Featured in the recent film the finance about a group of jewish defiance that fought the nazis. But peter is your to talk about an american citizen who became a mole to expose nazi spies who infiltrated the United States. Book, double the hero of world war ii and how the fbi outwitted and estroyed a nazi spy ring, please welcome me in join me in welcoming peter duffy. [applause] peter thank you very much. This is quite annexed extra narrator facility with amazing equipment in front of us. I hope it holds while im up here. Our b17 issues that i will touch on in my story , the german spies were interested, a famous piece from that great airplane. An interestingl and forgotten unknown figure, particularly the american story of world war ii, a quizzical and i will begin this like a real spy story, noting an early 1939 come up for the war , he was living in new avoided boarded a passenger liner on the left side peers of manhattan and sailed for nazi germany, which was preparing for war. He was carrying a single suitcase and a package. He left his wife kind in their east 84th street apartment and his plan was to visit his mother ulcer surgeryom that he recently had. When he arrived at passport control, he was taken aside by nazi officials in plainclothes who questioned him about his life in the United States. After learning he had worked at the consolidated Aircraft Corporation of san diego, which airplanes, the man promised ominously that he would hear from them again. Lived aat point, he had wayward existence. He was a mechanical draftsman apprentice as a teenager in germany and served from age 17 army in9 in the german world war i. Of theoff by the unrest post world war years, he decided to leave germany and became a Junior Engineer on an oil Company Vessel that landed in galveston, texas. Het was the first stop and jumped ship. He worked for year and rural texas, including as a meal tender on a ranch before returning to germany to help his parents through hyperinflation. To thelater, he returned sea and this time he jumped ship in south america, where he spent two years working as a bartender and diesel engineer. He entered the United States illegally under the old quota system for german immigrants and over the next two years, he country ase basically a tramp, as he would later become named by the germans. He worked for various industrial outlets in fairbanks, alaska, in probably, he was riding the rails like a lot of people were during that depression year. , he went straight to the german enclave of yorkville on the upper he side of manhattan. Germanere traces of the community that once arrived there. And if you butcher shops, but driving, andit was after hitlerss ascension to many open933, supporters of the hitlers regime became known as the germanamerican bund who marched uniformh street in full with nazi flags and american flags and they were a constant source of media fascination, a constant tabloid presence was the leader of the germanamerican bund. On february 10, 1936. Citizene an american and pledged to abjure all allegiance and ability to any ornce, potentate, state sovereignty. He said i have nothing to do with hitlers anymore, i was an american citizen. Sorry im not used to talking so much. ,hen he arrived at homburg after he arrived in germany, he was contracted by the ridge contacted by the regime as promised. He initially refuse the into the offer to go German Initiative espionage service. Go there, he told the man who approached him. When he refused, dr. Gaster described the close he would be wearing when he was laid out in his casket. In fear for his life, he asked for the month of august, 1939 to think over the plan, as im sure you know, the most momentous in 20th century history. Then the hitlersstalin pact was announced which gave hitlers the opportunity to invade poland and on the same day settler launched the lit seyboldgainst poland, decided to flee germany. He went to the american consulate in cologne, but it was , as you can imagine any consular clerks said run for the border. He flagged down to motorists with foreign license plates who refuse to help. Fearful he was being followed by the gestapo, and he was certain they were following him, whether they were or not, who knows, and mindful he lacked proper papers to get past the checkpoint, he wrote to the doctor saying he accepted his proposal 100 . In time, the doctor introduced , one of theenken many aliases for Nicholas Adolph fritz ritter, an officer based in homburg. Looking for a man he could send to new york as a contact man for his small ring of spies there. Andas nominated for the job Nicholas Ritter is a very interesting character. He became fluent in english and married an Alabama School teacher, they had two children and at this point, he brought them to germany and is American Family, had an affair with his secretary and began divorce or seatings with his alabama wife who has her own story and the spies daughter, the americanborn daughter currently lives in virginia. A nazi spyughter of with a thick virginia accent. She was a wonderful help for this book. She has an amazing war experience. I think there is a tv movie being made of it. Steakas ritters great that would lead to the downfall it occurred on the day he met his newest agent. Under his orders, the u. S. Genuine was stolen, a u. S. Passport, likely so an agent who did not have the travel advantages could use it. Gothen extracted seybold to to the u. S. Consulate in cologne. It doesnt seem like a smart idea. The passport and reapplication process required him to revisit the consulate several times, a time when the excitement for the early days of the war had subsided and he was eventually to the tell the story consul general himself. In a cable to washington, he informed his superiors he was being coerced into the german metservice and request tb upon his arrival in order to convey his story by wordofmouth. So really, before he had even done anything for the german spy service, he had informed the