The Shocking Story of Helmuth Schmidt by Tobin T. Buhk

Author:Tobin T. Buhk
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The History Press
Published: 2013-07-28T16:00:00+00:00

Entrance to the Sandy Hook Proving Grounds, where the army tested new weapons. According to Adele, “Emil Braun” tried to gain entrance to this facility. George Grantham Bain Collection, Library of Congress.

“He told me that before he left this country he wanted plans of all fortifications,” Adele explained. “He often went out in the harbor [Sandy Hook fortifications] equipped with telescopes and binoculars of which he had some very good ones. He told me he would draw the plans on such light paper that he could swallow them if he was detected and then re-draw them from memory.” According to Adele, he had written and received letters from Germany in an elaborate code.104

When Braun wasn’t busy sketching fortifications, he spent his time convincing Adele to give him her life savings. Adele described Braun as a master manipulator who knew what buttons to push. “On our first trip to the bank for the $1,000 I got ‘cold feet’ and he accused me of being distrustful of him and reminded me that he trusted me with $300 worth of jewelry the first time he ever saw me.” She gave him the money but decided not to give him any more, but Braun’s powers of persuasion overcame her.

“I had made up my mind that under no circumstances would I draw another cent of my money out of the New York bank and I had refused once or twice. One day I seemed to come under the spell of his evil eye and I sat down and wrote out a check for $1,700 and gave it to him. I fully believe I was hypnotized when I gave him the money. He had threatened to shoot me if I didn’t give him this money and on another occasion he said he would kill himself and Gertrude.” Adele sighed. “Before he got through he had everything I owned except $29.80.”

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