Episode 2: The Mole

Summary

Summary of "Rachel Maddow Presents: Ultra"

Episode 2: The Mole
Release Date: June 17, 2024

Introduction

In the second episode of Rachel Maddow's gripping series Ultra, titled "The Mole," the narrative delves into the clandestine activities of Francis Parker Yaqui, an American with deep ties to ultra-right movements and Nazi sympathizers. Set against the backdrop of post-World War II America, the episode explores Yaqui's transformation from a suspected traitor to a central figure in a deadly plot that threatens the very fabric of American democracy.

Operation Pastorius: Nazi Sabotage in America

The episode opens with a recounting of Operation Pastorius, a Nazi mission during World War II aimed at sabotaging key American infrastructure. As Historian Gavriel Rosenfeld explains, the Nazis dispatched trained saboteurs to the United States with the intent to disrupt war production, destroy bridges, and contaminate water supplies.

Historian (02:48): "The Nazi saboteurs had all landed in America in the middle of June. By the end of June, they were all in federal custody."

Despite the audacity of the plan, the operation swiftly unraveled when two of the eight saboteurs turned themselves in, leading to the arrest and eventual execution of six Nazi agents. This marked a significant moment in American history, showcasing the nation's resolve against internal threats.

Francis Parker Yaqui: From Sympathizer to Fugitive

Amidst the fallout of Operation Pastorius, Francis Parker Yaqui emerges as a person of interest. Described as a 24-year-old Army private with connections to the American ultra-right, Yaqui becomes the FBI's primary suspect in potential further sabotage activities.

Political Commentator (14:05): "There are hundreds of FBI documents saying Chicago office is advised to be on the lookout for Francis Yockey."

Yaqui's affiliations include ties to William Dudley Pelley, the leader of the American fascist group Silver Shirts, and the German American Bund. His deep-seated fascist beliefs and overt anti-Semitism made him a significant concern for U.S. authorities.

The Manhunt and Yaqui’s Disappearance

Following the exposure of Operation Pastorius, Yaqui abruptly went AWOL, disappearing from his military base and fleeing to Mexico for two months. His disappearance coincided with heightened FBI efforts to apprehend anyone linked to the sabotage plot.

Historian (21:13): "For a few hours or even a few days. Francis Yaqui vanished for two months. He went AWOL to Mexico."

Upon his return, Yaqui was quickly discharged from the Army under the guise of mental illness, though he later admitted to faking symptoms to escape military service.

Infiltrating the Nuremberg Trials

Defying all odds, Yaqui secured a position as a U.S. government lawyer at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials in 1946. This role provided him with unprecedented access to sensitive documents and trial proceedings.

Historian (37:10): "Yaqui's job at the war crimes unit was in reviewing cases. The building that he reported to every day was a files and message center for the war crimes group, meaning that all sorts of court records and important trial documents were at his disposal."

Instead of aiding the prosecution, Yaqui acted as a mole, clandestinely assisting Nazi defendants by leaking critical information and documents to them. This betrayal not only undermined the integrity of the trials but also posed a significant threat to global security.

The Cobalt Bomb Conspiracy

The crux of Yaqui's treachery lies in his attempt to sell plans for a cobalt bomb, a hypothetical doomsday weapon capable of annihilating all life on Earth. His endeavors included engaging with Gamal Abdel Nasser, the rising nationalist leader of Egypt, to persuade him to develop and potentially deploy this catastrophic weapon.

Political Commentator (15:42): "Yaqui did in fact meet with this rising political star in Egypt, Nasser, and he started discussing plans right away for obtaining a so called cobalt bomb."

Yaqui’s actions raised alarms within the U.S. government, igniting fears of a nuclear arms race spiraling out of control and the emergence of an unstoppable authoritarian force.

The Global Pursuit and Final Confrontation

As Yaqui's plans began to surface, a years-long global manhunt was initiated. International law enforcement and intelligence agencies collaborated to track him down, recognizing the severe implications of his potential success in proliferating the cobalt bomb.

Political Commentator (39:20): "He's really turning into a sort of underground fascist James Bond."

