Murder and Martial Justice: Spying and Retribution in World War II America

10. Thorough and Impartial Investigation

CHAPTER 10 Thorough and Impartial Investigation Although the prisoners from Byron Hot springs remained, on paper, “permanently interned” at the Angel island processing station, special guards scattered them about and remained to watch them. Two NCos connected with the “fatal disturbance” at Papago Park were sent all the way to Ninth service Command headquarters at Fort Douglas, utah. siegfried elser was confined in the guardhouse and Friedrich murza in the psychiatric ward of the fort hospital, possibly for treatment. The officers in charge of these facilities were told that in the interests of “military security and secrecy,” only someone with “express authority” from command headquarters could speak to these two—who must not be allowed to send letters or notes.1 According to a second order, they could not even possess paper or writing instruments; but as an afterthought they were allowed to exercise daily under guard, smoke, purchase reading material “from personal funds,” receive medical attention, and “be afforded sanitary facilities including washing of their personal clothing.”2 Presumably they had been denied these amenities. The seven confessed killers remained in California. Ludwig, Wizuy, and stengel were conducted to separate base hospitals. stengel needed postoperative care; perhaps the other two also needed medical attention. Fischer, Franke, Kuelsen, and reyak were held at Turlock, a military prison.3 “A special chosen armed guard” moved seven material witnesses from Papago Park to remote Camp Florence in southern Arizona, near Coolidge, where the trial was to be held. The command’s Director of security and intelligence warned the commandant there that the very presence of these men must be kept secret. They were not to converse or to correspond with anyone 111 112 MURDER AND MARTIAL JUSTICE without “express permission from this headquarters.” When the commandant asked questions, he was told to mind his own business.4 on June 20 at Papago Park, Col. Church’s investigating board finished its findings and recommendations: Werner Drechsler had been hanged on march 12, 1944, by otto stengel, rolf Wizuy, Heinrich Ludwig, Helmut Fischer , Fritz Franke, Bernhard reyak, and Guenther Kuelsen, who should be charged with murder. Two NCos, elser and murza, should be charged as accessories before the fact.5 Neither murza (mentally unstable?) nor elser would be charged or even listed as witnesses. However, a first lieutenant in the command’s Judge Advocate office formally accused the others of violating AW 92 by “acting jointly and in pursuance of a common intent, . . . with malice aforethought,” to feloniously “kill one Prisoner of War Werner Drechsler, a human being, by strangulation.”6 This underling also swore that he had “investigated the matter” and found it “true in fact, to the best of his knowledge and belief.”7 When the Ninth service Command’s Judge Advocate advised maj. Gen. mcCoach to appoint a court-martial, he also affirmed that his own “searching inquiry as to whether the confessions were obtained in a lawful manner” had shown that they were all “free and voluntary.”8 This “searching inquiry” never happened, although the American Laws of War required that a pretrial investigator review all the evidence, interview the accused and the witnesses against them, and then decide if there were sufficient grounds for prosecution. Another underling, First Lt. Harry A. Baldwin,9 left utah for California on June 30, carrying with him the formal charges, a copy of the secret Board report (to be returned “when it has served its purpose”), and an order directing the commandant of Angel island to “immediately appoint an investigating officer to make a thorough and impartial pre-trial investigation.” This order added: “The Commanding General, Ninth service Command, concurs in your appointment of First Lieutenant Harry A. Baldwin.”10 Baldwin’s own orders were “to carry out the verbal instructions of the Commanding General.”11 one may deduce what these were from Baldwin’s actions. He interviewed no witnesses. He ignored every circumstance that might have mitigated guilt. instead, he neatly trapped the seven defendants into testifying against themselves again. Having turned over the secret Board report to Angel island’s commandant , Baldwin evidently worked from copies of fifteen confessions. seven belonged to the accused. Two belonged to the former Compound 4 spokesman Franz Hox and to the highest-ranking NCo survivor of Drechsler’s THOROUGH AND IMPARTIAL INVESTIGATION 113 boat, Werner reinl. At least these two were named on the official list of witnesses . The other confessions belonged to...