Evening star., 1942-08-09
Execution Of 6
Writes End 10
Sabotage Case
Nuzis Put to Death
At District Joil-
Two Are Spared
BY CARTER BROOKE JONES
and JAMES E. CHINN.

by CAh1En DNOOhL SoNLo
and JAMES E. CHINN.
In walled seclusion and with
silent, cold precision, six Ger
mans who were sent to the
United States on a mission OF
pillage, died in the electric chair
at the District Jail yesterday.
Two companions were granted
mercy because they talked and thus
helped the Government convict the
others, because their candor also
led the FBI to accomplices in this
country.
Ernest Peter Burger, 36, got of
with life Imprisonment. George
John Dasch, leader of the four
saboteurs who landed from q u
boat on Long Island in mid-June,
was sentenced to 30 years, the pen
atty to which President Roosevelt
commuted the life term decreed by
the military commission.
These Nazi emissaries of destruc-
ton were executed.
Edward John Kerlirg, SO, leader
of four men whom German SUD-
marine landed near Jacksonville,
Fla; Herbert Hans Haupt, ~,
youngest of the eight, who lived In
Chicago most of his life and be-
came a naturalized American
through his father; Richard Quirin,
"a: Werner Thiel, 35; Herman Otto
Neubauer, 80; Heinrich Harm
Heinck, IS.
Executed without Fanfare.
The enemy agents were put to
death without the drama of firing
SQUAD or the horror Of the moose.
There was no fanfare OF rolling
drums and marching men for them.
A country at war took their lives
with scientific efficiency and with
out publicity. 1t was lonely trails
END for the men who, according to
the FBI, were graduated from
Nazi school of sabotage and spiritao
across the Atlantic with enough ex-N
plosives for a two-year campaign
OF terror and ruin.
The condemned men were led,
one at a time, from a distant part
of the jail to the execution chamber
on the top floor of the new admins
tration wing. There was the solace
of a priest, on the 100-yard journey.
for those who wanted this comfort.
| Each was strapped to the chair.
Then each man was left to die alone.
far from the din Of war, far from the
glib promises OF fatherlAnd that
sent him forth to kill and destroy.
armed with thousands Of American
dollars and all the accoutrements OF
sabotage.
The Districts execution chamber
is SO arranged that no one stays
inside while the current is taking Z
life. The control room is to one
side. The witnesses are in another
room looking at the scene through
a glass panel.
Died Under Glaring Light.
Each condemned saboteur sat in
the lethal embrace of the chair
under glaring light. But he could
see nothing. For the witness room
was dark, and his executioners were
invisible. Death crashed through
him simply, painlessly. 1t was q
solitary anti-climax to q ruthless
adventure ending without cere-
monial flourish.
If the Nazis talked as they were
led to death, none but those who
saw the, execution knows. For the
secrecy that was clamped down on
every detail of the 18-day trial
before the presidential military
commission extended to the hour
when the six forfeited their lives:
No witness would say how the con-
demned men took it, whether in
silence or with defiant words;
whether some talked and others
met their fate with closed lips. None
would reveal even the order In which
they died. Indeed, not one Of the
officials who were there for the exc
| Continued on Page AS, Col. ID
REVIEW OF CASES OF Nazi sabo-
teurs since they landed in Amer
lea. Page A
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF
eight men sentenced for spy ac-
tivities. Page A
ARTISTS CONCEPTION of prob
| ably the first military electro
cution. Page A
ATTORNEY GENERAL is prepar-
ing tighter laws to prosecute for
| sabotage. Page A
PICTURES made outside Jail Incl
dent to the execution of the