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S-ir-to b dofit.d.a.MANCONVICTED ASI1 IGERMAN SPIES iJohanna Hofmann andiaeines30E;s»Otto Hermann VossFound Guilty — JuryContinues to StudyEvidence AgainstCei-r~vdalw;WtotieIS,t'On-:S»-*yyinr-n-New York, Nov* 30 {I?)—Red-haired Johanna Hofmann, Gercnanship hairdresser, and Otto HermannVoss, airplane mechanic, were con-.vieted by a federal court jury last night of conspiring to steal military secrets of the United States.Unable to reach a verdict on the case of a co-defendant, Erich Glaser, former Army Air Corps private, the jury retired at midnight with instructions to resume deliberations at 10 a. m. today.The 26-year-old hairdresser received the verdict without show ofemotion although she apparently hadbeen weeping in an ante room whilewaiting for the jury to report.The verdict was announced after4 hours, 25 minutes of deliberationon the testimony that ran throughseven weeks of trial.An hour before the verdict, thejury interrupted its proceedings for the third time to inquire whether arecommendation for leniency would be entertained.euvitilt;PCervaDialarkcerycYlt;rearmdirew;itIcalitlt;«vYou must find the defendantiidn-ieh-r-guilty or not guilty/' Judge John C. Knox told them, “and if you find some guilty and wish to add a recommendation of mercy I shall be glad to receive it/*Conviction under the TT. S. Gode concerning espionage carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment.Fraulein Hofmann cried while being taken back to her cell. Her attorney, George Y. Dix told reporters lack of funds would prevent an appeal.Nazis Fail to Give Aid“If Hitler would send us mon^y, certainly we would appeal/' he said. wThe Germans threw her down/’Glaser’s attorney, Benjamin Matthews, said lack of money also wouldcothniruScthelt vthpcdcthaeWie-orly!prevent his client from tiling an ap- nihirngiBpeal in case of conviction.Among the forty in the court roomt t » at the reading of the verdict was . lninofa-Heed Vetterli. who was chief of the !LNew York F.B.I. office when the mvm *investigation was opened. He madevvno comment.hsJudge Knox, in his charge to thejury, said the guilty-pleading chief j m witness against the three had been j vV;“an unmitigated liar” at times dur-s-arfeui 1ing the trial.tT. S. Attorney Lamar Hardy, who has personally investigated the ramifications of the alleged Nazi spy ring f, e, | in Europe and conferred with Presi- j dent Roosevelt on his discoveries, completed the government's summation.He urged a guilt\ verdict ‘in order to cut the lines of eommunica-mlkd-aidie?-ii,e-SIalpttation.”The government, he said, wouldnot deny that the three defendantswere “obscure” in comparison withfour officials of the German WarMinistry and others named in the in-tu i diriment.c-:s“But in their obscurity lies their value.” he said. “They are part of ainwlthth111P«J} far-flung system maintained by the W(st j German Intelligence Service, and it is up to you to decide whether the link in this chain shall be broken,whether the source of supply shall becut off and the lines of communication severed.”n-d:ht-brnawi\\tsaFraulein Hofmann, together witha*;e i Erich Glaser, 2b, former U. S. Army Air Corps private, and Otto Hei-maun Voss, 38, an airplane mechan-| ic, were seized by federal agents11' last spring.; Rumrich Pleaded GuiltyKey witnesses against them in the long-drawn trial was Guenther Gustav Rumrich, 32, U, S. Army deserterand confessed German spy catcher”and a “beermug romancer.” He pleaded guilty at the outset of thetrial,Rumrieh's testimony ranged fromofeiOte111!siceaopathPhFhh■sei*pahahumdrum to fantastic, replete with a j 0fe-snerseries of lurid plots to'kidnap Col. Henry E. T. Elgin, commandant of Fort Totten, for the puxpose of steal*ing Atlantic Coast mobilization defense plans, and to forge PresidentRoosevelt’s signature on bogus White House stationery to gain possessionof secret specifications of the super-modern U. S. Navy aircraft carriersEnterprise and Yorktown. While acknowledging that most of e j the plots were hatched over foamingel steins in the bierstubes of Yorkville —New York’s “Little Germany”— and that he received a meager pittance for his machinations from “higher-ups” in the Nazi ring, Rum-rich stolidly insisted that he and hisalleged co*conspirators purloined valuable military information and transmitted it to Germany*The defense hammered at thecredibility of Leon G. Turrou, former ace F.B.I. sleuth who directedthe government’s espionage inquiry and helped “break” the case last February, asserting that Turrou letthe major figures in the spy ring escape in return for evidence againstthe trio on trial*gofchlt;thide$7ge;inetfs\vevmetinVfVICser0I]
Newspaper Details
Salamanca Cattaraugus Republican
Salamanca, New York, US
Wed, Nov 30, 1938
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USA 25 Jun 2019
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Salamanca Cattaraugus Republican
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