Despite the relentless pursuit, Yaqui evaded capture, leaving behind his family in Germany and disappearing into the shadows. His elusiveness only intensified the global anxiety surrounding his objectives and the possible realization of his apocalyptic vision.

Implications for American Democracy

"The Mole" not only narrates the historical pursuit of a dangerous individual but also draws parallels to contemporary political climates. The episode underscores the fragility of democratic institutions when faced with insidious anti-democratic forces and highlights the perennial vigilance required to safeguard national security.

Historian (40:04): "It was a shocking and largely forgotten effort. What it would set in motion would ultimately leave a body count inside the United States Senate."

Conclusion

Episode 2 of Ultra masterfully intertwines historical events with a suspenseful narrative, shedding light on a dark chapter of American history that resonates with present-day political tensions. By uncovering the story of Francis Parker Yaqui, Rachel Maddow emphasizes the ongoing struggle between democratic resilience and authoritarian infiltration, urging listeners to remain vigilant against forces that seek to undermine the nation's foundational values.

Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Historian (02:48): "The hydrogen bomb really was a bigger, worse threat than the atomic bomb."
• Political Commentator (15:27): "Yaqui did in fact meet with this rising political star in Egypt, Nasser."
• Historian (37:10): "Yaqui was hired to help the prosecution, but what he did was serve as a mole inside the prosecution to instead help the Nazi war crimes defendants."
• Political Commentator (39:20): "He's really turning into a sort of underground fascist James Bond."

Production Credits

• Written by: [Your Name], Mike Jarvitz, Jen Mulraney Donovan
• Executive Produced by: [Your Name], Mike Jarvitz
• Produced by: Jen Mulraney Donovan, Kelsey Desiderio
• Associate Producer: Vasilios Karsilakis
• Audio Engineering and Sound Design: Bob Mallory, Katherine Anderson
• Head of Audio Production: Bryson Barnes
• Senior Executive Producers: Cory Naso, Laura Conaway
• Web Producer: Will Femia
• Executive Producer for MSNBC Audio: Aisha Turner
• Senior Vice President for Content Strategy at MSNBC: Rebecca Cutler

Archival radio material is from NBC News via the Library of Congress, with additional archival content courtesy of the Drew Pearson estate.

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For more information about the series, visit msnbc.com/ultra.

Transcript

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[NBC Announcer]

This is NBC, the National Broadcasting Company.

[Historian]

People were getting home from their morning errands or getting home from church. Lots of people were just sitting down at their kitchen tables to have Sunday lunch. And that day on the radio, there was a national broadcast that managed to scare the bejesus out of nearly everyone who listened to it.

[NBC Announcer]

Over NBC's coast to coast network of independent affiliated stations. The University of Chicago Roundtable, a roundtable.

[Historian]

Conversation aired nationwide on the radio by NBC. The topic of this roundtable was admittedly a little bit dark for a Sunday afternoon.

[NBC Announcer]

Today, the roundtable discusses the facts about the hydrogen bomb. This important roundtable series is being presented in response to the great public concern over the decision to build the hydrogen bomb.

[Historian]

The decision to build a hydrogen bomb. The United States and the world had just seen in 1945 the devastating effects of nuclear warfare when the US dropped two atomic bombs on Japan. But what they were talking about on the radio this Sunday afternoon, four and a half years after the war was over, was something new, something bigger.

[NBC Announcer]

There have been many statements in the press concerning this possible new instrument of destruction. How much of that discussion has been correct and how much of it has been incorrect? What does the hydrogen bomb mean? To answer these questions, one must first understand what the hydrogen bomb really is.

[Historian]

The discussion that day on the radio was among four scientists who knew of what they spoke, all of them, had been part of the Manhattan Project led by Robert Oppenheimer, which, of course, secretly developed and then built America's atomic bombs. What these Manhattan Project scientists were now trying to tell the public on the radio that Sunday afternoon was how much worse, how qualitatively different it would be for the US or anyone to use not just an atomic bomb, but a hydrogen bomb.

[NBC Announcer]

Well, now we have the possibility of constructing a weapon that is, say, of the order of a thousand times the destructiveness of the Hiroshima bomb.

