The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-10-31


 without a trace plots against
 British shipping. He is wanted
 on a charge of nlurdering Brit
 ish seamen.
 (In May last he was in custody
 in New York on another charge,
 but made a daring escape from
 tho prison hospital and fled to
 Mexico by aeroplane. With char
 acteriStic audicity he threw the
 police off the scent by writing
 letter telling his method of es-
 cape. The authorities took the
 revelation as a piece Of bluff
 London, Oct z7-Brftish and American secret service officers are hot on the trail of Captain Fritz J. .Duquesne, who Is wanted for murder and arson. and is suspected of a se- ries of escapades almost too sensa- tional for belief.
 Owing to the veil of secrecy which the Special Service works, little is known by the British and American public Of the remarkable career of this international adventurer and convicted swindler.
 The authorities have good reason to believe that he is one Of the most daring and successful spies ever enn- } ployed by Germany, and that he was responsible for some of the most dastardly outrages of the war.
 Duquesne is wanted by the Brit &sh Government on a charge of mur- der, and arrangements have been made whereby, should he be caught searching for him, he will be extra dited to England,
 List of O1a4rages>
 A mass of information has been collected by the British Secret Ser vice which leads them to believe that Duquesne operated during the war as head of a desperate gang of Ger man agents in South America.
 Their principal exploits were cen tered round attempts to destroy AL lied shipping During the time they were at work the following outrag ges occurred:-
 s. s. Salvador destroyed by fire;
 S. S. Vauban barely escaped com plete destruction;
 Coaling station at Bahia burnt;
 The Penlbrokeshire destroyed in the Atlantic;
 Boilers of the liner Lger burst, through dynamite being mixed with coal;
 s. s. Tennyson dynamited;
 Illicit wireless station erected north OI 1efnaf0 DucCo,
 Four ships which left South Amer jean ports never heard of again.
 ''Sinlz Without 4 Trace There is no doubt that many a brave British seaman lost his life as q result of the underhand plots of this gang. which were invarfa bly, chara cterized by extreme ruth1essness and total disregard of the customs Of warfare between civilized nations Their favorite device was to secret an internal ma achine in the hold of the ship, timed to explode when the vessel was far from land and out of the track of other steam ers-the eida that the ship would be sunk with out trace II will be remembered that orders to this effect were also given to German submarine comman- ders
 That the execution of this ruthless policy would entail a terrible fate for the creww as @ matter or no con- eern to them, and it is in connection with the killing of three sailors in this way that the British authorities are determined to try Duquesne on a charge of murder
 Five months ago 1t seemed certain that he would be brought to justice, for he was arrested in ew York by the American police and convicted of attempted fraud against an insurance company, But while awaiting extra dition to England, Duquesne made sensational escape from prison, and has since baffled the detectives who attempted to trace him.
 The life story of this fugitive from Justice is not fully known, but, like most other adyenturers of his type, he has rnasqueraded under several al iases, having been known at various times as Frederick Fredericks'' and Captain Claude Stoughton.''
 When arrested in New York he was wearing the uniform of captain in the Australian light horse, with the ribbon of the South African, Mata- be1e and long service medals
 Captain in Boer Army?
 A letter was found on him referr- ing to the arrest, at the time of the Boer war, of a correspondent of a Brussels paper who had been en- gagged in hosi1ties against England. This man escaped from Bermuda, where he had been sent as a prison CT of war, and it is believed that he was later employed by the German Intelligence Department.
 4 letter from an Austrian Vice Consul was also found in Duquesne's possession, and seems to indicate that He anu Lue escaped prisoner are one and the same person.
 This letter ran as foI1ows:-
 Tt is a pleasure to me to recon- mend in the heartiest manner Cap tain, of the Engineers in the Boer army, who on many occasions has rendered notable serv1ce 10 our good German cause.''
 The last link in the chain of evil dence which pointed to the guilt of Duquesne was obtained upon the dis covery that he had in his possession, when arrested, photograph of the original bill of receipt for the case in which the bomb was hidden, and also 8 long account of the misdeeds com naitted by the gang of German agents, known to be at work in South Amer lea
 By Air to Mexico.
 Not the least dramatic of Du- Quesne's many escapades was his es-