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Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Zaren Elizabeth, Hello.

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Speaker 3: Zarn, Hello, Michel Lai. Listen pal, how are you?

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Speaker 2: I'm doing pretty well? How about you? Good?

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Speaker 3: Good? Do you know what's ridiculous?

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Speaker 2: Oh?

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Speaker 4: Man do I? But I want to preface this. This

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Speaker 4: is ridiculously cool. Oh really yeah, not like ridiculous, like

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Speaker 4: what ridiculous?

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Speaker 2: Like what?

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Speaker 5: I like that?

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Speaker 4: So we got this message right and the intern send

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Speaker 4: it to me. I thought this was I just wanted

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Speaker 4: to share it with you. So one of our rude

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Speaker 4: dude listeners is cat Josh Murphy from Down Under Down

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Speaker 4: to Aussie Rye.

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Speaker 3: Oh yes this guy, yeah right.

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Speaker 4: So he's a He opened a cafe in Brunswick, Melbourne, Melbourne,

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Speaker 4: and he named it after somebody we mentioned in one

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Speaker 4: of our episodes, The Horse, the Beautiful jim Key. Now

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Speaker 4: I'm not sure if you remember Beautiful jim Key, but

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Speaker 4: it was in the episode Lady One of.

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Speaker 2: This like a course, yes, yes, yes, okay.

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Speaker 4: So as Josh Murphy noted that he was inspired by

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Speaker 4: Beautiful jim Key and was like, you know, we named

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Speaker 4: our spot after it. And I looked up like some

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Speaker 4: some write ups and stuff, and he and his partner.

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Speaker 4: They've got this really cool spot. If I recommend if

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Speaker 4: you're in Melbourne go check it out. It is apparently

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Speaker 4: in Brunswick on Wilson Avenue, Okay, and it's right by

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Speaker 4: Iris the Bakery if you're familiar with the area. It's

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Speaker 4: described as a light filled space. It's full of character

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Speaker 4: and uh yeah, he wanted to name it.

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Speaker 2: After the horse fired by the show.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, which is just I thought ridiculously cool that that

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Speaker 4: this formerly enslaved man trains a horse. Way back in

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Speaker 4: the day. We cover him briefly in a story This

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Speaker 4: guy down in Australia names a cafe after this horse.

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Speaker 2: Well, you know, and it's such a great name, beautiful Jim.

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Speaker 3: So he's the guy. Josh Murphy is the guy who

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Speaker 3: sent us that mustard that we love.

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Speaker 2: Oh, the one you want to try Russell and Son.

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Speaker 2: He sended from Australia. Yes, it is proper good. God,

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Speaker 2: you had some, did I?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, we made that sandwich.

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Speaker 2: Oh that's what that was.

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Speaker 3: That's what that was. Oh.

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Speaker 2: I wish you would have let me know.

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Speaker 3: I told you never listening.

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Speaker 2: No, it's really really good.

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Speaker 3: And it was like we found out he sent us

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Speaker 3: this Mustard Russell and sons. Yes, phenomenal, kind of like

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Speaker 3: a small batch thing. And we're like, oh, that's so cool.

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Speaker 3: What a rad rude dude.

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Speaker 2: Totally and then.

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Speaker 3: He's like, oh, ps I named a restaurant after something

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Speaker 3: you talked.

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Speaker 2: About, Josh Murphy, you rock man.

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Speaker 4: So yeah, if you're ever in the Melbourne area, please

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Speaker 4: go check out his restaurant and let us know how

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Speaker 4: it is.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like cafe. I don't want to say take.

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Speaker 3: It down there.

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Speaker 2: We can get you on a plane that long. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: probably not, maybe someday, who knows. There you go, thank

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Speaker 2: you again for that one. That game was both here smile.

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Speaker 3: That is wonderfully ridiculous. And do you want to know

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Speaker 3: what else is ridiculous but not wonderfully ridiculous?

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Speaker 2: Please being a not see what.

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Speaker 3: This is? Ridiculous? Crime A podcast about absurd and outrageous capers,

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Speaker 3: heists and cons. It's always ninety nine percent murder free

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Speaker 3: and one hundred percent ridiculous.

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Speaker 2: I know you hear that.

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Speaker 3: I done heard that. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill once said,

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Speaker 3: quote in Wartime, truth is so precious that she should

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Speaker 3: always be attended by a bodyguard.

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Speaker 2: Of lies. Yeah, it sounds like him, right, I'm not

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Speaker 2: a huge like.

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Speaker 3: I got like a secondhand gin buzz off of that anyway.

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Speaker 3: So I told you about old Velvelee Dickinson. Oh yeah

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Speaker 3: you did, and the codebreakers at the FBI during World

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Speaker 3: War Two, and that kind of led me down a

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Speaker 3: rabbit hole of other FBI efforts during World War Two.

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Speaker 2: You love rabbit holes.

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Speaker 3: Oh my god, I just live in them. Espionage is

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Speaker 3: a crime, obviously.

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Speaker 2: Oh for the other side.

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Speaker 3: However you slice it.

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Speaker 2: Well, know, if you're doing it for the right side,

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Speaker 2: it's actually like, yeah, you.

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Speaker 3: Can get busted for espionage. Yeah, violating the right And

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Speaker 3: that was a big problem and affair during World War two.

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Speaker 2: Oh, being like espionage spies, Oh just in general. Okay,

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Speaker 2: I think I like getting labeled as a spider.

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Speaker 3: No, no, no, no. So we're going to start with this guy,

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Speaker 3: Leon Terreau.

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Speaker 2: Okay.

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Speaker 3: He was an FBI agent who investigated the first major

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Speaker 3: Nazi spy ring in the United States. Oh and he

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Speaker 3: was born in nineteen hundred in the Russian Empire modern

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Speaker 3: day Belarus. He immigrated to the United States as a

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Speaker 3: young man. He served in the army during World War One,

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Speaker 3: but in like a non combat capacity. He joined the FBI,

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Speaker 3: but it was the Bureau of Investigation back then in

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Speaker 3: the nineteen twenties. He was fluent in a bunch of

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Speaker 3: different languages, including German and Russian, and that made him

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Speaker 3: like super valuable in early foreign counterintelligence works. And so

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Speaker 3: that was an area that the FBI had like really

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Speaker 3: limited experience in before World War Two. So there we are,

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Speaker 3: early nineteen thirty eight, and that's when a former US

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Speaker 3: Army private named Gunter Gustav Rumrik, he was arrested for

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Speaker 3: attempting to fraudulently obtain passports, and so they interrogated him.

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Speaker 3: That interrogation reveals something even bigger. He spilled it all

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Speaker 3: about a German obverse spy network operating in the United States,

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Speaker 3: collecting military, aviation and naval secrets. So like that's the

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Speaker 3: interview of a lifetime in there, totally.

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Speaker 2: I've heard about this in the Green Hornet.

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Speaker 3: So this is where Leon Terrell comes in. He became

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Speaker 3: the lead FBI agent on the case, and so he

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Speaker 3: conducted this like a drawn out interrogations of Rumrek what

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Speaker 3: with you know, he has all this language skills and stuff,

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Speaker 3: and he also ran surveillance on suspected German agents. He

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Speaker 3: tracked down all these couriers and safe houses and cutouts.

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Speaker 3: The FBI coordinated with the US Attorney's Office for indictments

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Speaker 3: in the matter eighteen of them. And it was the

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Speaker 3: first major espionage prosecution in the United States before World

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Speaker 3: War Two. And it exposed the presence of this like

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Speaker 3: organized Nazi intelligence apparatus in the United States. This was

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Speaker 3: a huge deal because it pushed the US to take

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Speaker 3: foreign espionage seriously for the first time. About it so well,

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Speaker 3: it seemed like a victory. Terrell kind of blew it

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Speaker 3: Wellll the case was still active. He leaked information to

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Speaker 3: the press.

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Speaker 2: Oh okay Germans.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. But then he wrote newspaper serials for the New

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Speaker 3: York Post about the case.

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Speaker 2: Uh huh.

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Speaker 3: He collaborated on a book called Nazi Spies in.

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Speaker 2: America That's Bad for Prosecution.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, assisted in the development of a Hollywood film called

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Speaker 3: Confessions of a Nazi Spy. Oh Yeah, nineteen thirty nine

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Speaker 3: Warner Brothers picture. He worked with the director as a

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Speaker 3: paid consultant. This is all while the investigations ongoing. Confessions

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Speaker 3: of a Nazi Spy was the first major studio picture

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Speaker 3: explicitly criticizing Hitler.

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Speaker 2: I was gonna say, that's why it's famous.

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Speaker 3: And it was released before we even got into World

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Speaker 3: War two. So all of this goes down before the

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Speaker 3: remaining suspects had been apprehended. That court, no, no, So the

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Speaker 3: indictments go out, but they're like, we got a round

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Speaker 3: them all up. And meanwhile he's like, I want to

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Speaker 3: be in pictures. So before they be arrested and.

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Speaker 2: Charged, how do I meet May West.

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Speaker 3: For the arrests? Before they're charged, all but four of

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Speaker 3: the spies fled the United States and made their way

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Speaker 3: safely to Europe.

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Speaker 2: Of course they did. First both they get hit. J

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Speaker 2: Edgar Hoover, Oh my god, he must have lost.

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Speaker 3: Livid, head of the FBI. Livid, so not only had

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Speaker 3: the case been blown, but he was highly sensitive to

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Speaker 3: publicity that was not controlled by him.

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Speaker 2: Yes, he wanted to always be the one telling, always had.

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Speaker 3: To be in charge, and so that was just like

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Speaker 3: on top of it. So Hoover made his move. He

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Speaker 3: accused Terreu of compromising ongoing investigations, which that's appropriate.

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Speaker 2: Oh, that's actually very accurate for what he did.

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Speaker 3: And obviously Terreu gets removed from the case, I hope.

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Speaker 1: So.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, he then resigned under pressure, and it's like, was

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Speaker 3: he forced out? Did he resigned?

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Speaker 2: Is he a German spy? Oh? No, double agent?

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Speaker 3: Start to wonder, I do so the FBI they publicly

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Speaker 3: distanced itself from him too, And Hoover had all these

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Speaker 3: internal memos that came out decades and decades later. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: of course it described him as quote a man who

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Speaker 3: permitted personal ambition to override bureau interests.

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Speaker 2: Hated that.

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Speaker 3: He's like, that's my job, I do. Hoover made sure

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Speaker 3: that that round never worked for US intelligence again. But

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Speaker 3: here's the thing, though. After his resignation, Tarrell got gigs

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Speaker 3: as a journalist and a writer. He wrote about espionage topics.

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Speaker 3: He did serve in the US Army counter Intelligence Corps

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Speaker 3: during World War Two, but he didn't serve with FBI

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Speaker 3: or OSS. He later in his life moved to California.

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Speaker 3: He wrote sporadically about intelligence matters.

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Speaker 2: I'm sure he tried to dabble in Hollywood for the

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Speaker 2: rest of his day.

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Speaker 3: Look a bunch of screenplays in the drawers. He never

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Speaker 3: regained his former standing in US counterintelligence, but like historians

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Speaker 3: now see him as this pivotal early figure whose missteps

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Speaker 3: helped define the FBI's strict secrecy culture. Yes, I got

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Speaker 3: to so it was kind of brewing, and he just

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Speaker 3: made it like, okay, now we actually have to really

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Speaker 3: do something about this.

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Speaker 2: That's how we always say ongoing investigation. It's part of

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Speaker 2: an ongoing.

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Speaker 3: Investigation, right right, instead of like, well here, let me

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Speaker 3: tell you everything.

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Speaker 2: Do you want the dish.

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Speaker 3: Sit So, while it was this total cluster with Tourou,

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Speaker 3: it kicked off the FBI's involvement in counter espionage efforts

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Speaker 3: for World War Two. It was a wake up call.

