coda Author’s Theory of the Frome Murders In the American criminal justice system, the three primary elements popularly considered necessary for a conviction are means, motive, and opportunity . By triangulating information from several archival sources, most of which has never been made public before and is presented in this book for the first time, I developed a scenario and plausible solution to the historic, unsolved Frome murder case. Relying on this research, it is my conclusion that the Nazi spy ring operating from the San Francisco German consulate , with a key link in El Paso, had the means, motive, and opportunity to murder Hazel and Nancy Frome in the West Texas desert in 1938. The Germanconsul,BaronManfredvonKillinger,orderedtheexecutions.The deep-coverNazispy,WolfgangEbellofElPaso,orchestratedtheoperation. Two unknown but expertly trained hit men, German American or White Russian thugs, were, most likely, the actual triggermen. The means was a readily available cadre of trained German agents operating in deepest cover in the American West, abetted by White Russian Fascist criminals or fanatical German-American Bund members who were eager to do anything, even murder, in furtherance of Hitler’s ambitions for world domination. The motive was initially to coerce the Frome women to cooperate in opening the industrial secrets of Atlas Powder Company to pilferage, after the intransigent head of the family and Atlas executive, Weston G. Frome, had rebuffed the spies’ blackmail threats. The failed attempt to co-opt the mother and daughter led to the second motive: to protect the valuable spy network from exposure. The opportunity was the unexpected and unfortunate happenstance of the women crossing paths with this ruthless gang of Nazi spies, when they 318 coda were temporarily stranded in the geographically remote border town of El Paso. Here, then, is my theory of what happened, in the murders of Hazel and Nancy Frome: The temporary stranding was only a momentary nuisance to the San Francisco Bay Area socialite and her beautiful daughter, who arrived after business hours at the Hotel Cortez. Nancy Frome was suffering from a severe cold and leg cramps. Since the regular hotel physician had left for the weekend, a Mexican bellboy summoned an outsider doctor, who gave generous tips for such referrals. The mother, as usual, chatted away about her husband’s important position in the explosives industry, while the visiting physician examined and treated her daughter. Since the doctor spoke with a German accent, it was natural for Hazel to mention that her husband was also full-blooded German. Unfortunately for the women, Wolfgang Ebell was more than a simple, down-at-the-heels physician forced to make after-hours room calls for extra money. He was the key, deep-cover link in a well-organized Nazi spychain,operatingfromtheGermanconsulateinSanFrancisco,viaLatin America, to Abwehr headquarters in Berlin. When Ebell telephoned his boss, Baron Manfred von Killinger, at the German consulate in San Francisco, to report his chance encounter with the women, the fanatical Nazi spymaster immediately recognized the Frome name. His agents in the Bay Area had been trying for months to penetrate Atlas Powder Company, which they knew was a major U.S. munitions-component manufacturer. Even a blackmail scheme involving an affair with a young German showgirl had failed to budge the tough old executive, Weston Frome, into collaboration. Now, two seemingly vulnerable family members had serendipitously landed in the Nazi web of intrigue. An excited von Killinger ordered Ebell to employ any ruse possible to exploit the stranded women who had fallen victim, first to car trouble, and then to illness, which revealed their plight to the Nazi spies. Buttimetoactwasshort.TrainedagentsfromtheWestCoastmightnot arrive before the women’s car was repaired and they were off again and out ofreach,ontheircross-countrydrive.Ebellhadtousetheresourcesathand. A White Russian con man named Romano Trotsky was in El Paso, [35.173.233.176] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 01:51 GMT) coda 319 pestering Ebell for back fees owed for illicit medical services. Another mysterious Russian or Ukrainian named G. N. Gepge was also in town, peddlingstolenminingequipment.Bothclaimedtobepro-Fascist,former tsarist royalty; both were reputed ladies’ men; and both were desperately broke.TheyhadcollaboratedwiththeNazisonminorjobsbefore,soEbell quickly enlisted them to get close to the women and paid for their rooms at the posh hotel where the Fromes had taken refuge. Theself-proclaimedroyallothariosapproachedthewomenseveraltimes in the darkened nightclubs of Juarez, trying to entice them to dance and party. Hazel was overheard telling one of them that she believed she had met him before in California. (Trotsky had spent several years...