On July 30th 1916 at 2:08 A.M. a munitions laden barge docked at the wharfs of Black Tom Island in New Jersey exploded with the force of a 5.0 to 5.5 earthquake. The explosion shattered thousands of windows in lower Manhattan, stopped the clock atop the Jersey Journal building in Journal Square at exactly 2:12, and irreparably damaged the arm of the Statute of Liberty. It was said to have been felt as far away as Philadelphia and awoken slumber citizens if Maryland. At first it was thought to have been caused by smudge pots on the wharf, but was later revealed to have been deliberate sabotage, most likely utilizing a pencil bomb (the original time bomb). Slovak emigrant Michael Kristoff was ultimately pinned with the crime, but there is little doubt that the impetus behind the plot started with Franz von Rintelen.
I don't know when Americans become such pant waists that we cringe in fear of trying a terrorist in open court. Or maybe that is not it at all, maybe it is some kind of Victorian sensibility dictating that the genteel American public can not be expected to be subjected to the ugly underbelly of empire. Maybe it is something else all together, a more base political motivation, but one thing is for sure, in 1917 America was different. When von Rintelen was extradited from England to the U.S., it was he, the terrorist, that wanted to be treated as a prisoner of war, but America said NO, we are going to try you as a common criminal in the District Court of Southern New York. Back then it was important to the American public that von Rintelen stand before the American people to answer for his crimes.
What follows is the extraordinary tale of Captain Franz von Rintelen.
Captain Franz von Rintelen (aka Mr. Hansen, aka Mr. Gates, aka Mr. Muller, aka Edward C. Gasche) a banker by profession, moved among the inter most circles of the German aristocracy, and was a "reputed friend of the Kaiser and Prince Henry of Persia". [1] He was sent to America in April of 1915 to disrupt American munitions from reaching England and the Allies. To this end he planed a Mexican revolution, plotted to 'purchase strikes' at munition factories, and conspired to destroy munition ships bound for the Allies with fire bombs. And he almost pulled it off in just the three short months he was moving freely in America.
[Edited diary to correct a somewhat embarrassing incorrect use of a wrong word. I replaced 'impudence' with 'impetus'
The charming and seemingly untiring von Rintelen was well suited for the task, already being familiar with both America and Mexico. In 1906 von Rintelen appeared at a housewarming for a prominent banker. "The housewarming was at one of the finest homes in Fifth Avenue, not many blocks distance from the present home of Andrew Carnegie." [2] "The affair was an event of the season, and among the artist who appeared were Kubelik and the late Mme Nordica", one of the attendees at the party recalled. He goes on to say
When I was introduced to von Rintelen he took me for a Frenchman and address me in French. As I subsequently learned he had no idea I was an American citizen. The Algeciras Conference was then in session, and the European situation was, as you will remember, critical. Our conversation finally drifted to the European crisis, von Rintelen himself bring up the subject. He was very bitter against England, and ask me if England and France would line up together in the event of a war. I did not give him any satisfaction on that score, for the very good reason that I was not in a position to give it.
When I told von Rintelen that I was speaking as an American citizen he seemed greatly surprised. He then switched to the American attitude toward Germany in the event of a war, and he said he thought the United States would sympathize with Germany, since, as he put it, 'Germany would be fighting to put an end to British domination of the world's commerce'. You see the story about the 'freedom of the seas' is an old one as far as Germany is concerned.
What emerges from the Times article is a highly cultured man who was comfortable in the upper echelon of society, and willing to advocate for the German cause to anyone who would listen.
Von Rintelen doesn't appear again in America until April of 1915, shortly after meeting deposed Mexican dictator Huerta in Spain, where he offered him 10,000 guns and at least $12,000,000 dollars, with much more to come as needed, to start a new revolution. The idea behind the new Mexican revolution was to embroil the U.S. in a military engagement south of the boarder that would force the U.S. to use America's munition production for its own military actions, leaving little to nothing left to ship to the Allies in Europe.
