William Colepaugh
If his mission was to drink the bars of New York City dry, then William Colepaugh would have been the greatest secret agent the Nazis ever sent to the United States. But it wasn’t. Instead, the American-born spy was sent back to his homeland to try and learn – and steal – the Americans’ nuclear secrets. And, frankly, he wasn’t very good at it. In fact, he didn’t even come close to getting inside of the Manhattan Project, making him one of the most ineffectual spies in the history of World War Two.
Not the Colepaugh tried that hard. After all, when he decided to betray his country, he imagined fighting on the frontline, playing a brave and active role as the Third Reich assumed world domination. But the Nazi leadership had other ideas for the man who offered himself up to them in Lisbon, Portugal, in 1943. By that time, Colepaugh was a 26-year-old merchant sailor. He had already been to sea, serving in the U.S. Navy, from which he was honourably discharged. But he was no patriot. While a student at MIT, he embraced the German roots of his mother’s side of the family. Nobody knows quite why he was attracted to the Nazis, but, when his merchant ship docked in Portugal, he saw his chance to join their cause.
If they were suspicious of the young American, the Nazi spymasters in Lisbon soon overcame any reservations. Berlin saw in Colepaugh the perfect spy: He could blend back into American society and so help a fully-trained super agent in his mission to sabotage the nation’s war machine and find out its nuclear secrets. So, Colepaugh was paired up with full-on Nazi spy, 35-year-old Erich Gimpel. The mismatched duo were taken to the coast of America in a U-boat and they sailed ashore, making their way to New York City, carrying false documents, radio parts and a huge wad of cash – $60,000 to be precise.
The money was much too tempting for Colepaugh to resist. Rather than using it to finance his spying, the turncoat spent it in New York bars and lavished it on women. Unsurprisingly, Gimpel was not impressed with his partner’s lack of dedication to the cause, and the pair fell out. Undeterred, Colepaugh kept on boozing and womanizing, though soon he was more afraid of Kimpel than he was of the US government. So, sneaking away from his partner, he phoned the FBI and confessed all, including Kimpel’s whereabouts. Both men were apprehended and sentenced to death.
In the end, President Truman commuted their sentences. When the war ended, Kempel was sent back to Germany, though Colepaugh remained behind bars until 1960. After his release, he led a quiet life in Pennsylvania. While he was an active member of his community, he never did open up about his failed career as a Nazi spy.