In Washington, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover imposed a news blackout to avoid alerting the saboteurs and ordered the largest manhunt in the Bureau’s history. Unfortunately, the FBI had no leads whatsoever.

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By that time, Dasch and his team had already found their way to Manhattan. That afternoon, they bought clothing at Macy’s, then split into pairs for the night, Quirin and Heinck checking in at the Hotel Martinique, Dasch and Burger registering at the Governor Clinton. That evening, over dinner, Dasch and Burger began talking about their worries for Germany and for their family members who lived there. Slowly, they began to realize they had identical intentions: to betray the operation to the Americans.

When did they make this momentous decision? Both men later insisted they were strong anti-Nazis who had intended to scuttle the mission from the moment they were recruited. In Dasch’s case, anyhow, his behavior, particularly the nature of his encounter with Coast Guardsman Cullen, suggests he might have been telling the truth. On the other hand, that encounter might have so spooked Dasch that he felt capture was inevitable and figured the only way he could avoid being executed as a spy was to confess everything and help the FBI catch the others.

As for Burger, there is no hard evidence prior to his conversation with Dasch that he had planned to scuttle the mission. He probably realized, however, that once Dasch made up his mind to double-cross his German employers, he either had to go along with it or kill the other man. And though he was an enthusiastic brawler, Burger was no killer.

On Monday morning, June 15, Dasch and Burger made their plans. Dasch would go to Washington, drop in on J. Edgar Hoover and tell him everything. Burger would wait at the hotel and pacify Heinck and Quirin.

Dasch was worried about contacting the FBI, however. During sabotage training, Kappe had boasted to his recruits that they would be safe in America because the Gestapo had infiltrated the FBI. To protect himself, Dasch called the FBI in New York. Agent Dean McWhorter answered the phone. Dasch said he had arrived from Germany the day before and had information for J. Edgar Hoover. He planned to deliver it in a couple of days, and he wanted the agent to alert Hoover.

McWhorter must have heard about the spy hunt, but he apparently did not connect it with the call. He asked Dasch to come to the FBI office, but Dasch said he needed to speak to Hoover personally, then hung up.

Now Dasch began working up his nerve to go to Washington. He chose an odd way to gain courage–he went to a waiter’s club he knew and played pinochle from Monday night until early Wednesday morning. Then he went back to his hotel and slept until midday. The next morning, he took a train for Washington.

That same day, Thursday, June 18, Edward Kerling and his team landed without incident on Ponte Verdra Beach, 25 miles southeast of Jacksonville. They buried their crates, walked to Route 1 and caught the Greyhound bus for Jacksonville. Within hours, all four were on trains–Kerling and Thiel bound for Cincinnati, Haupt and Neubauer for Chicago.

George Dasch arrived in Washington by midmorning, checked into the Mayflower Hotel and called the FBI. The agent he reached, Duane Traynor, thought it was another crank call but, on the outside chance it was somehow connected with the Amagansett investigation, he sent a man to pick up Dasch.

At the Justice Department, as Dasch later told the story, he was shunted from office to office, finally getting an audience with D.M. “Mickey” Ladd, the man in charge of the spy hunt. Despite the news blackout, Ladd at first believed Dasch had somehow heard about the landing and was trying to cash in on it. Finally, Dasch dumped all of the money Kappe had given him on Ladd’s desk–$84,000 in all. Ladd became a believer.

Now Dasch repeated his request. He wanted to tell his story to Hoover. He fully believed he would be treated as a hero, perhaps even brought in to help make the arrests. Dasch did get to see J. Edgar Hoover, briefly, but he ended up telling his story, 254 pages of it, to Ladd and Traynor. He rambled on for 13 hours, beginning by revealing where Burger was staying.

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