The day after Hitler declared war on the United States on Dec. 11, 1941, a Brooklyn jury returned convictions on a viperous nest of Nazi spies brought to justice by a humble but courageous Manhattan man.
William Sebold was the FBI's first double agent and the country's first hero of World War II.
In a fascinating new book, "Double Agent," Peter Duffy reveals the little-known story of the New Yorker who risked his life daily in the city's Nazi underground, ferreting out traitors sworn to arming the Führer's deadly Luftwaffe bombers and providing lethal assistance to German U-boats.
The Duquesne Spy Ring, as it was known, was brought down by Sebold in what still stands as the largest espionage case in American history. A femme fatale, a soldier of fortune and a gun-toting Sperry engineer were among the 33 spies, most naturalized citizens, eventually sentenced to a total of 300 years in prison.
Sebold, a German immigrant, was a naturalized American citizen when he returned to Germany to visit his mother in 1939. The Nazis, overly impressed with a low-level job Sebold once held in the aircraft industry, were determined to put a spymaster in place in Manhattan and informed him at the threat of death that he now worked for them. (more...)
New Yorker risks life as double agent in Nazi underground, brings down Duquesne Spy Ring
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