Citizen of the Shadows

July 30, 1916. Early morning. New Jersey. A munitions depot on Black Tom Island erupts in a fiery explosion, killing four and damaging the Statue of Liberty in the largest attack on the New York area since the city's establishment. Soon after, the United States captures and convicts a young German spy named Lothar Witzke for his role in the explosion. Sentenced to die, Witzke escapes the noose only through presidential pardon. With Citizen of the Shadows, Paul Friedland and Robert Hornick present the first biography of one of the most notorious German spies of the twentieth century. Born to humble beginnings in the German Empire, the silver-tongued Witzke left home for a life at sea before being recruited as a spy for Germany in Mexico to conduct espionage and sabotage against the then-neutral United States. After his pardon by President Coolidge, he lived in Latin America and China, joined the Nazi Party, and conducted espionage again for Germany during World War II. After the war, he worked in business and politics in Hamburg until his murder in 1962, presumably at the hands of an East German agent. Drawing on a vast array of deeply researched sources, the authors plumb the depths of Witzke's trial, conviction, and pardon, separating fact from fiction to determine whether Witzke was truly a participant in the Black Tom attack. In doing so, the authors uncover that many of the details of Witzke's life--long assumed to be true--were lies.