Part 25

May 17, 1910: Arrested in Los Angeles charged with uttering fictitious checks. In simple language this means just a little bit of forgery. Los Angeles Police Department file, No. 7613.

June 10, 1910: Sentenced to three years imprisonment; sentence suspended upon tearful assurances of good behavior.

May 12, 1912: Picked up in Philadelphia charged with being a fugitive; brought back to Los Angeles.

July 1, 1912: Committed to San Quentin. Guest No. 25835.

April 21, 1915: Committed to Folsom from Santa Barbara on a forgery charge. Guest No. 9542.

Feb. 1, 1919: Arrested in Los Angeles County charged with suspicion of a felony. Los Angeles County No. 14554.

June 31, 1924: Arrested in San Francisco, charged with uttering fictitious checks. No. 35570.

Oct. 5, 1925: Los Angeles Police Department issued notice that Allen was wanted for uttering fictitious checks. Bulletin No. 233.

Allen is apparently a prolific writer--of bad checks and of long reports about his activities to his superiors.

Two of Allen's close friends are also native Americans: C.F. Ingalls of 2702 Bush St., San Francisco and George Deatherage (the G.D. mentioned earlier). Deatherage now lives and operates out of St. Albans, W. Va. He organized the American Nationalist Confederation which used to have its headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif. Both these gentlemen also work with Schwinn.

On January 7, 1938, Deatherage received from San Francisco a letter signed "C.F.I."--in a plain envelope without a return address. The letter is very long and detailed. I quote in part:

We must get busy organizing grid-lattice-work or skeleton for a military staff throughout the nation, and in this we need representatives of fascist groups, and we need Americans with whom these others may be incorporated.... All must believe in being ruthless in an emergency....

The political and the military organizations must not be unified. They have different aims. With one hand we offer the public a potential program. Whether they accept it or not and whether they wish to return to the ideals embodied in a representative form of a constitutional federal republic or not, is of secondary importance. Of first importance is the need of the emergency military organization to function simultaneously should our enemies revolt if we should win politically or should we revolt if our enemies win politically.

On January 19, 1938, Deatherage received a letter signed with the code name "Laura and Clayton." "Laura" is Hermann Schwinn. This letter, too, is long and goes into details on how best to organize the secret military group and have it ready for instant action. The letter states at one point:

After we do all this, now then we shall have the national military framework all steamed up and oiled and coupled to the multiplicity of working parts ready to appear on all fronts....

After "C.F.I." and "Laura and Clayton" had decided on the details of the secret military body in which they needed the aid of "Nazi and fascist" forces, they needed money and arms.

Early in January, Allen received from "Mrs. Fry and C. Chapman" four hundred and fifty dollars for a trip to Washington, D.C. "Mrs. Fry and C. Chapman" live in Santa Monica, but use Glendale, Calif, for a post office address. This money was spent between January 13 and February 10, 1938, according to the expense account Allen turned in to the Fry-Chapman combination.

Three days after Allen got the money (January 16, 1938), he received from Schwinn a letter of introduction to Fritz Kuhn, addressed to the Amerikadeutscher Volksbund, 178 E. 85th Street, New York City. The letter was written in German. Following is the translation:

My Bund Leader:

The bearer of this letter is my old friend and comrade-in-arms, Henry Allen, who is coming East on an important matter.

Mr. Allen knows the situation in Los Angeles and California very well and can give you important information. We can give Allen absolute confidence.

Hail and Victory, HERMANN SCHWINN.

The "important matter" on which Allen was going East and which he wanted to discuss with the national Nazi leader in this country, was to contact the Italian Embassy, the Hungarian Legation, James True of the James True Associates (distributors of "Industrial Control Reports" from its headquarters in Washington, D.C.), George Deatherage in St. Albans, W. Va., and several others.

Allen reported regularly to Chapman, signing his letters with the code name "Rosenthal." I quote in part from one letter written from Washington on January 24, 1938:

Upon calling at the Rumanian Embassy I found the Ambassador with all his attaches are of the Carol-Tartarescu regime, and they are sailing on Wednesday, January 26. The new Ambassador will arrive with his staff on Saturday, I am told. The letter which you gave me I mailed to Budapest myself, not daring to entrust it to the present staff at the Embassy. At the Italian Embassy I found the Ambassador away, but I had a very delightful and satisfactory conference with Signor G. Cosmelli, who is the Italian counselor....

Shortly after the conference at the Italian Embassy, True and Allen conferred. Subsequently, True wrote to Allen and added a postscript in long hand: "But be very careful about controlling the information and destroy this letter."

Allen did not destroy it immediately. The letter, dated February 23, 1938, reads in part:

The bunch of money promised off and on for three years may come through within the next week or two. We have had so many disappointments that I hardly dare hope but there seems a fair chance of results. If it comes through we will have you back here in a hurry. You, George, and I will get together and prepare for real action.