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

[44]

44 ChrisFoxhadlittletimetositaroundlickinghiswoundsafterhisego-bruising ouster from the central role in the Frome murder case in late 1938. He hadnewchallengesevenmorepressingthansolvingatwo-year-oldmurder, albeit the most sensational one in years. As the London Blitz and Battle of Britain raged, and the very existence of democracy in Europe hung in the balance, a thin line of government men led by J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI was already secretly fighting the next world war in the American homeland. Sheriff Fox was one of the first and few local lawmen recruited to augment Hoover’s small force of G-men.283 In this latest clandestine campaign against Nazi espionage agents, the sheriff ’s office was positioned—ready, willing, and able—to supplement the two-man FBI office at El Paso until new agents could be hired and trained. The local sheriff ’s office had worked closely with the bureau in the past and was now trusted to help track the spy operating under the code name “Wolf.” Fox was surprised that the spy identified in the FBI eavesdropping operation in Chicago was an unassuming local doctor. He secretly put his most trusted plainclothes detectives on the counterespionage detail, as this type of work was outside his authorization and the county taxpayers ’ idea of what the local sheriff should be doing with the personnel and resources in his charge. Even the FBI was still operating on shaky legal ground when it came to the surveillance of American citizens. Technically , the El Paso doctor Wolfgang Ebell was a naturalized citizen, having sworn allegiance to the United States in 1939, almost a decade after legally entering the country. Once Wolf ’s identity was positively established, considerable information about the man was available. The suspected spy turned forty years old around the time he first came to the attention of the bureau. He had been a model citizen, with not even a speeding ticket on his official records. 256 fetch the devil Dr. Wolfgang Ebell had crossed the border at El Paso aboard the El Paso Electric Railway trolley on September 18, 1930, and declared his intention of becoming a permanent resident. Thus, the Immigration and Naturalization Service already had a file of basic information on him when the FBI first identified him as a possible espionage agent.284 Because he was an educated and skilled professional, immigration officials were never reluctant to grant him permanent residency. These were exactly the credentials the Abwehr was looking for as well. Theseeminglysoft-spokenNazidoctorwasoneofthefirstoverseasrecruits from the German diaspora after Hitler seized power in January 1933. The Nazi spy chief, Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, who spoke fluent Spanish, had developed a special affinity for Mexico, which he saw as the wide-open backdoor for espionage activities against the United States. Long before AmericabecameaprimarytargetoftheAbwehr,andmanyyearsbeforewar was declared, the German spy organization secretly launched a unilateral espionage campaign.285 By the time the Nazis seized power, Germany’s overseasspyinghadalreadybegun.MenlikeEbellwerebeingsilentlyposted at key locations to establish pipelines into North America for espionage, propaganda, and ultimately, sabotage operations. Ebell’s selection by the Nazi spy chiefs was no accident. He had the perfect pedigree for a sleeper agent. He was born on July 28, 1899, to Helene Doetsch and Max Ebell in the city of Zabern, in the Alsace-Lorraine borderlandsbetweenGermanyandFrance.TheGermanpopulationofthat border region had historic reasons to hate the Western Allies, particularly the French. The area had changed hands many times between Germany and France over centuries of war. The newly created German empire retook the area from France in the Franco-Prussian War in 1871. The Ebell family was of Germanic stock and spoke an Alsatian dialect of German. Zabern, Germany, where Wolfgang was born, became Saverne, France, after 1919, when the French reannexed the region as a share of the war booty extracted from the Germans at the end of World War I. AtthetimeofEbell’sbirth,thewealthyironandcoalregionoftheRhine Valley area was populated almost exclusively by Germans. But when this region became part of France, forcefully ceded with all its industrial and mineralwealthtothevictorsasWorldWarIreparations,Frenchauthorities an enemy within 257 took over government functions and began moving in French families. Thousands of German families, especially if fathers and sons had served in the military, were forced or chose to flee across the frontier to the German Rhineland states.286 The young Ebell, who enlisted as a private in the war in 1917 at the age of eighteen, earned a battlefield commission as a lieutenant in 1918. Shortly thereafter, he...