In June 1941, Fritz Joubert Duquesne, also known as “The man who killed Kitchener” was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation with two associates on charges of relaying secret information on Allied weaponry and shipping movements to Nazi Germany.

On January 2, 1942, 33 members of the Duquesne Spy Ring, the largest espionage ring conviction in the history of the United States, were sentenced to serve a total of over 300 years in prison. William G.Sebold, a double agent, was instrumental to the capture and conviction. One German spymaster later commented that the ring’s roundup delivered ‘the death blow’ to their espionage efforts in the United States. The 1945 film The House on 92nd Street was a thinly disguised version of the uncovering of this spy ring.