OCR Text |
Show ill CITY BANK CLERK IS BDMBPLDTTEH Frederick Schleindl's Arrest Furnishes Federal Secret Service With Evidence of Conspiracy. AMERICANS SAID TO BE INVOLVED Startling Disclosures and Two Score or More Ar-rests Ar-rests Expected to Follow Fol-low in Few Days By International News Servioe. NEW YORK Dec 18 The entrl f nancial fountain from which flowed fabulous sums of money employed In tbe most gigantic bomb and arson plot n tbe history of America, was tapped today by federal and city authorities. At nightfall this was the situation Six men had been brought into the investigation of the, alleged plot to destroy de-stroy tbe Welland canal or into con netted phases of the canal plot probe Three of these are actual prisoner! under combined ball of $105 000 Two are tinder detention. One a police of ficer wearing the shield of the city of New Tork has been suspended from duty Detailed confessions, supported by commandeered documents have been obtained from two of the liz men. These warrant tbe prediction that there will be, within a few days, from tbii ty five to fifty inertt4a.AU parts of the United States of eeAtral power propagandists and their Americas al lies. Americans Involved Americans of prominence are in volved in the plots It la anthorita tlvely stated that information will be given the federal grand Jury this com ing week which will result in tbe is dietment of a number of prominent Americans These men are not so called German Americans but are men who have en tered the pro-Oerman conspiracies from motives other than patriotic The dis closures that follow will be tremen dous. The six men mentioned above are Paul Koenig said to be working director of the German secret service m this country released today in $50 000 bail on a charge of initiating a military enterprise to blow up the Welland canal Sichard Emil Leyendecker released today on $30 000 ba 1, upon the same charge as Koenig Committed to Tombs. Frederick Schleindl clerk in the for e gn department of the Nat onal City bank committed to the tombs in default de-fault of $2o 000 ba 1 Otto F Jlottola member of the war rant squad of the New York detective bureau suspended from duty by Pol ce Comm ss oner Woods after charges that he was an agent of Koen g FTeder ck Metzler of Jersey City secretary of Koen g under techn cal ar rest George Fuchs former employee of Koenig held as a material witness Fuchs and Metzler are the Paul Se bs and C I Wett g of the pres ent case Both are ea d to have made a clean breast of the r acquaintance w th Koenig and the German secret service orgamzat on Data Is Complete Through their stones the author t es are said to have come into complete data upon the work ngs of the fore gn propagandists Th s data explains it is said most of the long Btnng of mun t ons plant and sh p d sasters at tempts to blow up ralroad property steel comraod t es intended for the al lies etc The amass ng mass of mater al is be ing rap dly sifted more than 1000 Bpe c al and regi larly deputized agents of the department of just ce and the United States secret serv ce being at work throughout the country The names of more than 100 German agents have been learned by the fed eral author t es Incrim nated are a number of diplomat c representatives of the central powers Koen g according to a statement of a federal ofBc al has adm tted that he d d confident al work for Count Johann Von Bernstorff the German em bassador Capta ns Boy Ti and Vo j (Continued on Page Eighteen ) 'men cur m 'fflHB (Continued from Page One.) Papen, according to the same authority, au-thority, are also involved. "The arrest of Koenig and the others oth-ers is only a little offshoot of the main inquiry," said one official. " There are; men vastly higher in position than j Koenig. Each day next week may sec j a number of arrests. At any moment i now we can lay our hands upon the : men who have directed the countrywide country-wide arsou and bomb conspiracies. Men Higher Up. j For one thinjj. we have der'iniiely i ! established the ew York overlord of, Werner Van Horn, who attempted to 1 destroy a Canadian I'ai itic railway i bridge near the Maine border. We alo have a pretty good idea who ordered the Roebling and Bethlehem fires." j The police aspert that they have j "tied up Boy-Ed and Von Pa pen with! Koenig in an unslippable knot." They say they can prove that Koenig s agents often acted as bodyguards for the diploma rs. In tho statement of Fuchs, corroborated corrobo-rated to large extent by documents seized in Koenig 's office in the Hamburg-American line building at ') Broadway, the authorities say lies the strongest proof against Koenig. Fuchs has confessed, the police say. that he went to Niagara Falls with Koenig and drew plans of the W'eDand canal