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Speaker 3: So the US needed serious strengthening of security surrounding all

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Speaker 3: these like military and industrial secrets, and they also needed

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Speaker 3: to launch serious counter espionage efforts. So the military starts

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Speaker 3: working with the FBI to address this stuff as crime,

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Speaker 3: which brings us to Ultra, not MK Ultra.

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Speaker 2: I was just about to ask.

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Speaker 3: As much later. Ultra was the code name used by

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Speaker 3: the British government beginning in June of nineteen forty one

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Speaker 3: to describe intelligence that it came from the Enigma decrypts

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Speaker 3: the German military Lushwaffe stuff they'd had it DECRYPTID then

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Speaker 3: naval Enigma crazy all these like high level German high

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Speaker 3: command traffic.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 4: So basically after the Battle of Britain, they get the

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Speaker 4: Enigma machine decryptied before we even get in the war.

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Speaker 3: Correct.

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Speaker 2: I thought it was until like forty two of No.

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Speaker 3: Ultra wasn't really a single project, but it was like

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Speaker 3: a classification or a category.

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Speaker 2: I got you.

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Speaker 3: So it basically meant so secret that it was beyond

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Speaker 3: top secret.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, like all the Queen can learn this.

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Speaker 3: Yes, the work itself was conducted primarily at Bletchley Park,

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Speaker 3: which I mentioned before, under Government code and Cipher School,

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Speaker 3: and so the Ultra designation was created in nineteen forty one,

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Speaker 3: but that technical groundwork began way earlier. So what I

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Speaker 3: learned I didn't know. Between nineteen thirty two and nineteen

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Speaker 3: thirty nine, Polish cryptoanalysts broke early versions of Enigma really

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Speaker 3: all the way back then, and then in July of

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Speaker 3: thirty nine Poland shared their methods with Britain and France,

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Speaker 3: and after the war began, then England expanded operations at Bletchley, Okay,

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Speaker 3: so in nineteen forty initial breakthroughs came from Alan Turing

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Speaker 3: Gordon Welchman in the design of the bomb machine. So

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Speaker 3: lufwaff of traffic was like the first thing that they

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Speaker 3: were able to successfully and consistently read. By mid nineteen

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Speaker 3: forty one, there was enough high level German traffic being

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Speaker 3: read that they had to create this new Ultra classification

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Speaker 3: and so that was like mid forty one, that's the

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Speaker 3: formal creation of Ultra as this intelligence handling system. So

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Speaker 3: what did ULTRA produce, Seren?

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Speaker 2: What did it produce, Elizabeth?

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Speaker 3: I'm glad I asked that question. Ultra intelligence that had

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Speaker 3: like the Air Force operations U.

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Speaker 2: Boat positions because they're killing the shipping leg.

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Speaker 3: Exactly, Army operational plans, logistics supply routes, and so the

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Speaker 3: decrypts were translated, analyzed, and distributed only to like this tiny,

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Speaker 3: tiny handful of commanders, and they were forbidden to reveal

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Speaker 3: the source, so super super secretive, and the value depended

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Speaker 3: on that secrecy. So that's something that the FBI was like, Oh,

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Speaker 3: we should try that. That looks like that's a really

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Speaker 3: good idea. So they get wind of Ultra around nineteen

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Speaker 3: forty two and they're like, I want that. That would

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Speaker 3: be fun. So they're like, we need counterintelligence. FBI is like,

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Speaker 3: you know what, We're ready. We were messing around before.

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Speaker 3: We're totally JK, just so totally ready. So the Brits

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Speaker 3: passed along intelligence that they gathered through Ultra. The FBI

260
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Speaker 3: took it, incorporated it into their criminal investigations, and that

261
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Speaker 3: they came up with something they called Operation Ostrich. What

262
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Speaker 3: is there going to stick their head in the sands?

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Speaker 2: I don't know, I don't I don't know.

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Speaker 3: I guess Operation Ostrich wound up being part of this

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Speaker 3: larger effort by Ali forces to deceive the enemy called

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Speaker 3: Operation Bodyguard. And that comes from the quote that I

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Speaker 3: read you up top. In wartime, truth is so precious

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Speaker 3: that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.

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Speaker 3: So all of these intercepted messages, some are decrypted by

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Speaker 3: the Brits, others by a US Army and Navy code

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Speaker 3: breakers or that crew of crazy kids led by Elizabeth

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Speaker 3: Smith Friedman in the new Cryptoanalyst team at the FBI laboratory.

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Speaker 3: They played a part in protecting the Allies, breaking down

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Speaker 3: the Germans. The Nazis the bad guys. Nazis are the

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Speaker 3: bad guys. So remember it was Elizabeth Smith Friedman who

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Speaker 3: took down that Nazi network in Argentina I talked about

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Speaker 3: in the Velvore. So she helped uncover the strong political

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Speaker 3: influence and intelligence activities of a German agent named Johannes Becker.

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Speaker 3: She and her FBI colleagues they mapped out his operation,

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Speaker 3: disrupted the works throughout the war, later shut it down completely,

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Speaker 3: and then without Ostrich, the FBI would not have been

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Speaker 3: as successful in pinning down the extent of Nazi espionage

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Speaker 3: in South America.

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Speaker 4: Right right, because also you sometimes want to keep the

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Speaker 4: network going so you can just exactly and then also

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Speaker 4: put out fake stuff for them to report on. See

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Speaker 4: how effective is what Ostrich was all about.

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Speaker 3: November of nineteen forty one, right before the attack on

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Speaker 3: Pearl Harbor, FBI special agent William Gustav Friedman sat down

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Speaker 3: with a man named Jorge Mosquerra. Quick note, Elizabeth Smith

291
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Speaker 3: Friedman's husband was William F. Friedman, one end on the

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Speaker 3: last name. The FBI special agent was William Gustav Freeman.

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Speaker 3: Two ms. No relationship.

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Speaker 2: Okay, I'm going to ask for a huge loop.

295
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Speaker 3: So anyway, who was Mouscara and why was a g

296
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Speaker 3: Man talking to him? Yeah, what's I would love to know?

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Speaker 3: You tell me.

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Speaker 2: Well.

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Speaker 3: Muscarra was a forty six year old businessman. He was

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Speaker 3: originally from Argentina and he'd spent the last twenty years

301
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Speaker 3: of his life living in Germany. So this made him

302
00:16:07,120 --> 00:16:10,720
Speaker 3: very interesting to the FBI for good reason. So let's

303
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Speaker 3: back up. Let me tell you about him. He had

304
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Speaker 3: a very successful import export business in Germany, always moving

305
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Speaker 3: stuff between Germany and Argentina. But during the thirties, I

306
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Speaker 3: don't know if you've heard about this, things in Germany changed.

307
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Speaker 2: I have.

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Speaker 4: I've read a little bit about this that I change

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Speaker 4: in leadership in the biz.

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Speaker 3: We call that an understatement. So he wove this tale

311
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Speaker 3: of woe about how German militarism started to get out

312
00:16:39,240 --> 00:16:42,000
Speaker 3: of hand. Then there were all these like crazy new

313
00:16:42,080 --> 00:16:45,160
Speaker 3: finance laws that were sort of dooming his business. So

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Speaker 3: he sold everything and headed back to Argentina to start

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Speaker 3: from scratch. The problem was that the Nazi authorities wouldn't

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Speaker 3: let him leave the country with his money. Instead, the

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00:16:57,520 --> 00:17:00,440
Speaker 3: other they put pressure on him to work for them

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Speaker 3: as an intelligence agent in America. So no buenos aires

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Speaker 3: for you, sir. You're going to the US of a

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Speaker 3: and in return for his spy work, he would get

321
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Speaker 3: his s growd funds with interest. But that was as

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Speaker 3: soon as Germany won the war.

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Speaker 2: Oh wow, So.

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Speaker 3: He didn't really have a choice. He couldn't go back

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Speaker 3: to Argentina with nothing. He had nothing and no one there.

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Speaker 3: He couldn't stay in Europe because he saw how bad

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Speaker 3: it was about to get. So he agreed, but he

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Speaker 3: also had no intention of helping them.

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Speaker 2: But he also has this light at the end of

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Speaker 2: the tunnel. If he does, if.

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Speaker 3: He does the work and the Germans win, then he

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Speaker 3: gets his money plus interest. Well, so he tells the Nazis,

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Speaker 3: you know what, let's do this, and I don't want

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Speaker 3: I want to cover my trucks, so I'm going to

335
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Speaker 3: take this circuitous route to the United States. And they're like, great,

336
00:17:46,560 --> 00:17:51,159
Speaker 3: I love that perfect and action. And so August nineteen

337
00:17:51,240 --> 00:17:55,359
Speaker 3: forty one, he leaves Nazi occupied France, goes over the

338
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Speaker 3: Pyrenees and across Spain to Portugal. Then there he gets

339
00:17:59,359 --> 00:18:03,520
Speaker 3: on a ship South America. He gets to Montevideo, Uruguay,

340
00:18:04,160 --> 00:18:07,960
Speaker 3: goes straight to the American embassy and spills the beat. Yeah,

341
00:18:08,880 --> 00:18:14,160
Speaker 3: tells them everything, and he's like plus ps I want

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Speaker 3: to help Allied forces. I want nothing. I am at

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Speaker 3: your service.

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Speaker 2: I can win this war.

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Speaker 5: Yeah.

346
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Speaker 3: So days later he's on his way to New York

347
00:18:21,920 --> 00:18:25,359
Speaker 3: on the FBI dime to begin life as a double agent.

348
00:18:25,640 --> 00:18:28,359
Speaker 3: So the Germans, they gave him instructions, Okay, this is

349
00:18:28,359 --> 00:18:31,880
Speaker 3: what you do. You go to America, you spy on them.

350
00:18:32,440 --> 00:18:36,480
Speaker 3: You build a secret radio station. Here are your broadcast times,

351
00:18:36,480 --> 00:18:40,280
Speaker 3: Here are the frequencies, the call letters like emergency keys

352
00:18:40,280 --> 00:18:42,879
Speaker 3: and transposition codes. You have to be somewhere in the

353
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Speaker 3: New York area. We're going to be sending you messages,

354
00:18:46,000 --> 00:18:49,280
Speaker 3: and you're going to send messages back to Hamburg. So

355
00:18:49,359 --> 00:18:52,200
Speaker 3: he's like, you know what, that's great, I'm all in.

356
00:18:52,640 --> 00:18:54,919
Speaker 3: Then he goes and he tells the FBI exactly what

357
00:18:54,960 --> 00:18:55,600
Speaker 3: he's been told.

358
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Speaker 4: I'm wondering how they're capturing it. I wonder if they're

359
00:18:57,760 --> 00:18:59,720
Speaker 4: coming from like you know, U boats, like where there,

360
00:18:59,760 --> 00:19:02,600
Speaker 4: because you can't be broadcasting that far at the time,

361
00:19:02,640 --> 00:19:03,399
Speaker 4: he doesn't like me.

362
00:19:04,680 --> 00:19:07,359
Speaker 3: Yeah, So the FBI is like, thank you for for

363
00:19:07,400 --> 00:19:09,760
Speaker 3: your input. I love this. You're going to be a

364
00:19:09,800 --> 00:19:11,920
Speaker 3: double agent. We're going to code name you n D

365
00:19:12,240 --> 00:19:15,400
Speaker 3: ninety eight. Okay, and this is it showtime?

366
00:19:15,520 --> 00:19:17,120
Speaker 2: Yeah, lights, camera action.

367
00:19:17,359 --> 00:19:20,080
Speaker 3: Let's take a break. When we get back, we're going

368
00:19:20,119 --> 00:19:45,200
Speaker 3: to follow along with ND ninety eight. Zaren, I want

369
00:19:45,240 --> 00:19:47,359
Speaker 3: to tell you about a place called Owen House.

370
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Speaker 2: Owen House.

