The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1915-11-03
SPIES GET BOMBS
SECRET SERVICE ARRESTS GER
MAN AGENT AND AIDERS .
PLANNED EXPLOSIONS

Fay Confessed Soldier Of German
Army and Veteran Of Spring Cam
| paign, Makes Startling Confession
Officials Suspected, Although
Fay Says They Refused Aid.
The attempt by two Germans to
buy ten pounds OF picric acid, the
chemical which enters into the COM
position Of most high explosives,
from a New York firm a few weeks
ago resulted Sunday afternoon in the
arrest in a wood near Grantwood, n.
j., of Robert Fay and Walter Scholz,
who are locked up on the charge Of
conspiracy.
The two men made not the slight
est resistance when arrested; Fay.
indeed, gave himself up with quiet
smile to the detectives, and remained
unrutfled after hours Of grllling by
| Secret Service men and the New York
and New Jersey police. Deputy Po-
lice Commissioner Scull, who himself
was formerly in the Secret Service,
took charge Of the Guizzing of Fay.
The two men were taken back to
the Weehawken Station, where they
were still being questioned by the
Secret Service men at midnight.
Meanwhile others of the party of fed
eral and local detectives went back
to the apartment on Fifth Street and
searched It.
There, they say, they found the
documents proving the connection Of
Fay with the German army and the
German foreign office. They found
also 200 letters in German, mostly
/ addressed to Fay, which are now In
the possession Of the Secret Service
officers and are being translated.
! And they found a United States Coast
Survey map showing New York Har-
Dor with all its docks and piers in
great detail.
There was a raised platform in one
of the rooms on which were a con-
siderable number OF mechanisms OF
various kinds which the police be-
lieve to be intended for the manufac-
ture OF bombs. There were also four
suitcases containing twenty-five sticks
of dynamite and twenty-five pounds
of trinitrotoluol, which is one of the
highest Of known explosives, and Is
the one used in most high explosive
shells. This is more powerful than
anything in the outfit Of Erich Muen-
ter, alias Frank Holt, the German
American who last July set OFF a
bomb in the capitol at Washington
and later committed suicide in the
. jail at Mineola, L. l., where he had
been confined after an attempt to
murder J. P. Morgan.
From information obtained in the
observation Of previous days and con-
frmed by papers found in the apart
ment occupied by the two men the
police thereupon went to the Victor
Storage Warehouse at 245 Clinton
avenue, West Hoboken, where it: is
Iai6 Fay and Scholz had put away
there.
) In these cases, according to the po-
lice, were five explosive mines, con-
Itained in steel boxes, with attach
ments which are believed to be de-
signed for fastening the mines to the
: rudders of steamers. It is the theory
: of the Secret Service mechanics, who
have inspected the mechanism, that
the rush Of water from tEe propeller
would start q ciockwork device which
would bring about the explosion OF
the mine at certain time.
There were also, according to the
police, other bombs which might have
been intended for placing inside
ships among the cargo to start fires,
as has been done several times dur
ing the past few months.
Fay was questioned all Sunday
night by Secret Service men under
the direction Of Chief William J.
Flynn and New York detectives di-
rected by Fifth Deputy Police Com
missioner Guy H.. Scull and Captain
Thomas Tunney, and finally on Mon
day morning he made a statement ad-
nitting that he had come to this
countryto blow up ships, that he had
been sent by German Secret Service
officials, and that he had talked with
Captain Franz Won Papen and Captain
Karl Boyd, Military and Naval At
taches, respectively, at the German
embassy in Washington. He insisted
that there officials had strongly de-
clined" to have anything to do with
the operations of his mines in Ameri-
can waters, only suggesting that per-
haps he might find q field Of activity
in the hostile country of Canada.
Fay-he continues to insist that
Robert Fay is his real name-made
to the police early Monday morning
an extended statement Of the circum-
stances which led him to come to this
country. He denied that he had any
thing to do with the promotion of
fires or explosions in ammunition
plants, saying that he was an engi-
neer himself and familiar with ma
chinery factories, and that he knew
that any factory with an up-to-date
repairing crew would repair any dam
ages within three or four days.
He declared that his first interest
in the question Of stopping shipments
OF ammunition was aroused last win
/ ter when he was serving in Cham
pagne with the Sixteen Reserve Regi-
ment OF Cologne, which, after sue
cessful charge one day, destroyed a
French battery only to find that other
guns were in position the next day to
replace those that had been put out
OF action.
"Then," he said, "I realized that
the only successful method for US to
use was to stop the source Of supply
to shut off the export Of artillery
and munitions from American har-
bors. I had had some experience In
the use Of hand grenades and mine
laying, and had patented a device for
exploding mines.
$50 after application to my Col
onel I was put into connection with
the secret office in Brussels, which
arranged for my passage to this
country, leaving it to the military
authorities in this country whether
they considered 1t advisable to use
this device in the United States or
possibly in Canada.
Il came on the Rotterdam in April,
and saw Captain Won Papen and Cap
tain Boy-Ed, who declined to have
anything to do with such project