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Billy the Kid (Volume 4, Episode 3) Part One

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Although he never robbed a bank or a train, never fought a traditional duel and didn’t drink, Billy the Kid remains one of America’s most notorious outlaws.

The only authenticated photo of Billy the Kid, taken in 1880

Over one hundred films have portrayed him in various scenarios ranging from predictable western themes to plots even involving Count Dracula.  He is the subject of music composed by the likes of Aaron Copland, Bob Dylan and Billy Joel.  Dead at the age of twenty-one, the Kid’s exploits were national news in his own lifetime, despite the reality that he was essentially a nineteenth century gang member, who merely possessed a penchant for dramatic and occasionally violent escape.

John Tunstall

Tunstall’s father was a successful merchant with interests in Canada and his son emigrated to the southwestern US, believing that the rapidly growing area had unlimited economic potential.  Settling in Lincoln County, Tunstall, only 22, partnered with Alexander McSween, a Canadian lawyer and former employee of The House.  Together they opened up a business and bank in Lincoln that competed directly with Dolan and Murphy.  This newly established entity’s other partner was John Chisum, one of the wealthiest ranchers in the southwest.  His herd of cattle numbered over 100,000 and ranged over New Mexico property that covered over 150 miles.  Tunstall offered cheaper prices and ethical business practices to the citizens of Lincoln and by early 1878, the House was headed for economic ruin.

Alexander McSween

A lawyer, Alexander McSween, became involved in complicated litigation over proceeds of a life insurance policy that he eventually obtained for his client.  But, because this money involved one of Dolan’s business partners, McSween did not want to release it, presuming that Dolan would eventually gain control of the cash.  This resulted in one of the heirs filing both criminal and civil charges of embezzlement against McSween.  This matter was litigated in the nearby town of Mesilla and while McSween was able to postpone any criminal charges, he left the proceeding before being informed that the judge had issued a writ attaching his property for the sum of 10,000 dollars.  Dolan, also present in Mesilla, quickly returned to Lincoln ahead of McSween and had Brady the Sheriff form a posse and occupy McSween and Tunstall’s property.

Sheriff William Brady

For years, two merchants, Lawrence Murphy and James Dolan, operated a large store in the center of Lincoln, New Mexico.  This establishment was a monopoly that gouged the locals for basic necessities and clothing and was known negatively as “The House.”  Dolan and Murphy, Civil War veterans, also used their military contacts to provide beef for nearby military installations, a trade marked by shady practices and stolen cattle.  Any local residents who even thought of competing were intimidated by The House’s known connections, not only to Jesse Evans and The Boys but even to the County Sheriff, William Brady.

One of two Billy the Kid headstones in Fort Sumner, New Mexico

In 2004, a legal fight over an attempt to exhume the bodies of both Billy the Kid and his mother went nowhere, stoking even more rumors that the purported grave of Billy the Kid is actually empty, a secret the town fathers would just as soon you not know.  The graveyard, Pete Maxwell’s house and much of Fort Sumner was rearranged when the Pecos River decided to alter its course over time.  However, the town cemetery today contains not one but two markers devoted to Billy the Kid, both additions installed long after his original burial.

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Billy The Kid (Volume 4, Episode 3) Part Two

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He never robbed a bank or a train and never fought a traditional duel but Billy the Kid remains one of America’s most notorious outlaws.

Sheriff Pat Garrett

Garrett was an acquaintance of Billy the Kid, he had even tended bar in Fort Sumner’s most popular saloon.  6’ 6”, and powerfully built, Garrett ran as an alternative to the current lawlessness in Northern New Mexico.  Federal authorities were also intent on cracking down on rampant counterfeiting through the efforts of Treasury Agent Azariah Wild, transferred to New Mexico from New Orleans.  Wild eventually deputized Garrett, as well as other locals, including Bob Olinger, to aid him in the pursuit of individuals believed involved in this scam, including Billy the Kid.  In late 1880, robbery of the US Mail wagon in the Fort Sumner area was tied to the Kid as well.  This behavior shredded the tolerance of many Fort Sumner area residents, who increasingly viewed Billy the Kid as a lawless menace, necessitating apprehension.  His notoriety was discussed in the region’s newspapers, infamy that was eventually written up in the New York Sun, the first publication to designate him with the nickname, “Billy the Kid.”

