William Colepaugh
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William Curtis Colepaugh (March 25, 1918 - March 16, 2005) was an American of World War II who, following his 1943 discharge from the US Naval Reserve ("for the good of the service", according to official reports), defected to Nazi Germany in 1944. When the Merchant Marine ship he was a crewman on stopped off in Lisbon, Colepaugh defected at the German consulate.
He was given extensive firearms and espionage training at a spy-school in German-occupied The Hague. With the German agent Erich Gimpel he was transported back to the USA by the U-boat U-1230, landing at Hancock Point in the Gulf of Maine on 29 November 1944. Their mission was to gather technical information on the Allied war effort and transmit it back to Germany using a radio they were expected to build. Together they made their way to Boston and then by train to New York. Before long Colepaugh abandoned the mission, visiting an old schoolfriend and asking to turn himself in to the FBI, which was already searching for two German agents following the sinking of a Canadian ship only a few miles from the Maine coastline (indicating that a U-boat had been nearby) and reports of suspicious sightings by local residents. The FBI interrogated Colepaugh, which then enabled them to track down Gimpel.
After their capture, they were handed over to US military authorities on the instructions of the Attorney General. In February 1945 they stood trial before a Military Commission, accused of conspiracy and violating the 82nd Article of War. They were found guilty and sentenced to be hanged, although this was subsequently commuted to life imprisonment by President Harry Truman. He was paroled in 1960.
After his release, Colepaugh moved to King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, just west of Philadelphia, where he worked in a print shop. He subsequently owned and operated a retail business that sold lockers, desks and other metal office products he had learned to build in prison. He married and participated in community activities, volunteering with the Boy Scouts and becoming a member of Rotary. He died of complications from Alzheimer's Disease.
Gimpel and Colepaugh are believed to have been the last German spies of World War II to have reached the United States.
[edit] External links
- Article on Colepaugh and Gimpel at fas.org
- Allied report on the interrogation of Colepaugh and Gimpel at ibiblio.org
- Contains a report on Colepaugh and Gimpel at navy.mil
- 1944: When spies came to Maine at mainetoday.com
- The Nazi Spy Next Door, USA Today, February 27, 2002.
- CRS Report for Congress "Military Tribunals: The Quirin Precedent," March 26, 2002