When von Rintelen arrived in New York he deposited $508,000 at Transatlantic Trust Company, although it is rumored that he had something in the neighborhood of $30,000,000 at his disposal to complete his mission. He was put in contact with Robert Fay, a former German Army officer, who would spearhead the fire bombing plot of ammunition ships bound for the Allies,[3] and was introduced to Andrew B. Meloy, an American citizen who had served in the Mexican government, and Frederick Stallworth a German citizen with banking interests in Parral, Mexico to oversee the Mexican Revolution. [4] With these two parts of his mission in place he turned his attention to the third leg of the stool, labor strikes to slow the manufacturing and transportation of American munitions to the Allies.
The National Peace Council
In what would prove to be his worse decision, von Rintelen enlisted David Lamar 'The Wolf of Wall Street' to launch the labor movement. The New York Times mentions that at the time von Rintelen employed him, Lamar was already a convicted criminal.
Lamar was convicted in the United State Court in New York for impersonating Mitchell Palmer, then a Representative in Congress from Pennsylvania, and is now out on $10,000 bail pending an appeal from his conviction and sentence. [5]
He was a con man to the core, and wasted the Kaiser's money with nothing to show for it. 'The Wolf of Wall Street' brought in his old friend from the Central Federated Union Bohm as the treasurer and added Frank Buchanan a congressman from Illinois and friend of labor, H. Robert Fowler a former congressman from Illinois, and Ohio State's ex-Attorney General Frank S. Monett to add legitimacy to the fledgeling labor organization.
With much fanfare the new National Peace Council was announced at a Carnegie Hall meeting of labor.
Some of the members of Labor's National Peace Council were prominent in the meeting at Carnegie Hall in New York on Saturday night, at which William J. Bryan delivered his first speech in furtherance of his campaign for "Peace by Persuasion." One of those who spoke at the Carnegie Hall meeting was Congressman Frank Buchanan of Chicago, who is President of Labor's National Peace Council, and presided at the meeting of that organization held here yesterday.
Conspicuously absent from the meeting was Samuel Gompers, President of the American Federation of Labor, who appeared to recognize the Teutonic nature of the Peace Council right from the beginning. But even without the blessing of the American Federation of Labor, the 'Council' used there presents at the meeting to claim they were supported by 5,000,000 members, including the National Grange organization. Although you can't fault the Labor's National Peace Council's ambitious efforts, nothing they did ever worked. They meet with Benjamin Strong Jr., President of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, demanding that U.S. loans to England and France cease. Strong allowed as he would refer the matter to the Attorney General for an opinion on the matter, but the loans never did stop. [6] Their petition to Secretary Lancing, who had replaced Bryan as Secretary of State, to stop arms shipment from American ports to the belligerents in Europe because it violated the U.S. neutrality laws fell on deaf ears. [7] They even asked for a meeting with President Wilson
The correspondence give out at the White House today show that Congressman Buchanan had requested a meeting with Wilson and that Secretary Tumulty had replied that during his recent visit to Washington from Cornish the President was so rushed with work that no opportunity had been afforded for Mr. Tumulty to take up with him Mr. Buchanan's request. Tumulty said that Mr. Buchanan doubtlessly would realize that the President had been so completely absorbed in the consideration of matters of pressing importance that he literately had no time for anything else. [8]
The 'matters of pressing importance' would appear to have been a vacation in Maine.
The Labor's Peace Council did manager to pay for an anemic one day strike at the Bridgeport Connecticut munition plant, but about the only thing they did succeed at was spending the Kaiser's money.
More merriment was aroused in the court room yesterday by further description of the openhandedness with which the German money was spent in this country by those who, consciously or unconsciously, enlisted themselves in von Rintelen's service while his $500,000 lasted. With the same cheerfulness which marked the testimony of John C. Hammond, who told of taking about $10,000 from von Rintelen for consulting with him about an advertising campaign, Mr. Bohm told how he had used the funds of Labor's National Peace Council to pay old debts of the Central Federated Union and to reward himself and two of his comrades with great liberality for "lost time."