General Lew Wallace, during the Civil War
President Rutherford B Hayes replaced Governor Axtell with Civil War General Lew Wallace, a bureaucratic and military jack of all trades who immediately issued a general pardon to those not indicted as well as a proclamation to allow the military to vanquish “insurrection.”  This allowed soldiers greater leeway to intercede in the civil disputes that gripped Lincoln County. 
Deputy Bob Ollinger

As Bob Olinger opened the gate at the side of the structure, he heard a voice coming from the nearest window on the second floor.  Looking up, the last thing he ever saw was Billy the Kid holding Olinger’s own gun, the shotgun that the deputy repeatedly taunted Billy with.  Billy the Kid poked the weapon out of the window and after greeting his jailer by simply stating “Hello, Bob,” he pulled the triggers on both barrels.  Olinger was killed instantly by the massive blast.

Lincoln County Courthouse
Arriving in Lincoln on April 21, Billy the Kid was lodged not in the notoriously insecure town jail but in the newly designated county courthouse, the building formerly housing the Dolan-Murphy store run by The House.  Shackled and handcuffed, Billy was to be under constant guard in a room next to Pat Garrett’s office. 
The second of two grave markers for Billy the Kid in Fort Sumner, New Mexico

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Virginia Hall, American espionage agent (Volume 4, Episode 2) Part One

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After her rejection by the State Department, Virginia Hall became the most decorated American female civilian during World War II.

Virginia Hall

Virginia Hall, was savvy enough to anticipate the occupation of Vichy France and only days before the Germans stormed into the region, she made a daring escape by foot over fifty miles of the snowy, rugged Pyrenees Mountains.  In Virginia’s case it actually was one foot, her other limb having been amputated at the knee after a hunting accident in her youth. But Virginia Hall’s exploits in France were far from over and she eventually returned to the continent as one of the first recruits of the famed American OSS becoming the most decorated civilian female of World War II.

Robert Alesch

In early August of 1942, a new courier appeared at the offices of the French doctor who was a link in the chain that communicated with Resistance members in Paris.  Because he came with microfiche that was sure to contain valuable intelligence, knew the passwords and identifiers associated with other couriers from his Parisian network and was dressed in the robes of a priest, he was initially accepted as genuine.  He also knew one of Virginia Hall’s pseudonyms, Marie Monin and he asked for the money that she typically doled out to support activities throughout France.  Because he had not told anyone of his arrival, he was informed that the money was not available presently, but he could wait until it was available.  Instead, he replied that he would return in a week.  It was three weeks before he showed up again, but this time he was insistent that he meet with “Marie” personally.  Summoned to the doctor’s office from her nearby location, Virginia was immediately put off by the newcomer’s German accented French and his immediate request for a wireless radio.  Although he brought a personal letter of introduction from the previous courier and his arrival coincided with this individual’s request to be replaced, Virginia remained wary of the man who introduced himself as the Abbe Robert Alesch.

Pierre Laval, with SS officers, 1943

One of Petain’s ministers, Pierre Laval, exploited the General’s incipient senility by filling the vacuum at the head of the Vichy Government.  Convinced that Nazi Germany would win World War II, he decided to ingratiate himself with the Nazi’s by constructing a harsh and repressive regime.  French authorities conscripted French citizens by the millions for German slave labor and eventually cooperated with the roundup of Jews for transport to the death camps of Poland.

Virginia Hall, later in life, on her farm

There she and her husband would live a quiet life, her health deteriorating until she was virtually incapacitated by her amputated limb, most of her time spent at home, reading and no doubt reflecting on her multifaceted service and career.  Her health necessitated hospitalization on many occasions and she passed away on July 8, 1982.  Her husband died five years later.

 

 

 

 

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Captain al haynes and United Flight 232 (Volume Four, Episode 1) Part One

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On July 19, 1989, United Air Lines pilot Captain Al Haynes was confronted with a mechanical failure that threatened all 296 passengers aboard his flight, United 232. The response of Haynes and his crew and the ensuing landing provided one of the most remarkable stories in the history of commercial aviation.

