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Filler Episode - The Black Tom Explosion
308 Plays3 days ago
M is off living life, so Josh presents a solo episode about a big bang. But not the sexy kind, the World War I sabotage kind. Which, we think you'll agree, is worse.
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Transcript
Introduction from Auckland, NZ
00:00:27
Speaker
Hello and welcome to the Podcaster's Guide to the Conspiracy in Auckland, New Zealand. i am Josh Addison. Dr M Demteth is back in China, moving into a new apartment and dealing with all sorts of life admin stuff.
00:00:40
Speaker
So I'm just going to put out a quick filler episode
Story Preview: Wartime Sabotage
00:00:44
Speaker
this week. And hopefully once Swansim is all settled, we'll get back into a bit of into a regular recording thing. But for now, it's just to me And I have for you a story of a story of wartime sabotage, of things exploding and and and the consequences thereof.
00:01:04
Speaker
So um i really have nothing else to say up the top here. I'm just going to play a chime and then get straight into it.
The Black Tom Explosion
00:01:15
Speaker
So what I want to talk to you about today is the Black Tom Explosion. This was an act of wartime sabotage, the war being World War one and the sabotage being performed by German agents on U.S. soil.
00:01:31
Speaker
ah Now, if if you're not up on your World War I history, and I have to have to say I'm not really, it started in 1914, but the U.S. did not enter World War one until April of 1917. Prior to that, they were neutral, which meant that U.S. munitions companies were allowed to sell to anyone who would buy from them. But early on in World War I, the British Royal Navy blockaded Germany, preventing things such as arms and munitions from getting through to them.
00:02:02
Speaker
So although the US was allowed to sell weapons to Germany, for practical purposes they couldn't. So if they were going to be selling um munitions, they were going to be selling them to the English and their allies. So it was in the interests of Germany to sabotage muni munitions in the US, since those munitions would only be used against them.
00:02:22
Speaker
Now, there are a lot of acts. I haven't seen an exact count, but numerous um acts of sabotage by German agents in the US during World War
Impact and Aftermath
00:02:32
Speaker
One. But I think the Black Tom explosion is the most noteworthy of them.
00:02:35
Speaker
It's called the Black Tom explosion because it happened on Black Tom Island. Now, Black Tom Island was an artificial island in New new York Harbour near Liberty Island, where the Statue of Liberty is.
00:02:46
Speaker
I say was because it was an artificial island formed by landfill. um And then in the years between then and and now, the area has been filled in more such that Black Tom Island is no longer an island. and It's part of Liberty State Park in Jersey City. But in 1916, it was still just an island. And it was an island that housed a major munitions depot.
00:03:08
Speaker
with about two million pounds of small arms and artillery ammunition stored there in buildings or on barges, which would which would are more on the piers at the island. So on the night of July the 30th, 1916, several small fires started on one of the piers.
00:03:26
Speaker
Some guards raised the alarm and called the fire service. Other guards just ran for it, fearing quite correctly that a fire next to ah a large munitions depot could... could turn bad fairly quickly.
00:03:41
Speaker
it did, shortly after 2am. They say on the night of July 30th, so I don't know if this is on July 30th, if it's now the morning of July 31st, but at any rate, 2am in the morning, the fires resulted in a massive explosion when a barge that was moored there carrying 50 tonnes of TNT went um And so then obviously this started more fires, which caused more f shows more explosions. There was a second one about half an hour later, which was large, but not as large as the initial.
00:04:08
Speaker
and And of course, the whole time, yeah one once this kicked off, you had bullets and and shells detonating all over the place. So the big explosion was calculated to be between 5 and 5.5 on the Richter scale. I assume this was this was well after the facts. People just worked out based on the amount of of stuff that went up. It broke windows all over New York City. brett broke windows up to 25 miles away. it was felt as far away as Philadelphia, apparently.
00:04:34
Speaker
Flying debris caused damage to the Statue of Liberty itself, and the Black Tom explosion is the reason why you can't go up into the Statue of Liberty's torch anymore. Prior to that you were able to visitors were able to go up into the torch and look out from there, but because of the damage, it was closed off for safety reasons and never reopened.