Although he was treasurer of Labor's National Peace Council while it lasted, Mr. Bohm was the dupe of others, according to the government, and he was called as a witness today to testify against the eight defendants, including several of his former associates. Under cross-examination by L. B. Williams, council for Herman Schulties, Bohm asserted that it would have been perfectly ethical, and in accordance of long-established practices, if ex-Representative Frank Buchanan and other defendants had accepted large sums for their work in connection with Labor's National Peace Council as compensation for "lost time." [9]
Fire Bombs and Cigars
Captain Franz von Rintelen's fire bombing campaign was not nearly as farcical. The leader of his fire bombing ring was a German named Robert Fay.
Now a word about 'Lieutenant' Robert Fay. He is a former Army German officer and an expert in mechanics. As a maker of bombs and other deadly things Germany agents pronounced him "a wonder." He selected as his aid one Robert E. Scholz, a bother-in-law, and established his headquarters on the Jersey side of the Hudson, not far from Weehawken. His plan was to attach the bombs, which were time to explode at sea, to the rudder or other vital exterior parts of steamships that sailed from New York with ammunition destine for the Allies. [3]
The bomb of choice for the ring was an early version of the time bomb, commonly called the pencil bomb, but referred to by the conspirators as 'cigars'. The 'cigars' were lead tubes with picric acid on one side and sulfuric acid on the other, separated by a thin copper disk. The acids slowly corrode the copper, so by varying the thickness of the plate you can regulate the time it takes for the chemical explosion to occur. In this case, they were designed to explode several days after the ships left port. With this simple device, they were able to fire bomb some two dozen munition laden ships. One of those ships was the Lusitania.
Lieutenant Barnitz of the Police Headquarters Bomb Squad, who is now on duty with the United States Army Intelligence Service, testified that Eugene Reister, another of the defendants, admitted that he had tested a number if fire bombs which had been turned over to him by Carl Schimmel, and had then handed them to Walter Uhde, who is also on trial, to be delivered to a man on the west side. According to the witness, Reister said that Schimmel informed him that the bombs were intended for use on the Lusitania. According to Barnitz, Reister then told him that a man named Hanson, but who he said in reality was Franz Rintelen, was supplying the money for the making and placing of the bombs.
Touching upon the alleged connection of the defendant, Joseph Zeffert, with the bomb plot, Lieutenant Barnitz said on the stand that the latter admitted carrying a package of bombs to the west side. This package, according to the witnesses' version of Zeffert's story,was handed to him by defendant Reister, by whom he was employed as bartender. According to the testimony Reister and Zeffert rode in a taxicab to Twenty-third and West Street, where they were to have handed the package of bombs to a third man. The latter failed to appear and, according to the Barnitz narrative of Zeffert's admissions, the bombs were taken to the office of Carl Schmmel in William Street where he removed the contents of the lead containers.[10]
Lieutenant Barnitz goes on to state the he chased down the man who had planted the bombs aboard the steamships, but the man had gone insane. He was confined in the Bloomingdale Asylum, and kept angrily stating that the U Boat Captain had spoiled his 'cigars'.
So, here we have a interesting piece of little known history. If a German torpedo had not sunk the Lusitania, von Rintelen's 'cigars' might very well have. But, the fire bombs would have been much more mysterious and would, in all probability, not have been seen as an overt German attack, further delaying the U,.S. entry into the war.
The Mexican Revolution
The New York Times feature on January 2, 1916 sums up the Mexican plot very well, so I will leave it them to tell the story.
Von Rintelen did not wait to find out whether the strike part of his mission would fail before starting work on the Mexican section of his program. He selected General Huerta as the man to lead the new Mexican revolution, and was ready to finance him with a fund estimated at about $12,000,000, with as much more held in reserve. There was a meeting in a Fifth Avenue hotel, attended by various Mexicans who had been prominent during the days of Diaz and Huerta, and the plans of the revolution were agreed upon.