Captain Al Haynes, at a news conference the day after landing United Flight 232

On Wednesday, July 19, 1989, at approximately 1:09 PM Mountain Time, United Flight 232 took off from Denver’s Stapleton International Airport.  The flight was headed to Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport and was destined to continue to Philadelphia.  The crew of the plane was led by 57-year-old Captain Alfred “Al” Haynes, assisted by William (Bill) Records, 48, with flight engineer Dudley Dvorak, 51.  The three men had accrued close to seventy-thousand hours of flight time in their careers and Haynes especially was highly experienced at the controls of a McDonnell-Douglas DC-10, the aircraft making the flight.  The additional crew was made up of eight flight attendants, serving the 285 passengers on board, the plane near capacity.

Jerry Schemmel

When Flight 232 crashed, many people were killed but miraculously many more actually survived.  Only fifteen minutes from Sioux City, Jerry Schemmel, noticed a woman and her small child slipping into an empty seat directly in front of him.  A flight attendant was with them, perhaps she believed the mother and child might be safer in this location.  The flight attendant handed the woman several pillows to wrap around the infant, who looked to be about two years old.  Jerry watched as the child struggled to avoid his mother’s grip, eventually crawling to the top of his mother’s seat and smiling at Jerry, oblivious to the approaching danger.  Jerry noted the location of the emergency exit, literally just a few feet away and vowed to himself that he would help get the mother and her son to safety as quickly as possible.

The actual flight path of United 232

Although a two-dimensional chart of the plane’s flight path thus far would indicate a crazy circular pattern, in truth the aircraft’s trajectory was more like that of a corkscrew which meant the plane was steadily losing altitude.  Within minutes of the explosion, Dudley Dvorak contacted the nearest major traffic control operation in Minneapolis and requested the location of the closest airport to their current location.  Minneapolis informed him that their best option was Sioux City, Iowa, which they had already passed but was only about forty miles away. 

A United Air Lines DC-10

The plane, with registration N1819U, was put into service by United in 1974.  Now fifteen years old, like most passenger jets, the DC-10’s engines, via maintenance, were a hodgepodge of various replacement parts installed over the life of the jet aircraft.  Unusual in its design, the DC-10 featured an engine on each wing as well another jet lodged in the tail.  Unfortunately, the McDonnell-Douglas aircraft, released in 1971, quickly became involved in several high-profile accidents that brought the model notoriety.

American Airlines, Flight 191, May 25, 1979

On May 25, 1979, an American Air Lines flight crashed only several minutes upon takeoff from Chicago’s O’Hare Airport.  Its left engine disengaged from the wing and fell back onto the runway.  The plane, still airborne, climbed to an altitude of about three hundred feet, but loss of the left engine forced it to bank sharply to the left, practically perpendicular to the ground.  Damage to the plane’s left-wing steering mechanisms rendered it impossible to maintain. The aircraft crashed less than a mile from the airport, killing all 271 aboard as well as two employees at a nearby garage.  As the flight was destined for Los Angeles, the disaster received nationally prominent coverage and prompted the FAA to recommend halting the plane’s usage by international airlines and grounding all DC-10’s domestically.  Ultimately, the cause of the crash was determined to be faulty maintenance of the jet by American Airlines and the Dc-10 eventually returned to widespread use. 

 

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Captain Al Haynes and United Flight 232 (Volume Four, Episode 1) Part Two

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On July 19, 1989, United Air Lines pilot Captain Al Haynes was confronted with a mechanical failure that threatened all 296 passengers aboard his flight, United Flight 232. The response of Haynes and his crew and the ensuing landing provided one of the most remarkable stories in the history of commercial aviation.

The ruptured fan disc of Flight 232, found in an Alta, Iowa cornfield

The NTSB and the FAA also immediately began an investigation as to what caused the catastrophic engine failure.  But, missing much of the fan disk that came from engine number 2, their investigation bordered on speculation until October 10 when an Alta, Iowa farmer named Janice Sorenson ran into two thirds of the enormous engine part while operating a combine in her corn field.  By then, General Electric was offering six figure rewards for any substantial recovery of parts from the damaged engine.  Weighing over four hundred pounds and partially submerged in the muddy field, the part still had some of the fan blades attached and GE paid Sorenson 116,000 dollars.  Days later most of the rest of the disc was found in another nearby corn field. 

The runway after the crash of Flight 232
Captain Al Haynes, Flight Attendant Susan White, with President George H. W. Bush, The White House, September 7, 1989

But the professionalism and even heroism of the entire crew received national attention and plaudits culminating with a September, 1989 visit of all of the pilots and surviving flight attendants to the White House of George Herbert Walker Bush.