371
00:19:48,720 --> 00:19:52,680
Speaker 3: Yes, it was a beautiful estate on seventy one acres

372
00:19:52,720 --> 00:19:56,400
Speaker 3: in Wading River, New York. That's on Long Island, across

373
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Speaker 3: Long Island Sound from New Haven, Connecticut.

374
00:19:58,760 --> 00:20:03,159
Speaker 4: This is Owen like O I owe you money.

375
00:20:02,040 --> 00:20:06,960
Speaker 3: Owen Wilson ow E m so. The US Department of

376
00:20:06,960 --> 00:20:11,120
Speaker 3: the Interior describes this place as such, quote. Located eighty

377
00:20:11,160 --> 00:20:14,119
Speaker 3: miles east of New York on Long Island's North Fork.

378
00:20:14,520 --> 00:20:18,120
Speaker 3: The spacious three story building sat on a cliff bordered

379
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Speaker 3: on one side by Long Island Sound and acres of

380
00:20:21,280 --> 00:20:24,200
Speaker 3: dense trees on the other three sides, and the only

381
00:20:24,240 --> 00:20:27,440
Speaker 3: approach to the station was a bumpy, rutted quarter mile path.

382
00:20:27,760 --> 00:20:30,560
Speaker 3: Even by today's standards, the house is not easy to find.

383
00:20:30,880 --> 00:20:33,560
Speaker 3: In nineteen forty two, it would have been nearly impossible.

384
00:20:34,040 --> 00:20:34,280
Speaker 2: Yeah.

385
00:20:34,640 --> 00:20:34,760
Speaker 5: So.

386
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Speaker 3: The place was originally built as a summer home for

387
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Speaker 3: doctor Gabriel s Owen and his descendant. Sarah Owen was

388
00:20:42,680 --> 00:20:46,640
Speaker 3: the last occupant of the house. She was unmarried, no kids.

389
00:20:47,000 --> 00:20:49,760
Speaker 3: She died in nineteen forty She was almost ninety years

390
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Speaker 3: old at this point. So she has a niece, missus

391
00:20:54,200 --> 00:20:59,199
Speaker 3: Helen Owen Howell. Helen Owen Howell inherits the house in

392
00:20:59,280 --> 00:21:03,120
Speaker 3: nineteen forty one, something curious happened. Now keep in mind

393
00:21:03,160 --> 00:21:07,000
Speaker 3: that Owen house, like you said, super isolated, seventy one acres,

394
00:21:07,200 --> 00:21:10,520
Speaker 3: borders the sound, just a dirt path driveway. It's mid

395
00:21:10,520 --> 00:21:14,200
Speaker 3: December nineteen forty one. Helen was in the house. There's

396
00:21:14,200 --> 00:21:16,520
Speaker 3: a knock at the door. A guy is standing there,

397
00:21:16,600 --> 00:21:18,720
Speaker 3: dressed in a suit, very polite. He told her he

398
00:21:18,800 --> 00:21:22,119
Speaker 3: was interested in renting the house and the property. Now

399
00:21:22,400 --> 00:21:24,320
Speaker 3: Helen was in the process of trying to figure out

400
00:21:24,359 --> 00:21:25,639
Speaker 3: what to do with this place.

401
00:21:25,880 --> 00:21:28,119
Speaker 4: And we're like a week past Pearl Harbor. So like

402
00:21:28,200 --> 00:21:30,840
Speaker 4: everybody's thinking about the war. The only thought you have

403
00:21:31,000 --> 00:21:31,800
Speaker 4: her about the war.

404
00:21:32,160 --> 00:21:34,720
Speaker 3: She didn't need the house, she didn't intend to live there,

405
00:21:35,320 --> 00:21:38,760
Speaker 3: but this was strange. The distribution of the estate was

406
00:21:38,800 --> 00:21:42,280
Speaker 3: noted in the Brooklyn Eagle newspaper in November of forty one,

407
00:21:42,359 --> 00:21:44,280
Speaker 3: So maybe she's thinking like he heard about it. But

408
00:21:44,320 --> 00:21:48,159
Speaker 3: still Helen told him, like place isn't for rent, he

409
00:21:48,240 --> 00:21:51,240
Speaker 3: goes on his way. Everything seems hinky. And like you said,

410
00:21:51,400 --> 00:21:54,440
Speaker 3: this is right after the attack on Pearl Harbor, which

411
00:21:54,480 --> 00:21:57,400
Speaker 3: was December seventh, nineteen forty one, a day that will

412
00:21:57,440 --> 00:22:01,320
Speaker 3: live in infamy, as FDR said, the day afterwards, which

413
00:22:01,359 --> 00:22:03,840
Speaker 3: is the day that the US entered World War two.

414
00:22:04,640 --> 00:22:08,639
Speaker 3: So tensions are high, fears are building. Helen's trying to

415
00:22:08,720 --> 00:22:11,760
Speaker 3: imagine why someone would be looking to live at Owen

416
00:22:11,840 --> 00:22:15,000
Speaker 3: House at that time. Yeah, specifically, yeah, And she couldn't

417
00:22:15,000 --> 00:22:18,439
Speaker 3: think of anything that made sense, so she called the FBI.

418
00:22:19,600 --> 00:22:22,720
Speaker 3: See something, say something. So she told him all about

419
00:22:22,800 --> 00:22:25,080
Speaker 3: the visit from the man, that the home is on

420
00:22:25,119 --> 00:22:27,680
Speaker 3: the water and isolated, and she feared that it could

421
00:22:27,720 --> 00:22:31,280
Speaker 3: be like spies or soldiers or something nefarious. They took

422
00:22:31,320 --> 00:22:33,960
Speaker 3: all her information. They thanked her for sharing it. A

423
00:22:34,000 --> 00:22:37,720
Speaker 3: few days later, knock at the door. It's the same guy.

424
00:22:39,520 --> 00:22:43,400
Speaker 3: He pulls out his identification FBI. He explained to her

425
00:22:43,440 --> 00:22:46,560
Speaker 3: that it was the US government that wanted to us.

426
00:22:48,000 --> 00:22:48,760
Speaker 2: The FBI.

427
00:22:50,920 --> 00:22:55,520
Speaker 3: First test, so we need this her top secret activities.

428
00:22:55,560 --> 00:22:58,480
Speaker 3: In fact, the whole family would be sworn to secrecy.

429
00:22:58,520 --> 00:23:01,480
Speaker 3: They'd have to sign all these document They couldn't tell

430
00:23:01,480 --> 00:23:04,320
Speaker 3: anyone about this. So they renamed the place the Wading

431
00:23:04,440 --> 00:23:08,720
Speaker 3: River Station. And remember when we left off, the Nazis

432
00:23:08,760 --> 00:23:11,840
Speaker 3: had asked Jorge Moscerra to set up the.

433
00:23:11,840 --> 00:23:15,840
Speaker 2: Spy radio pirate radio station in or around New York.

434
00:23:16,320 --> 00:23:20,000
Speaker 3: So he immediately tells the FBI about a situation made

435
00:23:20,000 --> 00:23:23,600
Speaker 3: a double agent. They're like, let's set up our radio station. Guys,

436
00:23:23,680 --> 00:23:28,159
Speaker 3: let's start a station. And so an FBI technical agent

437
00:23:28,160 --> 00:23:32,120
Speaker 3: from Washington, d C. Named Richard Millan, he began searching

438
00:23:32,240 --> 00:23:36,480
Speaker 3: for a site somewhere on eastern Long Island. And according

439
00:23:36,560 --> 00:23:40,680
Speaker 3: to Ray bat Venice, a former FBI agent writing for

440
00:23:40,720 --> 00:23:45,480
Speaker 3: the Former Agents of the FBI Foundation, quote it's a

441
00:23:46,359 --> 00:23:52,520
Speaker 3: wow for the news site, Millan had two essential requirements. First,

442
00:23:52,680 --> 00:23:57,840
Speaker 3: atmospheric conditions had to be optimal for uninterrupted transatlantic high

443
00:23:57,880 --> 00:24:02,679
Speaker 3: frequency radio communication. Second, but equally important, it had to

444
00:24:02,680 --> 00:24:04,600
Speaker 3: be isolated and remote.

445
00:24:04,920 --> 00:24:08,840
Speaker 2: So they're trying to get across the Atlantic. Yes, how

446
00:24:09,200 --> 00:24:12,800
Speaker 2: how much watted are they running through this stage? And

447
00:24:13,040 --> 00:24:16,000
Speaker 2: they're doing AM radio which travels far. But even like

448
00:24:16,080 --> 00:24:16,719
Speaker 2: that's crazy.

449
00:24:16,840 --> 00:24:19,000
Speaker 3: So Owen House is perfect though, I mean, yeah, it

450
00:24:19,040 --> 00:24:20,119
Speaker 3: sounds like the box.

451
00:24:20,160 --> 00:24:22,800
Speaker 2: There's no mountains between them and the European.

452
00:24:22,960 --> 00:24:26,520
Speaker 3: And isolated and not in use everything. So at the

453
00:24:26,520 --> 00:24:30,439
Speaker 3: start of nineteen forty two, Millan got the house totally outfitted.

454
00:24:30,840 --> 00:24:33,399
Speaker 3: He had a team of engineers install all this like

455
00:24:33,560 --> 00:24:37,480
Speaker 3: crazy modern radio equipment. Keep in mind, this all had

456
00:24:37,520 --> 00:24:40,240
Speaker 3: to be self sustaining, so they had to have multiple

457
00:24:40,320 --> 00:24:43,280
Speaker 3: backup parts for everything. Yes, you couldn't just like pop

458
00:24:43,320 --> 00:24:46,240
Speaker 3: out and get stuff, so they that went for like

459
00:24:46,240 --> 00:24:52,080
Speaker 3: like spare parts, vacuum tubes, radios, dials, wiring paper, and pencils.

460
00:24:51,480 --> 00:24:53,560
Speaker 2: Ratchets, so many ratchets.

461
00:24:53,600 --> 00:24:57,200
Speaker 3: They had like a whole room of just ratchets, and

462
00:24:57,440 --> 00:25:00,119
Speaker 3: the place was crammed with stuff. So they had had

463
00:25:00,240 --> 00:25:03,679
Speaker 3: high frequency radios running twenty four hours a day and

464
00:25:03,720 --> 00:25:06,720
Speaker 3: that pulls a lot of electricity. Yeah, and they didn't

465
00:25:06,720 --> 00:25:09,280
Speaker 3: want the electric company to come sniffing around because as

466
00:25:09,280 --> 00:25:11,760
Speaker 3: far as they knew, a young family had moved into

467
00:25:11,800 --> 00:25:15,720
Speaker 3: the house. Okay, see, the agent sent to oversee operations

468
00:25:15,920 --> 00:25:18,240
Speaker 3: was this guy named Don Worth Johnson.

469
00:25:18,440 --> 00:25:20,640
Speaker 2: Wait what I'm near You need to hear that name again.

470
00:25:20,680 --> 00:25:22,360
Speaker 3: Don Worth Johnson.

471
00:25:22,560 --> 00:25:24,399
Speaker 2: So it's Don Johnson with an extra worth.

472
00:25:24,480 --> 00:25:27,879
Speaker 3: Yeah, more worth than Don Johnson. Not only was he

473
00:25:28,040 --> 00:25:31,720
Speaker 3: savvy with the technology, he also looked sickly.

474
00:25:32,400 --> 00:25:34,560
Speaker 2: Oh, and that was a selling point.

475
00:25:34,560 --> 00:25:37,359
Speaker 3: Okay, So the department picked him, yeah, to be the

476
00:25:37,400 --> 00:25:40,240
Speaker 3: face of Owen House to the public because he had

477
00:25:40,280 --> 00:25:43,320
Speaker 3: what they described as a quote tubercular appearance.

478
00:25:45,760 --> 00:25:45,879
Speaker 5: Right.

