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

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47 AdirectlinkbetweenDr.EbellandtheSanFranciscoconsulatewasproven beyond a doubt when a bungling German spy, sent on a mission from Mexico to the United States, was arrested in early 1940 by police in San Antonio, Texas, on a misdemeanor driving offense. The German quickly admitted to a stunned cop that he was on an espionage mission. To the delight of the interrogating agents, the inept spy readily spilled the beans after only the merest suggestion that he might be hanged as a foreign agent. He knew who his contacts were to be in the States and was only too eager to name names, in order to avoid the gallows. The captured man told the authorities that consular Juan Cran of the GermanlegationinMonterreyhadinstructedhimtomakehiswaythrough Texas to a Dr. Wolfgang Ebell in El Paso, where he would be given more cash to get to San Francisco. Once there, he was to report directly to GermanconsulFritzWiedemannforespionageassignmentsintheBayArea .305 At about this time, another Nazi doctor-spy named Hermann F. Erben was being given sanctuary in the San Francisco consulate.306 The German diplomats protected Erben, who was facing several international warrants. U.S. intelligence agents were waiting outside to arrest him. The FBI only laterlearnedthatErbenhadbeensmuggledontoactorErrolFlynn’seightyfoot , blue-water luxury yacht, the Sirocco, and surreptitiously sailed to a Pacific seaport in Mexico.307 The two-way link between Ebell in El Paso and agents in Mexico was again proven by a clandestine, and at the time legally questionable, operation run by army intelligence. The military attaché at the American embassy received a tip from an informant that a powerful shortwave radio was en route from Mexico City to unknown spies in the United States. The secret Nazi radio set was being routed through a Dr. Wolfgang Ebell at a mail drop in Juarez. Thanks to this tip, the FBI was waiting and seized the equipment. The only thing Ebell and his cohorts in Mexico knew was that the radio never arrived.308 an enemy within 269 By then, the FBI’s surveillance of Ebell in El Paso was going full throttle, with G-men assigned alongside Sheriff Fox’s deputies. With secret authorization by President Roosevelt, the bureau began to eavesdrop on telephone calls, intercept and screen mail, and even enter business offices and homes of American citizens, as well as suspected alien agents. While Ebell was a naturalized citizen, the president’s mandate left some wiggle room, by stating that the clandestine telephone and mail taps and break-ins should be used only against aliens “wherever possible.” In Ebell’s case, the FBI authorized Sheriff Fox to provide personnel as “confidentialinformants,”toposeaspatientsorvisitorsatEbell’sdowntown office and residence.309 The sheriff also sent his most trusted deputies to stage stealthy breakins when the locations were vacant. Nothing was disturbed or removed, but important evidence of Ebell’s espionage activities was found at both places. While there was not enough proof to warrant an immediate arrest, the intruding deputies were astounded by the arrogance of the doctor-spy. The first thing a deputy noticed on entering the inner sanctum of Ebell’s downtownofficewasaframedphotographofAdolphHitlerthatappeared to have been personally autographed by the führer himself. The most important find, however, was a small metal file box containing alphabetized cards with the names, addresses, phone numbers, and notations on forty -four men and women in the immediate vicinity of El Paso and Juarez, whom Ebell had identified as Nazi sympathizers or collaborators. Some of thecardsindicated“radio”bythenames,andtheFBI paidspecialattention to those. All the people on the cards had German surnames, except a few of the women, whose married names were not German.310 However, the bureau was skeptical about such a large number of local citizens, German or not, being active espionage agents. They assumed Ebell’s files contained mostly sympathizers who might be used in the future for some purpose other than spying. The deputy, without disturbing the order of the cards, carefully copied thelistfortheFBI.Itincludedbankofficersandclerks,buildingcontractors and carpenters, a bookbinder and a watchmaker, several retail merchants, and the wives of a border patrolman and a federal customs officer. The names of two known German agents and a Japanese doctor who resided in Juarez were also in the file. 270 fetch the devil Before leaving the doctor’s office, the deputy also made a note that Ebell had a pistol in his desk drawer, an item not usually kept in a doctor’s office. He didn’t note the type of pistol...