[Historian]

The Hiroshima bomb, the atomic bomb. It had the capability to level whole portions of a city. That's how just two American bombs in two Japanese cities could kill and injure hundreds of thousands of people. But now, this new bomb they were talking about on the radio, the hydrogen bomb, it had the capacity to wipe out not just whole portions of a city, but whole cities altogether.

[NBC Announcer]

If a bomb were exploded somewhere, then 10 miles away from it, there would be almost complete destruction. And that would mean that a city as big as New York, that the biggest cities on Earth, could be destroyed by one single bomb.

[Historian]

The conversation among the Manhattan Project scientists that day on the radio, it was largely speculative. The hydrogen bomb at this point did not exist, but it pretty clearly was coming. President Truman had already issued the order for the United States to start working on it. And so on the radio that Sunday afternoon, these scientists basically were warning the public about what that might specifically mean. They debated whether America's major coastal cities could even be defended from an H bomb attack by air. And if not, perhaps it would be wise in advance, maybe even now, to depopulate all major cities on the American east coast, to move the whole population inland for their protection in case all those cities were going to be destroyed. This was a very, very unnerving conversation. And then toward the end of the program, it went to another level altogether. One of the scientists on that program, the one who was the best known of all of them, he warned toward the end of the broadcast that, yes, a hydrogen bomb on its own could cause almost unimaginably catastrophic damage. But he also said it wouldn't be hard to tweak a hydrogen bomb to make its effect even worse. He said there was a modification that could be made to the basic design of it that could turn a single hydrogen bomb into a weapon that could end it all, everything, for the whole planet.

[Scientist]

What I had in mind is it is very easy to rig an H bomb on purpose so that it should produce very dangerous radioactivity.

[Historian]

This very famous scientist, his Name was Leo Szilard. He explained calmly on the radio that Sunday afternoon that with just a tweak to the casing of the H bomb, a change to the way it was constructed, you could probably create a single bomb that could depopulate the planet, that could kill off all life on Earth.

[Scientist]

Here I've made a little calculation. Assuming that we make a radioactive element that will live for five years and we just let it go into the air, forming a dust layer on the surface of the Earth, everybody would be killed.

[Historian]

Everybody would be killed? Everyone on Earth? Is that what the man just said? Again, this was just on the radio on a Sunday afternoon as people were sitting down to lunch. And as you might expect, it set off a small scale panic all across the country. These physicists with their radio show spitballing back of the envelope calculations about what it would take to build effectively a doomsday weapon.

[Scientist]

And you may of course ask, what is the practical importance of this? Who won't want to kill everybody on Earth? I do not know whether we would be willing to do it, and I do not know whether Russians would be willing to do it. But I think that we may threaten to do it, and I think that the Russians might threaten to do it. And who will take the risk then not to take that threat seriously?

[Historian]

That very unsettling radio program aired on NBC on February 26, 1950. The next day, newspapers all over the country were full of stories about it. Headlines like, H Bomb Death for all feared or Death in a dust cloud. H bomb could be turned into world suicide weapon. This was front page news all over the country. I mean, imagine picking up your Monday morning paper at home in Virginia, and that's the headline on the front page. H bomb could be made to kill everyone everywhere on Earth. Now, thankfully, there were a lot of ifs here. The hydrogen bomb, importantly, did not exist yet it was still being developed. Once it was developed and tested and built, you would still have to do more. The way that scientists described it, you would still have to basically pack into the bomb what he called a suitable element. It quickly became clear what that suitable element was. It was the relatively plentiful, not particularly exotic element, cobalt. And thus was born the absolutely insane, terrifying, apocalyptic idea of a cobalt bomb. A single bomb that could threaten all life on the planet. Public awareness and fear about a hypothetical cobalt bomb started with that one NBC Sunday afternoon radio program in 1950, but then it took off. For decades, this nightmare idea of a cobalt bomb would appear in the plot of Agatha Christie stories and James Bond movies and Tom Clancy novels and Star Trek episodes, even in video games. But when we first learned about it on the radio that Sunday afternoon, February 1950, it was just deep, deep fear.

[Journalist]

The radioactive dust would reach California in about a day, New York in four or five days, killing most life as it traverses the continent.

[Historian]

Journalist Drew Pearson on his radio show, raising the prospect that a cobalt bomb not only would be built, but it would be built by Russia and then used against us.

