Sailor’s fingerprints solve ship mystery
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I have seen a lot of these stories posted. Makes one believe that US bombers shot down more Jap planes than anything. Seems ,like a lot of poppycock
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Say it like Travolta in The Fanatic 
“POPPYCOCK!”
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Reading Eagle (August 8, 1942)
SIX SPIES DIE IN ELECTRIC CHAIR
Seventh gets life; eighth thirty years
Electrocuted in DC jail, starting at noon, White House announces
Death ends trail of these saboteurs
Quirin
Haupt
Heinck
Kerling
Neubauer
Thiel
Washington (UP) –
Six of the eight Nazi wreckers who came here by U-boat under German High Command orders to sabotage the American war effort were executed today – beginning at noon – in the electric chair at the District of Columbia jail.
The White House announced the executions in a statement which disclosed that two of the Nazis were spared death:
…because of their assistance to the government of the United States in the apprehension and conviction of the others.
The special military commission which tried the saboteurs found all eight guilty and recommended the death penalty for all. It transmitted to the President, however, a unanimous recommendation that the sentences of Ernst Peter Burger, and George John Dasch be commuted.
The President directed that Burger’s sentence be commuted to life imprisonment at hard labor, and Dasch’s to confinement at hard labor for 30 years.
18-year-old chair
The others were executed in an 18-year-old electric chair on the fourth floor of the forbidding and bleakly designed District jail.
They were:
- Herbert Hans Haupt, 22, and the youngest, formerly of Chicago;
- Edward John Kerling, 33, leader of the four Nazis who landed on a Florida beach the night of June 17;
- Heinrich Harm Heinck, 35;
- Richard Quirin, 34;
- Werner Thiel, 35;
- Hermann Neubauer, 32.
The Nazis, trained in a German High Command school near Berlin, came here equipped to blast and burn vital American war factories, communications, and railway lines and bridges.
Landed in June
One group of four landed at Ponte Vedra Beach, near Jacksonville, Florida, the night of June 17. The other, led by Dasch, landed neat Amagansett, Long Island, the night of June 12. Their capture was announced June 27.
The White House announcement, issued by White House Secretary Stephen T. Early, was held up until sentences had been executed.
Since 6:30 a.m., it had been apparent that the case was approaching its climax at the District jail. Brig. Gen. Albert L. Cox, provost marshal pf the Washington Military District, charged by the President with carrying out the commission’s verdict, entered the jail at that time.
Clergyman enters jail
About 10:15 a.m., a clergyman – either Catholic or Episcopalian – was admitted to the jail. He was not identified by reporters and he refused to answer any questions.
Brig. Gen. Cox, charged with carrying out the as-yet-officially-secret sentences, arrived at the early hour of 6:30 a.m. He was accompanied by his assistant, Maj. Thomas M. Rives.
Rain streaked across the jail entrance as two Army sedans and an Army scout car rolled up a little later. At least one officer was in each vehicle.
At 8:30, Cox Rives and two other Army officers met in a corridor on the first floor. They conversed briefly and Cox was overheard to say in a firm tone:
All right.
Then they entered an elevator which goes to the fourth floor, where the death chamber is located. The two officers soon drove away, but returned at 9:27 a.m.
Supt. John Green, of the District jail, arrived at 8:20, and at 9:40, he entered the elevator. A group of soldiers then came down their stairs.
Shortly before 10 a.m., Cox came down to the first floor again. He refused to say anything.
Reporters are admitted
Some reporters were permitted inside the jail and at least 25 more stood outside.
As far as could be learned, no one except the military had seen the saboteurs today. They have been held in a separate wing of the building from which civilian officials have been barred.
At 10:35 a.m., White House Secretary Stephen T. Early made this statement:
Regarding the eight prisoners in the District jail, there is as yet no news for you.
All lights on the first floor of the jail except those in the vestibule and over the telephone switchboard were turned off at 11:10 a.m. Reporters had been watching for a telltale dimming of lights which might mean that the current had been thrown through the 18-year-old electric chair.
At 11:32 a.m., Dr. A. Magruder MacDonald, District coroner, entered the jail. He would not discuss the purpose of his visit.
There has been no official indication of the fate awaiting the saboteurs or the method, time or place any sentence imposed will be carried out, but District officials were preparing the electric chair and execution chamber at the jail if that method of punishment is decreed.
Jailer had no instructions
Supt. Green said he was absolutely without any official instructions concerning execution of the saboteurs. From one authoritative quarter, it was understood the eight men would be given their breakfast as usual at 7 a.m.
But reports said authorities, on their own initiative, have already made preparations for use of the death chamber. It was said that while there are usually only five witness chairs in the execution chamber, prison attendants have set up 20 more because officials believe more witnesses would be on hand for electrocution of the saboteurs.
The verdict of the military commission reached Mr. Roosevelt last Monday. On Tuesday, he said he expected to finish his review in “two or three days.” The third day – Friday – passed, however, without announcement of sentence.
In addition to Dasch, the saboteurs are:
- Ernst Peter Burger, who has been mentioned unofficially as a possible recipient of clemency along with Dasch;
- Herbert Hans Haupt, a former Chicagoan;
- Henry Harm Heinck
- Edward John Kerling
- Hermann Neubauer
- Richard Quirin
- Werner Thiel.
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2 U.S. ships in convoy sunk, Berlin claims
Berlin, Germany (AP) – (from German broadcasts)
The German High Command announced in a special communiqué today that an American destroyer and seven ships, totaling 49,000 tons, had been sunk from a convoy in the North Atlantic.
The North Atlantic action was described as “a difficult attack on a strongly escorted convoy,” the special communiqué said.
Eight other ships were sunk in the mid-Atlantic, in American waters and off the harbors of the West African coast, the communiqué said. These ships totaled 54,181 tons.
There has been no confirmation of these sinkings from any Allied source.
Army acquires 11 more Atlantic City hotels
Washington (AP) –
Acquisition of 11 additional hotels in Atlantic City for use by the Army Air Forces was announced today by the War Department.
The hotels were listed as the Deville, Holmhurst, Brighton, Flanders, Stanton, Stevenson, Chelsea, Knights of Columbus, Penn-Ryan, Glasslyn-Chatman, and Crillon.
Military plane crashes
Alexandria, Virginia (UP) –
A military-type plane crashed today about two miles south of here and it was reported that at least two persons were killed.
Gandhi asks American aid
Urges ‘friends’ in U.S. to help avert crisis to freedom move
By the Associated Press
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Attack on Siberia by Japs foreseen
Nippon-Soviet ‘war’ now raging, Magnuson says
Washington (UP) –
Military experts expressed belief today that the long-expected Japanese attack on Siberia may be made soon unless the Germans suffer sudden, major reverses in their battle for the Caucasus.
Rep. Warren G. Magnuson (D-WA) said in Seattle last night that Japan and Russia are already fighting an undeclared war and it was “common knowledge” that the Japanese recently sank several Russian ships in the Pacific.
Strengthening flanks
Recent Japanese military operations in both the North and South Pacific, Washington observers said, appeared to be designed to strengthen the flanks of their greatly extended lines rather than as a prelude to new aggressive moves in those areas.
Present Japanese activity in New Guinea, they believe, is intended to consolidate their position on the island which is a logical stepping stone for any Allied offensive from Australia.