Michaelson family being interviewed after the crash, Sabrina is the infant, lower left

 Mark Michaelson, talked about how he and his wife and three children had survived the crash.  It was Michaelson’s daughter, 11 month old Sabrina Michaelson, who Jerry Schemmel rescued from the burning  aircraft.  After the interview, Michaelson and his family met Schemmel for the first time and after an emotional discussion, agreed to keep in touch. 

Michael Matz and his family watching Barbaro win the 2006 Kentucky Derby

One of the two men that Jerry Schemmel observed at one of the plane’s exits helping passengers escape was named Michael Matz.  Matz was a nationally prominent equestrian show jumping rider who eventually would medal in the Olympics and was selected to carry the American flag during the US team’s participation in the procession that concluded the 1996 Olympic games.  He concluded his illustrious show jumping career in 1998 and embarked on another pursuit, training thoroughbred racehorses.  Only eight years later Matz reached the pinnacle of the sport when he successfully trained Barbaro, the dominant winner of the 2006 Kentucky Derby. 

Barbaro, winning 2006 Kentucky Derby

Two weeks later, shortly after the start of the Preakness, Barbaro shattered many of the bones in his right rear leg.  Despite complicated surgery, extensive rehabilitation and Barbaro’s gallant will to survive, Matz had to make the agonizing decision to euthanize the animal on January 29, 2007, six months after the initial injury.

 

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Gram Parsons (Volume 3, Episode 12) Part One

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Part Hank Williams and part Spinal Tap, Gram Parsons’ influence on popular music can be heard every day.

Gram Parsons

Fifty years after his death, Gram Parsons has achieved respect as an influence on many prominent musicians and is perceived as musically way ahead of his time. 

The Byrds, Chris Hillman, left, Roger McGuinn, center

For three years, beginning with their 1965 hits, one band, the Byrds, dominated the Los Angeles music scene.  What original music they produced was usually written by lead vocalist Gene Clark and the huge royalties generated by his writing credits, rankled the other band members, especially, David Crosby, whose personality could best be described as toxic.  After contributing the single “Eight Miles High,” Clark quit the band, officially over his fear of flying but also as a result of increasing tension within the group.  Crosby lasted longer, but his egomania and substance abuse resulted in his dismissal in late 1967.  The remaining original members, Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman were initially looking to hire sidemen, in drummer Kevin Kelley and Gram Parsons, Gram having the same business manager as Hillman.  That Parsons was contractually entangled with Lee Hazlewood, actually worked for the pre-existing Byrds as Gram could only remain on salary and not demand to be included as a full-fledged member of the band, important as the Byrds renewed a seven-year contract with Columbia Records in February, 1968.

Chris Hillman, circa Flying Burrito Brothers

Unpredictably, when Gram began looking for musicians for his own group he began speaking again with Chris Hillman.  Although it angered the other band members, the timing of Gram’s departure from the Byrds seemed almost prescient, based on subsequent events.  The group took tremendous criticism when they played to all white crowds in South Africa and attendance was sparse in any case.  The promoter stiffed them on fees and they returned to the States, broke, with Roger McGuinn making personnel changes designed to reestablish his complete control.  To Chris Hillman, Gram eventually appeared practically benign by comparison.  Reunited, they scoured the LA sessions scene and assembled a country oriented roster that even included a pedal steel guitar player, the legendary Sneaky Pete Kleinow.  Gram expropriated the Flying Burrito Brothers name with the blessing of his former ISB mates who had left LA and had never signed a recording contract. 

Roger McGuinn, 1976

A subtle tug of war was now playing out between Roger McGuinn and Gram and Chris Hillman.  The latter were intent on heading full tilt in a country direction, McGuinn wanted to focus on past hits that centered on him as the leader of the band.