00:04:55
Speaker
Now, the fires burned for quite a while because firefighters, although although they had been summoned and showed up, they couldn't actually get into the area to do anything because because literal bullets and and shells were flying around the place as they got set off by the the heat and of the fires and the explosions.
00:05:13
Speaker
I guess, fortunately, because it was at 2 a.m. in the morning, there possibly weren't as many people around as there might otherwise have been. We know at least seven people died. in the black tom explosion and hundreds were injured the total cost of the damage was estimated at twenty million dollars at the time that's twenty twenty million dollars of nineteen sixteen money these days that's ah around half a billion dollars worth of damage that was done so ah that's So a big bang. Not the biggest there had ever been. I think if if you're if you're curious, um you can look up the largest man-made explosions that have that have ever happened. The biggest, or rather, the largest non-nuclear man-made explosions. Obviously, the nuclear bombs we've set off are the biggest bangs we've ever done. But... um
00:06:02
Speaker
If you're ever curious, look up the Halifax explosion. This happened around the same time in Halifax in Canada, although it was purely accidental, so it doesn't make a good topic for this um for this this podcast. But I have to say, just just as ah just as a point of interest, read the Wikipedia page for the Halifax explosion and count the number of times you say, holy shit, out loud, because that that has the record for the largest explosion.
00:06:29
Speaker
non-nuclear artificial explosion. The Black Tom explosion, very big, not as big as that, but very big none nonetheless, and got, as you would imagine, quite a lot of attention. So obviously people wanted to know how how this could have
Investigations and Suspicions
00:06:45
Speaker
happened.
00:06:45
Speaker
The initial investigations ah assumed it was accidental. They they initially looked at um investigated railroad railroad workers who had been there at the time to see if they had done anything that accidentally started a fire. um They looked into the security guards who apparently were in the habit of burning what are called smudge pots, which are little um mosquito repellent things, things that you burn that give off fumes and smoke to repel mosquitoes. But um having looked into that, they decided, no, there's no way no way those could have caused the sort of fires, that um at the the kind of fires in the kind of place that caused the explosion.
00:07:22
Speaker
But to begin with, at least, the general assumption was still that it had been the fires had started accidentally. Now, there were right from the start, I believe, people within law for enforcement who suspected sabotage.
00:07:34
Speaker
And they weren't without grounds to be doing so. um It was known by this point that German agents had been working inside the U.S. The German ambassador to the U.S. at that time, a man by the name of Johann Heinrich von Bernstorff, while denying the existence of any German plots against the U.S., as you would imagine he would, ah had actually ah apparently brought in like a bunch of a bunch of his diplomats were actually German spies who had been brought into the company for nefarious ends.
00:08:02
Speaker
Now, prior to the Black Tom explosion, some Germans had been caught getting up to no good, making explosives and stuff like that. They, of course, were disowned by von Bernstorff. Said, gosh, that was you awfully, awfully, awfully sorry about that. Don't know what they were thinking. um Claimed that, i think I think in at least one case when they're found to have been making like explosives and stuff, that no, no, those were being made to to send back to Germany for the war effort or something. So he he was taken at his word by President Wilson. exx the Then ex-president Theodore Roosevelt made a big fuss about about the actions of saboteurs. He gave a big talk where he he accused them of a campaign of bomb and torch against American industry.
00:08:44
Speaker
But Wilson, who actually was present at the time, was much more keen to keep the peace and much more keen to keep U.S. out of the war. And so obviously making a big stink about um about German sabotage in the U.S. would make it a lot harder to justify staying out of the war.
00:08:59
Speaker
Indeed, um in 1916, Wilson was campaigning for reelection and his campaign slogan was he kept us out of the war. That was was sort of you know a point of pride that he had not got U.S. ah brought mixed in with the the horrors that were unfolding in Europe due to World War One.
00:09:15
Speaker
Some of the things I read said is it's pop another possible factor is that there wasn't the prejudice against German immigrants that there was against other nationalities such as Irish Americans or Italian Americans. ah the German Americans apparently were seen as, you know, they were good, honest, hardworking, upstanding citizens. So there was less less motivation to pin crimes on them the hat than there perhaps would have been if there were other other groups.