under Koenig 's direction. Fuchs is an electrical engineer, born in Germany. Ho was picked up bv detectives de-tectives Corral and Coy. two of the innumerable "trailers" who have been on Koenig "s tracks for months. I Watched Day and Night. Koenig has been watched day and night since the Gustav Stahl case, in which he figured prominently under the name of Stem lor, one of his alleged al-leged aliases. The detectives soon learned that they themselves were be-ins be-ins watched by Koenig 's agents. Then they put four men on Koenig. They would have two men t railing Koenig and two men trailing the Koenig agent who was trailing the first, detectives. The detectives and the federal agents put other men on the tracks of everyone every-one whom Koenig mot. In this way they were able to bump into Fuchs Corral finallv made Fuchs 's acquaintance. He and TJeteetive Coy learned that Fuchs had had a quarrel with Koenic a few days ago. This involved the comparatively compar-atively small sum of $15. Fuchs left Koenig in a rage. This wa-s the detectives' de-tectives' opportunity. Tt was this small $15 blunder of Koenig "s that ' ' blew the works. 3 ' The detect ivfs and federal agents , worked on Fucnq for hours at a timn. Finally he blurted out that he wanted I to KJt ovoii with Kooiiii: ani that he would tell them all. I'm-hs tuM a stoi y t h;i t was a n.;i v.i that the lurts were sent to the department o( : jiisi ice in Vah i v, int. nn. ! Fuchs told tlie tory of the plot to- ! blow up 'tht Wei land r-nnal with dyuu- ! mite and uiprorvcerine. There is excellent authority for the statement that President Wilson was informed of the full details of the plot: In brief Fuchs 's story runs: "I am an electrical engineer and have lived in Buffalo. I was familiar famil-iar with the Welland canal. Koenig decided that the canal must be so seriously se-riously crippled that the hujje mass of supplies moving through it would be denied the allies. "I went to Niagara Falls on order from Koenig. I made a detailed map of the locks and of the eanal. Koenig came on aud I pointed out vulnerable spots spots where T thought it could be easily attacked. Dynamite and j nitroglycerine were to be used in putting put-ting the canal out of business. Koenig picked out the men for the job. 11-' select I'd others to carry the exploi vs across the river. We followed fol-lowed the soldiers on guard and fouud out the guard routine. ' ' Fuchs denied personal knowledge of the dynamite. It is said, however, that caches of explosi ves have been found in Buffalo and other places. Identified by Number. It was through Fuchs that Schleindl, clerk in the powerful National City bank, was arrested. Schlindl's name, under a number, was on a list of agents in an index book found in Koenig 's office. of-fice. l"n eh was able to identify him. j In this book also were the names of agents nnployed in other hanks in this city. These men were incut if ied only by initials and numbers. 'Before Km-hs's identification the Vnited Stat-1-- agents had investigated half a hundred clerks in the National ' itv ba nk. They were unsuccessful i n their tpist for the spy. who was known to be in the ba nk until the seizure of the Koenig index book. Through Pchleindl and other agents the authorities say Koenig has been able to learn the content of every cargo that left New York for the ullie-. Further, Fur-ther, he has been made u omiinted with all large orders that were made by cable. Sehleindl 1 i borrowed ' ' hundreds of letters and cables that came to the National Na-tional City bank. The moment the a-tional a-tional City hank paid a manufacturer for goods eonMfjpe.l to tli o allies or the moment a certified bill of lading came in Koenig was apprised. Brought Papers to Koenig. ' Schleindl brought important papers after bank ing hou rs to Ko'Mii g 's office." of-fice." declared fuchs. "Often Mefzb'r or another clerk renin ined at night for hours to type these documents. i "One document that Schleindl ; brought in wa n cable order to credit i the l;ni--in military attache at Wa-h-i ni-ton for a sum reaching into the millions of dollars for purchasing pnr-pose. pnr-pose. Within two hours Koenig knew of this order. ' ' The poller r-y.oA today a ma of documents in Keenig ? afe and in a tee cabinet in bis office at No. 4-" Broadwn v. IKocnig. aif: on;h o-terismlv living uptown, up-town, maintained a suite of uinnis in a I downtown h"Tel. it was said toiav. Another An-other thing dei: nit el v a -cert a ined was : his clo-e acquaintance with apluin Frank vim Kintelni. master marplot. Koenig telephone wi rs were f tapped. F cry Mnvrlmn he had ! wa fully reported. Koenig soon learned ' this and resorted entirely f n rod', j Thep wer-i -ooii worked o;;t by the iu-vc-t gators. |