Editing Eddie Chapman (section)

==After the war==
[[File:Eddie Chapman with car.jpg|thumb|Chapman and his [[List of Rolls-Royce motor cars|Rolls-Royce]]]]
On his retirement, MI5 expressed some apprehension that Chapman might take up crime again when his money ran out and if caught would plead for leniency because of his highly secret wartime service. As predicted, he mixed with blackmailers and thieves and got into trouble with the police for various crimes, including smuggling gold across the Mediterranean in 1950.<ref>Bletchley Park Trust Museum display on Eddie Chapman</ref> More than once he had a character reference from former intelligence officers who confirmed his great contribution to the war effort.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Goldstein |first=Richard |date=December 20, 1997 |title=Eddie Chapman, 83, Safecracker and Spy |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/12/20/world/eddie-chapman-83-safecracker-and-spy.html |access-date=October 27, 2023}}</ref>

Chapman had his wartime memoirs serialised in France to earn money, but he was charged alongside co-defendant Wilfred Macartney under the [[Official Secrets Act]] and fined £50.<ref>{{Cite news |date=30 March 1946 |title=Secrets Case Heard In Camera |url=https://www.thetimes.com/tto/archive/article/1921-11-21/10/10.html#start%3D1921-11-16%26end%3D1921-11-22%26terms%3Dmacartney%26back%3D/tto/archive/find/macartney/w:1921-11-16%7E1921-11-22/1%26prev%3D/tto/archive/frame/goto/macartney/w:1921-11-16%7E1921-11-22/3 |work=[[The Times]] |pages=2}}</ref> A few years later, when they were due to be published in the ''[[News of the World]]'', the whole issue was pulped. However, his book ''The Eddie Chapman Story'' was eventually published in 1953.<ref name = obituaries/>

Chapman ghost-wrote the autobiography of [[Eric Pleasants]], a British citizen who joined the Germans and served in the [[British Free Corps]] of the [[Waffen-SS]] during the war. Chapman claimed to have met Pleasants while he was imprisoned in Jersey. ''I Killed to Live – The Story of Eric Pleasants as Told to Eddie Chapman'' was published in 1957.<ref>''I Killed To Live - the Story of Eric Pleasants as Told to Eddie Chapman'' Cassell & Company Ltd. 1957.<!-- ISSN/ISBN needed --></ref> In 1967, Chapman was living in Italy and went into business as an [[antiquarian]].<ref>Pierre Dumayet (Journalist: Pierre Dumayet, ''Eddie Chapman, ex-gangster, ex-espion.'' Serie: Cinq colonnes à la une. Producer.: JP Gallo. Broadcast 6 January 1967,) ''Eddie Chapman, ex-gangster, ex-espion.'' Producer: J-P Gallo. 6 January 1967.</ref>

Chapman and his wife later set up a [[health farm]] (Shenley Lodge, [[Shenley]], [[Hertfordshire|Herts]]) and owned a castle in Ireland. After the war, Chapman remained friends with Baron Stephan von Gröning, his Abwehr handler (wartime alias Doctor Graumann),<ref name=Bloomsbury/> who had fallen on hard times. Von Gröning later attended the wedding of Chapman's daughter.<ref name=obituaries/> Eddie Chapman died of heart failure on 11 December 1997. He was survived by his wife Betty, and a daughter.<ref name=obituaries/>