Throttled! The Detection of the German and Anarchist Bomb PlottersTunney, Thomas J. (Thomas Joseph)
History
Throttled! The Detection of the German and Anarchist Bomb Plotters
Tunney, Thomas J. (Thomas Joseph)
World War, 1914-1918 -- Secret service -- Germany
That trunk episode made us uneasy. It might have meant that they
had been frightened and were going to disappear, and it certainly
signified their intention of moving. We decided to force the issue, and
accordingly in the small hours of Sunday morning we directed Wettig,
of whom, of course, Fay had no suspicions, to call at Fay’s house
later in the forenoon to arrange to test the TNT. From the automobile,
which was parked at the street-corner some distance from the house,
the detectives saw Wettig enter, and in a few moments saw him come
out-of-doors with Fay and Scholz. They strolled to the street-car line,
allowed two cars to pass unsignalled, and then, suddenly, hailed a
third. It had closed doors, and when Murphy, Fenelly, and Coy, seeing
the men climbing aboard, tried to reach the car themselves, the doors
had slammed in their faces and the car was on its way. Somewhere in
the shuffle Walsh had been mislaid--he had been last seen up the block
covering an alley which led back of the boarding house. There was no
time to pick him up, and the automobile followed the car to Grantwood
and the now familiar woods. At times the car was out of sight of the
pursuers, and they fully expected to lose their men again. But from far
in the rear they saw the car stop opposite the woods. The doors snapped
open, and the first person to set foot on the ground was Walsh. The
second and third were Fay and Scholz, and the last, Wettig. Walsh had
seen them climb aboard in Weehawken, and had promptly sprinted for the
next corner ahead, where he caught the car! That was good shadowing
technique.
The Germans slipped into the protection of the underbrush immediately.
Barnitz was not disposed to let them get away again, so he spread out
his forces so as to follow the party and finally surround it, and the
Bomb Squad, the Secret Service and two members of the Weehawken police
entered the wood and wove a circle about their victims. As they closed
in they saw Fay enter a little shack in the depth of the brush, and
bring out a package, from which he took a pinch of some material and
placed it on a rock. With a nice new hammer he dealt the rock a sharp
blow, there was a loud report, and the handle snapped in his hand. The
detectives closed in at once, and Barnitz said, “You’re under arrest!”
“Who is in charge of you all?” Fay asked.
“I am,” Barnitz replied.
“Well, I will tell you that I am not going to be placed under arrest,”
Fay announced. “If I am, great people will suffer! You will surely have
war. It cannot be--it is impossible. I will give you any amount of
money if you will let me go.”
This was good news, not for its financial content but because we had
no previous evidence against this man Fay save that he had TNT in his
possession. Here he was, trying to confirm our suspicions.
“How much will you give me?” Barnitz parleyed.
“All you want--any amount!”
“Fifty thousand?”
“Yes, fifty thousand, if you want it.”
“Got it with you?” Barnitz asked instantly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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