[Journalist]

We know she has the scientists, she has the submarine fleet to deliver the H bomb off the California coast, and she has the cobalt. She hasn't put all the pieces together as of today. Then I regretfully but realistically predict that she'll do so eventually. Ladies and gentlemen, it's later than you think.

[Historian]

Now again, this very, very deep freakout was about something that didn't exist. It was about something that was just an idea, something between a hypothetical and a maybe. No country had developed the hydrogen bomb yet, let alone this further trick. It was something that had only been imagined and described. It had never been tried. But what if it was tried? What if while countries like the US had started working on inventing the hydrogen bomb, what if some ambitious rogue country out there decided to invest its energies in developing the modification, in developing the cobalt bomb? The doomsday thing. Those fears did not reside only in the imagination of a freaked out public at the time. Because sure enough, soon the American government came to believe that plans for a doomsday weapon, plans for a cobalt bomb were being offered for sale on the international black market by an American fugitive. Someone who had worked for the US government, who had experience in the US military. Someone who came from the world of the American Ultra. Right, this is Rachel Maddow presents Ultra.

[Political Commentator]

He started discussing plans right away for obtaining a so called cobalt bomb.

[NBC Announcer]

Several accomplices of the Nazis have already been arrested.

[Historian]

He becomes this sort of mythical, mysterious.

[Political Commentator]

Figure for the American right.

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[Historian]

Episode 2 the Mole in the early 1950s, the US military, in fact a whole swath of the US government was looking rather desperately for a man named Francis Parker Yockey.

[Political Commentator]

There are hundreds of FBI documents saying Chicago office is advised to be on the lookout for Francis Yockey.

[Historian]

That's author and journalist Anthony Mostrom. The FBI in the early 1950s was looking for Francis Yaqui for the worst possible reason. They had been advised that he was offering for sale the plans for a cobalt bomb, the so called doomsday weapon, the bomb to end all life on earth. This is from FBI files. Information received by the informant indicates that Yaqui has been in touch with Soviet authorities and he has been exploring matters connected with the cobalt bomb. The FBI had been tracking Francis Yaqui across three continents, including his contacts inside the Soviet Union, also his contacts with a network of escaped Nazis who had fled to Argentina after World War II and founded a controversial nuclear program there which claimed to be doing advanced work on the hydrogen bomb. With rising concern about what he might be up to, US Authorities tracked Francis Yaqui's travels to the Middle east and they tracked what he appeared to be trying to sell there.

[Political Commentator]

Yaqui did in fact meet with this rising political star in Egypt, Nasser, and he started discussing plans right away for obtaining a so called cobalt bomb.

[Historian]

Francis Yaqui had flown to Egypt where he took a meeting with Egypt's new nationalist leader, Gamal Abdel Nasser, and he reportedly tried selling Nasser on this amazing new weapon that he believed Egypt should use.

[Political Commentator]

In Yaakian lore It is believed that he handed the actual plans of this cobalt bomb over to Nasser, urging him to develop the bomb so that he could use it against Israel.

[Historian]

A cobalt bomb to use against Israel, which could maybe destroy all life on earth in the process. By the time the US Government was looking for Francis Yaqui in conjunction with plans for the cobalt bomb, their concerns about him had grown from what you might call serious to something more like wild. By then, he had been eluding them for more than a decade. It started as early as 1942, during World War II, when the Nazis sent two submarines to German U boats to drop off teams of trained saboteurs in the United States. Their mission was to launch crippling attacks on American infrastructure.

[NBC Announcer]

They brought with them a great store of explosives with which to blow up factories and demoralize civilian life.

[Historian]

It was called Operation Pastorius. So Operation Pistorius is basically a very, very low level but serious effort by the German Abwehr or military intelligence to engage in acts of sabotage. That's historian and author Gavriel Rosenfeld. They're given weapons training, explosives training in Germany. The plan in Operation Pistorius was for these saboteurs to come ashore secretly in Florida and New York. They would slip into American society and keep a low profile for a while, but then they would start their sabotage operations.

[NBC Announcer]

They had a definite plan to blow up American war factories, to blow up bridges, and to wreck the water supply system of New York City.

