Saboteurs
5. Alpheus T. Mason, Harlan Fiske Stone, 654.
6. Washington Times-Herald, July 28, 1942.
7. Richmond Times Dispatch, July 29, 1942.
8. Habeas corpus petition on behalf of Ernst Peter Burger, FDR Library.
9. Stimson diaries, Yale University, July 28, 1942.
10. David J. Danielski, “The Saboteurs’ Case,” Journal of Supreme Court History, vol. 1, 1996, 69.
11. Melvin I. Urofsky, Division and Discord, 13.
12. Ibid., 40.
13. Michael Belknap, Frankfurter and the Nazi Saboteurs (Supreme Court Historical Society Yearbook, 1982), 67.
14. Stimson diaries, June 29, 1942, loc. cit.
15. See, for example, Danielski, “The Saboteurs’ Case,” 69.
16. Unless otherwise stated, all quotes from the Supreme Court hearing are taken from Philip B. Kurland and Gerhard Casper, eds., Landmark Briefs and Arguments of the Supreme Court of the United States, vol. 39, 300–666.
17. WP and NYT, July 30, 1942.
18. Felix Frankfurter Papers, Harvard Law School, also quoted in full in Belknap, Frankfurter and the Nazi Saboteurs, 66–71.
19. Author interview with Lloyd Cutler, May 2002.
20. Felix Frankfurter Papers, Harvard Law School; author interview with Bennett Boskey, former Stone law clerk, June 2002.
21. Danielski, “The Saboteurs’ Case,” 71; Mason, Harlan Fiske Stone, 659–660; Stone correspondence with Frankfurter.
22. WP, August 1, 1942.
23. NYT, August 1, 1942.
24. Dasch, Eight Spies Against America, 166.
25. FBI memo, August 1, 1942, 98-10288-1210.
26. Kerling letter, August 1, 1942, FBI file, 98-10288.
27. Heinck letter, July 1942, FBI file, 98-10288-2486.
28. Haupt letter, July 1942, FBI files. 98-10288.
29. Rachlis, They Came to Kill, 250.
30. Hoover memo, July 24, 1942, FBI file, 98-10288-989.
31. Rachlis, They Came to Kill, 297.
32. Kerling letter, July 31, 1942, Oscar Cox files, FDR Library.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: DEATH ROW