Gram Parsons’ infamous Nudie suit, on display in the Country Music Hall of Fame

To help build the band’s image as a new kind of country mixed with glam, Parsons came up with the idea to get the legendary Hollywood tailor Nudie Cohn to design suits for the band to wear on the cover.  Nudie Cohn born Nuta Kotlyarenko in Kiev, Russia, was a unique individual in his own right, a tailor who designed the outrageous outfits sported by country and western music stars of the 50’s and 60’s and actors like Roy Rogers and John Wayne.  Heavy on the bright colored satin and rhinestones, perhaps Nudie’s most famous creation was Elvis Presley’s gold lame suit that even Elvis thought was so over the top he eventually refused to wear the pants.  For the Flying Burrito Brothers album, entitled the Gilded Palace of Sin, Nudie was especially imaginative.  For Hillman, Parsons and the two other band members, Kleinow and bassist Chris Etheridge, he designed four very different outfits.  Kleinow got a black velvet shirt and pants with a gold pterodactyl on the front and a T-Rex on the back of the shirt, Etheridge had a white colored jacket and pants embroidered liberally with roses.  Chris Hillman’s outfit was neon blue, festooned with peacocks and a blazing sun on the back of his jacket.  Gram Parsons suit was white, flames paralleling his bell bottom pants, poppies on both pants pockets.  Red poppies are everywhere on the jacket, the torso emblazoned with marijuana leaves.  The sleeves feature identifiable pharmaceuticals, including Tuinals and Seconals and even a sugar cube.  Typically contradictory, the back features a large red crucifix with circular shafts of yellow and blue emanating from its center.  Today, this remarkable garment hangs in the Country Music Hall of Fame.

 

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Gram Parsons (Volume 3, Episode 12) Part Two

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Part Hank Williams and part Spinal Tap, fifty years after his death, Gram Parsons’ influence on popular music can be heard every day.

Gram Parsons’ Nudie suit Country Music Hall of Fame

Whatever discipline that drove Parsons and Hillman to compose the music that appeared  on their first album completely disappeared once they had to perform live.  Most observers of their early LA club dates described them as under rehearsed, sloppy and with some members, frequently Gram, under the influence.  The band did themselves no favors when they appeared at the Whiskey, performing so poorly that the upper echelon of A and M walked out in disgust in the middle of the Burrito’s performance.

Emmylou Harris in the seventies

For his first solo album, he came up with the idea of hiring Elvis Presley’s Las Vegas backing band, which he did, paying musicians like Glen D. Hardin and James Burton out of his own pocket when Warner Brothers refused their steep rates.  Much of the record consists of duets with Emmylou Harris.  With rehearsals taking place at Phil Kaufman’s house, a surreal place furnished with strange antiques and vintage junk, the process was predictably slow moving.  Eventually, Gram got it together and got the album recorded.  Called “GP” with a cover photo of Gram sitting in the lobby of the Chateau Marmont, the album’s release prompted kind words from the critics but not much of a popular reaction.

Emmy Lou Harris, 2012

Gram couldn’t afford the Elvis musicians for the tour and the assembled band was so weak that the lead guitar player was fired after only one show.  Kaufman frequently had to separate the two, husband and wife sitting as far away as possible.  But there were high points; Jock Bartley, who eventually became part of the successful group Firefall was a competent replacement.  In Houston, EmmyLou Harris met and performed with Linda Ronstadt for the first time.  On Long Island, a performance on radio station WLIR was eventually released in 1983 as a live album of great quality that holds up well almost fifty years later. But it was the same story for the solo album, positive reviews but lackluster sales.  

Keith Richards, 1976

Whatever interest Gram had in his own music was completely undermined by acting practically as a groupie around the Stones.  When he began to emulate the Stones onstage in both wardrobe and theatrics, it especially irritated Chris Hillman.  Mick Jagger also began to see Parsons as a detriment, another distraction that kept Keith Richards from focusing on the business of music. 

Room Eight, Joshua Tree Inn, the room where Gram Parsons died

 

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George Orwell (Volume 3, Episode 11) part one

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The creator of 1984 and Animal Farm lived a life that was as original and strange as the books themselves.

George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair was born in Motihari, Bihar, India on June 25, 1903.  He would not assume the pen name of George Orwell until the age of 30.  Blair was the son of an English civil servant father and a mother who was the daughter of a French colonial entrepreneur operating in Burma.
Passport photo en route to Burma
Even today, the catalyst for Eric Blair’s employment in Burma remains unclear.  Classmates do recall an interest in the region and his father’s career in India and his mother’s connection to Burma most likely made him aware of such a position.  But for an alumnus of Eton to apply for such a position was literally unprecedented.  Perhaps he was attempting to blot out a failed romance, perhaps it was a feeling that he had little alternative, but in October of 1922, Eric Blair, aged 19, set sail for what was then known as Rangoon.
Orwell’s wife, Eileen Blair

Through his stint at the bookstore, Orwell did expand his social circle and at a party in March of 1935, he met his future wife, Eileen O’Shaughnessy, a graduate student completing her masters in psychology at the University College London.  Having studied at Oxford and at one time an aspiring academic, Eileen had a love of literature and intellectual firepower that George Orwell immediately found very attractive.  Although he quickly began to discuss marriage, he also confessed that he was so broke, he couldn’t even afford an engagement ring.  He would also continue sleeping with other girlfriends from his bookshop employment days, even after his eventual proposal. 

