Synopsis

In Chapter 1 (KTB #148) ERICH begins his career as a spy, and he lets us know of his love of beautiful women. In Chapter 2 (KTB #149), he was transferred home to Germany and his shipboard romance with Karen ended. In Chapter 3 (KTB #151) he began his training as a spy – and he learned that a spy who falls in love with an enemy spy – gets shot!

The defendant – more or less. An old handbill for the movie “Spion für Deutschland”, which was this story on film in Germany. This handbill depicts the romance with Erich and one of his many ladies, with the New York City policeman in the background – a rather ominous sight.

In Chapter 4 (KTB #152) we read where ERICH himself falls for a woman who turned out to be a German spy herself and her job was to lure German spies in training to betray themselves – and ERICH is nearly washed out of spy training. In Chapter 5 (KTB #153) we learned that ERICH was to be in charge of Operation PELIKAN, the plan to blow up the Panama Canal with two Ju 87 STUKA dive bombers brought over on two U-boats. At the last moment, it was thought by the German agency, that someone had tipped off the Americans to this plot, so the plan was scrapped. In Chapter 6 (KTB #154 and KTB #155) we read how ERICH and the Abwehr tried to find him a partner for his mission into the USA with the intended purpose of sabotaging the Manhattan Project – the atomic bomb project in the United States. In Chapter 7 (KTB #156) we read about the Atlantic crossing to the USA where ERICH and Billy were to be put ashore to assault the ‘Manhattan Project’. In Chapter 8 (KTB #157), the two agents landed on the coast of Maine, ready to begin their sabotage of the atomic bomb project. In Chapter 9 (KTB #158) ERICH gets the shock of learning that Billy has taken all the money and the diamonds, and deserted not only the mission, but ERICH as well. In the first part of Chapter 10 (KTB #159) ERICH is trying desperately to find Billy – and get his $60,000 and diamonds back. In the balance of Chapter 10, we see how ERICH outwitted Billy and got his suitcases, filled with money and spy equipment back – at Billy’s expense but in the meantime to nobody’s surprise, ERICH has found another woman. In chapter 11, ERICH is doing well with this new woman, an old contact is going to tell him about the Manhattan Project - but his time is running out and Billy is about to betray him to the F.B.I. In Chapter 12, ERICH was happily spending Christmas with Joan, but his tour of duty as a spy – and his life, were almost over. He was arrested by the F.B.I. and headed for the gallows. In Chapter 13, he's grilled by the F.B.I. In Chapter 14, he faces the probability of the hangman.

Chapter 15 (I): Sentenced to Death

Major Carey, counsel for the prosecution, rose briskly from his seat. He was small and wiry, had black hair, a pale austere face and dark, staring eyes. He spoke very distinctly and very convincingly. Naturally, the Army had put forward its best prosecutor.

That morning, my warder had said to me: “Go carefully with Carey. That man’s darned dangerous.”

I had already met the major. The law demanded that he must serve the indictment on me personally and at the same time formally acquaint me of the fact that I was to stand trial. This formal pronouncement had to be made while I was a free citizen and that was why the handcuffs were removed.

While the major was reeling off his little speech, I had noticed that he was holding his right arm bent behind his back. I thought at first that he must have been wounded in the war and had got into the habit of holding his injured hand out of the way, but I learned alter that he had been holding a loaded revolver. He was so utterly convinced of the truth of his indictment, which described me as the most dangerous German spy, that he had regarded the loaded revolver as a necessary precaution.

“With the court’s permission,”

Carey began now – he spoke slowly in a deep voice, and mouthed his words with an almost coquettish precision;

“I will open the case for the prosecution. The United States of North America against Erich Gimpel and William Curtis Colepaugh.”

“Please begin,” said the President.

Major Carey struck a pose. His voice took on a brighter ring and he seemed to become more personally involved in what he was doing. All the same, it was obvious that to him it was all a matter of routine. He had done the same thing hundreds of times before.

I, on the other hand, was appearing in a court of law for the first time in my life. If there was anything which I feared as much as the sentence, it was the trial itself.

I took a look at the members of the court commission, and as I glanced from one to the other I felt that there was an impenetrable veil between us.

EDITOR NOTE – Obviously Erich was not aware that a court martial almost ALWAYS finds the defendant guilty. ALWAYS!

“The prisoners, Erich Gimpel and William Curtis Colepaugh,” continued Carey, “enemies of the United States, in the month of November 1944, secretly and in civilian dress, acting upon the instructions of the German Reich, an enemy nation at war, passed through the coast and land defenses of the United States with the intention of carrying out espionage and other hostile activities. The prosecution is prepared to present evidence of this in the course of the proceedings.”

The police photo of William Colepaugh, U.S. Navy deserter and turncoat spy.

Carey seated himself slowly. He leaned back, riffled through the files in front of him and assumed an attitude of cool boredom. The President of the court, Colonel Clinton J. Harrold, threw a glance in Carey’s direction. The prosecutor rose to his feet again, walked a few paces towards me, looked me in the face, then raised his voice.