[Historian]

The Nazis wanted this to be a sustained campaign of sabotage. They wanted their saboteurs to get away with it for as long as they could. So they chose men for this operation who already had some familiarity with the US Mostly German, American and German nationals who have some experience living in the United States. They wanted men who could blend in and who also maybe could get some help while they were here from friends and family. It was a pretty audacious plan. And the saboteurs did come ashore in the United States, in Amagansett, New York, on Long island, and in Ponte Vedra, near Jacksonville, Florida.

[NBC Announcer]

The country is astounded by the daring of this Berlin scheme to cripple our industry, wreck our railroads and murder just as many Americans as possible.

[Historian]

But their plot didn't last very long at all before they got busted by the FBI.

[NBC Announcer]

Yesterday, the chief of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation announced that every single one of those eight German saboteurs was arrested within one week of landing. They had confessed, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation had dug up their supplies of explosives on the beaches where they were buried.

[Historian]

Of the eight Nazi agents, two of them, it turns out, got cold feet. Two of them went to the FBI and gave themselves up. They gave up the whole plot. These saboteurs had all landed in America in the middle of June. By the end of June, they were all in federal custody. By August, a US Military commission had decided their fate.

[NBC Announcer]

The commission had judged the men guilty and asked that six of them be given the death sentence. Accordingly, beginning at noon yesterday, six of the Nazi spies were electrocuted.

[Historian]

Along with the shock over the sabotage plot, there was also an uncomfortable, open question of whether these guys had had accomplices, whether there were other people inside the United States who were also part of the plot, who had helped.

[NBC Announcer]

Several accomplices of the Nazis have already been arrested, and G men are hunting down more confederates of Hitler's sabotage ring.

[Historian]

After arresting the saboteurs themselves, FBI agents fanned out across the country, arresting Americans who might have helped them, who might have had links to the plot. One person who seemed to be getting palpably nervous about these arrests was at that moment a young private serving in the United States Army, Francis yaqui. Jaqui was 24 years old at the time. He had grown up in the Midwest. He'd had a middle class upbringing. And at the time of Operation Pistorius, this Nazi sabotage plot, Yaqui had just recently enlisted. He was stationed at an army base in Michigan. But as soon as the FBI broke up Operation Pistorius, while the national press was following every twist and turn of the story, reporting on federal agents hunting for anyone connected to these saboteurs, this young army private, Francis Yaqui, he up and disappeared from his army base.

[Political Commentator]

He just quietly went awol, and not.

[Historian]

For a few hours or even a few days. Francis Yaqui vanished for two months. He went AWOL to Mexico. FBI files show that at the time he went awol, Yaqui was wanted for questioning in conjunction with Operation Pistorius. The FBI believed that this army private, Yocchi, had been a friend of one of the Nazi saboteurs.

[Political Commentator]

There is definite evidence that both Jaqui and his sister were good friends of Herbert Hans Haupt, who would eventually be executed.

[Historian]

Herbert Haupt was one of the Nazi saboteurs. He was arrested, tried, convicted, and executed for that. But then the FBI also arrested his aunt and uncle, and then they arrested his mother and father, and then they arrested the mother and father of his best friend. All of them were put on trial for treason for allegedly providing him assistance. Haupt had been part of the German American boond in Chicago The FBI arrested a boond leader who had hosted Haupt at his property, who had done weapons training with him. When they arrested that Booned leader, they found explosives and an arsenal of guns and ammunition on his farm. The FBI believed this army private, Francis Yaqui, had also spent time at that farm. He had spoken at pro fascist meetings there. The FBI believed that the executed saboteur, this guy Haupt, had been friends with Yaqui and with Yaqui's family. And when the FBI started arresting people, when they started hunting Haupt's accomplices in the United States, his alleged confederates, and in the Nazi sabotage mission, that is when Francis Yaqui fled the country. After two months awol, Yaqui did come back to the United States. He turned himself in. The army was not exactly delighted to have him back. They sent him to a mental institution and then they quickly discharged him from the army for mental illness. Yaqui was soon bragging about being discharged, saying that he'd faked all of it to get himself out of military service.

