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
Von Kleist was a chemist. Dr. Walter T. Scheele had been employing him
in his laboratory at 1133 Clinton Street, Hoboken, in a factory which
was ostensibly for the manufacture of agricultural chemicals. The real
business they transacted was the manufacture of bombs. Ernest Becker,
the chief electrician of the North German Lloyd liner _Friedrich der
Grosse_, and Carl Schmidt, her chief engineer, had made the containers
out of sheet metal. These Becker had delivered to Scheele, and up in
the laboratory the containers had been filled with explosive. Becker
would come then and take them away, and the bombs had been used to
great advantage, von Kleist continued, in harassing the shipping. But
what good did it do him, he asked Barth, if he got no pay for it?
“You wait,” returned the “secret agent.” “I’ll get you fixed up. I know
a man who is close to von Igel, and I’ll have him meet you. If what you
say is true, you certainly have something coming to you. Wait till I
get this other man.”
A few days passed. Then von Kleist came again to Hahn’s restaurant, and
was introduced to “Herr Deane,” who Barth said spoke no German, but
was a good man in spite of the handicap. A trace of suspicion crossed
the old chemist’s face, and Barth hastened to add: “We have to use all
kinds of people to fool these stupid Yankees, see?” This bit of heavy
satire reassured von Kleist, and he found Deane a likable person, who
seemed interested in his case against Scheele. He went over the ground
again. “If you want any more proof I’ll show you,” he concluded. “Come
to my house.” “Deane” (who votes under the name of George D. Barnitz,
of the Bomb Squad) joined Barth and accompanied von Kleist to his house
at 1121 Garden Street, Hoboken, and out of the muddy back yard the old
man dug up an empty bomb container, _almost an exact duplicate of the
“Kirkoswald” bomb_! “There is one of them--and I have filled dozens
like that,” he said.
“Let’s go for a ride,” Barth suggested. “We can go down to Coney
Island and have supper--the hotel has opened up--and we’ll talk things
over.” The old man felt very amiable towards his new friends, and was
a talkative and appreciative guest. They dined at the Shelburne and
later Barnitz wrote out a statement of von Kleist’s services as the
latter outlined them. “This is just for the sake of regularity, you
understand. I have to have a written report to give to the chief, or
else you won’t get yours. You can sign this as your formal statement.”
“All right,” von Kleist agreed, and signed. “How long do you think it
will be before I could get some money?”
“Oh, don’t worry about that part of it,” Barth said. “I tell you what
we’ll do. We’ll all three go up to see the chief now--I want him to
meet you anyhow, and you can supply any more facts that we may not have
down.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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