New Britain herald., 1918-01-24
FIRE BOMB AGENTS
 PLACED ON TRIAL
Fourteen in Court to Answer
 German Plot Charge

] of the chiefs of the German plot SvS- { tenn in the United States, con- ] timed before Judge Howe in the
 Federal District court yesterday. At
 the outset of the trial Judge Howe
 announced that no technical objections would be permitted to delay the trial
 which he added must proceed with as little undue interruption as possible. The conspirators are charged With
 placing fire bombs in the cargo spaces of ships plying between New l York and allied ports in Europe, the particular instance cited in the 1n- dictnent being the attempt that was ] made to blow up the British freighter 1 Kirk Oswald.
 1 Lieutenant Barnitz of the Police | Headquarters Bomb squad, who IS now on duty with the United States army intelligence service, was one or | the witnesses examined. Lieutenant l Barnitz was one of the detectives who | got at the bottom of the plot to des- troy the ships.
 | Lieutenant Barnitz said that Eugene l Reister, another of the defendants, l admitted that he had tested g. number 1 of fire bombs which had been turned over to him by Carl Schimmel, and had then handed them to Walter | Uhde, who is also on trial, to be de- ! o'S | cording to the witness, Reister said | that SchimmeI informed him that the l bombs were intended for use on the l Lusitania According to BarnitZ, ! Reister then tolS him that 8 man l named Hanson, but who he said in reality was Franz Rintelen, was SUD- ] plying the money for the making and ! placing of the bombs.
 Touching upon the alleged connec- ton of the defendant Joseph Zefferr, with the bomb plot, Lieutenant Barn. itz said on the stand that the latter had admitted carrying a package of
 bombs to the west side. This pack age according to the witnesses ver sion of Zeffert's story, was handed to
 him by the defendant, Reister, by whom he was employed as bartender. According to the testimony, Relster ] and Zeffert rode in taxicab to Twenty-third and West streets, where they were to have handed the pack age of bombs to a third man. The
 latter failed to appear and, according to the Barnitz narrative of Zeffert S admissions, the bombs were taken to the office of Carl Schimmel in William street, where he removed the contents | of the lead containers.
 Missing Men Located.
 Lieutenant Barnftz stated that the
 bomb squad had traced two of the alleged plotters who were missing,
 Herbert Ebeling, who is said to have
 taken the bombs aboard the steam :
 ships in cigar boxes, the witness de-
 clared, is confined in Bloomingdalc
 asylum. The other man, who was not
 indicted, but sought for by the police,
 was Max Klein, who, according to , Lieutenant Barnitz, died in the Lin- coin hospital a few weeks ago.
 Inspector Turney who, as captain
 of the bomb squad unearthed the Y bomb plot, opened his testimony by 7 telling, under questioning of Federal , Attorney Osborne, a. series of conver-
 sations he had had with several of
 the defendants. The first of these, he
 said, was Charles von Kleist, who is
 charged with having been one of the
 most trusted in the 'go-between' N service conducted by Rintelen and the l men who are said to have supplied the
 money to the latter.
 During the conversation, as related
 by Inspector Tunney, the date of
 which he fixed as April II, 1916, won f Kleist, when one of the bombs was q shown to him, said he did not know
 it's contents except that it contained , fluid and a powder. Von Kleist he > said, admitted that he had seen a = check for $10,00O in the possession ot e pr. Walter F. Scheele of Hoboken, an- d other of the defendants. The doctor d he asserted, explained that the checl, d was made payable to one Hanson - who, he said, was none other thar r Rintelen. While questioning the de. d fendant, Captain Otto Wolpert, on the q lot ( - latter asserted the man who had beer II supplying the money for the anti n Ally sabotage plants was interned il e England and for that reason the de
 fendant declined to give the name
 He said that the man would como
 over to this country if released anc
 would be able to clear up the whol' D matter if he felt so inclined
 ''I asked Wolpert," said the wit
 ness why he and his confederate -e were engaged in placing bombs ol lo ships in the harbors of a neutra o o1o country I told him they could no 'a ,a win the war in that way, and the1 '' Wolpert told me that he had droppe 's out of the plot on June 1, 1915, bu ' he would not give to me the name o y the man who had been supplying tn l'' money All he would say was that h - was being held in England.
 r ''When I told Captain Wolpert tha = Ernst Becker had stated that h au turned over to him a satchel con = taining bombs, which had been sen ,+ by pr. Schee1e the captain decline Ia to answer until he had consulted a in attorney.
 The district attorney then offere
 in evidence and read several page
 of the stenographer's minutes of tn
 conversation between Inspector Tun m ney, Captain Wolpert and Erns h. Becker. in which Becker admitte