William Colepaugh

William Curtis Colepaugh (born March 25, 1918 in Niantic , Connecticut , † March 16, 2005 in Paoli , Pennsylvania ) was an American spy .

Life

After his release from the United States Navy Reserve in 1943, William Colepaugh defected to Germany in 1944 - according to official information "for the benefit of the service". While he was a crew member on a repatriation ship that stopped in Lisbon , Portugal , he went to the German consulate there with the aim of entering into German service.

Colepaugh, who spoke practically no German, received extensive firearms and espionage training at an espionage school in German-occupied The Hague in the Netherlands. With the German agent Erich Gimpel he was brought back to the United States on November 29, 1944 by the U-1230 and landed at Hancock Point in the Gulf of Maine . Their mission, Operation Elster , was to collect technical information about the Allied war effort and transmit it to Germany with a radio that they were supposed to build.

Together, Colepaugh and Gimpel made their way to Boston and then took the train to New York City . Soon after, Colepaugh gave up the mission and took $ 48,000 of the money they brought and spent a month partying and carousing with local women. After spending $ 1,500 in less than a month, Colepaugh visited an old school friend and asked for help in facing the FBI and hoping for immunity. The FBI was already searching for the two German agents after a Canadian ship was sunk a few miles off the coast of Maine (suggesting a submarine was nearby) and reports of suspicious sightings of local residents. The FBI interrogated Colepaugh, which enabled them to track down bullfinches.

After their capture, the couple was handed over to the US military authorities on the orders of the Attorney General. In February 1945 they faced a military commission charged with conspiracy and violation of the 82nd Article of War. They were found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging. The sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment by President Harry S. Truman . Gimpel was paroled in 1955 and Colepaugh in 1960.

literature

• Miller, Robert A. A True story of An American Nazi Spy: William Curtis Colepaugh. Trafford Publishing Co., 2013, pp. 228, 313. ISBN 1-466-98219-5

Web links

• Article about Colepaugh and Gimpel on fas.org (English)
• Allied report on the interrogation of Colepaugh and Gimpel on ibiblio.org
• On a Dark and Stormy November Night (archived )
• G-Men Grab Two Nazi Spies on google.com (English)