479
00:25:46,040 --> 00:25:49,640
Speaker 3: So the FBI was like this, this check's two boxes. One,

480
00:25:50,440 --> 00:25:54,080
Speaker 3: if the locals thought he was diseased, they wouldn't come calling, sure,

481
00:25:54,280 --> 00:25:57,120
Speaker 3: And two this explains why he doesn't get drafted.

482
00:25:57,160 --> 00:25:59,160
Speaker 2: So they're looking for a doc holiday looking guy to.

483
00:26:00,840 --> 00:26:03,679
Speaker 3: As far as everyone in town knew, part of the

484
00:26:03,680 --> 00:26:08,639
Speaker 3: war after he's just like this sickly, very rich lawyer

485
00:26:09,240 --> 00:26:11,840
Speaker 3: with a wife named Betty and an infant daughter named

486
00:26:11,920 --> 00:26:15,600
Speaker 3: Vicky Jean Jean and that was his real family. So

487
00:26:15,640 --> 00:26:18,520
Speaker 3: he brings his real family with him, plus their seventy

488
00:26:18,520 --> 00:26:22,639
Speaker 3: pound German shepherd dog named Clifford. Yeah, Clifford was a

489
00:26:22,680 --> 00:26:25,160
Speaker 3: piece of work. He like snarled at everyone all the time.

490
00:26:25,280 --> 00:26:26,600
Speaker 3: It was not one to be messed with.

491
00:26:26,800 --> 00:26:29,080
Speaker 4: Oh okay, so you know his snarl was like a

492
00:26:29,400 --> 00:26:30,440
Speaker 4: like a predicet to his bike.

493
00:26:31,119 --> 00:26:34,320
Speaker 3: Yeah, he was just nasty. So back to the power supply.

494
00:26:34,920 --> 00:26:38,040
Speaker 3: They needed a lot and a sick attorney and his

495
00:26:38,080 --> 00:26:40,639
Speaker 3: small family aren't going to need that much. So the

496
00:26:40,680 --> 00:26:42,720
Speaker 3: agents they had to set up a way to generate

497
00:26:42,760 --> 00:26:46,440
Speaker 3: their own power. And so Millan he put a diesel

498
00:26:46,520 --> 00:26:50,119
Speaker 3: engine in the basement that would boost the power supply

499
00:26:50,240 --> 00:26:51,280
Speaker 3: coming in from outside.

500
00:26:51,359 --> 00:26:52,240
Speaker 2: They made a generator.

501
00:26:52,359 --> 00:26:55,159
Speaker 3: Yeah, and so we got this big diesel engine. The

502
00:26:55,160 --> 00:26:57,440
Speaker 3: place is on seventy one acres. But they still had

503
00:26:57,440 --> 00:26:59,720
Speaker 3: to disguise the noise in case anyone rolled up.

504
00:26:59,760 --> 00:27:01,320
Speaker 2: That's a noise, So they.

505
00:27:01,200 --> 00:27:06,600
Speaker 3: Put a Buick karmuffler on it and a hose to

506
00:27:06,640 --> 00:27:09,320
Speaker 3: send the fumes out through the basement window. Oh right, yeah,

507
00:27:09,359 --> 00:27:12,200
Speaker 3: and then big engines like that also shimmy shake.

508
00:27:12,320 --> 00:27:12,679
Speaker 2: Yeah.

509
00:27:12,800 --> 00:27:16,480
Speaker 3: So the agents poured this huge concrete block into the

510
00:27:16,480 --> 00:27:19,480
Speaker 3: floor of the basement and bolted the engine to it.

511
00:27:19,480 --> 00:27:22,920
Speaker 3: So like problem solved. Everything's running smoothly, okay. And this

512
00:27:23,520 --> 00:27:27,280
Speaker 3: is how an FBI memo described the setup quote, we

513
00:27:27,400 --> 00:27:30,760
Speaker 3: have a highly confidential station at Wading River, Long Island,

514
00:27:31,000 --> 00:27:34,440
Speaker 3: where we have several radio operators assigned who are impersonating

515
00:27:34,600 --> 00:27:38,520
Speaker 3: enemy agents. And these operators have practiced and perfected this

516
00:27:38,600 --> 00:27:42,560
Speaker 3: impersonation almost to the ultimate point. They must live in

517
00:27:42,600 --> 00:27:46,160
Speaker 3: an isolated cottage under difficult conditions, and that they must

518
00:27:46,240 --> 00:27:49,240
Speaker 3: remain at the station twenty four hours a day, six

519
00:27:49,320 --> 00:27:52,240
Speaker 3: and seven days a week, it being impossible for them

520
00:27:52,280 --> 00:27:54,600
Speaker 3: to go to the next town for meals. They must

521
00:27:54,720 --> 00:27:58,520
Speaker 3: keep absolutely undercover in order that no suspicion as to

522
00:27:58,560 --> 00:28:01,880
Speaker 3: the activities being carried on at this station will leak

523
00:28:01,960 --> 00:28:04,280
Speaker 3: out to unauthorized persons in the vicinity.

524
00:28:04,560 --> 00:28:08,600
Speaker 4: So they're like creating a little Antarctic station. You got

525
00:28:08,600 --> 00:28:10,160
Speaker 4: to be with these people all the time.

526
00:28:10,240 --> 00:28:12,720
Speaker 3: It's a big house. So there we got Owen house.

527
00:28:12,760 --> 00:28:15,720
Speaker 3: We got the Johnson family, which you know they see

528
00:28:16,040 --> 00:28:18,320
Speaker 3: seem to be living a normal life to for everyone

529
00:28:18,320 --> 00:28:20,600
Speaker 3: on the outside. And then they've got like two or

530
00:28:20,600 --> 00:28:23,879
Speaker 3: three other radio operators at a time working non stop

531
00:28:23,960 --> 00:28:26,600
Speaker 3: on the second and third floors of the house, and

532
00:28:26,640 --> 00:28:29,280
Speaker 3: they would have to like change shifts at night under

533
00:28:29,280 --> 00:28:34,119
Speaker 3: cover of darkness. Missus Johnson cooked all the meals really yeah,

534
00:28:34,280 --> 00:28:38,080
Speaker 3: and just like ran a house, and then Clifford provided security,

535
00:28:38,840 --> 00:28:44,720
Speaker 3: including for the family. Zarin, close your eyes. I want

536
00:28:44,720 --> 00:28:53,320
Speaker 3: you to picture it. You are Vicky Jean Johnson. You

537
00:28:53,360 --> 00:28:56,280
Speaker 3: are two years old. It's one year into the US

538
00:28:56,400 --> 00:28:59,920
Speaker 3: involvement in World War two. Your house is always buzzing

539
00:29:00,080 --> 00:29:03,600
Speaker 3: with activity and radio waves. But this is not unusual

540
00:29:03,680 --> 00:29:06,719
Speaker 3: for you. It's all you've ever known. You're currently sitting

541
00:29:06,720 --> 00:29:08,640
Speaker 3: on the back porch of the house where you live.

542
00:29:09,240 --> 00:29:11,960
Speaker 3: The sun is out, the bird's chirp in the thick

543
00:29:12,000 --> 00:29:15,920
Speaker 3: cops of trees around you. Clifford, the family dog, sleeps

544
00:29:15,960 --> 00:29:18,280
Speaker 3: at the other end of the porch, waking every now

545
00:29:18,360 --> 00:29:21,440
Speaker 3: and then to growl and cuff, then go back to

546
00:29:21,480 --> 00:29:24,600
Speaker 3: sleep in the sun. Your mother's in the kitchen, baking

547
00:29:24,600 --> 00:29:28,000
Speaker 3: a pie, rinsing berries for the filling, checking the blind

548
00:29:28,040 --> 00:29:32,480
Speaker 3: bake on the crust. She's busy, otherwise occupied on this

549
00:29:32,600 --> 00:29:36,200
Speaker 3: warm day. You're wearing nothing but your diaper, the liberating

550
00:29:36,240 --> 00:29:40,440
Speaker 3: wardrobe afforded toddlers in the insane. You look out across

551
00:29:40,480 --> 00:29:43,640
Speaker 3: the lawn behind the house and spot something a butterfly.

552
00:29:44,200 --> 00:29:48,280
Speaker 3: It's beautiful. You scoot your rear down the few backsteps

553
00:29:48,280 --> 00:29:51,920
Speaker 3: and stand on the grass. The butterfly flits and skips

554
00:29:51,960 --> 00:29:54,680
Speaker 3: on the air. You can hear the static of radio

555
00:29:54,720 --> 00:29:58,280
Speaker 3: transmissions coming from the window above you. You begin to

556
00:29:58,280 --> 00:30:02,240
Speaker 3: follow the butterfly form the sober drunkard's walk of a

557
00:30:02,280 --> 00:30:06,400
Speaker 3: young child, knees stiff and gate rocking across the lawn.

558
00:30:06,440 --> 00:30:10,000
Speaker 3: You go following the big yellow butterfly. You make it

559
00:30:10,040 --> 00:30:12,000
Speaker 3: to the edge of the lawn and into the trees,

560
00:30:12,360 --> 00:30:15,120
Speaker 3: the butterfly still in the air above and just ahead

561
00:30:15,120 --> 00:30:18,000
Speaker 3: of you. You hear more birds now and a frog

562
00:30:18,120 --> 00:30:21,320
Speaker 3: somewhere far off. The trees block the midday sun, and

563
00:30:21,360 --> 00:30:25,080
Speaker 3: you're cast into shade. The yellow butterfly a beacon, a

564
00:30:25,160 --> 00:30:28,440
Speaker 3: spot of sun that you simply must follow. You reach

565
00:30:28,480 --> 00:30:31,200
Speaker 3: your chubby arms into the air, trying to grab it.

566
00:30:31,200 --> 00:30:35,120
Speaker 3: It slits on. You've now toddled almost three hundred feet

567
00:30:35,160 --> 00:30:38,440
Speaker 3: from the back steps. You emerge from the woods, still

568
00:30:38,560 --> 00:30:42,040
Speaker 3: tailing the butterfly. It's a erratic path, so tempting to chase.

569
00:30:42,680 --> 00:30:44,840
Speaker 3: As you come through the trees, you can hear the

570
00:30:44,880 --> 00:30:49,280
Speaker 3: water below Long Island sound. You hear waves, The wind

571
00:30:49,360 --> 00:30:51,040
Speaker 3: is up and the chop is out on the water.

572
00:30:51,720 --> 00:30:54,680
Speaker 3: The butterfly buffets against the breeze, coming over the cliff

573
00:30:54,720 --> 00:30:57,840
Speaker 3: before you. It lands on a flower of a small

574
00:30:57,920 --> 00:31:01,280
Speaker 3: weed living defiantly in the sand on the bluff. You

575
00:31:01,440 --> 00:31:04,600
Speaker 3: click in your chunky steps, eager to grab the butterfly

576
00:31:05,000 --> 00:31:08,360
Speaker 3: to grab the sun. You reach the plant and look down.

577
00:31:08,880 --> 00:31:11,760
Speaker 3: The steep cliff heads straight down to the now rough

578
00:31:11,840 --> 00:31:14,880
Speaker 3: waters below. You hear your mother calling your name in

579
00:31:14,920 --> 00:31:19,760
Speaker 3: the distance. It's Fate, but she sounds terrified urgent. You

580
00:31:19,800 --> 00:31:22,480
Speaker 3: look down and see the sand starting to slide from

581
00:31:22,560 --> 00:31:26,840
Speaker 3: under your feet. You're now slowly beginning to lean forward,

582
00:31:27,040 --> 00:31:30,840
Speaker 3: gravity pulling you to the water below. Then there's a jerk.

583
00:31:31,440 --> 00:31:34,360
Speaker 3: Your diaper tightens around your belly and your yank backward,

584
00:31:35,120 --> 00:31:38,200
Speaker 3: back over the sand spun and then back toward the woods.

