'GENERAL' TEACHES HOW TO KILL AND

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000100210009-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 2, 2010
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: July 14, 1981
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/09/02 : CIA-RDP90-00806R000100210009-8
STAT-
1~.1~.lnzl
Q _13
plained McDaniel, an easygoing-'
man who can splatter a fly at 20
paces with a BB gun. "Don't think
about aiming, squeezing the trig-
ger or any of that. Just keep your.
eye on the target and shoot."
Within minutes, McDaniel had
his students hitting a penny in._
midair with a BB gun. Later in
the day they were doing just as
welI with pistols, rifles and shot
guns. They had mastered "quick
kill."
This was opening day fora new
class at Cobray_ International,
which has evolved from a com-
mando training center.- in..the
1960s into a counterterrorism
and survival school in the '80s. -
At the end of their 10-day course,
.the six young men - ranging .
from a long-haired bail bonds-
man to a former Marine who
wants to be a bodyguard - were
expertly schooled in the deadly-
arts.
"We teach people to kill and
hurt," says the school's headmas-
ter, Mitchell Livingston Werbell .
III, a flamboyant soldier of . for- ..
tune who combined the cobra
and the eel to come up with the
school's symbol.
It's about that simple. When
students leave Cobray they can
do both - expertly. All kinds of
people - international business
executives, bodyguards, law e:
forcement officials, doctors, law-
yers and their wives - come here"
to learn self-defense skillsand, as
the curriculum: suggests., much;;
more-
"It comes from the. non _
thinking side of the brain,".ex-
gia tobacco salesman turned mas-'
ter marksman, and listened care-
fully to his opening lecture on.
`instinct shooting ? .._ ,
,Y_. mod; SecDr6~aS.ifllfnr.+~_~j!l
,_x-Mercenary Runs
Ga. Survival School
POWDER SPRINGS, Ga.'- Six'
young men gathered around
Lucky McDaniel. a former Geor
w ~siagaco scar soft wry.
;arid: pauid?: Shribrnan-`
:G~u~ey
BY, Phil
THE ; lAS; r4GTCX\1 STA? (Gi i LINE)
14 Jullr 1981
For S3,000'---students get the
works - 10 daysof instruction by
former Green Berets and merce-
naries_in "quick-kill" shooting,
martial. arts,. map. reading, eva
sive- driving, convoy security,
hostage negotiations, scuba div-
ing,- terror-psychology, medical
trauma treatment, photo inter-
pretation, intelligence. gather-
ing., rifle analysis, site security,.
escape' and evasion techniques,
and-more.
They are taught to kill bythrow-
ing knives, screwdrivers and scis-
sors.'They1earn how to make their.,
.own- weapons from glass; barbed
wire, rusty can lids, rocks and sharp,'
Sticks.-
The. Cobray school is located on
Werbell's 66-acre estate of pine trees
? and ponds in this Atlanta-suburb:
There is an electronically operated
security fence, and visitors are well
advised.to pick up the phone at the.
entrance gate to ask for an escort.
Otherwise, they will find themselves
negotiating with Werbell's pets'
Dobermans, Great Danes and an Al-
satian named Lex, who has a habit of biting strangers on the buttocks.'-'
From the highway, Werbell's farm
looks tranquil enough. At noontime
chimes are pealing hymns of peace
and love from a nearby church stee-
ple. Neighbors tend their gardens
and children play in' the fields. But,
suddenly-the pastoral serenity- is
shattered. by the sound 'of gunfire
and piercing. battle commands. It is
no wonder shell-shocked neighbors
call Werbell's . place "Gunpowder
Springs."
To understand Cobray requires an
understanding of .Werbell, who.
founded the school partly as a play-
ground for his fantasies -
He likes to strut around in a red'
beret' and military fatigues, -some-
times even in a kilt, and nearly al-'
ways with a swagger stick clamped
under his arm. He wears the three
'stars of an ` Afghan general on, his
shoulders and a Vietnam- Ranger
-patch on his sleeve: His guardsman
,mustache adds the final'touch.
'That' is Werbell in uniform'-, a -
stumpy;. ruddy-cheeked man who '
traces his "warrior" blood through;
1200 ears of Russian ancestry.'
- --b? =~r wrappea in a blue
terrycloth bathrobe that exposed a. I
pale, hairless chest and a puffy, ag-
ing body. =
At 63, he looks more like the can-1
cer patient he is than the flamboyant..
soldier of fortune:. (he hates. that
term, preferring to call himself; "just
-a f professional soldier") he has
- been.:: . : ?. -
Werbell, who has prostate cancer,.,
says he was supposed to be dead by,
now, but he.boasts that he isn't co-
operating. He is still swashbuckling.
about; reliving past glories and dab-
bling in foreign intrigue. ' -
-,He enjoys-showing visitors the-
`'dozens of rosaries and hundreds of
guns 'including a three-barreled
hunting rifle - Hermann Goering
gave him in 1933 - he has collected
over the years., ., . - . .1 1
, - Inhis, work;-he-says. you need?
both.
This is .the former department }
store advertising executive who be-
came bored with the pursuit of a nor-
mal life, the man who came up with
the idea of the Handy Pandy plastic
diaper cover before taking his own
life undercover. t
Werbell "drifted off into the'
smoke" nearly a quarter of a century,
ago and became a clandestine oper-
ative. His inventions turned'deadly
.after that...
He is likely-to be remembered not
so much for his plastic diaper cover'
as for his "whispering death" weap-'i
on. He is known as the father of the
M-10 machine gun, It is not much b ig-,4
ger than .a AS pistol and comes with
what is regarded as the world's best
silencer, which Werbell designed.
This deadly spitfire "whispers"
.-death at the rate of a thousand bul-
lets a minute. ..
Werbell is something of a 'carica-
ture of the soldier of fortune a
paramilitary peacock among his
kind. He is raucous and boozy, cun-
ning and colorful. He has a taste for
guest quarters in foreign palaces,
private jets, single-malt Scotch from
the Isle of Islay, elephant-skin gun
cases, wolfhounds and silver-topped
sword canes.-He drops the names of_-1
kings and dictators like candy wrap- ?
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/09/02: CIA-RDP90-00806R000100210009-8