New-York tribune., 1920-03-14
ecret Service Feats That Sherlock Holmes Might En-
The Capture of Mime. Victorica,
the German Spy, Was a Mar
velous Piece of Work
By Fred c. Kelly

By Fred e. Kelly
IMAGINE trying to establish the
whereabouts Of q woman with.
out any information whatso-
ever about her beyond the fact
that she Is, perhaps, somewhere in
the United States Name3 No
body knew. Description? Nobody
knew that either. Whereabouts?
That was the question
Secret operatives Of the United
States Department Of Justice had no
more than that to work on when
they began the search which led to
the arrest Of the Baroness Won
Kretschman, q Prussian woman,
better known as Nine. Marie de
Victorica, German agent. Nine. de
Victorica had not only been in
trusted by Germany with several
large and vicious projects in the
United States, but she probably was
the only woman agent ever sent
here to work under direct orders
from the Berlin government Her
capture proved to be feat Of the
utmost consequence.
Just To Make II Hard
Now, TO search for q woman With
out knowing what she looks like.
her name, or the name Of her hotel.
is, of course, problem not entirely
without elements Of difficulty. Even
to try to locate friend in a strange
town when you know his name.
occupation and general appearance
is often hard enough.
The finding of De Victorica was a
task, then, requiring not only real
ingenuity on the part Of the OPERA
tlves assigned to the case, but also
a high degree of patience and per-
severance. The obstacles to be over
come in connection with SUCH a
blind quest were greatly increased
by the fact that De Victorica kept
moving from one hotel to another
without leaving any forwarding ad-
dress, and each time she moved she
changed her name.
Not Even Name
In the beginning tho United
States government had nothing but
the report that a woman agent of
Germany was in this country. This
word came from London, where an
intercepted letter directed to an !
other German agent hazily indicated
hat a woman had recently been sent ,
to the United States from Berlin.
Some time later this was confirmed
by vague references to a mysterious
agent, numbered LAB, in letters
picked up in connection with other
Investigations in this country. The
Early stages of the De Victorica case
nothing moro than to
satisfy the government that she was
somewhere in the United States. II
vas weeks later before they had the
remotest idea about her name. de- ,
'cription, location or the kind Of ,
work she was seeking to accomplish :
The government was obliged, in
Tho absence Of facts. to construct {
some theories about where the mys- /
serious woman might be. In the first G
place, they assumed that she was '
most likely to be in New York. For Q
not only is New York the financial 6
center and the chief port OF en- i
oarkatdon, but most Of the previous
German plots in this country had /
been carried on there. If not in i
New York, 1t was probable that the d
woman at least had been there. So s
dnat seemed the logical place to k
start.
Where to Start? h
Having decided to search for N. o
woman spy in New York. thu nex+ 0
question was, Where in New York?
Would she be al q private home . Z
boarding housA ~ k.A,s r, G