April 4, 191 8 
Land & Water 
IS 
The Great Passport Frauds— Part II 
By French StrOther, Managing Editor, "The world's work," New York 
^■.%'^^ 
Ruroede, who was a clerk in the North German Lloyd Shipping 
Office in New York, was the "genius" of the German Passport 
Frauds in America ; he succeeded von Wedell. Both the men, it 
was discovered, worked under the instructions of the German 
Embassy in Washington to secure passports by fraudulent 
methods to enable German officers of the reserve to return to 
Germany. Aucher, a Government special agent or detective, had 
charge of the case. He handed Ruroede two A merican passports, ■ 
the latter agreeing to pay him Sioo. Ruroede sent his young 
son to a bank to cash a cheque, and Aucher waited for the money 
in a cafe near by. 
jA UCHER then went into the cafe, and signalled 
^% to three other detectives to follow him. He 
/ ^ took a seat in a boot-black's chair near the 
/ ^L entrance, and proceeded to have his shoes blacked. 
*- -^^ In about ten minutes, Ruroede's son came out, 
and was about to pass by him, when Aucher hailed him. 
Ruroede's son then 
took a sealed envelope 
■from his inside pocket, 
and handed it to 
Aucher. 
" Where is your 
father?" Aucher 
asked. 
" Oh, he's got a man 
upstairs \vilh him," 
said young Ruroede, 
' and he couldn't come 
down." 
"Wait a minute," 
said Aucher, and tore 
open the envelope, and 
in the presence of 
Ruroede's son, and so 
that the other special 
agents could see him 
■do it, counted out ten 
|io notes — $100 in 
all. As he was count- 
ing them, the detec- 
tive who had followed 
Ruroede's son to the 
bank came in, and 
shouldered the boy 
to 'ypn& side, and 
seated, two of the special agents came in and took a table 
about fifteen feet away. After Aucher had ordered lunch 
foh himself and Ruroede, he took out of his pocket another 
of the series of genuine passports supplied by the State 
Department, to which he had attached one of the photo- 
graphs Ruroede had given him for this purpose. He handed 
~the passport to Ruroede, who opened onh/ one end of it, 
just enough to glance at the photograph and seal. 
"That's fine," said Ruroede, and was about to sUp it into 
his pocket, when Aucher seized it, and exclaimed : 
"Fine ? I should say— — ," and opened the passport wide 
so that one of the other special agents could see the red 
seal on it. " Just look at that description. Eh ? He is 
the fellow with the military bearing, and I gave him a descrip- 
tion I figured a man like him should answer to." 
At this point, the special agent lyho had seen the seal 
left his seat at the table, and walkea to the cashier's desk. 
As he passed, Ruroede was holding the passport in his hands 
and Aucher was point- 
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Von Papen becomes Accessory to a crime 
Though this cheque wjs made out in favour of G. Amsinck & Co., the German-American bankers 
then stood rieht bv of New York, the couaterfoil bears the notation "Travelling expenses vW," that is, "von Wedell." 
This cheque wai »:nt him by von Papen to enable him to escape after he had forged signatures to 
two fraudulent passports and realised he was under surveillance— von Papeo, Military Attache to 
the German Embassy, thus becominj accessory after the fact to a crime against American laws. 
him while the money 
was being counted. 
Aucher went on to 
impress on Ruroede's 'son that business was business, and 
that the best of friends sometimes fell out over money 
matters ; that his father might have unintentionally counted 
oijt S80 or $90 instead of the full |ioo, and it was safer to 
take some precautions than to take a chance of creating 
bad blood between them. He then invited Ruroede's son 
to have a drink with him, which he did, both of them taking 
the strongest Prussian drink — milk. When they were about 
to part on Whitehall Street, Aucher told Ruroede's son to 
tell his father he would be down the- next morning with the 
other two passports he had mentioned to him, and again 
impressed on the boy the importance of accuracy in money 
matters. Aucher then returned to lieadquarters with the 
other special agents, and made a memo of the distinguishing 
numbers on the notes, and marked them for future 
identification. 
The next morning Aucher telephoned to Ruroede, and 
told him he had been able to get only one of the two passports 
he wanted, giving as the excuse for his failure to get the 
other the story that it had been promised to him by a man 
working on a job in Long Island, and that this man had met 
with an accident, and was in the hospital; that it would 
take a day or two to go out there to get a written order 
from him to a brother who would turn the passport over to 
.\uciier. Ruroede accepted an invitation to take lunrheon 
with Aucher at Davidson's restaurant at the corner of Broad 
and Bridge Streets. 
Shortly after noun they met on the street, and went into 
the restaurant together. A few minutes after they were 
ing out the descrip- 
tion. Ruroede then 
put the passport into 
his pocket, and said 
again, "That's fine." 
Aucher then open- 
ed a discussion of 
von Wedell's career 
a 1^1 disappearance. 
Ruroede was \'ery 
contemptuous of the 
missing man. "He 
was a plain fool," he 
said. "He paid £700, 
altogether, and got 
very little in return. 
A fellow came to him 
one day and told him 
he could get him 
American passports, 
and von Wedell said: 
' All right ; go ahead.' 
The fellow returned 
later and said he would 
have to- have some 
expense money, and 
he -gave him $10. A 
little while later a 
friend of the first man 
came tp von Wedell, 
wanting expense 
money. When von 
Wedell decided to put him off, he became threatening, and 
von Wedell, fearing he might tell the Government authorities, 
gave him some money. A few days later about twenty fel- 
lows came looking for von Wedell. But, quite aside from that 
sort of business, von Wedell's foolishness in forging two names 
on American passports is the thing that made him get away." 
"Did I understand you to say," asked Aucher, "that he 
had gone to join his wife ? " 
"No," rephed Ruroede, "she will be in Gerrriany before 
him. She sailed last Tuesday. He went to Cuba first, and 
there got a Mexican passport of some sort that will take 
him to Spain. He ought to be in Barcelona to-day, and 
from there work his way into Germany."' 
"You say von WedeU spent £700 of his own money?" 
Aucher asked. 
"No, no," exclaimed Ruroede, "he got it from the fund." 
"Well, who puts up this money — who's back of it ?" 
"The Government." 
"The German Government?"' 
"Yes," said Ruroede. "You see, it is this way. Tliere 
is a captain here who is attached to the German Embassy 
at Washington. He lias a list of German reservists in this 
country, and is in touch with the German Consulates all 
through the country, and in Peru, Mexico, Chile, etc. He 
gets in touch with them, and the Consuls send reservists 
who want to go to the front on to New York. When they 
get here, this captain tells them : 'Well, I can't do anything 
for you, but you go down to see Ruroede.' Sometimes he 
gives them liis personal card." 
