Editing Benjamin Franklin (section)

=== Agent for British and Hellfire Club membership ===
Franklin is known to have occasionally attended the [[Hellfire Club]]'s meetings during 1758 as a non-member during his time in England. However, some authors and historians would argue he was in fact a British spy. As there are no records left (having been burned in 1774<ref>''City of Blood, Cities of the Underworld'' – History Channel 2 (H2), 2008</ref>), many of these members are just assumed or linked by letters sent to each other.<ref>Ashe, Geoffrey. ''The Hell-Fire Clubs: A History of Anti-Morality''. Great Britain: Sutton Publishing, 2005, p. 121.</ref> One early proponent that Franklin was a member of the Hellfire Club and a double agent is the historian [[Donald McCormick]],<ref>{{Cite web|title="Famous British Historian claims Benjamin Franklin Was A British Spy", by Richard Deacon|url=https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/fc/deacononfranklin.html|access-date=December 30, 2022|website=msuweb.montclair.edu}}</ref> who has a history of making controversial claims.<ref>{{cite book | title=Hayek: A Collaborative Biography | chapter=Donald McCormick: 2 + 2 = 5 | last=Spence | first=Richard B. |date = January 15, 2015| page=236 | publisher=Palgrave Macmillan | isbn=978-1-137-45242-9|quote=The question at the heart of this volume is the reliability, indeed, the fundamental honesty, of Donald McCormick, best known under his nom de plume, Richard Deacon. As the chapters generally attest, 'Deacon' McCormick could be an unreliable, even misleading, source.}}</ref>