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 night Walsh and Murphy watched Captain Bode’s house in a New
Jersey suburb, while Sterett and Fenelly covered Wolpert’s house
nearby. Both men reported at their respective piers for work the next
morning, and both were invited by the detectives to come over to
headquarters “to consult with us in a little waterfront investigation
we were carrying on.” Senff went to the North German Lloyd piers to
call on Becker. The guard at the pier-head put through a telephone
connection, and Senff told Becker he wanted to see him on an urgent
matter. Presently Becker appeared at the pier gates, and through the
bars Senff whispered: “Von Kleist wants to see you. Trouble--” Becker
returned in an instant with his hat and came to headquarters. A little
later in the day the net caught Schmidt, and after a year and a half of
waiting we had rounded up in twenty-four hours five promising prisoners.
Von Kleist, we knew, was not altogether reliable; Bode was positively
robust in his denial of any knowledge of the affair. Becker, a thin
blond youth, made a complete confession. Yes, he had made the bomb
containers--several hundred of them, under Schmidt’s orders. He had
filled them with chlorate of potash and sulphuric acid at the Scheele
laboratory and had seen Captain Wolpert take them away. At that
moment Wolpert, a hulking red figure, who had been conversing fairly
freely, shut up tight, and refused to answer further questions. Becker
acknowledged that he had made the _Kirkoswald_ bomb, and added that the
later cases were larger than that.
“Captain Wolpert,” I said, “don’t you think you’re doing Germany more
harm than good by doing this sort of thing?”
“Damn it!” he exploded. “I gave it up June first. But you’ve got to do
what those bull-headed fellows tell you, haven’t you?”
“Did you know Robert Fay, Captain?” I asked.
“Yes--I met him one time in Schimmel’s office with Rintelen,” he
replied.
“You mean _von_ Rintelen?” I asked, using the aristocratic prefix which
Rintelen had assumed.
“No!” bellowed Wolpert. “Not _von_, damn him--_Rintelen_!”
[Illustration:
_Copyright, International Film Service_
Ernest Becker
_Copyright, International Film Service_
Captain Charles von Kleist (left) and Captain Otto Wolpert (right)]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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