585
00:31:38,640 --> 00:31:42,000
Speaker 3: You look behind you, hoping to see the butterfly. Instead

586
00:31:42,080 --> 00:31:45,880
Speaker 3: you see Clifford's smooth coat and caramel eyes. He's got

587
00:31:45,920 --> 00:31:48,000
Speaker 3: you by the diaper and is trotting you back to

588
00:31:48,040 --> 00:31:52,040
Speaker 3: the house. Your mother emerges from the trees, shouting your name.

589
00:31:52,240 --> 00:31:55,000
Speaker 3: She sees you and breathes a sigh of relief. She

590
00:31:55,120 --> 00:31:57,400
Speaker 3: reaches out to pluck you from Clifford's jaw, but he

591
00:31:57,440 --> 00:32:00,800
Speaker 3: does not release. He lets out a low ground and

592
00:32:00,880 --> 00:32:03,880
Speaker 3: continues back toward the house, intent on putting you back

593
00:32:03,960 --> 00:32:07,800
Speaker 3: where you were on the porch. He mutters to you, sheesh,

594
00:32:07,920 --> 00:32:12,080
Speaker 3: I gotta do everything around here. But that really happened,

595
00:32:12,120 --> 00:32:15,640
Speaker 3: by the way, not Clifford talking, but everything else, everything else.

596
00:32:16,080 --> 00:32:19,240
Speaker 4: So I love those I get videos, I think because

597
00:32:19,280 --> 00:32:21,640
Speaker 4: of I follow you on Instagram, and I think I

598
00:32:21,760 --> 00:32:24,040
Speaker 4: just get bleed over from things you watch because it's

599
00:32:24,080 --> 00:32:26,600
Speaker 4: like recommended by Elizabeth or right, I ever liked it,

600
00:32:26,600 --> 00:32:28,560
Speaker 4: and so my huh. But I've noticed that all these

601
00:32:28,560 --> 00:32:31,440
Speaker 4: animal videos keep showing up that I think you like. Anyway,

602
00:32:31,640 --> 00:32:34,760
Speaker 4: There's been ones that I've seen recently of dogs doing

603
00:32:34,880 --> 00:32:38,920
Speaker 4: exactly this, saving people, mostly saving children and the elderly,

604
00:32:39,360 --> 00:32:42,000
Speaker 4: and I'm always astounded. I mean, I'm sure you like

605
00:32:42,040 --> 00:32:44,480
Speaker 4: the fact people get saved. I'm astounded by how the

606
00:32:44,520 --> 00:32:47,680
Speaker 4: dogs read the behavior so well and assess the danger

607
00:32:48,040 --> 00:32:50,320
Speaker 4: and then know when to act, and they wait till

608
00:32:50,320 --> 00:32:51,400
Speaker 4: the very last moment.

609
00:32:51,440 --> 00:32:55,120
Speaker 3: That stood out to me about this whole like little vignette. Right,

610
00:32:55,240 --> 00:32:59,080
Speaker 3: So they're in this top secret space and there are

611
00:32:59,120 --> 00:33:02,920
Speaker 3: all these people and everyone's focused on their intense stuff,

612
00:33:02,960 --> 00:33:05,720
Speaker 3: and they all are irritated with Clifford because he's a

613
00:33:05,840 --> 00:33:08,280
Speaker 3: nasty dog and he prowls at everybody. But at the

614
00:33:08,320 --> 00:33:10,000
Speaker 3: same time, you're thinking, well, it's good to have this

615
00:33:10,120 --> 00:33:12,680
Speaker 3: security dog. Like if someone rolls up on the house

616
00:33:13,680 --> 00:33:16,480
Speaker 3: with Clifford and you think, well, but you know, is

617
00:33:16,520 --> 00:33:19,480
Speaker 3: Clifford okay around a kid and all this stuff, And

618
00:33:20,320 --> 00:33:23,360
Speaker 3: while all of this you know, high level work to

619
00:33:23,480 --> 00:33:27,080
Speaker 3: keep everybody safe is going on. You have a two

620
00:33:27,160 --> 00:33:30,720
Speaker 3: year old who's not being kept safe or watched or watched,

621
00:33:30,960 --> 00:33:33,600
Speaker 3: who toddles out and literally almost goes over the side

622
00:33:33,600 --> 00:33:35,320
Speaker 3: of the cliff until the dog grabs her by the

623
00:33:35,320 --> 00:33:37,680
Speaker 3: diaper and walks her back to the house.

624
00:33:37,800 --> 00:33:39,000
Speaker 2: At the very last moment.

625
00:33:41,320 --> 00:33:45,040
Speaker 3: Was just and that's like this, this this you know,

626
00:33:45,120 --> 00:33:47,760
Speaker 3: analog for what's going on up in the second and

627
00:33:47,840 --> 00:33:51,120
Speaker 3: third floors of the house. Really like they're they're pulling

628
00:33:51,160 --> 00:33:53,360
Speaker 3: us right back from the cliff and people don't even

629
00:33:53,360 --> 00:33:55,400
Speaker 3: know about it. So people don't know that these a

630
00:33:55,440 --> 00:33:57,720
Speaker 3: dog like Clifford is doing it. Anyway, I just thought

631
00:33:57,720 --> 00:33:58,640
Speaker 3: it was an interesting thing.

632
00:33:58,680 --> 00:33:59,560
Speaker 2: So that was a great moment.

633
00:33:59,640 --> 00:34:02,760
Speaker 3: I said, go back to Wading River Station. Let's get

634
00:34:02,760 --> 00:34:06,240
Speaker 3: back to it. So January nineteen forty two until the

635
00:34:06,360 --> 00:34:08,440
Speaker 3: end of the war in Europe in forty five, the

636
00:34:08,480 --> 00:34:13,080
Speaker 3: station just like cooked along. They weren't intercepting messages though

637
00:34:13,120 --> 00:34:16,960
Speaker 3: they were generating them. So remember we have Muscerra and

638
00:34:17,080 --> 00:34:20,640
Speaker 3: D ninety eight. The agents are sending out coded messages

639
00:34:20,680 --> 00:34:23,919
Speaker 3: to the Nazis from him, and the Nazis were like, ooh,

640
00:34:23,960 --> 00:34:26,560
Speaker 3: we are getting the goods. They're like, girl, come listen.

641
00:34:27,239 --> 00:34:32,560
Speaker 3: And so he's giving details about US forces, munitions, war preparations,

642
00:34:33,000 --> 00:34:36,680
Speaker 3: and everything is highly orchestrated to play them like fiddles.

643
00:34:37,000 --> 00:34:40,919
Speaker 3: So the Nazis think like, Okay, Muscarra, we sent him out.

644
00:34:41,000 --> 00:34:44,520
Speaker 3: He's doing what we asked. He has highly placed informants

645
00:34:44,560 --> 00:34:48,040
Speaker 3: and that's where he's getting all this intel. So, according

646
00:34:48,080 --> 00:34:52,680
Speaker 3: to that former agent bat Venice quote, one was Wash,

647
00:34:52,880 --> 00:34:56,280
Speaker 3: a senior civilian official working for the War Department in Washington,

648
00:34:56,280 --> 00:35:01,320
Speaker 3: who occasionally became infuriated when the Germans questioned his information. Nevy,

649
00:35:01,440 --> 00:35:05,520
Speaker 3: a secretary working for a Navy admiral, routinely supplied juicy

650
00:35:05,560 --> 00:35:09,640
Speaker 3: gossip hints of emergency high level meetings, together with extracts

651
00:35:09,680 --> 00:35:13,680
Speaker 3: from confidential documents. The other two were rep an employee

652
00:35:13,680 --> 00:35:18,759
Speaker 3: of the Republic Aviation Corporation in Farmingdale, New York, and Officer,

653
00:35:19,160 --> 00:35:22,279
Speaker 3: a worker at the vitally important Brooklyn Navy Yard, the

654
00:35:22,280 --> 00:35:25,719
Speaker 3: world's most important ship repair facility and the largest supplier

655
00:35:25,760 --> 00:35:30,440
Speaker 3: of convoys for every Allied battlefront. Of course, these informants

656
00:35:30,440 --> 00:35:32,000
Speaker 3: did not exist.

657
00:35:31,800 --> 00:35:34,319
Speaker 2: So they're peppering in some real stuff that's not too

658
00:35:34,440 --> 00:35:36,799
Speaker 2: dangerous than mostly fake.

659
00:35:36,680 --> 00:35:39,960
Speaker 3: Yeah, and they but he creates like these characters. I

660
00:35:40,040 --> 00:35:45,680
Speaker 3: was talking's like, you know, the juicy gum.

661
00:35:46,000 --> 00:35:46,840
Speaker 2: It's a good spread.

662
00:35:48,800 --> 00:35:49,360
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's.

663
00:35:50,920 --> 00:35:51,000
Speaker 5: So.

664
00:35:51,120 --> 00:35:55,719
Speaker 3: Muscara and another FBI double agent code named Kohler. They

665
00:35:55,920 --> 00:35:58,799
Speaker 3: used separate radio circuits at the property, so they had

666
00:35:58,840 --> 00:36:01,279
Speaker 3: each been asked in dependently to do this, and.

667
00:36:01,239 --> 00:36:02,359
Speaker 2: They're running out of the one.

668
00:36:02,400 --> 00:36:04,400
Speaker 3: They're running out of the same one, and the Germans

669
00:36:04,440 --> 00:36:05,000
Speaker 3: have no idea.

670
00:36:05,040 --> 00:36:07,359
Speaker 4: So the Germans don't have like Boondis they're checking in

671
00:36:07,440 --> 00:36:09,719
Speaker 4: with like in New York that occasionally they're just like,

672
00:36:09,840 --> 00:36:10,200
Speaker 4: it's good.

673
00:36:10,560 --> 00:36:13,760
Speaker 3: I think that that's him, right, Yeah. So they spit

674
00:36:13,800 --> 00:36:18,120
Speaker 3: out supposed intelligence detailing everything from like what was said

675
00:36:18,160 --> 00:36:21,000
Speaker 3: in a dust up between soldiers and sailors at a

676
00:36:21,040 --> 00:36:25,880
Speaker 3: bar like to troop movements and assignments and mosquera. He

677
00:36:26,000 --> 00:36:31,279
Speaker 3: bolstered his credibility with the other by telling them some truths. Yes,

678
00:36:31,960 --> 00:36:34,760
Speaker 3: one of them was he talked about a senior British

679
00:36:34,840 --> 00:36:37,640
Speaker 3: commander who was going to be replaced. And then the

680
00:36:37,640 --> 00:36:41,280
Speaker 3: news of that actually broke weeks later, and the Germans like, oh,

681
00:36:41,360 --> 00:36:44,040
Speaker 3: he is good. He is getting that stuff way ahead

682
00:36:44,080 --> 00:36:48,840
Speaker 3: of time. So a spoiler alert Moscira. So let's break

683
00:36:48,840 --> 00:36:52,160
Speaker 3: for some ads and we can pretend they're intercepted transmissions.

684
00:36:52,560 --> 00:36:55,840
Speaker 3: When we come back, things escalate at Wading River.

685
00:37:16,160 --> 00:37:19,040
Speaker 6: Muscerae, the fly mosquera.

686
00:37:20,120 --> 00:37:24,400
Speaker 3: Okay. So he would have these long interview sessions with

687
00:37:24,480 --> 00:37:25,920
Speaker 3: the Germans over the radio.

688
00:37:26,120 --> 00:37:27,160
Speaker 2: Oh really, Oh yeah.

689
00:37:27,160 --> 00:37:27,680
Speaker 3: They would just.

690
00:37:29,520 --> 00:37:32,520
Speaker 4: Interesting, So he wasn't just like broadcasting like Wolfman Jack.

691
00:37:33,520 --> 00:37:35,000
Speaker 2: For the Germans, he'd.

