Lot 1371

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Description:

(1895 - 1972) Controversial Director of the F.B.I. who built the organization into the world's finest investigative agency. Fine content T.L.S. on F.B.I. letterhead, 1p. 4to., Washington, Apr. 26, 1946 to NORMAN THOMAS (1884-1968), American social reformer and politician, a founder of the A.C.L.U. and a Socialist candidate for the presidency. Hoover discusses the case of German saboteur GEORGE DASCH (1903-1992), a German agent who landed on American soil during World War II and who defected to the American cause, but was tried and convicted of treason and espionage regardless. Hoover writes: "...Dasch was convicted and sentenced to death after the full and complete hearing afforded him before the Military Tribunal had revealed the assistance he rendered...Because of my deep feeling that he and Ernest Peter Burger should not be given the death penalty originally meted out to both of them, I recommended that they not be executed...resulting in a Presidential commutation of their sentences to imprisonment for thirty years and...life, respectively...the matter of granting clemency for Dasch is one to be considered by the Attorney General and decided by the President...I have recommended...that consideration be given to this prisoner, as well as to Burger..." Near fine. Two days after these spies and six others were landed by a U-boat on the East Coast, Dasch and Burger called the FBI to surrender themselves and expose their accomplices. The six received death sentences, and in 1948 the sentences of Burger and Dasch were commuted by Truman provided they leave the country. In 1962, Thomas tried to obtain clemency for Dasch on behalf of his wife - and was turned down by Attorney General Robert Kennedy.

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April 1, 2020 10:00 AM EDT
Chesapeake City, MD, US

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