Axel Wheeler-Hill
Axel Wheeler-Hill (born December 4, 1901) was an ethnic German born in Libau (Liepāja), Latvia.[1] As a young man he fought the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War.[2]
He arrived in the US in 1923 and became an American citizen in 1929. He joined the German American Bund and in 1938 traveled to the New Germany where he began working for the German intelligence organization the Abwehr. After being trained in transmitting coded messages, he returned to New York in January 1940 becoming part of what would be known as the Duquesne Spy Ring. One of his tasks was to check the war supplies loaded upon British ships bound for the United Kingdom.
On June 28, 1941 the FBI arrested 29 members of the ring. Wheeler-Hill was convicted and sentenced to serve 15 years in prison for espionage and two concurrent years under the Registration Act.
Axel Wheeler-Hill was the brother of James Wheeler-Hill who was national secretary of the German American Bund.
Notes
- ↑ St. Petersburg Times, June 30, 1941, page 3
- ↑ The Game of the Foxes, by Ladislas Farago, page 320