00:09:40
Speaker
that there was more prejudice against. But um nevertheless, the the the investigations into accidental causes weren't panning out. There were people who suspected sabotage, and eventually the police's attention was drawn to a man, a Slovakian immigrant, by the name of Michael Kristof.
00:09:56
Speaker
um His landlady reported him to the police saying that he'd he'd been acting acting strangely, ah coming coming in at at weird hours, dirty, smelling of fuel, and apparently she'd heard him muttering, what did I do to himself over and over ah the morning after the explosions?
00:10:13
Speaker
So he was brought in and questioned. um he He, I believe, gave gave an alibi, but they quickly were able to show that that was his alibi was no good. um And at that point, he admitted to having worked for German agents in the past, although I don't believe he he he admitted to having anything to do with the Black Tom explosion itself. But he said, yes, he had been working with people who he knew to be German spies, driving them around and that sort of stuff.
00:10:38
Speaker
He told them that that that, yes, there was indeed a network of spies acting in the US, ah but this was all all they had was his word to go on. They didn't have any actual evidence that they could use to pin him to the crimes, so they had to let him go. But that was not the end of it.
Spy Network Uncovered
00:10:54
Speaker
ah The police hired a private detective called Alexander Kassman, who himself was a recent European immigrant. um And so because of that, he was able to sort of go undercover, befriended Mr. Kristoff and sort of and, you know, subtly, subtly tried to work him for information about this network of German spies that he claimed existed.
00:11:15
Speaker
So this investigation eventually led to a man called David Grossman, who was one of the one of the sort of rich backers that these spies had in the kind in the country. didn't didn't participate in any sabotage or spying himself, but did um did give money to their cause.
00:11:34
Speaker
So they brought him in. Now, he refused to testify about um and any any of this these sort of networks of of German spies that he was apparently involved in.
00:11:46
Speaker
But he did give up, I assume, to save his own skin. He gave up two German agents in the country, two men by the names of Lothar Witzker and Kurt Jahnke. So the the theory that was believed, and what I believe is still the official theory to this day, is that Witzke Janka and possibly Christoph set small what were called pencil bombs um around this pier, which started the fires. Pencil bombs, I believe, were an invention of um one of one of von Bernstorff's men.
00:12:18
Speaker
He'd come up with these these little, um they called pencil bombs, although from the description they were more more the size and shape of a cigar, but small cylindrical bombs that that would cause a small explosion and start a fire.
00:12:29
Speaker
They were relatively clever, from what I hear. They had sort of a chemical timing mechanism where there would be acid inside it that would slowly eat through um one one sort of capsule, and then once it ate through that, then the chemicals that caused the explosion mixed together. So so you could place these bombs...
00:12:46
Speaker
knowing that it would be hours or however long you wanted until they went off, by which time, of course, the agents were long gone. I say possibly Christoph. The the belief is that Christoph was involved. He may have just been like a lookout.
00:13:00
Speaker
He may have just sort of, you know, been the getaway driver or something. We don't know that he was actually involved in setting um the bombs which caused the fires, which caused the explosion. But these are the men who it was pinned upon.
00:13:12
Speaker
Now, Witzker and Janka, don't know if they'd heard that the the jig was up or if having committed the acts, they fled the country straight away. But fle flee the country they did. Witzker was picked up on the Mexican border. He didn't make it out.
00:13:26
Speaker
He was arrested. He was convicted, sentenced to death, then had his sentence commuted to life in prison. After World War i as as a result of sort of politics and post-war bargaining, he ended up being pardoned and returned to Germany, at which time he was celebrated award and awarded the Iron Cross and went on to serve in the German military, served in the Abwehr in World War II and and seems to have done OK for himself overall.
00:13:55
Speaker
As a New Zealander, that that that gives me... um It seems like shades of Alain Mafar and Dominique Prieur, who were the two French agents who were picked up here after the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior back in the 1980s, a topic that him and i talked about a long, long time ago. Maybe we should revisit that in one of our... um One of our Looking Back episodes.
