Mitchell WerBell III

WerBell was born in Philadelphia, the son of a Tsarist cavalry officer in the Imperial Army of Russia. Journalist Penny Lernoux described WerBell in her 1984 book In Banks We Trust as "a mysterious White Russian". In 1942 WerBell joined the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and served in China, Burma, and French Indochina. As a guerrilla operative during World War II, he carried out a secret mission for the OSS under the command of Paul Helliwell in China with E. Howard Hunt, Lucien Conein, John K. Singlaub and Ray Cline.

Following World War II, WerBell briefly worked as the director of advertising and public relations for Rich's, a department store in Atlanta, Georgia; he left after a year to open his own PR firm.

Death and courtroom poisoning claim

In the 1989 Cotton Club murder case of Roy Radin, Arthur Michael Pascal, then owner of a Beverly Hills security firm, testified that prosecution witness William Rider, Flynt's former brother-in-law and private security agent:"Told him of poisoning soldier of fortune Mitchell WerBell III in 1983 in order to take over WerBell's counterterrorist school based in Atlanta. Pascal said that Rider and Flynt poured four to six ounces of a digoxin, a powerful heart relaxant, into WerBell's drink during a cocktail party at Flynt's Los Angeles mansion. WerBell, 65, a security consultant for Flynt, died of a heart attack at UCLA Medical Center a few days later."Flynt and his attorney, Alan Isaacman, were in Bangkok and "unavailable for comment, according to a Hustler magazine spokeswoman" with "Isaacman characterized an earlier Rider claim of a Flynt-paid murder contract as 'fantasy'." Rider passed a polygraph test regarding "possible involvement in homicides", according to courtroom testimony. Pascal was later arraigned on a murder charge in 1991 due to tapes Rider provided investigators. In 1993, Pascal pleaded guilty to killing a prostitute.