William Colepaugh - Secret Agent

Secret Agent

Colepaugh was given extensive firearms and espionage training at a spy-school in the German-occupied Hague. He spoke virtually no German. 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 Colepaugh and Gimpel 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 the two German agents following the sinking of a Canadian ship a few miles from the Maine coastline (indicating 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, the pair 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. Gimpel was paroled in 1955; Colepaugh was paroled in 1960.