History of the World War, Volume 2 (of 7) : $b An authentic narrative of the world's greatest warMarch, Francis A., Jr.
History
History of the World War, Volume 2 (of 7) : $b An authentic narrative of the world's greatest war
March, Francis A., Jr.
World War, 1914-1918
“We sat down and we spoke for about three hours. I asked him the
different things that he did, and said if he wanted an interview with
Mr. von Igel, my boss, he would have to tell everything. So he told
me that von Papen gave Dr. Scheele, the partner of von Kleist in this
factory, a check for $10,000 to start this bomb factory. He told me
that he, Mr. von Kleist, and Dr. Scheele and a man by the name of
Becker on the Friedrich der Grosse were making the bombs, and that
Captain Wolpert, Captain Bode and Captain Steinberg, had charge of
putting these bombs on the ships; they put these bombs in cases and
shipped them as merchandise on these steamers, and they would go away
on the trip and the bombs would go off after the ship was out four or
five days, causing a fire and causing the cargo to go up in flames. He
also told me that they have made quite a number of these bombs; that
thirty of them were given to a party by the name of O’Leary, and that
he took them down to New Orleans where he had charge of putting them
on ships down there, this fellow O’Leary.”
About four hundred bombs were made under von Igel’s direction;
explosions and fires were caused by them on thirty-three ships sailing
from New York harbor alone.
Four of the bombs were found at Marseilles on a vessel which sailed
from Brooklyn in May, 1915. The evidence collected in the case led to
the indictment of the following men for feloniously transporting on the
steamship Kirk Oswald a bomb or bombs filled with chemicals designed
to cause incendiary fires: Rintelen, Wolpert, Bode, Schmidt, Becker,
Garbade, Praedel, Paradies, von Kleist, Schimmel, Scheele, Steinberg
and others. The last three named fled from justice, Scheele being
supplied with $1,000 for that purpose by Wolf von Igel. He eluded the
Federal authorities until April, 1918, when he was found hiding in Cuba
under the protection of German secret service agents. All the others
except Schmidt were found guilty and sentenced, on February 5, 1918,
to imprisonment for eighteen months and payment of a fine of $2,000
each. It was proved during the trial that Rintelen had hired Schimmel,
a German lawyer, to see that bombs were placed on ships.
Schmidt, von Kleist, Becker, Garbade, Praedel and Paradies had already
been tried for conspiracy to make bombs for concealment on ocean-going
vessels, with the purpose of setting the same on fire. All were found
guilty, and on April 6, 1917, von Kleist and Schmidt were sentenced to
two years’ imprisonment and a fine of $500 each.
Robert Fay, a former officer in the German army, who came to the United
States in April, 1915, endeavored to prevent the traffic in munitions
by sinking the laden ships at sea. In recounting the circumstances of
his arrival here to the chief of the United States secret service, Fay
said:
[Illustration: _Photos from International Film Service._
THE GERMAN CHANCELLORS
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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