United States government and suggested he would not be cooperating. Germanswent back to the and underwent 10 days of training in preparation for going to new york. He went to a spot populated with other trainee spies and was and anto use a radio key outfit like a camera to produce blueprints or documents. Schooled in the cipher system based on the letter arrangements of a particular page that would all of this and heaven to which was made into a movie the book is unreadable. I could not get through two or three pages. The cipher system, which i explain was probably the hardest thing to figure out since it is not my specialty. Many of you would probably pick it up easily. It was provided with maildrop addresses in shanghai and portugal and was christened with and wasame tramp told to conduct business in new york as harry sawyer, who, my supposition was he was related to tom sawyer and mr. Ritter had read mark twain when he lived in the United States. A thousand dollars in american cash, which was about 16,000 when adjusted. Several microfilm documents were hidden in the gears of his watch. He took the train from homburg to munich, changed to milan and continued to genoa. The ss washington pushed off from the port bound for new york city. At quarantineet in the narrows by a coast guard cutter carrying a state Department Officer and fbi special agent who spoke briefly with him and asked if he would be willing to come to the office and fully square for further discussion. He thought once i get to new york, this will be over quickly and i will give him everything i have. I wont be involved in any of this anymore. All of this will go away. After two days of telling his story, he was asked if he was willing to become the fbis first counterspy. The phrase double agent was not yet common parlance when this case went to trial in 1941. All the tabloids did not use the phrase double agent. It was always counterspy and was introduced during opening arguments what they counterspy was to the jury because it was such a foreign concept. Be his handler was an fbi special agent named james c ellsworth, a mormon who had gained fluency in german as a missionary. Be an inveterate diarist and letter writer. He, after the case closed, he began a diary describing the day any writer would give his left hand for Something Like that. , they met at ang hotel in new york and he says as i was coming out of the shower, he came in. Bigund him to be sin, owned, brown eyes and had brown hair. He spoke english broken leave that as time went on, he spoke very well. Was not sure what this was all about, whether they could truly trust this character with this story. The idea the germans would send someone whos not entirely on board to be the center of such wondering. N had them he demanded a meeting with the special agent in charge of the new york office. He was not entirely comfortable with what he was being asked to do. Percy sam foxworth was the head of the fbi at the new york office and he sent a memo to j hear hoover and this is what how he described him. He has an honesty complex. In fact hes so honest that im afraid someday he will give himself away a cousin of his inability to act as part. He has a mania for doing what he thinks is right. He says of the German Government really knew him, they would never have entrusted him with the assignment and he took the assignment knowing he would never go through it. He took it knowing he needed did do it to get out of germany alive. And he swore to be loyal in the United States at the time he was naturalized, he considered it a sacred oath and he renewed that ath at the time he was given pass code. He says if a man breaks faith, that man is not deserving of further consideration to him. It is therefore apparent that if he feels the bureau would fail to carry out any part of what he thinks is his contract, he would blow up and probably ruin the case. Can imagine what they felt as hey began trailing him conducted his way into this new york spy ring. He was given for names, for extraordinary characters in this spy ring that winds up having 33 members. Is quite a rogues gallery. There was a monocle clad south African Native who is now 62 years old and enjoyed and outlandish career as a adventurer and soldier of fortune. He left many at dinner parties spellbound with his stories of purported heroics during world war i and claimed to have been responsible for the sinking of carried thet architect of writtens war wouldgy in 1916, which have made him the greatest spy in history. Certainly the greatest german spy. Book written in 1932 called the man who killed kitchener. He was an experienced saboteur who had committed violent acts against the british and according to the fbi file, he lived without the benefit of clergy with a much younger girlfriend at 24 west 70 six st. A hoardinglish house owned by a polish woman. Today, its owned by Silicon Valley billionaire. Second, there was literally stein, a viennese jew living in east 54th street and assigned to seduce american and british officers of distinct and in order to win secrets. She reached the United States by way of a visa provided by the vice consul of the u. S. Consul in the end with whom she was having an affair. She got a german passport furnished nazi spy masters eager to set up a manohar a operation in new york. She was described as a half jew even though both of her parents were jewish. During one of the early meetings, stein made a pass at her who rebuffed her dances. Why are you american men always afraid of women, it said in the fbi file is full of these comments she would make. There was ever it rode her, a bronx born cornell dropout working on Weapons Systems since 1916. He was an engineering genius and gun enthusiasts always showing off his weapons. According to the description in the fbi file, he was blind in his right eye which would give him a peculiar stare. I think we can see how hollywood would handle that. And there was hermann lang, ideological nazi from a bavarian