Chad Millman - The Detonators: The Secret Plot to Destroy America and an Epic Hunt for Justice

Copyright 2006 by Chad Millman

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Little, Brown and Company

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First eBook Edition: June 2009

ISBN: 978-0-316-07662-3

E2-20210412-PDJ-PC-VAL

Also by Chad Millman

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The Odds: One Season, Three Gamblers, and the Death of Their Las Vegas

FOR STACY AND ZAC

The American Lawyers

Robert Bonynge: Lead lawyer representing the U.S. government and American claimants before the Mixed Claims Commission.

Harold Martin: State Department lawyer and U.S. representative to the Mixed Claims Commission; top aide to Robert Bonynge.

John McCloy: Lawyer for claimants in the sabotage cases; partner at Cravath, Henderson & de Gersdorff.

Amos Peaslee: Lawyer for claimants in the sabotage cases; partner at Peaslee & Brigham.

Henry Arnold: Lawyer for claimants in sabotage cases; partner at Rumsey & Morgan.

The German Lawyers

Karl von Lewinski: German agent to the Mixed Claims Commission, August 1922-January 1931.

Wilhelm Tannenberg: Von Lewinskis assistant before taking over in January 1931.

Richard Paulig: German agent to the Mixed Claims Commission, May 1934-October 1939.

The Mixed Claims Commission

William H. Day: Umpire, August 1922-May 1923.

Edwin H. Parker: Umpire, May 1923-October 1929.

Roland Boyden: Umpire, January 1930-October 1931.

Owen J. Roberts: Umpire, March 1932-October 1939.

Chandler Anderson: American commissioner, May 1923-August 1936.

Christopher Garnett: American commissioner, September 1936-October 1939.

Wilhelm Kiesselbach: German commissioner, August 1922-May 1934.

Victor Huecking: German commissioner, June 1934-March 1939.

The Detonators

Heinrich Albert: German commercial attach to the United States prior to World War I.

Karl Boy-Ed: German naval attach to the United States prior to World War I.

Anton Dilger: American doctor trained in Germany; ran anthrax lab in Chevy Chase, Maryland, prior to World War I.

Raoul Gerdts: Assistant to Fred Herrmann.

Martha Held: German madam whose New York brownstone doubled as headquarters for German spies.

Fred Herrmann: American citizen turned German spy.

Paul Hilken: Baltimore-based paymaster for German spies in the United States prior to World War I.

Frederick Hinsch/Francis Graentnor: German merchant marine interned in Baltimore before World War I; Hilkens top enforcer and agent.

Wolf von Igel: Top aide to Franz von Papen; would take over as German military attach in 1916.

Kurt Jahnke: German spy based in San Francisco.

Paul Koenig: Aide to Franz von Papen; head of Germanys War Intelligence Center in New York.

Michael Kristoff: Austrian immigrant; U.S.-based German spy.

Hans Marguerre: Staff member of Section III-B in German Foreign Office.

Rudolf Nadolny: Head of Section III-B in German Foreign Office.

Franz von Papen: German military attach to the United States prior to World War I.

Franz von Rintelen: German navy captain sent to the United States to stop American shipments of munitions to the Allies.

Walter Scheele: German chemist living in New Jersey; creator of cigar bombs.

Adam Siegel: German spy who befriended Fred Herrmann.

Lothar Witzke: German spy based in San Francisco; protg of Kurt Jahnke.

The Handwriting Experts

Albert Osborn: Hired by the Germans to authenticate the Herrmann message.

Eldridge Stein: Hired by the Americans to authenticate the Herrmann message.

The Investigators

Thomas Tunney: Head of the New York City Police Departments bomb squad.

Reginald Blinker Hall: Head of Room 40, the British governments secret group of code breakers.

Leonard Peto: Vice president of the Canadian Car & Foundry, which suffered damages in the Kingsland explosion.

The Witnesses

Carl Ahrendt: American aide to Paul Hilken and Frederick Hinsch.

James Larkin: German labor leader recruited by the Germans to plant bombs in the United States prior to World War I.

F OR NEARLY TWO miles Liberty State Park in New Jersey stretches along the western edge of New York Harbor. From this side of the Hudson River, the shimmering towers of downtown Manhattan are framed by blue sky and green waterwith tour boats and tugboats gliding along the bottom of the scene and traffic and police helicopters whirring through the top. Visitors can buy ferry tickets to the Statue of Liberty inside a restored, steeple-topped railroad terminal; they can stroll along a brick path on the waters edge called Liberty Walk; or they can take a meandering drive through the grounds on a road named Freedom Way.

At the southernmost tip of the parksandwiched between the end points of Freedom Way and Liberty Walkis a small picnic area. Shrouded by sycamore trees it is an unlikely destination for tourists, and therefore a haven for locals. On breezy, late-summer days, contented retirees cast fishing lines into the harbor as small waves splash lazily against the stones. The wind, perfect for flying a kite, carries the scent of lit charcoal from one side of the park to the other. Kids laugh as they race around a playground toward the Statue of Liberty, whose back is turned to them. Seemingly within reach, shes never closer to land than here.

A yellowed sign encased in glass and planted at the entrance to the picnic area is largely ignored. From a distance it looks no different than one of several park maps telling visitors where they are, but up close it screams for attention. EXPLOSION AT LIBERTY! a headline blares across the top of the sign, alongside a picture of bombed-out buildings. On July 30, 1916, the Black Tom munitions depot exploded, rocking New York Harbor and sending sleeping residents tumbling from their beds, it continues. The noise of the explosion was heard as far away as Maryland. Shrapnel pierced the Statue of Liberty. It is not known how many died. According to historians, the Germans sabotaged the depot.

You are walking on a site which saw one of the worst acts of terrorism in American history.

Black Tom, a piece of land in New York Harbor named for the way it resembled a black tomcat with its back up, housed the largest munitions depot in the country. It was here where railroad shipping ended and harbor shipping began. Between 1914 and 1917, during World War I, millions of tons of American-made munitions bought by the British and French militaries were sent from Black Tom to the front. And when it detonatedwith shells and bullets flyingthe impact was fierce. Nearly sixty years later geologists sampling rock from the area determined that the explosion would have registered as a 5.5 earthquake on the Richter scale.