William G. Sebold
William G. Sebold | |
---|---|
FBI | |
Service years | 1939–1941 |
Codename | Tramp |
Operations | Duquesne Spy Ring |
William G. Sebold (
Early life
Sebold served in the German army engineering corps during World War I.[2] After emigrating to the United States in 1922, he married and worked in industrial and aircraft plants throughout the United States and South America.[2] On February 10, 1936, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States.[2]
He returned to Germany in February 1939 to visit his mother in Mülheim. Upon his arrival in
Coerced into spying
In September 1939, a Dr. Gassner visited Sebold in Mülheim and interrogated him regarding military planes and equipment in the United States. He also asked Sebold to return to the United States as an espionage agent for Germany. Gassner and another man, a "Dr. Renken", told him that they would expose information that he had omitted from his U. S. citizenship application about serving time in a German jail unless he agreed to assist them.[2][3] Renken was in fact Major Nickolaus Ritter of the Abwehr.[2]
After the threats to his family, his life, and his citizenship, Sebold agreed to cooperate with the Nazis. He was then sent to a seven-week training program in Hamburg, Germany, where he learned to operate a clandestine shortwave radio, which he would set up when he returned to the United States.[4]
Ritter gave Sebold final instructions before he left for the United States, including shortwave radio codes and the use of microphotographs. Sebold was given the alias "Harry Sawyer",[2] the code name TRAMP, and Abwehr number A.3549.[5]
Sebold was tasked to meet with various spies, pass along instructions to them from Germany, receive messages in return, and transmit them back in code to Germany.[6] The intention was to pull off the efforts of spies who were passing technological secrets to the Germans during World War II.
Contacts U.S. consulate
Before leaving Germany, Sebold visited the U.S.
Sebold sailed from
Duquesne Spy Ring
With the assistance of the FBI, "Harry Sawyer" was able to obtain an office in
Sebold was instructed by the Abwehr to contact
At their first meeting, Duquesne was extremely worried about the possibility of listening devices in Sebold's office. He gave Sebold a note suggesting that they should talk elsewhere. After relocating to an automat, the two men exchanged information about members of the German espionage system with whom they had been in contact.[2]
In his office and with cameras secretly rolling, Sebold met with a string of Nazis who wished to pass secret and sensitive national defense and wartime information to the Gestapo.[6]
Duquesne provided Sebold with information for transmittal to Germany during subsequent meetings, and the meetings which occurred in Sebold's office were filmed by FBI Agents. Duquesne, who was vehemently anti-British, submitted information dealing with national defense in America, the sailing of ships to British ports, and technology. He also regularly received money from Germany in payment for his services.[2]
On one occasion, Duquesne provided Sebold with photographs and specifications of a new type of bomb being produced in the United States. He claimed that he secured that material by secretly entering the DuPont plant in Wilmington, Delaware. Duquesne also explained how fires could be started in industrial plants. Much of the information Duquesne obtained was the result of his correspondence with industrial concerns. Representing himself as a student, he requested data concerning their products and manufacturing conditions.[2]
In May 1940, FBI agents on Long Island set up a
In June 1941, the FBI arrested 33 German agents that were part of Sebold's network. Nineteen of the agents arrested pleaded guilty. The remainder were tried in
As a result of the massive investigation, when the United States entered the war the FBI was confident that there was no major German espionage network hidden in U.S. society.[6]
When the trial ended, Sebold disappeared. He entered a government witness protection program and moved to California under another assumed identity. He had countless jobs, even trying to be a chicken farmer, but could never hold down a job and was constantly plagued by bad health. Additionally, letters from his family back in Germany explained that the Nazis still wanted to exact their revenge, leaving him in a constant state of fear. Sebold was diagnosed with manic depression and committed to Napa State Hospital in 1965. Five years later he suffered a heart attack and died.[5]
Books and film
Books detailing Sebold's career as a double agent include:
- The 1943 book Passport to Treason: The Inside Story of Spies in America, written by Alan Hynd.
- The 2014 book Double Agent: The First Hero of World War II and how the FBI Outwitted and Destroyed a Nazi Spy Ring, written by Peter Duffy.
Film:
- The 1945 thriller, The House on 92nd Street, is a thinly disguised version of the Duquesne Spy Ring saga.
See also
- FBI Counterintelligence Division
- Leon G. Turrou, FBI Special Agent - 1938 Rumrich-Greibl Ring
References
- ^ According to the birth certificate provided by the City Archives of Mülheim
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n This article incorporates public domain material from The Duquesne Spy Ring • The 33 Members of the Duquesne Spy Ring. Federal Bureau of Investigation. 12 March 1985 – via Freedom of Information Act.
- ISBN 0-306-80949-4.
- ISBN 9780897749916.
- ^ a b c "America's Spies" (PDF). Retrieved February 22, 2023.
- ^ United States Government.
- ISBN 978-1-936274-13-0.
- ISBN 9780199880584.
- ISBN 978-1-4516-6795-0.