The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-12-24


 w14s. wa~~~ tentfCn in the
 Ee'eF 1@Ss United gtates except as sn incident disclosed by UnGersecTetary of State Sumner Welles to prove to the Chilean gCv- ernfuent that come of the spylines from the Western Hemisphere back to Germany could be traced through the Republic of Chile, which had not been playing bal1 any too weir under the program of cooperation for the American re- pub1ics agreed upon at the Rio con- ference. But the story of this Lun- ing is aG good c record aS any to show now q German agent can do business and dirt in . Latin Amer ican country.
 Luning was born i'm Bremen, Germany, Of q German father and Italian mother. When he was e years old he came to the United States, settled in New York, lived at tine YMCA for . time, and fl- nally got into the exporting bVIsi- nesB. He was apparently none too successful, for he went to GantO Domingo in 193e, then back to Hamburg, back to Ganto Domingo, back to Hamburg, still trying to get established sS an exporter.
 He did manage to pick up Span- ish and English, and with that laT- guage background, instead of being put in the Army at the outbreak of the war he was sent to a Ger man espionage school fin Hamburg. In e six weeks course he was taught how to build and operate g radio set, using spare parts and such materials as could be found In Latin American countries.
 BECOMES 4 SPY
 When he finished his course, they gave him an alias, Enrique Luni, and told him he was . Honduran- born refugee Jew who had been forced to flee from Rotterdam when the NazfS invaded Holland, To make 1t look good, the Nszts purchased for him, from crooked Hondtlran consular ofSlcfal in Ger many, a pre-dated HOnduran pass port atteSting to his birth in the Central American Republic of Hon. duras. Thus equipped, and with 5000 fin U. s. currency, Tuning sailed from Barcelona, Spain, for Cuba, arriving fin Havana in late September, 194i.
 Luning opened up small woEa- ems apparel shop in Havana and with his experience in the export ing business, he began to core spond with exporters and import CTS throughout the Western Hemi- sphere. His most useful job for the Nazis was the observation of ship arrivals and sailfngS from tEle port of Havana, though he did pick up some stray bits of information on ship movements from his core spondence,
 Enrique Luni, the refugee Jew, had his living quarters in a roonn- ing fouse in Teniente Key street. To this roomtng house Lunt brought the radio parts he pur- chased in Havana stores, and be- gan the assembly of his set,
 CANARTEs, A RUsE
 But he also began to make other strange purchases - singing ca narieS. He filled his room with their cages and their constant chattering served him two very uee- full purposes. First, 1t kept the other rocmery fin the house from hearing the noise of his little radio transmitteT in operation. Second, If anyone came to his door he would delay their admittance with the excuse that one of his canayies was Iooge in the room and he didn't want to open the door till the bird was safely back tn it's cage, That gave him chance to ScurTy around and hide his equipment.
 Luning used his radio for coM- munication with Nsz submarines operating off Cuban and Caribbean waters. Curiously enough, how ever, it was not his radio which led to his detection, but his mall Some of the letters sent to him from other countries, giving tu- formation on ship movements, at tracted suspicion to his importing and exporting business and that led to observation Of all his activities and the detection of the radio transmitter
 The U. s. Federal Bureau of In- vestigation got into the picture, and the G-men worked through the Cuban National Police for the catch.