[Political Commentator]

Apparently he was faking hearing hallucinations. So he told US army psychiatrists and whatnot that he could hear his father's voice in his head. And he laughingly told friends later that I, I quote, I snowed the army into giving me an early discharge.

[Historian]

The army was likely glad to be rid of him. US Military intelligence documents list Francis Yaqui before he was discharged as a suspected Nazi sympathizer inside the Army. A person who met Jaqui at his army base in Michigan told the FBI that Yaqui was constantly stirring up discord and that Yaqui was an admirer of an American fascist leader named William Dudley Pelley.

[NBC Announcer]

American justice returns a verdict of guilty in the trial of William Dudley Pelley, Silver Shirts leader. He's convicted on 11 counts of criminal sedition.

[Historian]

And Peli was the founder of the American pro Nazi group the Silver Shirts. He spent most of the war in prison on sedition charges. He called himself America's Hitler. One of Peli's followers was Francis Yaake. Yaqui spoke at Silver Shirt gatherings in the lead up to the war.

[Political Commentator]

While still in college, he was already giving lectures to Silver Shirt meetings. He definitely was attracted to the right wing movements and cadres and parties that were stirring up a lot of trouble.

[Historian]

Before America's entry into World War II, there was a movement on the ultra right in this country arguing that the United States had no business joining the war, that we shouldn't be fighting the Nazis at all, that if anything we should be fighting alongside the Nazis. They argued that American democracy was decadent and doomed and that what we really needed in this country was an American form of fascism. Francis Yaqui was very much at the center of that world. He was a follower of William Dudley Pelley in the Silver Shirts. He was connected to the German American Bund. When five Silver Shirts guys were arrested for throwing bricks through the windows of a Jewish department store in Chicago, a local bundleder organized a Friends of Father Coghlin rally to support the defendants. Jaqui was billed as a headline speaker.

[Political Commentator]

He apparently swallowed Hitler's Jew hatred hook, line and sinker. And he just, it never left him. He once in the presence of a friend, he pointed to a copy of Mein Kampf, stuck his finger down on it and he said, do you see that? That is what I am.

[Historian]

Francis Yaqui was part of the movement. He was part of the American ultra right.

[Political Commentator]

He was already dipping deeply into the then current right wing media landscape that was going on. Father Coughlin was on the radio.

[Historian]

Father Charles E. Coughlin, call this inflammatory if you will.

[NBC Announcer]

It is the inflammatory.

[Historian]

The most influential right wing media figure in the country and a raging anti Semite.

[NBC Announcer]

And with that principle I challenge every Jew in this nation to tell me that he does not believe in it.

[Historian]

Father Coughlin told his followers to form themselves into an armed militia which was called the Christian Front.

[NBC Announcer]

The Christian Front is no longer a dream. It is a reality in America.

[Historian]

Father Charles Coughlin and had the most popular radio program in the country by a mile. He also had a magazine that was sold all over the country. It was a vehicle for his own grifty, anti Semitic, pro fascist message. But it also let him publish other like minded Americans.

[Political Commentator]

One of the first articles, if not the very first article Yaqui ever wrote was for Father Coughlin's magazine.

[Historian]

Francis Yaqui wrote for Father Coughlin's magazine about how the youth of America was were being indoctrinated by leftist ideas.

[Political Commentator]

He's just indulging his attraction to far right politics.

[Historian]

So by this point Francis Yaqui has been wanted for questioning in connection with the Operation Pistorius case which saw six Nazi saboteurs sent to the electric chair and another half dozen people in this country put on trial for for treason. When he was being sought for questioning in that case, he went awol from the U.S. army and fled to Mexico. The army had declared him a Nazi sympathizer and discharged him from the service. The FBI had linked him to multiple figures on the American ultra right who were being arrested and imprisoned for crimes up to and including sedition against the United States. In other words, this guy was a walking, talking red flag. But during the course of the war, most of the authorities who did encounter him the army, for example they just wanted him out of their hair. We had a war to fight, after all. Who had the time to deal with this kind of thing at home? Letting him out of their grasp was maybe understandable at the time, given everything they had to contend with. But it would also prove to be consequential, because it would not be long before the U.S. military and U.S. intelligence agencies were hunting for him all over the globe. Along the way, American authorities would make it even worse for themselves and more dangerous by giving Yaqui another job connected to the US army, the worst job imaginable for someone like him, one that would put him in the belly of a very dangerous beast, and that would put him in contact with some of the most powerful forces in American politics and government. That's next.