1. Hassett, Off the Record with F.D.R., 97–98.
2. Kenneth Royall, oral history interview, loc. cit.
3. Biddle memo to FDR, July 16, 1942.
4. Roosevelt press briefing, August 4, 1942.
5. Report of Brigadier General Cox to the president, August 19, 1942.
6. FBI memo, July 9, 1942, 98-10288-941.
7. Letters from Kerling, August 3 and 4, 1942, FBI file 98-10288-2089.
8. Quirin letter, FBI file, 98–10288-2486.
9. Cox, The Saboteur Story, 25.
10. Lahousen war diary, August 4, 1942.
11. FBI memo, August 19, 1946, 98-10288-3587; Gellermann, Der andere Auftrag, 71–72.
12. See, for example, Biddle letter to secretary of state, September 17, 1942, FDR library.
13. Roosevelt order, August 7, 1942, FDR Library.
14. FBI memo, August 10, 1942, 98-10288-1604.
15. Letters from William B. Adams, FBI file 98-10288-2004.
16. Quirin letter, FBI file 98-10288-2088.
17. Neubauer letter, FBI file 98-10288-2088.
18. Kerling letters, FBI file 98-10288-2088.
19. Cox, The Saboteur Story, 25.
20. WP, August 9, 1942.
21. Washington Star, August 9, 1942; Rachlis, They Came to Kill, 287.
22. Washington Star, April 8, 1942; George T. Washington papers, Library of Congress.
23. FBI memo, August 10, 1942, loc. cit.
24. WP, August 9, 1942.
25. White House press release, FDR Library.
26. Rosenman, Working with Roosevelt, 359–355; see also Suckley diary, August 8, 1942.
27. Cox, The Saboteur Story, 17; see also Washington Star, October 13, 1942.
28. Report to president on disposal of bodies of saboteurs, August 14, 1942, FDR Library.
EPILOGUE: SURVIVORS
1. FBI memo, August 10, 1942, 98-10288-1604.
2. Ladd memo, August 12, 1942, 98-10288-1444.
3. Dasch prison file, RG 129, NARA.
4. Richard Cahan, “A Terrorist’s Tale,” Chicago Magazine, February 2002; Rachlis, They Came to Kill, 292–293.
5. William O. Douglas, The Court Years, 1939–1975, 33.
6. Letter to Charles Hughes, September 25, 1942, quoted in Mason, Harlan Fiske Stone, 658.
7. Ibid., 658–659.
8. Stone letter to Boskey, September 5, 1942, Stone papers, Library of Congress.
9. Stone letter to Frankfurter, quoted in Mason, Harlan Fiske Stone, 661.
10. Mason, Harlan Fiske Stone, 658–659.
11. Ibid., 664.
12. Biddle memo to FDR, quoted in Danielski, “The Saboteurs’ Case,” 79.
13. Danielski, “The Saboteurs’ Case,” 80.
14. Robert E. Cushman, “The Case of the Nazi Saboteurs,” American Political Science Review, 1942.
15. William Rehnquist, speech to Dickinson College of Law, Pennsylvania State University, November 12, 1999.
16. Letter from Bureau of Prisons director James V. Bennett, September 3, 1942, Dasch prison file.
17. Psychiatric evaluation, November 10, 1943, Dasch prison file.
18. Report by Atlanta prison warden, January 15, 1945, Dasch prison file.
19. FBI memo, October 17, 1942, 98-10288-2125.
20. Report by Atlanta prison warden, July 25, 1947, Dasch prison file.
21. Traynor letter, July 3, 1945, Hoover reply, July 13, 1945, FBI file 98-10288-3479.
22. Lahousen war diary, July 20 and August 9, 1942.
23. Rachlis, They Came to Kill, 296.
24. British Joint Staff Mission letter, July 16, 1942, Frank McCoy papers, Library of Congress.
25. Memo for secretary of war, January 5, 1945, Stimson safe file, NARA RG 107.
26. Burger letter to Kenneth Royall, May 12, 1948, NARA RG 165, War Department decimal files 000.536.
27. Burger letter, October 23, 1948, FBI file 98-10288-3675.
28. Burger letter, January 1, 1949, FBI file 98-10288-3685.
29. Dasch East German Stasi file, Berlin, MfS-AS Nr. 598⁄66.
30. Burger letter, January 6, 1950; see also FBI memo, February 2, 1949, 98-10288-3617.
31. FBI memos, March 15, 1951, and April 13, 1951, Dasch file, 98-10288.
32. Author interview with Gerhard Kappe, May 2002.
33. Dasch memo to FBI, August 20, 1942, 98-10288-2376.
34. Author interview with Wolfgang Wergin, May 2002.
35. Office of Naval Intelligence report, FBI files, 98-10288.
36. Author interview with Gerhard Kappe.
37. FBI memorandum, March 1, 1961, 98-10288.
38. Hoover memorandum, March 10, 1958, FBI file 98-10288-3851.
Bibliography
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PERMISSIONS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Hal Leonard Corporation: Excerpt from the song lyric “Tangerine,” words by Johnny Mercer. Music by Victor Schertzinger. Copyright © 1942 (renewed 1969) by Famous Music Corporation. International copyright secured. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of the Hal Leonard Corporation.
Williamson Music: Excerpt from “Let’s Have Another Cup of Coffee” by Irving Berlin. Copyright © 1932 by Irving Berlin. Copyright © Renewed. International copyright secured. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of Williamson Music.
PHOTOGRAPHIC CREDITS
The author acknowledges the permission of Landesarchiv Berlin, Bundesarchiv, U-boat Archiv, Cuxhaven for the right to reprint the following photographs: the pre-war photograph of the German war ministry and Abwehr headquarters; the wartime photograph of U-584; portrait of Hans-Heinz Linder; the crew of U-202.
Dasch mug shots
Kerling mug shots
Ernst Peter Burger
Herbie Haupt
Heinrich Heinck
Richard Quirin
Hermann Neubauer
Werner Thiel
Prewar photograph of German war ministry and Abwehr headquarters on Tirpitzüfer near the Tiergarten, where Operation Pastorius was planned
Quenz Lake
The Quenz Lake farmhouse
Burger’s drawing of a pea-in-bottle detonating device
The handkerchief with secret writing that Dasch gave to Kerling
Wartime photo of U-584, the submarine that landed Kerling and his group at Ponte Vedra, Florida, on June 17, 1942
Hans-Heinz Linder, commander of U-202
The crew of U-202, with cook Otto Wagner in the middle
Present-day photograph of Amagansett Beach
Present-day photograph of Amagansett Coast Guard post where John Cullen was stationed on the night of June 13, 1942
Present-day photograph of John Cullen, the coastguardsman who ran into Dasch on the beach
Cullen arrives for trial of saboteurs as Heinck is escorted out of the courtroom
FBI agent Duane Traynor, who was first to interrogate Dasch
Chicago Theater, a meeting place for Haupt and Neubauer
Kerling looks on as FBI agents dig for buried sabotage equipment. The laces on his shoes were removed to prevent a suicide attempt.