00:14:15
Speaker
But that was that was another case where due to sort they did a little bit of time here and then due to politics were released back to France and eventually got ah got a hero's welcome at their end. But anyway, so that was Lothar Vitska. Kurt Janka did make it to Mexico.
00:14:30
Speaker
um He got out of America. he eventually got back to Germany. He also served in the Abwehr in World War II. He didn't do so well, though. he was He was eventually captured by SMEERSH, the Soviet espionage agency, which I always thought was fictional because they're in the James Bond box. But no, it turns out Ian Fleming used SMEERSH originally um and then eventually decided to to so to switch to using fictional spy agencies. But... um he was He was captured, tried and executed by the Soviets. And when I say tried, that's possibly and in quote marks. He was tried and executed on the same day, I believe. but um So he he eventually came to a sticky end.
00:15:11
Speaker
As for Michael Kristoff himself, he was never charged because, again, they they didn't actually have any evidence. So not not even... um Not even David Grossman gave evidence that Christoph had been involved directly um in the bombings.
00:15:26
Speaker
you'd think You'd think that perhaps um they could have charged him with some sort of aiding and abetting sort of conspiracy type charge, but then possibly the laws to do that didn't exist at that time, as we will talk about shortly.
00:15:39
Speaker
Now, I read a couple of articles about the Black Tom explosion. One of them said that Christoph mysteriously disappeared in 1917, suggesting that possibly the the German agents he had been working with bumped him off so he couldn't spill the beans.
00:15:55
Speaker
That was what one article said. um Other places I've read say he died of tuberculosis in 1928.
00:16:02
Speaker
I'm not quite sure where this mysterious disappearance claim came from, but it certainly seems he was never, although he suspected of being involved, um he was never charged with anything.
Broader Implications
00:16:12
Speaker
So that's the but that's the ins and outs of the Black Tom explosion itself. A very big bang, caused a lot of damage, and and certainly gained a lot of attention.
00:16:22
Speaker
And being being such a significant act of sabotage, there were long-lasting effects following it. So the Black Tom, as I said, the U.S. entered World War two in April of 1917. So that's, um that's what, 10 months after this after the explosion itself. I don't know how long it was after they were able to prove that Germany was behind it.
00:16:47
Speaker
The Black Tom explosion itself is isn't what caused the U.S. to enter the war, but it was definitely a factor, or at least the the um campaign of sabotage of which the Black Tom explosion was the most noteworthy um incident.
00:17:00
Speaker
was definitely a factor in the US deciding, OK, we we we can't stay out of this, can we? Now, I mentioned um ah the the laws around it The Black Tom explosion prompted the Espionage Act of 1917 in the States, which ah I don't know the details of the Espionage Act of 1917, but I believe it gave the law more powers to charge people with these sorts of crimes, which I guess...
00:17:24
Speaker
I guess if the the Espionage Act didn't didn't exist at the time and was only prompted after it, that could be why they weren't able to make any charges stick to Christoph. ah But more than just um getting a new act passed, it was this this act and the other other acts of sabotage saw the bureau of Bureau of Investigation, which would go on to be called the Federal Bureau of Investigation, And also the Secret Service restructured in a big way to really focus on internal threats. This was the the sort of sabotage was what caused the U.S. government to set up and say, oh, gosh, we we really need to be keeping, you know, keeping eye on the possibility of of of acts by outside forces happening within U.S. territory.
00:18:06
Speaker
um And so the FBI, as we know it today, sort of came about because of the Black Tom explosion. um The articles I read also mentioned that there were various um acts of public safety legislation ah that came about as a result of the Black Tom explosion, although nothing I read went into much detail because obviously the public safety legislation is not as sexy as the as as as espionage in the FBI.
00:18:31
Speaker
um I assume this would have been to do with with how arms and munition are stored safely and kept away from flames, or I don't know what. um So that's all well and good. Unfortunately, the Black Tom explosion also had less savoury long-term effects, because it was um these previous acts of sabotage and the Black Tom explosion in particular were used in part as justification for the internment of Japanese immigrants during World War II. Part of it was, oh, we we trusted the Germans and and look where that got us, so we did not take any chances with the Japanese. And apparently um now ah Roosevelt was president now and did during World War II, and there is ah there are there's apparently apparently records of him saying, we don't want any more black Toms, when he was justifying why they needed to round up. Japanese immigrants and put them in intern camps and internment camps.