692
00:37:34,800 --> 00:37:39,359
Speaker 3: Be like, hey, Rudolph, oh what's up. So they would

693
00:37:39,440 --> 00:37:42,560
Speaker 3: press him for information. He'd supply it. But one day

694
00:37:42,600 --> 00:37:46,960
Speaker 3: he had a really strange conversation with his other handler

695
00:37:48,000 --> 00:37:51,680
Speaker 3: and he told Agent Friedman about it. But it's likely

696
00:37:51,760 --> 00:37:55,440
Speaker 3: that Friedman didn't understand the significance of the time. So

697
00:37:55,680 --> 00:38:01,400
Speaker 3: a German officer named Hans Bloom asked scra to sniff

698
00:38:01,440 --> 00:38:05,480
Speaker 3: out information about a new weapons system, one that involved

699
00:38:05,560 --> 00:38:07,759
Speaker 3: quote the shattering of atoms.

700
00:38:08,520 --> 00:38:10,920
Speaker 4: Oh so not like one of Tethla's death rays. They

701
00:38:10,920 --> 00:38:13,279
Speaker 4: actually wanted a real stuff. They're like, hey, what's up

702
00:38:13,280 --> 00:38:13,960
Speaker 4: with these atoms?

703
00:38:14,680 --> 00:38:19,400
Speaker 3: Blooms screwed up though, because he told Musketta that German

704
00:38:19,480 --> 00:38:22,840
Speaker 3: military planners were like all worked up and they wanted

705
00:38:22,880 --> 00:38:28,200
Speaker 3: to create these massive explosives from atoms sources, and they

706
00:38:28,239 --> 00:38:30,799
Speaker 3: were calculating that they would weigh no more than like

707
00:38:30,880 --> 00:38:34,440
Speaker 3: a pound or a pound and a half too, total devastation.

708
00:38:35,280 --> 00:38:38,480
Speaker 3: This is like foreign to to everybody at this point,

709
00:38:39,040 --> 00:38:41,719
Speaker 3: to the you know, the general, which almost anybody, even

710
00:38:41,719 --> 00:38:45,319
Speaker 3: in the military. True. So Blum said that, quote, the

711
00:38:45,400 --> 00:38:48,560
Speaker 3: victorious nation in this war will be the one which

712
00:38:48,560 --> 00:38:51,880
Speaker 3: has accomplished the task of shattering atoms and applying the

713
00:38:51,920 --> 00:38:53,840
Speaker 3: results thereof shattering atoms.

714
00:38:53,880 --> 00:38:56,840
Speaker 2: Such a great phrase. Yeah, do we think of splitting

715
00:38:58,080 --> 00:38:59,279
Speaker 2: the shattering.

716
00:38:58,840 --> 00:39:02,040
Speaker 3: Shattering of them? It's the violence, said that. So Agent

717
00:39:02,120 --> 00:39:05,239
Speaker 3: Friedman he makes a note of this, and he includes

718
00:39:05,239 --> 00:39:08,880
Speaker 3: it in his next report out to Washington. Three months later.

719
00:39:08,960 --> 00:39:12,279
Speaker 3: That intel gets added into other chatter picked up by

720
00:39:12,280 --> 00:39:15,920
Speaker 3: the US and the Brits, solidifying the understanding that the

721
00:39:16,000 --> 00:39:18,080
Speaker 3: Germans they want to build an atomic weapon.

722
00:39:18,200 --> 00:39:18,880
Speaker 2: Oh yeah.

723
00:39:19,040 --> 00:39:23,080
Speaker 3: And so it was this information, born of Bloom's overly

724
00:39:23,160 --> 00:39:27,600
Speaker 3: confident chatter into the equipment at Owen House that pushed

725
00:39:27,680 --> 00:39:31,240
Speaker 3: President Franklin Roosevelt to decide in May of nineteen forty

726
00:39:31,239 --> 00:39:34,440
Speaker 3: two to start development of the atomic bomb.

727
00:39:34,600 --> 00:39:37,359
Speaker 2: So that's why we get the Manhattan Project is because of.

728
00:39:37,320 --> 00:39:41,399
Speaker 3: This chatty A chatty German, so like, hey, y'all, let's

729
00:39:41,440 --> 00:39:42,120
Speaker 3: become dumb.

730
00:39:43,760 --> 00:39:45,479
Speaker 4: I thought it was always like yeah, like the whole

731
00:39:45,640 --> 00:39:47,759
Speaker 4: German physicists being like, you know what, we're hearing about

732
00:39:47,800 --> 00:39:48,719
Speaker 4: it in the conferences.

733
00:39:48,880 --> 00:39:49,719
Speaker 3: It kicks off.

734
00:39:50,040 --> 00:39:51,560
Speaker 2: That's crazy, that's cool. Yeah.

735
00:39:51,840 --> 00:39:55,600
Speaker 3: So meanwhile, the FBI they keep feeding bogus and confusing

736
00:39:55,640 --> 00:39:58,960
Speaker 3: information to the Germans from the upper floors of Owen House.

737
00:39:59,480 --> 00:40:03,040
Speaker 3: In the summer of nineteen forty three, they like befuddled

738
00:40:03,080 --> 00:40:07,479
Speaker 3: the Germans into freezing their forces in northwest Europe, which

739
00:40:07,560 --> 00:40:12,080
Speaker 3: prevented their redeployment to strengthen the Italian and Eastern Front. Yes,

740
00:40:12,320 --> 00:40:14,880
Speaker 3: so nineteen forty four and forty five, the agents at

741
00:40:14,920 --> 00:40:18,520
Speaker 3: Owen House they fed Germans a whole slew of truthful

742
00:40:19,040 --> 00:40:23,400
Speaker 3: and false information aimed at confusing their military about the

743
00:40:23,440 --> 00:40:26,799
Speaker 3: size and position of Allied forces in Great Britain. This

744
00:40:26,880 --> 00:40:30,480
Speaker 3: included the time and place of the D Day invasion.

745
00:40:30,840 --> 00:40:33,200
Speaker 2: Okay, so d wondering if this was going to come

746
00:40:33,239 --> 00:40:33,480
Speaker 2: into it.

747
00:40:33,719 --> 00:40:36,360
Speaker 3: As you well know, D Day was the successful Allied

748
00:40:36,400 --> 00:40:40,560
Speaker 3: invasion of Europe June sixth, nineteen forty four, along a

749
00:40:40,680 --> 00:40:44,640
Speaker 3: very narrow stretch of beach at Normandy France. Yes, and

750
00:40:44,680 --> 00:40:49,280
Speaker 3: so this surprise attack caught the German army completely off guard.

751
00:40:49,400 --> 00:40:52,200
Speaker 4: Oh, completely, Yeah, they were so fixated on this. I mean,

752
00:40:52,239 --> 00:40:53,880
Speaker 4: it was like a really big deal. But they were like,

753
00:40:53,920 --> 00:40:55,960
Speaker 4: you know, chess game playing in the head.

754
00:40:56,120 --> 00:41:01,120
Speaker 3: Yes. So Operation Bodyguard and then the US version, Operation Ostrich,

755
00:41:01,840 --> 00:41:05,440
Speaker 3: generated an incredible number in the lead up of phony

756
00:41:05,560 --> 00:41:09,760
Speaker 3: radio broadcasts, and then there were all these artfully created

757
00:41:09,800 --> 00:41:15,680
Speaker 3: like rubber tanks to make the broadcast look legit.

758
00:41:15,840 --> 00:41:19,160
Speaker 2: Yes, oh that's great. They're coordinating with that exactly.

759
00:41:19,280 --> 00:41:21,640
Speaker 3: So the closer they got to D Day, the more

760
00:41:21,719 --> 00:41:26,480
Speaker 3: the Allies amped up their counterintelligence moves. On May second,

761
00:41:26,560 --> 00:41:29,680
Speaker 3: nineteen forty four, the Wading River station at Owen House

762
00:41:30,120 --> 00:41:34,560
Speaker 3: sent out messages talking about how pissed off General Dwight D. Eisenhower,

763
00:41:34,600 --> 00:41:38,480
Speaker 3: who's the supreme Allied commander of the invasion forces, how

764
00:41:38,520 --> 00:41:42,400
Speaker 3: pissed off he was when he learned that essential landing craft,

765
00:41:42,440 --> 00:41:44,680
Speaker 3: which was already hard to come by, was being diverted

766
00:41:44,719 --> 00:41:49,000
Speaker 3: to the Pacific. So all those things you see in newsreels,

767
00:41:49,480 --> 00:41:52,440
Speaker 3: band of brothers and everything like that, And where my

768
00:41:52,960 --> 00:41:56,640
Speaker 3: great uncles were great great uncle, I don't know anyway,

769
00:41:57,200 --> 00:41:59,560
Speaker 3: So they're like, oh, this is going to delay a

770
00:41:59,600 --> 00:42:03,879
Speaker 3: British operation in the Balkans, and that's our most important thing.

771
00:42:04,520 --> 00:42:08,400
Speaker 3: So like they're just scattering everything, according to the Department

772
00:42:08,440 --> 00:42:12,239
Speaker 3: of the Interior. Quote. Just four days before the invasion,

773
00:42:12,320 --> 00:42:15,920
Speaker 3: the Wading River radio station again sent a message, this

774
00:42:16,080 --> 00:42:20,080
Speaker 3: time calculated to ease German anxieties about an imminent attack.

775
00:42:20,840 --> 00:42:25,120
Speaker 3: Quote WASH just reported information appearing of highest importance and

776
00:42:25,200 --> 00:42:28,799
Speaker 3: possibly indicating a change of plan. It appears that a

777
00:42:28,840 --> 00:42:32,600
Speaker 3: force consisting of a number of infantry and armored divisions

778
00:42:32,600 --> 00:42:36,440
Speaker 3: originally scheduled for the United Kingdom are being diverted for

779
00:42:36,560 --> 00:42:40,280
Speaker 3: special operations. And so it went. In the days, weeks

780
00:42:40,280 --> 00:42:43,000
Speaker 3: and months that followed, the agents in Wading River kept

781
00:42:43,040 --> 00:42:44,280
Speaker 3: up the deception pressure.

782
00:42:44,600 --> 00:42:45,399
Speaker 2: I love this.

783
00:42:45,960 --> 00:42:47,840
Speaker 3: All the misinformation is so good.

784
00:42:48,280 --> 00:42:50,239
Speaker 2: So that also the believability of it.

785
00:42:50,360 --> 00:42:51,799
Speaker 4: Yeah, the fact you've got to do it and then

786
00:42:51,800 --> 00:42:53,200
Speaker 4: give them like, you know, like a little taste, and

787
00:42:53,200 --> 00:42:57,239
Speaker 4: then you got to have the inflatable tanks. Yeah, and

788
00:42:57,239 --> 00:42:59,640
Speaker 4: in the personal drama of like you know, of course

789
00:42:59,680 --> 00:43:01,080
Speaker 4: I could exactly.

790
00:43:01,640 --> 00:43:05,319
Speaker 3: And so that other double agent Cohler, he also had

791
00:43:05,400 --> 00:43:11,160
Speaker 3: fake contacts. He had holtz Auto and Herman and they

792
00:43:11,160 --> 00:43:14,359
Speaker 3: were all employees at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, so again

793
00:43:14,600 --> 00:43:17,560
Speaker 3: largest ship yard facility in the world at the time.

794
00:43:18,120 --> 00:43:20,680
Speaker 3: There were more than one hundred thousand employees there.

795
00:43:20,920 --> 00:43:22,800
Speaker 2: Oh, totally, it's massive.

