Julian Grimau Garcia was 25 and a detective in Madrid when the Spanish Civil War broke out in 1936. But he was also a member of the Spanish Communist Party, and his professional police training soon landed him a key job in the Red apparatus. He became chief of "criminal investigations" for Madrid, Valencia and Barcelona, ferreting out supporters of Francisco Franco. Part of Grimau's job was to serve on kangaroo courts, called Chekas (after the onetime initials of the Soviet secret police), which ordered dozens of summary death sentences during the brutal three-year war.
After the Republican collapse Grimau fled, worked...
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