00:19:28
Speaker
So um that perhaps was not so good. Now, because Germany had been had been proven, at least to their satisfaction, to have been behind the Black Tom explosion and numerous other acts of sabotage, post-World War II there was a, ah what what what do you call it, a commission or whatever the sort of thing you see um you you put together to work out this sort of stuff,
00:19:51
Speaker
which ordered that Germany was to pay $97.5 million dollars to victims of sabotage. And of that $97.5 million, $50 million was specifically reparations for the damage and loss of life caused by the Black Tom explosion.
00:20:06
Speaker
and Now, by this stage, the Nazis were in charge in in Germany, and you'll be surprised to learn that they were they were kind of dicks about it. The Nazis refused to pay up, and unsurprisingly, of course, because the whole thing about what one of the reasons why the the Nazi Party, I believe, got into power was was a large amount of resentment at how Germany was treated after World War II all these demands for reparations and things like that.
00:20:32
Speaker
So after World War II, post-unification Germany did eventually honor these um ah reparations and eventually paid up in installments. I think the last one didn't happen until until near the end of the nineteen seventy s So there you have it.
00:20:47
Speaker
The Black Tom Explosion, an act of wartime sabotage and conspiracy, which um was ah was a significant thing to read about by itself and and had long lasting effects to U.S. law, us U.S. intelligence agencies, U.S. policy and the the poor old Statue of Liberty.
Other Sabotage Incidents
00:21:08
Speaker
So I said it was it was the biggest one, but not the only. There there are a bunch of other notable explosions happened around. Another one I read about was the Kingsland explosion, which was a similar one that happened in January of 1917. So like Black Tom was not the end of their bombing campaign.
00:21:26
Speaker
or their sabotage campaign. The Kingsland explosion, from reading about that, they never were able to pin it on anyone, but it was assumed to be an act of sabotage. But unfortunately, I can't talk much more about that because I don't know the details of any particular conspiracy behind it. Although, obviously, it would have all been part of the same conspiracy that brought us Black Tom.
00:21:47
Speaker
So there you go. and interesting story. So like I say, um hopefully Em will be in a better position to be recording fairly soon once they've got themselves all sorted out and into their new routine their new lodgings.
00:22:02
Speaker
So the two of us should be back together again.
Podcast Updates and Credits
00:22:04
Speaker
Now, I should say, ah few if you um pay attention to our various social medias and what have you, um we're we are investigating a few interesting interesting updates for the podcast.
00:22:19
Speaker
Patreon lets you do merch. which we've never really looked at. But um we're we're looking to put put some put some more little bonuses in for our patrons along the lines of merch, which you'll be entitled to at at varying patronage levels. So um stay tuned for more announcements about that.
00:22:38
Speaker
And if you are a patron, you may you may find merch winging its way to you without you having to do a single other thing. And if you're not a patron, you can become one very easily by going to Patreon.com Patreon. hostes it's We've been doing this 10 years and I still don't know how to pronounce that name.
00:22:54
Speaker
Go there and just search for The Podcaster's Guide to the Conspiracy and you will find us. We'll give you access to our Patreon bonus episodes, access to Discord and and quite possibly access to merch. bit more on that later.
00:23:11
Speaker
So I think that's all for now. I'm still searching for a decent catchphrase to end these things on because good goodbye was just getting a little bit boring. So I think until I speak to you all next time, I'll see every single one of you in hell.
00:23:32
Speaker
The Podcaster's Guide to the Conspiracy features Josh Addison and Associate Professor M.R. Extentis. Our producers are a mysterious cabal of conspirators known as Tom, Philip, and another who was so mysterious that they remain anonymous.
00:23:47
Speaker
You can contact us electronically via podcastconspiracy at gmail.com or join our Patreon and get access to our Discord server. Or don't, I'm not your mum.
00:24:13
Speaker
And remember, he who laughs last is standing behind you right now.