Sabotage boxes recovered from Ponte Vedra Beach
Dasch escorted into the courtroom
Dasch listens during the trial. Haupt is on the other side of the soldier.
Burger listens to evidence.
Biddle, in white suit, presents evidence to FBI agent Charles Lanman.
Wide-angle shot of tribunal room. The judges are at the back of the room, next to the flag.
Biddle and an aide, Oscar Cox, arrive for opening day of the Supreme Court session, Wednesday, July 29.
Saboteurs are loaded into a prison van at end of the tribunal session.
FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover (right) and aide Clyde Tolson arrive for the Supreme Court session.
Artist’s conception of saboteur execution on Saturday, August 8, 1942
Wanted poster for Walter Kappe
Armed soldiers guard the D.C. jail as the bodies of the saboteurs are taken away.
FBI shots of Hans and Erna Haupt, parents of Herbert Haupt
FBI shots of Hedy Engemann and Marie Kerling, mistress and wife of Eddie Kerling
Acknowledgments
One of the joys of writing narrative history is the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of your characters. In researching this book, I was able to reconstruct the extraordinary wartime journey taken by the eight Nazi saboteurs by visiting places they visited while reading extensive archival material about their adventures. My travels took me from the grounds of a former Nazi sabotage school in Brandenburg, Germany, to a windswept beach in Amagansett, Long Island; from Hitler’s bunker in the lake district of northeastern Poland to the streets of downtown Chicago, where the saboteurs played cat-and-mouse games with their FBI pursuers.
Everywhere I went, I benefited immeasurably from extraordinary acts of assistance and hospitality. Some of the people who helped me were friends, others complete strangers. Some knew nothing about the strange story of the Nazi saboteurs; others had been researching the case for much longer than I. But all were generous with their time, and to all of them I want to say thank you.
Pride of place in these acknowledgments must go to those who had direct, firsthand knowledge of the saboteur case, and are either characters in this book or participated in the events described here. Given the fact that these events took place more than six decades ago, I count myself fortunate to have been able to conduct as many interviews as I did. I
n particular, I want to thank John Cullen, the coastguardsman who ran into the saboteurs on Amagansett Beach the night they came ashore, and Duane Traynor, the lead FBI investigator in the case. Both men sat with me patiently through hours of interviews, providing valuable insights and anecdotes, which I have incorporated into the narrative. My gratitude also goes to Lloyd Cutler, the sole surviving member of the prosecution team at the military tribunal; Wolfgang Wergin, who shared many of the adventures of saboteur Herbert Haupt; Bennett Boskey, law clerk to Supreme Court Chief Justice Harlan Stone; and Heinrich Fischer, a crew member of U-584, one of the submarines that transported the saboteurs to America.
One circle further out, I owe a debt to relatives and acquaintances of the characters in this book, including Gerhard Kappe, son of Walter Kappe, and Christel Engemann, daughter of Hedy Engemann. My understanding of George Dasch was enriched by my conversations with researcher Jonathan Mann, who traveled to Germany to meet with the last surviving saboteur before his death. Other people who have fallen under the spell of the Nazi saboteur story include Richard Cahan, who wrote a splendid article on the subject for Chicago magazine and gave me a tour of saboteur sites in the Windy City, including the street corner where Herbert Haupt proposed to Gerda Stuckmann. Peter Hansen, a writer for Classic Trains, helped me locate the photograph of U-584 that I have used in this book.
In Amagansett, I was able to soak up the atmosphere of the now-defunct lifeboat station thanks to a kind invitation from Isabel Carmichael, whose parents bought the old house many years ago and moved it to its present site on Bluff Road. Tony Prohaska of The History Project allowed me to look at interviews he had made with retired coastguardsmen. My friend Celestine Bohlen gave me a place to stay in New York a couple of blocks from Grant’s Tomb, one of the secret meeting places of the saboteurs. In Washington, NBC reporter Jim Popkin helped me locate the final resting place of six of the saboteurs, on a wooded hill that overlooks the Potomac River and a city sewage plant.