Frederick

Can't recal learning anything about him in school history

Certainly a very interesting character...stuff movies are made of. Pity he picked the wrong sidd in WWII.

He fought on the side of the Boers in the Second Boer War and as a secret agent for Germany during both World Wars. He gathered human intelligence, led spy rings and carried out sabotage missions as a covert field asset in South Africa, Great Britain, Central and South America, and the United States. He went by many aliases, fictionalized his identity and background on multiple occasions, and operated as a conman. As a Boer spy he was known as the "Black Panther", in World War II he operated under the code name DUNN, and in FBI files he is frequently referred to as "The Duke." He was captured, convicted, and escaped several prisons.

During the Second Boer War, from 1899 to 1902, Duquesne was captured and imprisoned three times by the British and once by the Portuguese, and each time he escaped. On one occasion he infiltrated the British army, became a British officer, and led an attempt to sabotage Cape Town and to assassinate the commander-in-chief Lord Kitchener, only his team was given up by an informant and all were captured and sentenced to death. After a failed attempt to escape prison in Cape Town, he was sent to prison in Bermuda, but he escaped to the United States and became an American citizen. In World War I, he became a spy and ring leader for Germany and during this time he sabotaged British merchant ships in South America with concealed bombs and destroyed several. He sometimes purchased insurance on merchandise he shipped on the vessels he sabotaged and then filed claims for damages. He became known as "the man who killed Kitchener" since he claimed to have guided a German U-boat to sink HMS Hampshire on which Lord Kitchener was en route to Russia in 1916, although forensics of the ship do not support this claim. After he was caught by federal agents in New York in 1917, he feigned paralysis for two years and cut the bars of his cell to make his escape, thereby avoiding deportation to England where he faced execution for the deaths of British sailors. In 1932, he was again captured in New York by federal agents and charged with both homicide and for being an escaped prisoner, only this time he was set free after Britain declined to pursue the wartime crimes. The last time he was captured and imprisoned was in 1941 when he and 32 other members of the Duquesne Spy Ring were caught by William G. Sebold, a double agent with the FBI, and later convicted in the largest espionage conviction in the history of the United States.

Thanks, 

Always interesting to read a bit of history about some of the old-timer's struggles and escapades. 

RSA sure has had its share of folks who carved a name for themselves in history.

Enjoyed the posting.

Only Arthur read this? I'm not one of those Afrikaners still stuck in the Boer war, but this dude's life reads like an Indiana Jones/James Bond movie and I get one reply? Odd.

Good story....was he ultimately executed after the spring was caught in 1941? That’s always a bit of a downside for spies!

There are as many, if not more German stories about the World Wars...but the loser didn’t get to make the  movies. Take Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, the Lion of Africa.....that guy is good for  several movies.

"The 64-year-old Duquesne did not escape this time. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison, with a 2-year concurrent sentence and $2,000 fine for violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act.[72] He began his sentence in Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary in Kansas, along with fellow German spy Hermann Lang.[93] In 1945, Duquesne was transferred to the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri, due to his failing physical and mental health.[94] In 1954, he was released owing to ill health, having served 14 years. His last known lecture was in 1954 at the Adventurers' Club of New York, titled "My Life – in and out of Prison".[94]

Death Edit

Fritz Duquesne died at City Hospital on Welfare Island (now Roosevelt Island), in New York City on 24 May 1956 at the age of 78 years.