The Nazi Spy Ring in America
Hitler's Agents, the FBI, and the Case That Stirred the Nation
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- $29.99
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- $29.99
Publisher Description
The first full account of Nazi spies in 1930s America and how they were exposed.
In the mid-1930s just as the United States was embarking on a policy of neutrality, Nazi Germany launched a program of espionage against the unwary nation. The Nazi Spy Ring in America tells the story of Hitler’s attempts to interfere in American affairs by spreading anti-Semitic propaganda, stealing military technology, and mapping US defenses.
This fast-paced history provides essential insight into the role of espionage in shaping American perceptions of Germany in the years leading up to US entry into World War II. Fascinating and thoroughly researched, The Nazi Spy Ring in America sheds light on a now-forgotten but significant episode in the history of international relations and the development of the FBI.
Using recently declassified documents, prize-winning historian Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones narrates this little-known chapter in US history. He shows how Germany’s foreign intelligence service, the Abwehr, was able to steal top secret US technology such as a prototype codebreaking machine and data about the latest fighter planes.
At the center of the story is Leon Turrou, the FBI agent who helped bring down the Nazi spy ring in a case that quickly transformed into a national sensation. The arrest and prosecution of four members of the ring was a high-profile case with all the trappings of fiction: fast cars, louche liaisons, a murder plot, a Manhattan socialite, and a ringleader codenamed Agent Sex. Part of the story of breaking the Nazi spy ring is also the rise and fall of Turrou, whose talent was matched only by his penchant for publicity, which eventually caused him to run afoul of J. Edgar Hoover's strict codes of conduct.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Historian Jeffreys-Jones (We Know All About You) delivers a solid rundown of the unmasking of a German espionage network in the U.S. prior to WWII. Tracking the spy ring's origins to the arrival of Abwehr agent Leon Lonkowski in New Jersey in 1927, Jeffreys-Jones explains how spies gathered information at U.S. naval shipyards, airplane factories, arms research facilities, and military bases. Documents and parcels were sent back to Germany via ocean liners and through a hairdresser in Scotland, who forwarded them to intelligence officers in Hamburg. One such message, intercepted in 1938 and decoded by British agents, outlined a plan to steal America's east coast defense plans. Alerted by MI5, American authorities launched an investigation headed by FBI agent Leon Turrou, who had previously helped to crack the Lindbergh kidnapping case. Though four Nazi spies were eventually convicted and sentenced to prison, Turrou ran afoul of FBI officials for selling his story of the case to the New York Post. Jeffreys-Jones, however, credits him with helping to awaken the American public to the Nazi threat and with galvanizing support for U.S. military and intelligence services. Though his prose rarely soars, Jeffreys-Jones packs the narrative with fine-grained details and memorable character sketches. Espionage buffs will want to take a look.