“The Stores,” today, in Wallington
Orwell did not want to return to London and instead decided to rent a cottage in the hamlet of Wallington, only 35 miles north of the capital but rural and isolated from any public transportation.  Orwell was thrilled with the bucolic setting which was perfect for a writer and he was eager to plant a fruit and vegetable garden, tend to the hens and goats that came with the place, reopen the country store that had recently closed and quickly finish his latest project.  The house was nicknamed “The Stores,” from its occasional status as a grocery.  However, the out of the way location meant that his fiancé Eileen would have to abandon any plans she had to begin a career as a child psychologist.
Orwell , with his son Richard
Despite their desire to have children, George and Eileen had never been able to conceive a child.  In 1944, they decided to adopt and through Eileen’s sister were able to acquire a three- week-old boy who they named Richard. 

 

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George Orwell (Volume 3, episode 11) part 2

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The creator of Animal Farm and 1984 lived a life as original and strange as the books themselves.

Barnhill, Orwell’s hideaway in Scotland

Wanting to escape the distractions of London, in September of 1945, Orwell first travelled to Jura, a remote island in the Southwest corner of Scotland.  Once there he stumbled upon Barnhill, a remote and unoccupied farmhouse that he immediately leased from its owner.

Barnhill, from a distance by Ken Craig
Unreachable by car, without electricity or telephone, over eight miles from any inhabited village, daily life in this dwelling was challenging.  But for Orwell, much like his rural existence at the Stores, the solitude and abundant wildlife and rugged beauty was the perfect antidote for the oppressive environment in London.
Animal Farm, first edition cover

Orwell got word in August that Animal Farm had not only sold 50,000 copies in the US, but was also now a book-of-the-month club selection, generating an additional 400,000 in sales.  In 1946, only Dr. Spock would sell more books. 

Sonia Brownell Blair Orwell

Orwell was already up to other romantic intrigue.  He had met a much younger and beautiful Sonia Brownell when she was an editor at Horizon.  Never one for subtlety, he had already proposed to her previously, basically saying that even if she found him unappealing, he wasn’t going to live much longer.

Eric Blair, aka George Orwell

As an infamous non-believer it was initially difficult to find a cemetery that would accept the writer’s remains until influential friends interceded and had him interred at All Saints Church, Sutton Courtenay, Berkshire.  Strangely perverse, even to the end, Orwell had requested that he be buried in the nearest convenient cemetery according to the rites of the Church of England.

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George Dasch and the 1942 nazi u-boat invasion of america (volume 3, Episode 10) Part One

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The true story of eight nazi spies who landed on American shores via U-Boat at the height of WWII

George Dasch, FBI mugshot

George John Dasch was born on February 7, 1903 in Speyer, Germany, the fifth of thirteen children.  His mother, a social worker and quite influential at critical moments of his life, implored him at the age of thirteen to enter a seminary in preparation for the Catholic priesthood.  Dasch was expelled a year later and then served briefly in the German Army at the conclusion of World War I, lying about his age to facilitate enlistment.  Post war occupation by American troops resulted in Dasch’s fascination with emigrating to the United States and his employment on the docks of Hamburg allowed him to eventually stow away on a merchant ship bound for Philadelphia.  There, he avoided detection and blended into the neighborhood, getting a menial job within days of his arrival in October of 1922.  Determining that he might have more success within the large German ex-pat community in New York, Dasch quickly headed north. 

The eight saboteurs: top, left to right, Dasch, Burger, Heinck, Quirin. Bottom, left to right, Kerling, Thiel, Neubauer, Haupt

All eight men were outfitted with American style civilian clothes, fake identity papers and presented with eight wooden crates containing waterproof stainless steel receptacles packed tightly with plastic explosives, detonators, and timers.  Dasch and Kerlin as team leaders were given additional training in invisible ink composition and composed handkerchiefs covertly containing contact names for reliable friends and relatives in the US.  Dasch and Kerlin were also each given approximately 85,000 dollars. 

