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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hello everyone, Eve's here. If you've been listening

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Speaker 1: to the last several episodes and you know that I've

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Speaker 1: been speaking to you from the comfort of my own home.

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Speaker 1: I'm still at home and joined the beginning of the

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Speaker 1: new year. But it's another day, and you know that

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Speaker 1: means there's more history to tell, So let's get into

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Speaker 1: another episode. Today is January second. The day was January second,

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Speaker 1: nineteen forty two. Thirty three members of a Nazi spy

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Speaker 1: ring headed by Frederick also known as Fritz Duquesne, were

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Speaker 1: sentenced to serve time in prison. Before the US entered

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Speaker 1: World War Two in December of nineteen forty one, Germany

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Speaker 1: was already conducting espionage in the US. German American spies

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Speaker 1: had managed to gather important information from military and industrial sites.

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Speaker 1: William Sebold was one of many people Nazi Germany enlisted

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Speaker 1: to be spies on US soiled. Sebald was born in

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Speaker 1: Germany and fought for his birth country in World War One,

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Speaker 1: but after the war ended, he moved to the US

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Speaker 1: and became a citizen there. He worked in industrial and

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Speaker 1: aircraft plants in the US and South America, but when

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Speaker 1: he took a trip to Germany to visit his family

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Speaker 1: in nineteen thirty nine, the Nazis recruited him through threats

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Speaker 1: and intimidation to work as a spy. When he returned

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Speaker 1: to the US. Concerned about the safety of his family

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Speaker 1: in Germany, Sebald agreed and started his training to become

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Speaker 1: a spy. He made it back to the US in

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Speaker 1: February of nineteen forty, using the alias Harry Sawyer and

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Speaker 1: the code name tramp. Sea Bowls. Seemed like an ideal recruit,

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Speaker 1: but while he was in Germany, he told officials at

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Speaker 1: the American consulate in Cologne that he was willing to

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Speaker 1: cooperate with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation. When he

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Speaker 1: got back to New York City, he posted as a

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Speaker 1: diesel engineering consultant. The FBI helped him set up a

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Speaker 1: business office in Manhattan where he would meet with spies

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Speaker 1: who would give him information to pass to the Gestapo

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Speaker 1: or Nazi Germany's secret police. The office was decked out

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Speaker 1: with hidden microphones, cameras, and a two way mirror. The

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Speaker 1: FBI also built Sea Bold, a short way radio transmitting

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Speaker 1: station on Long Island from their FBI agents sent messages

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Speaker 1: to Germany and received messages from the Nazis through that

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Speaker 1: communication line. Germany was unaware that their messages were being

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Speaker 1: monitored by US agents. Once by who visited Sea bold

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Speaker 1: Manhattan office was Frederick Joubert Duquesne, who ran a large

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Speaker 1: German spy ring. Duquesne was a South African boer and

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Speaker 1: a US citizen with a long history of hating the British.

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Speaker 1: As a German spy, Duquesne gathered information about US and

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Speaker 1: British shipping records and US military technology. Over the course

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Speaker 1: of several meetings, he revealed to Sea Bowl plans for

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Speaker 1: a type of bomb being made in the US, and

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Speaker 1: he told see Bold how fires could be started in

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Speaker 1: industrial plants. For sixteen months, the FBI worked with Sea

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Speaker 1: Bowl to collect a ton of information on Nazi spies

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Speaker 1: working in the US, Mexico, and South America. In June

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Speaker 1: of nineteen forty one, the FBI rounded up a band

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Speaker 1: of Nazi spies. Nineteen members of the SPIR ring planned

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Speaker 1: guilty that December. The remaining fourteen members were found guilty

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Speaker 1: at trial, and on January two of the next year,

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Speaker 1: all thirty three people in the spir Ring were sentenced

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Speaker 1: to prison. Duquesne got eighteen years in prison on espionage

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Speaker 1: charges and a two thousand dollar fine for violating the

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Speaker 1: Foreign Agents Registration Act. The act, past in nineteen thirty eight,

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Speaker 1: requires anyone who does political or advocacy work on behalf

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Speaker 1: of foreign entities to disclose their relationship with the foreign

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Speaker 1: entity and any relevant activities and finances. After the German

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Speaker 1: spies were convicted, the US government relocated c Bold to

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Speaker 1: California and gave him a new identity. Diagnosed with manic depression,

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Speaker 1: he was committed to Napa State Hospital in nineteen sixty.

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Speaker 1: He died of a heart attack five years later. I'm

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Speaker 1: Eve Jeff Cote, and hopefully you know a little more

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Speaker 1: about history today than you did yesterday. If you have

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Speaker 1: any burning questions, you can send them to us on Facebook,

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Speaker 1: Twitter or Instagram at t d I h C Podcast,

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Speaker 1: and if you would prefer, you can send them to

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Speaker 1: us via email at this day at I heeart Media

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Speaker 1: dot com. Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you

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Speaker 1: here again, same time tomorrow. M hmmm. For more podcasts

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