kandinsky; a Polish electronics expert who resigned from Philips AG.
Irma Bunt ? Blofeld's matron at Piz Gloria who later becomes his wife in Japan.
Count Lippe ? Formerly with a Tong in Macau.
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