The man would obey the request. Promptly at the minute named, the telephone rang and the man answered the telephone. A strange voice spoke to him and told him to do certain things, perhaps to be at a similar place on the following day and receive a message, or he would receive instructions as to what he should do and where he should go to meet another man, who would give him money and instructions as to what he should do. The voice at the other end of the wire was speaking from a public telephone booth and was thus reasonably sure also that the wire was not tapped.
Koenig trusted no man. He never sent an agent out on a job without detailing another man to follow that man and report back to him the movements of the agent and the person whom that man met. He was severe with his men when they made their reports to him, and always insisted that they do exactly what he told them and never permitted them to use their own initiative. So stubborn was he in sticking to his own ideas that some of his men used to call him “the Westphalian, bull-headed Dutchman.”
As to the outline of Koenig’s activities, his book of spies, the great mass of information gained by trailing him, and by study of the documents seized in his office, show that he had spies along the water front on every big steamship pier. He had eavesdroppers in hotels, telephone switchboards, among porters, window-cleaners, among bank clerks, corporation employés and in the Police Department.
To Roger B. Wood, formerly assistant United States District-Attorney in New York, is due the credit for the unfolding of the intricate and varied schemes charged against Koenig. He studied the evidence for months as it was developed by Federal agents under Superintendent Offley of the New York office and Captain Tunney, and prepared for trial the cases against the German agent.
One of Koenig’s spies was listed in his book as “Special Agent A. S.,” namely Otto F. Mottola, a detective in the warrant squad of the New York police force whom he paid for special work. The note-book revealed Mottola as Antonio Marino, afterwards changed to Antonio Salvatore. Evidence was produced at Mottola’s trial at Police Headquarters that Koenig paid him for investigating a passenger who sailed on the Bergensfjord; that he often called up Mottola, asked questions and received answers which Koenig’s stenographer took down in shorthand. In other words, Koenig sought to keep closely informed as to the developments at Police Headquarters, and to be advised, perhaps, of the inquiry being made by the police into the activities of the Germans. Mottola was dismissed from the force because of false statements made to his superiors when asked about Koenig.
STARTING TROUBLE IN CANADA
“P. K.” also despatched men to Canada to gain information concerning the Canadian preparations for war, and facts that could be used by the Germans here in planning attacks upon munition factories, railroads and transportation facilities in the Dominion. An Irish employé of the Atlas Line has been arrested on a charge of planning with Koenig to start a “military enterprise” against the Dominion. The employé, named Justice, is accused of going to Quebec to ascertain the number of troops which were being transported by the Dominion of Canada to ports in France and Great Britain; the names of the steamships on which said troops were being transported; the kind and quantity of supplies which were being shipped from the Dominion to France and Great Britain, and other information which would or might be of value to the German Government, and which would assist the military operations of the German Government.
The complaint stated that the undertaking was one of hazard, and came within the purview of the statute forbidding the undertaking of any military venture with this country as a basis of operation. It says, further, that Justice and Metzler, Koenig’s secretary, left New York on September 15, 1914, and went to Quebec; that Koenig left New York on September 18 and met Metzler in Portland, Me., and that he went to Burlington, Vt., where on September 25 he conferred with Justice. The authorities also say that Metzler and Justice gained a varied assortment of information in Quebec; that they inspected the fortifications there, went to the training camps, observed the number of men, the condition of the men and estimated the time when they would be sent to the front.
VARIOUS ALIASES
In his meetings with various persons who had been picked for some daring enterprise, Koenig is accused of having employed various names. The Federal authorities give him at least thirteen, among which are Wegenkamp, Wegener, Kelly, Winter, Perkins, Stemler, Rectorberg, Boehm, Kennedy, James, Smith, Murphy and W. T. Munday.