The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1938-06-21
BERLIN SILENT IN
ESPIONAGE CASES
CONTINUED fl I'm page one)

ing chain of evidence.
The indictments were all the
more startling because OF the un-
precedemted act Of charging two
German war ministry officials.
Lieut.. Commander lido Won BONN
and Lieut. Commander Herman
Mcneil. with direct participation i'll
the espionage ring.
The objective Of the elaborate
spy system the indictments indi-
Gated. was to steal military avia-
ton secrets. including designs Of
American war planes which are re-
garded as the best in the world.
The fact that Nazi government
officials were mentioned directly
instead of secret agents. as is the
usual procedure in espionage dis
cIosllreg-Was expected to create
tickliah diplomatic situation.
since il definitely involves the
German government.
FGur OF those named in the in
idiclmcn,s are in custody. They are:
Gurnther GuStaye Rumrich. Il
dcserter from the United States
army who was the first man arrest
ed in the investigation.
Erich CHASER. German born L. S.
army private. stationed al Mitchell
Field. ding Island, headquarters
for the army headquarters air
force.
Johanna IIO'mHnn, hairdrcSS-
or and manirurist aboard the
North German Lloyd liner Europa
Otto Herman NOss. aviation me-
, chanic employed al L. ). aircraft
factories.
, Two of those named had been
detained as witnesses in the inves
/ tigation. but fled to Europe. They
are DR.. Ignatz Y. Griebl. natural
| lied American. and Werner G.
Gutenberg, who were subpoenaed
as Witnesses and escaped to Ger
| many aboard the German liners
Bremen and Hamburg.
| A second woman named in the
plot. Mrs. Jessie Jordan, is under
sentence for espionage in Eng
land. She was believed to have OPP
Grated clearing point for mes
sagos from espionage agents to
the home group in Germany. using
- hairdresscr's shop at Dundee,
Scotland.
The other nine persons named
are believed to he living in Ger
many. They are Karl Eitrl, Her-
bert .Iarnichcn, ThcOdor SchuctZ.
Karl Schlueter. william LOnkOw-
ski. Ernest Mueller. Capt-Lieut.
Erich Pfeiffer, and two men known
| only as Sanders and Schmidt.
L. s. Attorney Lamar Hardy,
announcing the indictments, said
the state and justice Departments
lin Washington were fully aware
of the entire proceedings. and had
approved the indictments. Hardy
went to Washington last night to
confer on final arrangements for
making known the results of the
inquiry.
The espionage plot. oddly enough,
| was first discovered through the
! incredible bungling of Rumrich,
according TO federal investigators.
The German-born eX-armV ser
geant had posed as a "Mr. Weston.
mdcrsecretarv OF state" in an eff
forr To obtain passport application
blanks.
The blanks were of no official
value and would have done the
users no good, but the crude i'm
posture aroused the suspicious OF
federal operatives. and they inVes-
tigatcd Rumrich's activities.
This resulted in the exposure or
| Miss Mofmann's operations as
| eo-between who carried messages
back and forth across the Atlantic
on the Europa. She was arrested
and number Of documents re-
| portedly found, including secret
| military code used for transmits
sion of aviation information.
From this point federal opera
tives plunged into Il maze OF IN
] ter-connected lines of inVestlga-