“I now ask the accused, Erich Gimpel, if he admits his guilt within the terms of the prosecution.”

I stood up, but Major Haigney, one of my counsel, forestalled me. “Before we proceed with the case,” he said, addressing himself to the President, “may I, as counsel for Mr. Gimpel, make a submission?”

“Please proceed,” said the President. Haigney paused for effect.

“This court,” began the Major, “is trying two men, one of whom is a German and the other an American citizen. Germany and America are at war with one another. They are declared enemies. Counsel for the defense is of the option that it is not fitting to try a traitor, as Colepaugh is a traitor, together with a German patriot, even if he is an enemy of this country. I do not wish to anticipate events, but everyone present knows that the other prisoner, Colepaugh, is the lowest type of American ever to stand trial, and counsel for the defense is of the opinion that the justifiable indignation of the American people at what Colepaugh has done will automatically be transferred to my client, whose actions according to the evidence are to be judged by quite different standards.”

The President interrupted him.

“You submit, in fact, that there should be two cases?”

“That is exactly what I wish to submit,” said Haigney.

Carey was on the spot at once. He tried to nullify Haigney’s proposal with legal arguments. The court evidently was undecided and there developed a vigorous legal duologue which went on over two hours, the greater part which was beyond my comprehension. All I gathered was that my counsel maintained that the proceedings would be simplified by separating the Colepaugh and Gimpel cases, whereas counsel for the prosecution held the opposite view. The court withdrew for an hour to discuss the point. Then once again the President banged his gavel on the table.

“The submission put forward by counsel for the defense has been received by the court,” he announced. He then turned to Major Carey. “Please proceed,” he said.

Once more the Major came up to me. “I ask the accused, Gimpel, to answer the charge – guilty or not guilty.”

I stood up. It is a strange experience to be suddenly the cynosure of several hundred eyes. I had now to follow the advise of my counsel. I knew little of the juristic background of the case. I thought only that it would sound strange when I now protested my innocence after having admitted in the course of the interrogation which preceded the case that I had come to America with the express intention of spying. I tried to conceal the uncertainty in my voice and looked straight ahead of me as I said, as I had been bidden, “Not guilty.”

The same question was now put to Colepaugh, and he too declared that he was not guilty. The prosecutor now began to build up his case point by point, disclosing some exceptionally fine work on the part of the F.B.I. who had succeeded in tracking back practically every step we had taken on American soil. He also revealed that the American Secret Service knew details about our past lives which we found positively astonishing. Billy’s strange route from Boston to Berlin was accurately reproduced in all its stages. Major Carey even knew the names of the German officials who had been in touch with him. He produced Billy’s reports from the Naval Academy, and drew attention to the collaboration of the former American Sea Cadet with German diplomatic missions.

As far as my own past was concerned, Major Carey’s account was a bright nosegay of the true and the false, of exaggerations and wrong implications. Nevertheless it was amazing with what care the F.B.I. had X-rayed my past.

The break for luncheon was not made until after midday and the President then allowed only an hour. The case for the prosecution was then resumed. It was about four in the afternoon. Carey remained noticeably detached and unmoved. He now seemed something like an over-pedantic schoolmaster lecturing about the Thirty Years War in an institute of adult education. I could not imagine why I had been told that he was particularly fanatic and aggressive, but I was soon to learn.

This is a good place to break the story until KTB #171 next month. We are a little tight on space this month and this is a good place to break the story as it is going to get very interesting in the next part.

Many thanks to FRANK WEINGART (842-1988) who sent us the initial copy of the book from which this is taken.

Watch for a television special coming out soon with ERICH GIMPEL and Colonel Oliver North.

Spy for Germany

Chapter 7: To America by Submarine (KTB # 156)
Chapter 8: The Landing in America (KTB # 157)
Chapter 9: Tricked by Billy in NYC (KTB # 158)
Chapter 10 (I): I Work Out My Own Situation (KTB # 159)
Chapter 10 (II): I Work Out My Own Situation (KTB # 160)
Chapter 11 (I): Billy Betrays Me to the F.B.I. (KTB # 161)
Chapter 11 (II): Billy Betrays Me to the F.B.I. (KTB # 162)
Chapter 12 (I): Love -- and then Arrest! (KTB # 163)
Chapter 12 (II): Love -- and then Arrest! (KTB # 164)
Chapter 13 (I): Grilled by the FBI (KTB # 165)
Chapter 13 (II): Grilled by the FBI (KTB # 166)
Chapter 13 (III): Grilled by the FBI (KTB # 167)
Chapter 14 (I): In the Shadow of the Hangman (KTB # 168)
Chapter 14 (II): In the Shadow of the Hangman (KTB # 169)
Chapter 15 (I): Sentenced to Death (KTB # 170)
Chapter 15 (II): Sentenced to Death (KTB # 170)