British private military contractor — mercenary, in the less flattering word — who died on May 8th 2025, aged 72. Eton-educated and from a brewing family, he chose soldiering over the family fortune. His father and grandfather had both excelled in war.
Mann received a commission in the Scots Guards before joining the Special Air Service (SAS), Britain's elite semi-secret fighting force. He first heard about the SAS at White's club, aged 21, from the regiment's founder; he signed on officially at 27.
He went on to part-run two private military companies: Executive Outcomes and Sandline International. At their peak, 2,000 ex-soldiers were on his list, with 3,000 more waiting.
Mann's most notorious operation was an attempt to overthrow Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, the long-time dictator of Equatorial Guinea. The plan called for 69 men, mostly ex-South African Defence Force veterans, to load weapons in Harare, fly to Malabo and install Severo Moto, a Spanish-based exile known as "the priest", in the palace. In exchange, the plotters would receive a cut of the country's oil rights.
The operation was compromised by leaks — Mann believed the CIA betrayed them — and all were arrested after landing in Harare. He served three and a half years in Chikurubi prison in Harare, then was transferred to Black Beach prison in Malabo to serve 32 years. He was released after less than two and expelled from the country.
A letter to his wife Amanda from Chikurubi, in which he said only "a large splodge of wonga" would secure his release, exploded the story into tabloid scandal. Mark Thatcher, son of the former prime minister, had been eager to help but never came through; his involvement, once revealed, made headlines. The episode became known as the "Wonga Coup".
In 2017 Mann defended Obiang and his spendthrift son Teddy in a French court — an apparent quid pro quo for his early release, along with the naming of dissidents while in prison.
Mann published a memoir in 2011 titled Cry 'Havoc!', after the line in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar: "Cry 'Havoc!' And let slip the dogs of war."
The two most common things in the Universe are hydrogen and stupidity.