Evening star., 1938-10-17
SPIES GAVE NAz|S
L,NAWDATA,
ARDYTE[[SJURY
Artillery Forces in Panama,
and 2 Aircraft Carriers
Plans Are Cited.
PRESIDENTS SIGNATURE
FORGED, HE CHARGES
Fictitious Order Got Specifications,
q. S. Attorney Says-Naval
Power in East Held Revealed.

BACKGROUND
Work of the Federal Bureau
OF Investigation last June broke
the biggest United States spy case
in decades. A grand jury indicted
1s persons, all but four OF Dhom
escaped arrest by fleeing to Ger
many.
~ the Associated Press.
NEW YORK. Oct. 17.-United States
Attorney Lamar Hardy told Federal
Jury today that German spies had
transmitted to the Berlin government
data on the American artillery forces
in the Panama Canal Zone, the
strength of the American Navy on the
East Coast, and the specifications OF
two American aircraft carriers.
Members of this spy ring, he as
serted, we're three prisoners seated be-
fore the jury-Johanna Hofmann. rs,
former beautician on the German liner
Europa; Otto Hermann Voss. 36, natu-
rallied citizen born in Germany. and
Erich Glaser, %. naturalized citizen
born in Germany and former United
States Army soldier.
Mr.. Hardy, opening the trial OF the
three on espionage charges. told the
Jury that the spy ring had forged
President Roosevelt's signature to a
fictitious order to the Navy for the
aircraft carrier specifications.
Rumrich to Be Witness.
A fourth prisoner. Guenther Gustav
Rumrich, pleaded guilty at the opening
of the trial Friday and will testify as a
Government witness.
Mr.. Hardy described the alleged
conspiracy as directed from Germany,
with contact men transferring mes
sages back and forth to agents OF
German extraction in this country.
He said two officials OF German
steamship lines in this country aided
In establishing the contact between
agents in this country and their
directors abroad.
Industrial Espionage.
He said a German named Sanders,
said to be attached to naval lntelll-
renee at Bremen, Germany, had told
Rumrich to try to obtain information
about operations in American CONNER
cisl plants, particularly the Du Pont
Co. and Bethlehem Steel.
William LonkoWski one of the al
legged higher-ups in the ring, was said
by Mr.. Hardy to have represented him
self as a piano tuner and obtained
secrets of a military nature from the
defendant Voss, an aviation mechanic
Mr.. Hardy declared Voss and Lon
. kowski as meeting at the house OF
Miss Senta de Wanger, a German
bankers daughter, who is in protective
custody.
Agents in Every Plane Plant.
He said DR.. Ignatz Theodore Griebl
one of the defendants who fled to Ger
many on the eve of the inquiry. was "a
great believer in the National Social
list party" and permitted his home to
be used as a sort of clearing house for
members of the ring.
He said Griebl had conferred with
1t. Comdr. Udo Won Bonin. attached
to the defense Office of the German
war ministry, at the Eden Hotel in
Berlin. Capt. Erich Pfeiffer, another
OF the defendants now in Germany
Mr.. Hardy said, once boasted he had
agents in every important airplane
plant in America, and that Pfeiffer had
offered Griebl commission in the
Medical Corps of the German Army
Miss Hoffman when arrested, he
vent on, had $40 in her purse-s30 to
be given to Rumrich and $40 to the
man who furnished a secret code.
Mr.. Hardy said Rumrich had served
: as chief contact man. in the United
States for highly organized espion-
age ring directed by three officials of
lSne SPIES Pare A.1Ql