Mountain Village living in queens who had already succeeded in giving the germans plans for americas greatest a war secret hovering above us, the norton bomb site. The scientific marvel produced in manhattan and enabled the b17 bomber to drop bombs with unprecedented accuracy. The legend was a pickle barrel. It did not work as well as we hoped but prewar and the early was our great war secret. He earned the trust of his spy contacts and slowly the circle widened. He began meeting with several naturalized germans working on the kitching and dining staff kitchen and dining staff of american passenger libelants american passenger liners. Included in this group was the chief butcher of the ss manhattan became one day in the spring of 1940. With a message from germany. Letters in the butchers envelope [sirens] i will take a drink while that passes. One of the letters outlined the Technical Specifications necessary to make morse code contact with the homburg radio station. The spy station. Using the funds, Bureau Agents obtained two receivers, a helicopter sky camera, a refrigerator size 100 watt transmitter, later used to power a 500 watt transmitter and various antennas, supports, and felines which after failed tests were installed in a rented to onm cottage in a hilly area long island sound. Madee last connection was in the blowtorch silence, it was noticed the time was a few seconds before 7 00. The next regular calling time of the german station. The receiver returned to the designated frequency and it warmed up. Shortly, at first, they were copied as rao and to closely space and run together. The engineers soon separated aem into the desired call of or. When the control station stopped sending, they began sending a series of dots and dashes in accordance with the instructions. The transmitter was stopped after five minutes and turned on. They returned with the next contact. The groundwork had been laid for the case to evolve. Months, thet 11 moors code state station received 160 message seeking a aboutriday of information airplane production, weather forecasts, should the ling processes and innovation. Must get news, news, news, went one message. An fbi special agent pretending to be sealed typed out 301 messages to homburg, first approved by government Oversight Panel including j edgar hoover. Often vaguely worded or outright fictitious. With this, the contacts through even wider. In november of 1940, the center for station received a message wondering if seybold could set up an account in a new york bank to which germany could wire funds to pay the spies. The fbi responded five days later since i have good connections, i recommend a Small Research office, with license name and since no difficulties as Research Offices need money. You can send me a large amount. Yes. The response came we are in agreement. Open office immediately, advise where you want it. The paymaster of the aspiring had direct contact it wasnt necessary to rely on the slow passage of passenger liners. This thing was really opening up and they opened this office. An office where he would meet the spies. The gaudy part of america with french renaissance ornamentation and copper roof at the southeast corner of broadway and 42nd street. Formerly, the knickerbocker hotel, which still stands, was now an Office Building known for its most prominent tenant, newsweek magazine. Dealing directly with the who said hener would replace the manager. Cooperative, they rented 627 and two other offices, 628 and 629. Setts created a stage seewald,by william diesel engineer. It was centered around a large desk expertly bugged and within a few feet of a silver coated to weigh all mayor behind which a bureau agent was operating a spring round spring well and Motion Picture camera. Enough light to make a picture and it was necessary to slow the camera down and open the lens as wide open to get a picture. Within his line of sight were a clock encased in a wooden frame a calendar with numbers large enough to be readily viewable to future jurors. He had his back to me and sometimes had the side of his face turned to me. We were more interested in the other person. Monitoredsations were by headphone wearing german agents who could take the stand hisyewitnesses to bolster testimony and record it on to lacquer aluminum discs by the turntables of the state of the art presto recording system. By early december, a camera had cardsnstalled, business printed up and 5,000 of nazi money wired into the account. Transfersof three totaling 16,500. From december 1940 until june 1941, the fbi recorded 81 meetings between various members of the spy ring including a japanese agent and irish member of a branch of the ring that net in a yorkville bar. Particular helpful, they just came right in. A particularly helpful individual was a marine spy who specialized in collecting information on british merchant ships, leaving the harbor which he hopes to relate to uboat who are then sinking them in great numbers. 500,000 tons of Merchant Shipping was sunk in april by uboats. That is what he was attempting to halt. To give you a sense of what it , he was introduced to the head chef of the ss america who produced the ships blueprints and pointed out where the gun emplacements would be located when the liner was translated it to the navy has was soon expected. This would be a clip of bringing out the ships blueprints and would be shown frequently later on in fbi newsreels. On february 10, he wondered if seybold had ever heard of a career that allowed agencies to begin an investigation of a steward of the ss uruguay. 5, a nazi ideologue who was a commander in the dav, a pronot the Front Organization was identified. With ah 12th, he arrived vegetable cook on the ss argentina who sent messages through a mail drop in brazil. He also spoke of the owner of 8 inle casino are in a yorkville which turned out to be the rendezvous point for another spy. The last spy to visit the office was our South African born man who stayed for three hou