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[NBC Announcer]

This is Roy Porter. In Nuremberg, Germany, 22 Nazi war criminals went on trial a few minutes after 10 this morning, with all but two of them in the defendant's box.

[Historian]

After the Germans surrender in World War II, America and the Allies become an occupying force in a broken, defeated Germany. Their first order of business is to hunt for the Nazi leaders who have survived the war, who are still out there, still alive.

[NBC Announcer]

The creator of the once terrifying Nazi air force, Hogshead shaped Hermann Goering, was overtaken and made prisoner by the US 7th Army.

[Historian]

For senior Nazi leaders who do get captured alive like Hermann Goering, the Allied powers have to figure out pretty quickly what to do with them. What will count as justice not only for the war that the Nazis brought to the world, but for their industrialized slaughter of millions of civilians. What soon comes together is a plan for a trial, an international military tribunal. It will be held in the German city of Nuremberg and it will be jointly run by the four major Allied powers.

[NBC Announcer]

I'm looking right into the faces of the 20 defendants. Goering is in number one position on the front bench. He looks uncommonly healthy and relatively slim.

[Historian]

The war crimes trial is news worldwide. The proceedings are live, translated into four languages. Hundreds of international reporters are on site in Nuremberg. They're allowed to broadcast from studios overlooking the courtroom.

[NBC Announcer]

Next to him sits Rudolf Hess, the Nazi chieftain number two. He's pale, his face is thin and bony and he continually fidgets, fidgets nervously in his seat.

[Historian]

The transparency of this process, the media access to the live proceedings, it's all part of the mission of the international military tribunal. This is to etch the historical record in stone so the whole world will know for sure and forever what Germany did under Nazi rule. So it can never be forgotten, it can never be denied.

[NBC Announcer]

Public trial, in which their guilt will be thoroughly documented for all to read and remember, will keep us from forgetting.

[Historian]

But it's also to showcase that this is justice, that this isn't a show trial. This is fair. The rule of law, the rights of due process apply even to the most notorious defendants on earth. But notoriety is in the eye of the beholder. And for some, the idea that the Nazis had particular crimes to answer for wasn't a given in Germany. There were those who wanted to rehabilitate the Nazi cause and the Nazi movement to claim that Nazi Germany did nothing worse than any other country during the war. Those forces stoked resentment against the war crimes trials.

[NBC Announcer]

Wilhelm Frick on account of the indictment on which you have been convicted.

[Historian]

They attacked the Allies for mounting the trials. They stoked sympathy for the war crimes defendants. And there were Americans who thought along the same lines. And in that context, and for that reason, one particular American determined that he wanted to get himself to the war crimes trials. He wanted to go to Nuremberg. He wanted a job there on the inside.

[Political Commentator]

It's only when the war is over and he starts reading what's going on in Germany that he gets the bright idea to campaign for a position in the Nuremberg war crimes trials in whatever capacity he can find. Because Jaqui obviously wanted to get close to the action.

[Historian]

Francis Yaqui, despite all of his pre war associations with the pro Nazi ultra right in America, despite the US Government seeking to question him about that Nazi sabotage plot, Operation Pastorius, despite the US army having him on file as a Nazi sympathizer, despite all of that, Francis Jaqui somehow manages to get himself hired by the US Government to come to Germany. He gets himself hired as a US Government lawyer at the Nazi war crimes trials.

[NBC Announcer]

Scores of armed guards and military police have blocked off the courtroom from the rest of the building.

[Historian]

In addition to the army files that described him as pro Nazi, FBI files also show that just a few months before he applied to go work on the war crimes trials, the FBI was logging complaints from Yockey's freaked out co workers back home about his unsolicited comments to them that the US had had no business fighting the Nazis in the first place. That quote, germany should have won the war. Nevertheless, despite all of that, Francis Parker Jaqui applied for the war crimes trials job in Germany in 1946. And he got the job.

[Political Commentator]

There's so many instances where he seemed to fall through the cracks.

