The sun., 1919-04-16
FRICKE CONFESSION
is READ IN COURT
Admitted Knowing Vessels,
Alias ROdiger, Plotted
Bomb Explosions.
EXTENUATED HIS ACTS
German Spy Talked Of Import
ing Explosives I'm Statuary
Gift to Church.


face card at the trial of Albert Paul
Fricke. who is charged with treason. A
signed statement which Fricke made to
Ben A. Matthews, Assistant United
States Attorney. on June Is, 1918. after
saying. 81 will hold nothing back" was
read to the jury.
Fricke confessed to advancing money
10 Herman Vessels. whom he admitted
he knew to have come to the United
States in November, 1915, as a German
agent, after the United States had be-
come belligerent on April 6, 1917. He
told of transactions with Nine. Marie de
Nictorica, whom he also knew to have
come from the German Naval Intelli-
gence Bureau. He confessed to knowl-
edge of efforts by Vessels to import ex-
plosives to blow up British ships in the
months just before the United States en-
tered the war. He told how Vessels
had spoken to him of the possibility of
importing explosives in altar pieces
shipped from Holland as gifts to Catho-
lie churches.
Dictated Eight Days After Arrest.
The statement was dictated by
Fricke eight days after he had been i'm
prisoned OH an indictment charging him
with conspiracy to commit espionage.
capital offense, with jeremiah A.
OLeary, John T. Ryan, Willard Robin
son and others as codefendants. He
JAILED to gain by 1t because the Govern
nent reindicted him. charging treason.
and Il is on this Indictment that he Is
Icing tried before Judge Mayer.
While he admitted his transactions
with Vessels and Nine de Victorica,
I'rickes statement was not a bald con-
rcssion of guilt in a plot against his
adopted country. For everything that
lie did he made a defence or a plea In
~ l.. L. 4,
because Vessels had been sent to him
ny Adolph Richter head of the German
house OF Richter & Co, for whom he
was the American manager. Having as
listed Vessels before the United States
became a belligerent, he trailed along
ifterward though trying all the time to
get rid of him.
Vessels is named throughout the
statement as Rodiger. He entered this
country with a passport identifying him
as Karl Rodiger. a Swiss. He was iden-
titled as Vessels. former second officer
on the Imperator. months after his ar
rest.
Fricke said that he received a cable
gram I'm October, 1916. informing him
that Karl Rodiger. who was alleged to
be connected with the Often. Switzer-
land. branch OF Richter & Co, was on
lis way to America. Rodiger arrived
and called on Fricke once or twice a
week during November and December.
\ paragraph from the statement in
which Vessels described his mission fol-
lows:
He (Rodiger) said: I am to investi-
gate II 1t is possible to place Irish re-
cl'G,ts on British warships for the pur-
Jose OF placing bombs on the ships and
] found out and reported II cannot be
lone and my strict orders are that
nothing IL to he undertaken directed
inst hn fnl a.
place bombs on British freight shiss
leaving New York hsrbor and I will
Jay $4,000 or s5o.000 for each ship
so destroyed.
'T expect another man or two from
the other side who are to help me make
the bombs"
Could Not Get Explosives.
Fricke said that Vessels asked for hi.
aid in smuggling the raw materials for
explosives into this country. The mes.
sengers from the other side had not ar.
rived Vessels told Fricke that he
thought they had been discovered and
taken from neutral steamships by the
British. The Governments domestic
supervision was so strict that Rodigel
could not get ingredients for his bombs
Fricke said that he suggested a round
about method Of importing concealed
explosives by way of the neutra
branches of Richter & Co. He made tn,
scheme complicated on purpose, he said
in the hope that Vessels would not car,
for II. In this he was successful. H,
said:
1.-THE plan did not appeal to hin
(Rodiger) and IT seems that due to thu
non-arrival of the chemists the entir,
plan was abandoned. although It seem
10 have been revived after the arrva
OF Nine, de Victorica, when Rodige
once more asked me how to go abou
importing statuary or altar pieces from
Holland as a gift for some Catholic
church. When I hesitated he dropped
the subject AT once and jumped Il
another. apparently not to disclose any
thing unnecessarily"
After the arrival OF Nine. de Victories
in January. 1917. Fricke managed
meeting with Vessels in the Kaiserhot
The alleged spies talked of unimportan
things while he was with them. Frick
said. Nine. de Victorica brought wor
IT conditions in Germany. She said tina
The Kaiser was passing much time Il
church at prayer and that the peac
PARTY. led by the Kaiser. Won Betbmann
ITolweg and Balm. was willing to ced
hlsace-Lorraine TO France.
Describing the situation when tn
United States became belllgeren
Fricke sa
~ asked Rodiger what he intended
do regarding registration. He said tina
he had registered and showed me reg
istration card. had serious talk wit
Rodiger and told him / should be lei
out of his affairs from now on. 1t mus
have been in this connection when / tol
him to see to II that I did not get an
more mail for him 1t must also hav
heen then that he repeated that ! ha
nothing to fear because he would under
take nothing against this country. II
iriso said that a high Judge was line
UP in his work
Fricke had little TO tell regardin
events during the first months of III
war. He was away from New Yorl
either III at his home In Mount Verno
or on vacation at Liberty in the Cat
kills.
Vessels appeared at Liberty In Al
gust. He needed money. Fricke az
Vanced him $4,000. He described Il
loan In hIa confession as a foolish &C