796
00:43:23,160 --> 00:43:26,360
Speaker 3: Massive, And so these three contacts were said to be

797
00:43:26,480 --> 00:43:30,680
Speaker 3: government workers in like sensitive posts, and Kohler told the

798
00:43:30,719 --> 00:43:33,680
Speaker 3: Germans that there was a build up of forces in

799
00:43:33,840 --> 00:43:36,920
Speaker 3: Iceland that he got from them, and that would mean

800
00:43:36,920 --> 00:43:39,359
Speaker 3: there was going to be an attack against Norway or

801
00:43:39,400 --> 00:43:43,880
Speaker 3: Denmark carried out by Allied forces based in Scotland. So

802
00:43:43,920 --> 00:43:48,320
Speaker 3: they're like, look up there. And it wasn't just European

803
00:43:48,400 --> 00:43:50,960
Speaker 3: intel that got spread out of owen House. They also

804
00:43:51,440 --> 00:43:55,000
Speaker 3: spread information about Allied actions in the Pacific, so the

805
00:43:55,040 --> 00:43:57,880
Speaker 3: Germans would pass that stuff along to the Japanese that

806
00:43:57,920 --> 00:44:01,239
Speaker 3: were based in Berlin. The owen House crew made up

807
00:44:01,280 --> 00:44:03,920
Speaker 3: all sorts of troop movements in the Pacific that they

808
00:44:03,920 --> 00:44:07,120
Speaker 3: would like nonchalantly mention in passing to the Germans. It's

809
00:44:07,160 --> 00:44:09,360
Speaker 3: just gossip. It's like, no big deal.

810
00:44:09,640 --> 00:44:10,640
Speaker 2: Just hot gossy.

811
00:44:11,040 --> 00:44:14,920
Speaker 3: They wound up pulling away major parts of Japanese naval

812
00:44:14,920 --> 00:44:18,279
Speaker 3: forces from what they thought was an impending attack in

813
00:44:18,320 --> 00:44:22,040
Speaker 3: the Central Pacific. And then meanwhile Allied forces like descend

814
00:44:22,080 --> 00:44:23,399
Speaker 3: on the Marshall Islands.

815
00:44:23,080 --> 00:44:25,600
Speaker 2: Oh, go down to Australia and work their way up right.

816
00:44:25,360 --> 00:44:29,000
Speaker 3: And so essentially per the Department of the Interior. Quote.

817
00:44:29,280 --> 00:44:32,160
Speaker 3: Until the last days of the war, as British forces

818
00:44:32,200 --> 00:44:36,239
Speaker 3: closed in on Hamburg, the Germans were still radioing the

819
00:44:36,239 --> 00:44:39,720
Speaker 3: agents and wading river with offers of thousands of dollars

820
00:44:39,719 --> 00:44:42,680
Speaker 3: to end ninety eight for information. In the words of

821
00:44:42,680 --> 00:44:47,919
Speaker 3: one historian, German faith in Moscera never wavered. They never

822
00:44:48,000 --> 00:44:50,319
Speaker 3: gave up on this do They never thought, you know what,

823
00:44:50,800 --> 00:44:53,600
Speaker 3: like he's not always right, Like they fully believed it. So,

824
00:44:53,760 --> 00:44:55,520
Speaker 3: I mean it's sort of a testament too, to the

825
00:44:55,520 --> 00:44:58,879
Speaker 3: skill of the FBI agents. They yes, in crafting all

826
00:44:58,880 --> 00:45:02,400
Speaker 3: this stuff. We never really associate the FBI with spy

827
00:45:02,480 --> 00:45:04,399
Speaker 3: stuff in World War Two. You think of it as

828
00:45:04,400 --> 00:45:06,480
Speaker 3: like higher You never think of it as a domestic thing.

829
00:45:06,760 --> 00:45:06,920
Speaker 2: Yeah.

830
00:45:06,920 --> 00:45:09,240
Speaker 4: I think about them like trying to get like saboteurs

831
00:45:09,239 --> 00:45:10,920
Speaker 4: at the Brooklyn Naval Yard exactly.

832
00:45:11,600 --> 00:45:14,200
Speaker 3: So, what happened to the place after the war, after

833
00:45:14,440 --> 00:45:16,520
Speaker 3: Operation Ostrich wrapped up.

834
00:45:16,440 --> 00:45:19,560
Speaker 2: What happened to Elizabeth after Operation Austrie wrapped.

835
00:45:19,360 --> 00:45:20,840
Speaker 3: Up Sarah, That's a great question.

836
00:45:21,080 --> 00:45:21,440
Speaker 2: Thank you.

837
00:45:21,719 --> 00:45:24,759
Speaker 3: Nineteen forty five a movie came out. Of course, it

838
00:45:24,840 --> 00:45:28,400
Speaker 3: was called The House on ninety second Street. It was

839
00:45:28,440 --> 00:45:30,960
Speaker 3: the spy film very of the moment, and it was

840
00:45:31,000 --> 00:45:34,680
Speaker 3: made with the full cooperation of the FBI, and it

841
00:45:34,719 --> 00:45:39,759
Speaker 3: was Hollywood's first semi documentary spy film, interesting dramatizing the

842
00:45:39,840 --> 00:45:44,239
Speaker 3: real nineteen thirty eight to forty one German spy investigations.

843
00:45:43,440 --> 00:45:45,440
Speaker 2: In the US House on ninety second Street.

844
00:45:45,480 --> 00:45:48,040
Speaker 3: House on ninety second Street. So the story follows this

845
00:45:48,200 --> 00:45:51,640
Speaker 3: young American with German roots who gets recruited by the Nazis,

846
00:45:52,000 --> 00:45:55,920
Speaker 3: but instead of joining the obver, he secretly contacts the

847
00:45:56,000 --> 00:46:00,400
Speaker 3: FBI and becomes a double agent. Sound familiar, totally movie.

848
00:46:00,400 --> 00:46:03,040
Speaker 3: The guy's mission was to join a Nazi spy ring

849
00:46:03,160 --> 00:46:06,000
Speaker 3: operating out of a boarding house on East ninety second

850
00:46:06,040 --> 00:46:09,080
Speaker 3: Street in Manhattan, and he was supposed to identify its

851
00:46:09,160 --> 00:46:12,759
Speaker 3: leadership and prevent the theft of atomic research secrets from

852
00:46:12,880 --> 00:46:15,840
Speaker 3: US laboratories. And he also had to help the FBI

853
00:46:16,640 --> 00:46:20,640
Speaker 3: roll up this entire espionage network. And so the climax

854
00:46:20,680 --> 00:46:24,560
Speaker 3: of the movie recreates an FBI raid using actual agents

855
00:46:24,640 --> 00:46:29,640
Speaker 3: and real procedures. So the AFI catalog American film Institute,

856
00:46:29,680 --> 00:46:33,480
Speaker 3: not the band notes quote. After the opening credits, a

857
00:46:33,520 --> 00:46:37,520
Speaker 3: written prologue reads, this story is adapted from cases in

858
00:46:37,560 --> 00:46:42,200
Speaker 3: the espionage files of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Produced

859
00:46:42,239 --> 00:46:46,040
Speaker 3: with the FBI's complete cooperation. It could not be made

860
00:46:46,120 --> 00:46:49,360
Speaker 3: public until the first atomic bomb was dropped on Japan.

861
00:46:50,040 --> 00:46:53,520
Speaker 3: The scenes in this picture were photographed in the localities

862
00:46:53,560 --> 00:46:58,279
Speaker 3: of the incidents depicted, Washington, New York, and their vicinities,

863
00:46:58,560 --> 00:47:02,920
Speaker 3: wherever possible, in the actual place the original incident occurred.

864
00:47:03,360 --> 00:47:07,360
Speaker 3: With the exception of the leading players, all FBI personnel

865
00:47:07,440 --> 00:47:10,960
Speaker 3: in the picture are members of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

866
00:47:12,080 --> 00:47:15,359
Speaker 3: The like celebrity worship of Jangarl.

867
00:47:15,200 --> 00:47:19,560
Speaker 2: Oh my god, he, oh my god, have you got

868
00:47:19,560 --> 00:47:21,680
Speaker 2: a movie camera? Lord?

869
00:47:23,440 --> 00:47:26,759
Speaker 3: So some of the filming for the movie took place

870
00:47:26,800 --> 00:47:30,239
Speaker 3: at Owen House aka Wading River Station. And so then

871
00:47:30,280 --> 00:47:33,560
Speaker 3: you compare this to how the UK, like, how over

872
00:47:33,600 --> 00:47:38,040
Speaker 3: there anyone with the slightest involvement in intelligence activities during

873
00:47:38,120 --> 00:47:40,560
Speaker 3: World War two had to sign a State Secret Act

874
00:47:40,600 --> 00:47:43,840
Speaker 3: thing like an agreement seventies right, Yeah, it was everything

875
00:47:43,880 --> 00:47:46,200
Speaker 3: stayed classified to the seventies. You couldn't even say that

876
00:47:46,239 --> 00:47:48,360
Speaker 3: you worked at a certain place like you just couldn't

877
00:47:48,400 --> 00:47:50,720
Speaker 3: talk about it. But we're the home a Hollywood baby.

878
00:47:50,760 --> 00:47:53,200
Speaker 2: Yeah, story must be told.

879
00:47:54,360 --> 00:47:55,600
Speaker 3: June nineteen forty.

880
00:47:55,360 --> 00:47:59,920
Speaker 2: Five from the headlines we love that not a new thing.

881
00:48:01,239 --> 00:48:03,720
Speaker 2: You watched the like I was a Communist for the FBI.

882
00:48:03,920 --> 00:48:07,320
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, So June nineteen forty five, Waiting River Station

883
00:48:07,560 --> 00:48:10,560
Speaker 3: was dismantled. They went took all the stuff out. The

884
00:48:10,640 --> 00:48:13,759
Speaker 3: FBI lease was up. The house and its seventy one

885
00:48:13,800 --> 00:48:17,200
Speaker 3: acres got transferred to the Episcopal Diocese.

886
00:48:16,640 --> 00:48:19,239
Speaker 2: Of New York. They didn't give it to the family, No.

887
00:48:19,280 --> 00:48:22,640
Speaker 3: The family was like here you were donated and they

888
00:48:22,880 --> 00:48:26,760
Speaker 3: to be used as a youth camp eventually called campd Wolf,

889
00:48:27,440 --> 00:48:30,400
Speaker 3: and the house became known as Benson House in honor

890
00:48:30,440 --> 00:48:34,680
Speaker 3: of Mary E. Benson, a Brooklyn Episcopalian who's fifty thousand

891
00:48:34,719 --> 00:48:39,120
Speaker 3: dollars bequest to the diocese funded the purchase of the property.

892
00:48:39,480 --> 00:48:41,879
Speaker 3: So in the subsequent years, like they built all these

893
00:48:41,920 --> 00:48:45,000
Speaker 3: other like outbuildings in a chapel and all this other stuff,

894
00:48:45,480 --> 00:48:50,480
Speaker 3: Benson House stayed the camp's administrative and residential corps. The

895
00:48:50,520 --> 00:48:53,320
Speaker 3: diocese shifted Camp to Wolf from like just a summer

896
00:48:53,480 --> 00:48:59,200
Speaker 3: youth camp to this like retreat, a conference ministry. Yeah.

897
00:48:59,320 --> 00:49:05,080
Speaker 3: By the nine they also were doing like family reunions, weddings, retreats. Yeah,

898
00:49:05,120 --> 00:49:07,360
Speaker 3: and they had like a swimming pool. They actually paved

899
00:49:07,400 --> 00:49:11,439
Speaker 3: the drivewood. But this whole time, no one really knew

900
00:49:11,520 --> 00:49:14,120
Speaker 3: much about the FBI presence there, really.

901
00:49:14,239 --> 00:49:14,560
Speaker 2: Yeah.

