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GADSKI’S HUSBAND.

ARRESTED AS PLOTTER. ASSOCIATES CARRY DYNAMITE TO NIAGARA FALLS. SAN FRANCISCO, April 11. A tremendous sensation has been occasioned throughout America at the arrest of Captain Hans Tauscher, husband of Madame Gadsbi, the noted prima donna, by agents of the United States Department of Justice in New York on a charge of “setting on foot in the United States a military expedition to Canada for the purpose of destroying the Welland canal.” His arrest was considered the most important yet made in connection with the bomb and arson plots charged to German propagandists infesting American soil. At the outset Federal officials stated that Captain Tauscher was the Imperial Government’s expert on ordnance in the United States. The prisoner admitted that he acted under secret orders issued by Captain Franz von Papen, the recalled military attache of the German Embassy in Washington.

Captain Tauscher’s arrest came suddenly. His apprehension was considered of such vast importance that A. Bruce Bielaski, chief of Department of Justice agents, personally served the warrant at Captain Tausclier’s office at 320, Broadway, in New York, United States. Commissioner Clarence S. Houghton remanded Captain Tauscher, and he was liberated on bail of 25,000 dollars. He denied his guilt.

Attorney Frankenthaler, for the arrested captain, protested against what he termed the excessive amount of bond, and declared his client was a well known business man, and would appear when wanted. Commissioner Houghton refused to alter it, however. Captain Tauscher was released after the National Security Company had furnished the bond. He hurried to his home in West Seventy-seventh street, and declined to make any statement.

Captain Tauscher’s arrest was the first result of disclosures made by Horst von der Goltz, alias Bridgeman W. Taylor, recently released from the Tower of London, and returned to the United States. Federal officials admitted they had been working on the first Welland Canal plot for a year and a half. They needed the testimony of Von der Goltz to complete the chain of evidence and corroborate the story of the other witnesses that six men were implicated in the plot. Captain Tauscher and Von der Goltz were two of them, and a third named in the warrant upon which the former was arrested is Alfred A. Fritzen, who disappeared several months ago. The remaining three were being eagerly sought when Tauscher was arrested. Details of the plot were planned with infinite care. Its failure was attributed by the United States Government to a plain case of “cold feet” on the part of those to whom was entrusted the workof planting the explosives. According to Von der Goltz,-the dynamiters failed to appear in Buffalo at the appointed time.

United States District Attorney H. Snowden Marshall told of the ramifications of the plot. He said the dynamite was purchased from one of the largest manufacturers of explosives in America. It was taken to New York on a vessel said to be the Magdeburg. Late at night the conspirators procured a motor boat, and slipped alongside the vessel. The explosives were quickly transferred, and the occupants of the smaller boat set off at a high speed. The dynamite was landed and taken to the boarding-house of one of the plotters. It was then packed in six suit cases, and in this manner conveyed to Buffalo. Because of the miscarriage of plans, Marshall said, the explosives were not taken across the border. Tauscher is the head of the Tauscher Anns Company, and is alleged to be Krupp’s agent in New York. He was an officer in the German Army when he married Mme. Gadski. Tauscher told the United States Government authorities that he had been forced to sever his connection with the army at the time of his marriage. He was in Germany at the beginning of the war.

“Captain Tauscher told us that be offered his services to the Imperial Government at that time,” a high Government official said. “His offer was accepted, and he was told to come to the United States and report to Captain von Papen." The days following the arrest of Tauscher were full of incident, and the Department of Justice worked day and night collecting incriminating evidence against the callous plotters. Among the additional arrests was that of a man who gave the name of Tucker. He was taken into custody in El Paso a fortnight previously, and later hurried to New York. Details were gathered showing that the conspirators had planned an invasion of Canada, to be made at a point west of the Great Lakes. Von Papen furnished the money to blow up the Welland Canal, and Von der Goltz stated that Papen endorsed the canal proposal after it had been decided that it would be imnossible to lead a large armed expedition into Canada from the United States. Von der Goltz had sought to enlist Germans in Baltimore. Hoboken, and New York, and Department agents said lie declared he was acting with the knowledge of Von Papen, the recalled German attache. Von der Goltz came to the United States in July, 1914, from Mexico, where he had been on General Villa’s staff, and reported to Von Papen. The plan to invade Canada, lie told Department agents, had been his, not 1 Papen’s.

After a time, Von der Goltz said, the plan was abandoned. The intended point of invasion, officials said, was “west of the Great Lakes.” The force which' Von der Goltz wanted to raise for the expedition was to be sufficiently large to engage the attention of the troops which Canada was training to send to Europe. When the plan was abandoned, Von der Goltz said, he proposed blowing up the Welland Canal. Tauscher.was to furnish the dynamite, and Von der Goltz was to take four men with him to do the work. After his arrival in the United States, Von der Goltz claimed he had entered into an agreement with tile British Government, under which he would not be executed as a spy in case lie testified in America regarding proGerman activities, but he would be sent to one of Great Britain’s colonies, where lie would be safe. A statement was issued by the attorneys of Captain Tauscher, in which it said:— “Officials of the Department of Justice will bear out the statement that he has repeatedly, during the past few months, freely and cheerfully given them any and all information which they have desired, and on one occasion they expressed themselves very strongly as being under obligations to him for his assistance in investigations they have made.”

Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WAIPM19160506.2.4

Bibliographic details

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXXVI, Issue 7717, 6 May 1916, Page 1

Word Count
1,094

GADSKI’S HUSBAND. Waipawa Mail, Volume XXXVI, Issue 7717, 6 May 1916, Page 1

GADSKI’S HUSBAND. Waipawa Mail, Volume XXXVI, Issue 7717, 6 May 1916, Page 1

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