Double Agent: The First Hero of World War II and How the FBI Outwitted and Destroyed a Nazi Spy Ring

Veteran journalist Duffy (The Killing of Major Denis Mahon) offers a well-written and well-researched account of espionage between Germany and the United States in the years leading up to the U.S. entry into World War II. William Sebold (1899–1970) was a naturalized American who returned to his native Germany in the mid-1930s and trained to be a spy for the Nazis. When he returned to the United States he turned against his Nazi trainers and became a double agent for the FBI, under the direction of J. Edgar Hoover. Setting up shop in downtown Manhattan, Sebold worked undercover to infiltrate a network of German spies who had no idea they were associating with an FBI agent. In August 1941, the bureau concluded Sebold's sting operation with the arrest and ultimate conviction of 33 German spies. The trial ended on December 11, 1941, the same day Hitler declared war on the United States. This sprightly book covers in detail Sebold's activities as well as those of his German contacts and adds an important chapter to existing histories of espionage during this period.