A few months ago, I published a blog about the hunt for Karel Richter’s fiancée, Gertrude Wegmann. Without much success. I dissected the information to be gleaned on Gertrude, her illegitimate child with Karel Richter, and her New York address. None of those leads produced anything.
Dead Ends?
I was unable to find a child born in 1938 born of a Gertrude Wegmann.
Nor could I find a likely Gertrude Wegmann who could be Karel Richter’s fiancée .
On top of that, the address that Karel Richter gave for Gertrude simply did not exist on the streets of New York.
FBI Investigation
I had taken notes in 2014 which indicated that the FBI had followed-up on the Gertrude Wegmann lead but did not have a reference for that information. It doesn’t appear to be contained within Richter’s file, so where did it come from?
A bit of digging yielded some information from Nigel West’s classic volume, MI5: British Security Operations 1909-1945, published in 1982. On pages 261-2, West notes that:
No sooner had the Richter case been closed in Britain by MI5 than it was opened on the other side of the Atlantic. A memorandum was sent by the Director-General to the FBI in Washington because of Richter’s American connections. Richter’s wife was living in California although the rest of his family, including his mother, Martha was in Kraslice. The FBI investigation that followed was instituted by J. Edgar Hoover, and centred on Richter’s last known address in New York. In his statement to MI5 Richter admitted arriving in the United States in July 1938, although the Immigration authorities on Ellis Island could find no record of his entry. He had apparently lived at 3727 79th Street, in Jackson Heights, New York, a predominantly German and Irish neighbourhood, but again the FBI could find no trace of anyone in the ten apartments who remembered the young Sudeten. After three months the FBI came to the conclusion that ‘Karel Richard Richter, alias Al Richter’ was of no further interest, except as an unusual case history.
Well… that’s interesting. But much of this information needs to be taken with a few grains of salt. West wrote his book before any of the MI5 files had been released to the National Archives. His information came from the memories of some MI5 officers and, as we know, memory is fallible. Let’s dissect the information presented by West.
A Wife in California or a Fiancée in New York?
Mmmm… this is a new one on me. The MI5 files are quite clear that Gertrude Wegmann lived in New York in 1938 and was Karel’s fiancée , not his wife. Is it possible that Gertrude Wegmann moved to California by 1941? I suppose… and that might explain why there is no trace of a likely Gertrude in the New York records. I did a quick search in the 1940 US census for Gertrude Wegmann. There are none in California. So this seems like a dead end. It’s interesting that the FBI apparently conducted no investigation in California and was not interested in tracking down the “wife” of a known German spy.
For the record, Karel’s mother’s name, according to Richter, was Marie Burgert, not Martha.
Czech Consulate General in New York
It is also interesting that the address provided in West’s book, 3727 79th Street, Jackson Heights, does actually appear in the MI5 files. But this requires a bit more explanation.
Karel Richter carried an expired interim Czech passport when he arrived in the United Kingdom. The MI5 officers sent the document off to the Czech Consulate General in New York and received a report back from them.
On 14 June 1939, the Czech Consulate General in New York had issued a red interim and/or stateless passport to Karel Richard Richter. The passport was good for one year (until 13 June 1940). According to the application, Karel Richard Richter had been born 29 January 1912 in Kraslice, was a ship’s machinist, and resided at 3727 79th Street, Jackson Heights, New York.
Richter had arrived in New York on 9 June 1939 aboard the SS Hansa and visited the Czech Consulate General on 14 June 1939, requesting a passport. This actually matches the information I dug up on the travels of Karel Richter. The SS Hansa did actually arrive in New York on 9 June 1939 and stayed for six nights. This would mean that Richter appeared at the consulate shortly before the ship was to depart from New York.
According to the Czech Consulate General, Richter took a day’s shore-leave from the SS Hansa to visit New York. Richter stated that he did not wish to return to the ship due to bad treatment there. Because he was on shore-leave, he did not have any of the documents with which he could properly prove his identity. He did have several documents which the Czech consulate concluded were genuine and correct:
- Czech certificate of right of domicile – issued 9 March 1939 in Kraslice (after the Sudetenland had been appropriated by Germany)
- Czech certificate of passing the military medical examination – issued in Kraslice on 12 April 1934
- Birth certificate No. 2126 – issued in Kraslice on 23 October 1935
None of the documents had a photograph. And while it was clear from the passport photo and signature that the hanged Karel Richard Richter was identical with the man who received the interim Czech Passport in 1939… it is not clear if that man was the rightful owner of the documents presented in New York. One of the MI5 officers noted that such an identification might only be possible after the war.