902
00:49:14,960 --> 00:49:20,920
Speaker 3: So then retired FBI agent Raymond bat Nivis, who liked

903
00:49:20,920 --> 00:49:23,840
Speaker 3: to write for the Society of Former Special Agents. He

904
00:49:23,920 --> 00:49:27,239
Speaker 3: was a history professor at George Washington University at the time,

905
00:49:27,280 --> 00:49:29,920
Speaker 3: and he was researching a book that he wanted to

906
00:49:29,920 --> 00:49:33,880
Speaker 3: write about wartime counterintelligence in the US and he uncovered

907
00:49:33,920 --> 00:49:37,640
Speaker 3: all this information about Owen House. So on the seventieth

908
00:49:37,680 --> 00:49:40,840
Speaker 3: anniversary of the D Day invasion June sixth, twenty fourteen,

909
00:49:41,280 --> 00:49:44,920
Speaker 3: there was a ceremony to honor the efforts of FBI

910
00:49:45,000 --> 00:49:47,279
Speaker 3: agents during World War Two, and they held it at

911
00:49:47,280 --> 00:49:51,680
Speaker 3: Owen House. The Society of Former Special Agents, the Episcopal

912
00:49:51,719 --> 00:49:55,160
Speaker 3: Diocese in New York, Suffolk County Historical Society, and the

913
00:49:55,200 --> 00:49:59,880
Speaker 3: FBI's New York Division installed a plaque there to you know,

914
00:50:00,080 --> 00:50:03,920
Speaker 3: recognize what had happened. And that's the first time that

915
00:50:03,960 --> 00:50:10,120
Speaker 3: the house's significance was made public. Everyone kept mum so

916
00:50:10,280 --> 00:50:12,600
Speaker 3: now it's The house is now officially referred to as

917
00:50:12,920 --> 00:50:16,680
Speaker 3: the Wading River Radio Station. In twenty eighteen, it was

918
00:50:16,719 --> 00:50:20,800
Speaker 3: put onto the National Register of Historic Places. Camp de

919
00:50:20,840 --> 00:50:24,719
Speaker 3: Wolfe's executive directors said there were quote not too many

920
00:50:24,920 --> 00:50:29,240
Speaker 3: artifacts that have survived. Besides the odd piece of physical evidence,

921
00:50:29,560 --> 00:50:32,680
Speaker 3: our basement was running a radio antenna. They actually put

922
00:50:32,680 --> 00:50:35,239
Speaker 3: a car engine in the basement in the floor to

923
00:50:35,239 --> 00:50:38,520
Speaker 3: make their own electricity. So we still have the block

924
00:50:38,560 --> 00:50:41,560
Speaker 3: where the car engine was actually mounted down there, but

925
00:50:41,640 --> 00:50:45,520
Speaker 3: there's actually very little evidence that anything happened there. So

926
00:50:46,120 --> 00:50:48,560
Speaker 3: they were pretty you know, FBI was pretty good and clear.

927
00:50:49,640 --> 00:50:51,480
Speaker 2: They just like, we couldn't get the cement block up,

928
00:50:51,520 --> 00:50:52,080
Speaker 2: so we left.

929
00:50:54,640 --> 00:50:56,400
Speaker 3: Zaren, what's your ridiculous takeaway?

930
00:50:57,200 --> 00:50:59,880
Speaker 2: Well, okay, this is going to sound wild. Maybe not.

931
00:51:00,040 --> 00:51:00,360
Speaker 2: I don't know.

932
00:51:00,400 --> 00:51:02,480
Speaker 4: You know me pretty well, the like, you know, the

933
00:51:02,640 --> 00:51:06,520
Speaker 4: the Djibuki tweet about the FBI and MLKA day being like,

934
00:51:06,640 --> 00:51:10,160
Speaker 4: just because we killed assassinated MLK doesn't mean we can't

935
00:51:10,200 --> 00:51:15,960
Speaker 4: miss them. I always feel very conflicted about the FBI

936
00:51:16,120 --> 00:51:18,840
Speaker 4: because of co intel, pro mk ultra a lot of

937
00:51:19,200 --> 00:51:23,040
Speaker 4: bad stuff, But I am able to like somehow compartmentalize

938
00:51:23,239 --> 00:51:26,879
Speaker 4: and be able to follow stories about well meaning things

939
00:51:26,920 --> 00:51:29,399
Speaker 4: like the FBI trying to fight fascism, so I can

940
00:51:29,440 --> 00:51:31,960
Speaker 4: love certain things and then hate other things without having

941
00:51:32,000 --> 00:51:34,320
Speaker 4: to have to have only one simple view of the FBI.

942
00:51:34,719 --> 00:51:37,239
Speaker 4: So I can marvel at an FBI agent doing their

943
00:51:37,280 --> 00:51:40,640
Speaker 4: really you know, their best work, all this like spycraft stuff,

944
00:51:40,880 --> 00:51:43,040
Speaker 4: and really be into it, be like, wait to go, FBI,

945
00:51:43,640 --> 00:51:45,040
Speaker 4: And then part of me is like, what are you

946
00:51:45,160 --> 00:51:45,920
Speaker 4: talking about?

947
00:51:46,040 --> 00:51:47,040
Speaker 2: So like I don't.

948
00:51:47,080 --> 00:51:50,520
Speaker 4: I'm always like thrilled at like stories of FBI agents,

949
00:51:50,640 --> 00:51:53,720
Speaker 4: especially of this period of time, and and I marvel

950
00:51:53,760 --> 00:51:56,920
Speaker 4: at and then I find my reaction to myself ridiculous

951
00:51:56,920 --> 00:51:58,759
Speaker 4: because I'm like, oh, so that's how it is now,

952
00:51:58,800 --> 00:52:00,440
Speaker 4: and I'm like, no, no, I'm just talking about this

953
00:52:00,440 --> 00:52:01,839
Speaker 4: in one individual FBI agent.

954
00:52:01,880 --> 00:52:03,239
Speaker 2: I don't mean the whole program.

955
00:52:03,400 --> 00:52:06,200
Speaker 4: So I find that these stories really like I love

956
00:52:06,280 --> 00:52:09,080
Speaker 4: the FBI of this period, which I find ridiculous that

957
00:52:09,120 --> 00:52:11,760
Speaker 4: I can even say that with that with this trade face.

958
00:52:12,200 --> 00:52:14,560
Speaker 2: So there you go. That's Mine's the I'm.

959
00:52:14,800 --> 00:52:18,120
Speaker 3: They're with you. I'm always I hear these stories. I'm

960
00:52:18,120 --> 00:52:21,680
Speaker 3: so impressed with the network that they had and how

961
00:52:21,800 --> 00:52:25,360
Speaker 3: quickly pre Internet they were getting information out there. And

962
00:52:25,600 --> 00:52:30,360
Speaker 3: acting on things, and the level of intelligence gathering.

963
00:52:30,600 --> 00:52:34,239
Speaker 4: Yes, the intelligence gathering and remarkable their work with the underworld.

964
00:52:34,320 --> 00:52:35,520
Speaker 4: I mean, let's not lie.

965
00:52:35,719 --> 00:52:37,960
Speaker 3: That was crazy, and we always say you don't lie

966
00:52:38,000 --> 00:52:40,000
Speaker 3: to the FBI because they're just like the alternate. And

967
00:52:40,000 --> 00:52:42,880
Speaker 3: that's why I think, like the things that diminish it,

968
00:52:43,000 --> 00:52:47,240
Speaker 3: the dark moments, and also like the disintegration of parts

969
00:52:47,239 --> 00:52:51,000
Speaker 3: of it these days is disappointing because there are really

970
00:52:51,040 --> 00:52:53,600
Speaker 3: incredible elements to to what they've done, what they.

971
00:52:53,480 --> 00:52:54,799
Speaker 2: Do, especially individually.

972
00:52:55,040 --> 00:52:58,239
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, but anyway, I just I'm with you on that.

973
00:52:58,920 --> 00:52:59,960
Speaker 3: Let's get a talk back.

974
00:53:00,320 --> 00:53:05,759
Speaker 4: Yeah, oh.

975
00:53:05,760 --> 00:53:10,640
Speaker 2: My god, do illed g.

976
00:53:15,760 --> 00:53:18,640
Speaker 5: Hi Elizabeth and the man host. That's for you, Elizabeth.

977
00:53:19,600 --> 00:53:21,799
Speaker 5: My name is Katie. I am from Albuquerque. I'm a

978
00:53:21,800 --> 00:53:24,760
Speaker 5: longtime listener, but my husband is not. He's a new listener,

979
00:53:24,800 --> 00:53:27,240
Speaker 5: and I introduced the podcast to him because he recently

980
00:53:27,239 --> 00:53:28,960
Speaker 5: fell off the latter and broke his back. And while

981
00:53:28,960 --> 00:53:31,560
Speaker 5: he's being sad, I'm being like, here, listen to this podcast.

982
00:53:31,560 --> 00:53:33,520
Speaker 5: It will give you a joy. When he fell up

983
00:53:33,520 --> 00:53:35,040
Speaker 5: the ladder, he's like, oh my gosh, I'm so sorry.

984
00:53:35,040 --> 00:53:37,040
Speaker 5: I let everybody down, and I was like, no, the

985
00:53:37,040 --> 00:53:39,239
Speaker 5: only person you let down is yourself when you fell

986
00:53:39,280 --> 00:53:39,920
Speaker 5: off that ladder.

987
00:53:40,080 --> 00:53:41,080
Speaker 3: I thought you would enjoy that.

988
00:53:43,440 --> 00:53:46,160
Speaker 2: Hey, Katie, my sense of humors darking up. I love

989
00:53:46,200 --> 00:53:47,840
Speaker 2: that incredible. I feel.

990
00:53:48,040 --> 00:53:51,560
Speaker 3: I'm so sorry for your for your husband, that's terrible,

991
00:53:52,040 --> 00:53:56,960
Speaker 3: and I wish him the quickest of recuperations. But Katie,

992
00:53:57,000 --> 00:54:01,160
Speaker 3: he is one lucky duck to have you for You're amazing,

993
00:54:01,280 --> 00:54:03,360
Speaker 3: You're so funny. Oh my goodness.

994
00:54:03,360 --> 00:54:09,400
Speaker 4: Anyway, as the man host, I really appreciated that.

995
00:54:09,400 --> 00:54:12,040
Speaker 3: That's it for today. You can find us online at

996
00:54:12,120 --> 00:54:16,279
Speaker 3: ridiculous Crime dot com. We're also at Ridiculous Crime on

997
00:54:16,320 --> 00:54:20,680
Speaker 3: both Blue Sky and Instagram. We're on YouTube at Ridiculous

998
00:54:20,680 --> 00:54:24,560
Speaker 3: Crime Pod. You can email Ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com,

999
00:54:24,719 --> 00:54:26,320
Speaker 3: or you can be like Katie and leave us a

1000
00:54:26,360 --> 00:54:34,880
Speaker 3: talk back on the iHeart app reach out. Ridiculous Crime

1001
00:54:34,960 --> 00:54:37,719
Speaker 3: is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zaren Burnett, produced and

1002
00:54:37,840 --> 00:54:41,080
Speaker 3: edited by special agent in charge of Mixed Berry Pies

1003
00:54:41,239 --> 00:54:45,440
Speaker 3: Dave Kusten, starring Annale Rutger as Judith. Research is by

1004
00:54:45,480 --> 00:54:50,080
Speaker 3: expert radio operator MRSA Brown and German accent coach Jabari Davis.

1005
00:54:50,440 --> 00:54:53,280
Speaker 3: The theme song is by our Man and Argentina Thomas

1006
00:54:53,360 --> 00:54:57,040
Speaker 3: Lee and Chief Petty Officer Travis Dutt. Host wardrobe is

1007
00:54:57,040 --> 00:55:00,000
Speaker 3: provided by Botany five hundred. Guest hair and makeup by

1008
00:55:00,120 --> 00:55:04,719
Speaker 3: Sparkleshot and mister Andre. Executive producers are FBI handlers Ben

1009
00:55:04,760 --> 00:55:06,200
Speaker 3: Bowen and Noel Brown.

1010
00:55:11,360 --> 00:55:17,000
Speaker 5: Ridicous Crime Say It One More Time Piquious Crime.

1011
00:55:18,000 --> 00:55:21,280
Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio. Four more podcasts

1012
00:55:21,320 --> 00:55:24,400
Speaker 1: from my heart Radio. Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

1013
00:55:24,480 --> 00:55:26,320
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.