[Historian]

Whatever epic failure of vetting allowed Francis Yaqui to get there in the first place, once he was in Germany, it quickly became clear that the military had made not just an inexplicable error in hiring him, they'd made a mistake that had consequences. They had hired somebody to work at the war crimes trials who was determined to use that job, to use that access to actively help the Nazis there.

[Political Commentator]

He was one of the lawyers whose job it was to review cases that were asking for clemency.

[Historian]

Yaqui's job at the war crimes unit was in reviewing cases. The building that he reported to every day was a files and message center for the war crimes group, meaning that all sorts of court records and important trial documents were at his disposal. They were at his fingertips.

[Political Commentator]

And that just gave him perfect access to get into any documents that he wanted to get into in an effort to help help the defense attorneys of the very Nazis that he was hired to prosecute.

[Historian]

He was hired to help the prosecution, but what he did was serve as a mole inside the prosecution to instead help the Nazi war crimes defendants. He stole documents and information and secretly gave them to the defendants and their lawyers.

[Political Commentator]

Yaqui worked surreptitiously behind the scenes to help the Nazis. It's very likely that some of his superiors were becoming aware of what he was up to.

[Historian]

US Government files from the time show that Jaqui was found to have, quote, interceded on behalf of German war criminals. Now, as you might expect, Jaqui was ultimately fired from his job on the war crimes trials. U.S. army counterintelligence, in fact, launched a raid of an apartment in Germany that was linked to Jaqui. They wanted to apprehend him, they wanted to question him. But when they got there, he was gone. Jaqui fled Germany ahead of US army counterintelligence investigators who had figured out what he was doing at the war crimes trials and they had come for him. He left his wife and his two daughters behind in Germany when he fled, and then he was in the wind. What would ensue would ultimately be a years long global search for him involving law enforcement and intelligence agencies around the world, involving concerns that, among other things, he was trying to sell black market plans for the cobalt bomb.

[Political Commentator]

He's really turning into a sort of underground fascist James Bond.

[Historian]

His activities, his journey would leave a mark back home here in America. It would see him joining forces with one of the most powerful and effective politicians the American right has ever seen.

[NBC Announcer]

If lumberjack tactics are the only kind of tactics that crowd understands, and take my word for those are the kind of tactics we're going to use on them.

[Historian]

And his effort to help the Nazis to monkey wrench the Nazi war crimes trials, that would ultimately be taken up by other high profile Americans as well, up to and including sitting members of Congress. A number of American congressmen start picking.

[Political Commentator]

Up on this story.

[Historian]

It was a shocking and largely forgotten effort. What it would set in motion would ultimately leave a body count inside the United States Senate.

[NBC Announcer]

All of that starts really a year from hell.

[Historian]

For Senator Hunt and for Francis Yaqui himself, it would be a journey that would end in a way that might be crazier than all the rest of it combined.

[Political Commentator]

An FBI agent was keeping his eye on Yockey when Yaqui suddenly bolted out the door.

[Historian]

All of that is still ahead. Rachel Maddow presided. Ultra is a production of msnbc this episode was written by myself, Mike Jarvitz and Jen Mulraney Donovan. The series is executive produced by myself and Mike Jarvitz. It's produced by Jen Mulraney Donovan and Kelsey Desiderio. Our associate producer is Vasilios Karsilakis. Archival support from Holly Klopchin. Audio engineering and sound design by Bob Mallory and Katherine Anderson. Our head of Audio Production is Bryson Barnes. Our senior executive producers are Cory Naso and Laura Conaway. Our web producer is Will Femia. Aisha Turner is the Executive producer for MSNBC Audio. Rebecca Cutler is the Senior Vice President for Content Strategy at msnbc. Archival radio material is from NBC News via the Library of Congress. Additional archival material is courtesy of the Drew Pearson estate, for which we are very grateful. You can find out much more about this series at our website, msnbc.com ultra.

[NBC Announcer]

52 year old Fritz Sauckel, brutish little man, guilty on counts three and four. He spat out the name Fritz Sauckel when it was asked and then on the trap he shouted, I die innocently. The verdict was wrong. God protect Germany and make Germany great again. Sauckel died at 2:39, 13 minutes after the trap was sprung.