Fetch the Devil: The Sierra Diablo Murders and Nazi Espionage in America

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19 After weeks of chasing down dusty roads that seemed to dead-end at the border river, the Frome-case investigators were frustrated by the lack of progress in identifying the killers. Though a number of new eyewitnesses came forward with stories about suspicious characters and automobiles similar to the ones seen chasing the women on Highway 80, oddly, none offered detailed enough descriptions to provide any solid leads. And not a single witness was certain about the make, model, or exact color of the dark car or cars. Onemalesuspecthadbeendescribedashavingunusualeyes.Thefemale suspect was variously described as a slim redhead and a heavy-set blonde. But upon close interrogation, it turned out that not one of these witnesses was sure about the actual color of the woman’s hair or any feature of her hat or the other clothes she wore. The newspapers had apparently dubbed her a blonde or redhead because it made for bolder headlines. The details about the man or men were just as sketchy and often contradictory. Nevertheless, Sheriff Fox turned to the local newspapers and radio stations for help when he decided to issue a plea for more local citizen participation . The El Paso native believed the women’s fate had been sealed in his city, if not earlier in California, and that someone locally probably knewsomethingthatcouldbreakthecasewideopen.Hehopedhismessage would also be heard across the border in Juarez, although he did not count on much help from that quarter. Local law enforcement offices, like that of the Rangers in Austin, were inundated with tips, but almost all were useless, because either they lacked evidencerelevanttothecaseortheywerefromdownrightcranks.Attimes, telephone exchanges were backlogged with calls. Waiting periods on the operator-run telephone systems ran as long as two hours in some smaller towns in the region.95 Fox still believed responsible citizens on both sides of the border could provide valuable new information on the movements of the two women. murder in the desert 103 On April 12, the El Paso Herald-Post responded to the sheriff ’s request for public assistance by running a boldly boxed item on the front page, urging readers to come forth with anything they had noticed about the Frome women’s visit to the area. Sheriff Chris P. Fox, who previously won national recognition through his solution of several major crimes, was named coordinator of information in this case. He believes it will be through the aid of private citizens that the crime will be solved. The sheriff has called on everyone with any information, no matter how remote, to report to him or other investigators. Especially he urges the operators of filling stations, garages, tourist camps, or hotels to report persons who might have been traveling in automobiles resembling the one in which the murderers were traveling. The public plea for help prompted an immediate response from several area residents who earlier were reluctant to come forward, or had thought what they saw was not important. M. K. Graham, a sales representative for the National Cash Register Company, was on the Juarez trolley on the Saturday morning the Fromes took their first trip across the border. An attractive, middle-aged woman had introduced herself and struck up a conversation. She quickly told him that she and her daughter were stranded in El Paso by car trouble and were taking advantage of the situation to shop for good prices in the Mexican markets across the border.96 He told the sheriff that Mrs. Frome was especially talkative. Her daughter seemed rapt in the squalid scenery after the trolley passed over the Rio Grandewithoutbeingstoppedbyborderofficersateitherendofthebridge. Hazelinformedthesalesrepthatherhusbandheldakeyexecutiveposition withthebiggestexplosivescompanyintheworld.Heseldomtraveledwith them, she explained, because his important work—some of it involving sensitive government contracts—kept him tied up. Graham had noticed howwelldressedthewomenwere,perhapsoverdressedforshoppinginthe seamy, open markets of Juarez. The girl wore a fawn-colored coat, although the day was not overly chilly. When he mentioned their somewhat excessive dress for the occasion, 104 fetch the devil Hazel assured him that she and her daughters knew their way around Mexico and often haggled over prices in similar open-air Mexican bazaars. Shopping was especially good at the time, since most tourists had been frightened away by the political upheaval along the border. It was a buyer’s market and an exciting opportunity to get imported merchandise at very low cost. “Expensive European perfume at really good prices was their quest for the day,” Graham remembered. “When I told...