Walter Kappe, 1936 American mug shot

Upon arrival, Dasch was confined to a hotel with other newly arrived German nationals where he was rigorously interviewed by officials intent on determining the exact motivation for his return.  Among these interviewers was a man named Walter Kappe, who grilled Dasch in English to assess how well the he spoke the language.  After Dasch lied to him about employment in an import-export company and demonstrated language proficiency, Kappe gave him his card, indicating that he was an editor of a magazine and encouraged him to interview for a position.  Dasch was polite, but was anxious to visit his family and explore other less nebulous options via family connections. 

Wilhelm Canaris

Hitler no longer had to worry about that consequence, and he began to berate Abwehr chief Wilhelm Canaris, to implement the Fuehrer’s concept of a massive covert attack on America, both destroying American industrial capability and fomenting a home grown fifth column of resistance within the German-American community.

Erwin Lahousen
Canaris and the head of the Abwehr II section, Erwin Von Lahousen, began to cast about for an appropriate individual to supervise this covert scheme.  Walter Kappe, having spent many years in the US and possessing an understanding of the German ex-pat community was a logical choice.  Kappe, eager to settle scores against a country that ultimately rejected him, enthusiastically accepted the assignment.  Perhaps, Canaris and von Lahousen, secretly anti-Nazi and two of several eventual leaders of the ill-fated German military resistance to Hitler, were subtly trying to derail the operation from the top down. 
Amagansett Coast Guard Station
Jennett was convinced and prepared a response, notifying the off-duty commander of the outpost, chief boatswain’s mate Warren Barnes, who showed up within minutes.  Jennett issued rifles to the seven other men in the Coast Guard station, all so inexperienced that he had to give them a quick tutorial on their safe usage.  Calls were also placed to the off duty senior officer at the Amagansett station who contacted Coast Guard intelligence in New York City.
Coast Guardsman John Cullen
John Cullen, ran back to his outpost as quickly as possible, returning in approximately five minutes.  Waking up his fellow guardsman, he began yelling about Germans on the beach.  His commanding officer, Boatswain’s Mate Second Class Carl Jennett, was an experienced seaman who initially suspected that Cullen was the victim of an overeager imagination.
J. Edgar Hoover in the thirties
J. Edgar Hoover was immediately notified of the mysterious landing and he acted predictably.  As FDR had already designated the FBI to lead any domestic sabotage investigations, the first thing the FBI did was confiscate any materials recovered from the beach by the Coast Guard.  An FBI team of explosive experts was already examining and cataloguing the Nazi cache of demolition materials.  Because the neurotically suspicious FBI director had received information via the Coast Guard, he first wished to verify if in fact he was dealing with Nazis or something less sinister, like alcohol smugglers from Canada who used remote parts of Long Island to run untaxed liquor into the country. 
Amagansett LIRR train station

By then, the four saboteurs were nowhere near Amagansett, although their exit from eastern Long Island contained some precarious moments.  Dasch was vaguely familiar with the area and recognized the general location of Amagansett from his days living in New York, but he still had no clear direction for the village or railroad depot.  The men were savvy enough to get away from the beach as quickly as possible and still under the cover of darkness, they were able to quickly access the main road in the area, the Montauk Highway.  Wandering in a northerly direction and careful to avoid any homes or brightly lit areas, they were especially alarmed by the sound of the U-boat diesel engines they heard as they stealthily tried to extricate themselves from the beach vicinity.  When a large campground forced them to walk in a circuitous manner, they stumbled over some railroad tracks.  Dasch correctly headed west and within a mile they reached the Amagansett train station.  At five o’clock on a Saturday morning, it was locked and deserted.  All four men got rid of any wet clothes and tried to make themselves as presentable as possible.  At six AM, the station opened and Dasch bought four tickets to New York, the first train leaving at 6:59.  The four men were the only passengers to board at Amagansett and within minutes they were rapidly leaving the Hamptons behind, incredibly relieved to have successfully completed one of the most challenging parts of their mission.  Heinck even shook Dasch’s hand, acknowledging his leadership in guiding them out of danger.

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