There is a report in Federal Court circles, a persistent report that will not down, that among those who attended the Fifth Avenue conference was a certain Mexican who represented not one of the dissatisfied factions, but the United States Secret Service. In June all was ready and Huerta left New York ostensibly for the "San Francisco Exposition," but in reality for the blood-soaked fields of his unhappy country. He got as far as Newman, N. M. where the United States took him in hand, locked him up in jail, and order him prosecuted for plotting on American territory a revolution that from the very first had never had a chance of getting beyond El Paso. Huerta comes to trial in San Antonio this month. [11]
Flight and Capture
With the revolution foiled and the Labor's National Peace Council showing little results, von Rintelen's traveling companion Meloy convinced von Rintelen that Lamar was simply wasting the Kaiser's money and it would be more effective to simply buy all of America's munitions. But that was a much more expensive option and von Rintelen would have to get approval from the Kaiser in person. Using a forged Swiss passport under the name of Edward C. Gasche, von Rintelen boarded a Swedish steamer bound for Europe. As von Rintelen left the American port, the German Ambassador, Count von Berstorff, sent a message to the Kaiser complaining about von Rintelen's lack of progress. The message was intercepted by the British and the Swedish steamer was detained when it entered British water while sailing through the channel. Captain Franz von Rintelen was apprehended and subsequently imprisoned in the Tower of London as a prisoner of war.
The New York Times feature I quoted about the Mexican revolution plot wants to suggest that the United States Secret Service was on top of the German plot, but I seriously doubt it. It is not until after the British capture of von Rintelen that the District Attorney for Southern New York Marshall begins his Grand Jury investigation of von Rintelen's activity in the U.S.. And I can find no mention of von Rintelen, or any of his aliases, anywhere in the press until after the British arrest. It seems to me more likely that the British, who had threatened to execute von Rintelen if he didn't talk, told the United States of his activities in this country. But regardless, Marshall did indict von Rintelen for violating the Sherman Act for his involvement in the Labor's Peace Council, and for his part in the plot to fire bomb ships. The later indictment actually had to wait until it could be determined if non U.S. citizens fire bombing foreign flagged ships in international waters was indeed a crime. But the trial would have to wait, because England refused to turn him over. It was not until after America entered the war on the side of the Allies that the British felt comfortable enough to send him across the Atlantic.
Now, here is what is the crux of why I wrote this diary today. It was von Rintelen who wanted to be treated as a prisoner of war. In all of his acts, he felt he was justified because he did them as a German Captain during a time of war. It would have been easy for America to have left him in the Tower of London under threat of a British firing squad, or to have placed him into the hands of the military. But that is not what America did! He had broken the laws of the United States and threatened America's security, and the government and the proud and brave American people demanded that he stand in court and answer to his charges. He did stand trial in the District Court of Southern New York and was found guilty of all charges lodged against him. He served one year in a New York State prison for violating the Sherman Act, and then was transferred to the Federal prison in Atlanta to server his sentence for his part in the fire bombing plot and passport forgery (oddly enough I don't think he was ever tried for his part in the Mexican revolution plot).
Post Script
On November 24, 1920 President Wilson commuted the sentence of Franz von Rintelen under the condition that he leave the country by January 1st and pay a $5,000 bond. He did leave the country and returned to Germany only to find it a much changed country, and himself a forgotten man. Eventually he emigrated to England where he lived for many years until he death on May 30, 1949
[1] New York Times December 8, 1915
[2] New York Times December 14, 1915
[3] New York Times May 2, 1917
[4] New York Times November 24, 1915
[5] New York Times June 24, 1915
[6] New York Times June 30, 1915
[7] New York Times July 9, 1915
[8] New York Times September 10, 1915
[9] New York Times May 10, 1917
[10] New York Times January 24, 1918
[11] New York Times January 2, 1916