Richter’s story at the Czech Consulate General is likely not quite the whole truth. He claimed mistreatment aboard the ship and said that he did not wish to return to the SS Hansa. And yet… according to the ship records, Karel Richter (an Oiler aboard the ship) returned to New York aboard the SS Hansa on 7 July 1939 and 4 August 1939. That seems a bit odd to my mind. Was the Karel Richter who appeared at the Czech Consulate General an imposter, who just wanted a legit passport for a backstory as a spy? Or perhaps the man really was Karel Richter and he just wanted the safety of a Czech passport in his back pocket for use later? Hard to say. But it is decidedly odd.
Jackson Heights Address
What then can we say about the address in Jackson Heights? First off… it actually exists, unlike Gertrude Wegmann’s address! According to the 1940 US Census, five families called 3727 79th Street home.
- John Pantor (33, TN) and his wife Effie (32, GA), their two children (8 and 4, GA), a brother (Ralph Pantor (25, TN)) and a lodger, Mack Reardon (21, TX). John was a singer and Ralph was a music executive. Mack worked in an office.
- Percy Soto (28, Switzerland) and his two cousins, Gaba Cook (female, married, 32, Italy) and John Cook (male, single, 15, Italy – poss son of Gaba?). Percy worked in construction.
- Anthony Colecario (41, NY) and his wife Josephine (31, NE) and their two children (10 and 9, NY). Anthony was a musician.
- Percy Ressquire/Ressequie (42, NY) and his wife Margaret (42, NY) and their son (8, NY). Percy was a salesman for newspaper advertising.
- Albert Biagiotti (41, NY) and his wife Christine (29, DE), their two sons (18 and 17, NY), a step-daughter (14, NY) and Albert’s father, Lewis (76, Italy). Albert was a model maker for a decorator. Lewis was retired.
From Apartments.com site
Out of these five, only the first family had space for a lodger making it possible that the man known as Karel Richard Richter stayed there in 1939. Or… perhaps not. If West’s sources are correct, the FBI questioned the ten apartments and found no one who remembered Karl Richard Richter. Two things are of note… there are only five apartments in the 1940 census. The adjoining address (part of the same building) was 3731 and it had five apartments as well, so perhaps the FBI simply questioned all of the apartments in the building. The census taker apparently visited the building several times as the 3727 families are recorded on three separate pages. Judging by the size of the building, I would tend to think that 3727 would have had at least 10 apartments but… I have been unable to find any other inhabitants.
As for the Ellis Island immigration authorities having no record of Richter’s arrival in 1938… that seems odd as well, given that the passenger manifests for the SS Hamburg and SS Hansa clearly show Karel Richter as a member of the crew.
Conclusion
What then can we say about Karel Richter? First off, as noted in the August blog, the entire story Richter told about his fiancée (her identity and address) and their illegitimate son seems to be a fabrication. I was unable to find a Gertrude Wegmann in New York, nor an illegitimate boy born at that time and the address he gave for Gertrude simply does not exist. This is all a bit suspicious.
But then, we come across his visit to the Czech Consulate General in New York where he claimed that he was being treated poorly on the SS Hansa and did not want to return to the ship. Thus, he wished to have a Czech passport and presented three documents (none with photographs) to prove his identity. And yet, the ship manifests clearly show that Karel Richter continued to sail with the SS Hansa until the start of the war. Just a tad suspicious.
In addition, given that the Sudetenland had been appropriated by Germany in the fall of 1938, it is possible that the German Abwehr set their hand to forging the three documents presented to the Czech Consulate General by the man known as Karel Richter.
It is possible that the man hanged at Wandsworth prison as Karel Richard Richter was an imposter, a German spy who was building a cover story by stealing the identity of the real Karel Richard Richter. The German spy certainly had his story straight when he was apprehended in London Colney and gave a convincing performance as Karel Richard Richter. And yet… the spy was sent to England with a British National Identity card in the name of Fred Snyder. Richter’s story was that he bought the ID card on the black market in Holland, part of his attempt to get into England as a refugee and make his way back to America. Is that a plausible cover story? I suppose… But if true, it would mean that Richter was being prepared as a spy in mid-1939, well before his mission to England. Perhaps he had been selected to infiltrate Czech resistance? Perhaps. It is all speculation at this point, but the identity of the man hanged in Wandsworth Prison as Karel Richter certainly has a question mark hanging over it. MI5 recognized that in 1941 and thought that his identity would be resolved after the war. It seems not.
As for the FBI investigation… perhaps there are documents in some American archives relating to this case. The National Archives (NARA) has had some FBI files transferred to it and I had a quick little search through the RG65 section but found nothing on Karel Richter. This would clearly require a lot more time, and perhaps a FOIA request to NARA and/or the FBI. Ah well… a loose thread that someone else might choose to tug on.
Sources
National Archives – Security Service files on Karel Richard Richter (KV 2/30, 2/31, 2/32, 2/33)