The Charlemagne Murders

by Douglass, Carl;

  “We are looking into that possibility, of course, Friedrich;but suggestive connections to other murders lead us to look more intensely into the ODESSA and Spider organizations; and we need your help in that area.”

  “I presume you are well aware of how close-knit and closed-mouth the ODESSA people are, my friend.”

  “Of course. But we are not investigating the ODESSA for its crimes—past or current—rather we are looking for leads related to our murder and possibly the series of murders that have come to our attention.”

  “I will help, but you must assure me that there will be nothing that will lead from you to the ODESSA and back to me. They are almost as powerful as the government, far more powerful than the police, and more lethal than either you or I can imagine.”

  “You have my assurances, of course, Friedrich.”

  “I have already had some inquiries and requests for intervention from our own German law enforcement authorities, and I am quite sure the matter is under investigation—an almost subliminal investigation. I was called by Kriminalkommissar [Detective Lieutenant] Horst Schäfer who is looking into a murder that took place in the IG Farben factory in Ludwigshafen.

  “I have the records here. Let me see … ah, yes. The victim was known as Gunther Emil Sondregger at his work and had been since the end of the war. Schäfer learned that the man’s birth name was Heinrich Rudolf Gajewski, and that he was highly respected in the chemical aspects of the Nazi war machine working under top SS officials and the IG Farben conglomerate. I called in a number of important favors and arranged for Kriminalkommissar Schäfer to meet with the second-ranking ODESSA officer in Germany–Heinrich Kohler–who is a well-established executive of the WestBerlinImportExport Corporation. In fact, Kohler is the Stellvertretender Direktor [Deputy Director] there. Since then Kriminalkommissar Schäfer has been working with Kriminalkommissar Leopold Boehm, head of the FIU [Financial Intelligence Unit] of the Bundespolitzei and their very capable staffs. I believe it would be of considerable value to work with those teams in the Bundespolitzei and to avoid the rest of law enforcement in Deutschland, if you catch my drift.”

  “I very much value your candor, Friedrich; and I will tread lightly. My deputy in Germany is a fine officer by the name of Alina Hertzog. I will have her get in touch with Detective Schäfer and see if our combined resources can shed light on the murders.”

  “I would wish you luck—if I believed in luck, Eugène; so, I will hope for your success … and for your safety. If there is anything else I can do as the investigation proceeds, let me know.”

  “Thank you, Friedrich, I will do that. And I will keep you posted as to our success.”

  “Good luck on any of that,” Chief von der Lippe muttered to himself after the telephone connection was severed.

  Senior Detective Chief Superintendent Dentremont put down the phone and immediately dialed the Landespolizei [Bundeslandt State Police], Kripo division.

  “Landespolizei, how may I direct your call?”

  “Kriminalpolitzei, Detective Branch, please.”

  “Who may I say is calling, sir.”

  “Senior Detective Chief Superintendent Eugène Léon Dentremont, INTERPOL.”

  “Yes, sir, right away,” the receptionist said.

  It was always gratifying to hear or to see the response on his listener when he gave his full name and title. On a personal level Friedrich loathed the grandiosity of his or any other officer’s title, but it often hastened the work along; so, he used his credentials to his maximum advantage more frequently than he cared to admit to himself.

  “To whom would you like to speak, Senior Detective Chief Superintendent?”

  “Detective Lieutenant Horst Schäfer, please.”

  Schäfer came on the line in less than two minutes.

  “Yes sir, Senior Detective Chief Superintendent. This is Horst Schäfer. How may I be of service?”

  “I believe we can serve each other in a common cause. First, however, could we dispense with-the cumbersome titles? I prefer to work with people using first names. Mine is Eugène. May I call you Horst?”

  “Of course, Si … a … Eugène.”

  “I will be brief, Horst. This morning I received a call from a detective in Argentina related to a murder of an Argentinian citizen named Carlos Carlos Aguillara-Dominguez, aka Hörst Dietsel, formerly a German citizen and Nazi SS officer. I was informed by Chief von der Lippe in Wiesbaden that you were familiar with another similar case—that of Gunther Emil Sondregger aka Heinrich Rudolf Gajewski and were already well underway in an investigation that interests us at INTERPOL. We are most interested in Dietsel’s and Gajewski’s connection to the ODESSA, and Chief von der Lippe thought you were well ahead of me in that regard. Would you be willing to collaborate, Horst?”

  “With enthusiasm, Eugène. However, I have to tell you that security will have to be extremely tight. I have had several warnings, some not so pleasant. We are treading on sensitive toes in this case.”

  “I understand fully. My deputy in Germany–Agent Alina Hertzogis waiting for your call in our office in Berlin. I would appreciate it very much if you would contact her today, if that is possible. We have considerable resources we can offer to you and hope you are willing to share. INTERPOL is not interested in taking credit or usurping authority. We want these criminals brought to justice. If the ODESSA or a few Mafiosos along the way happen to fall into our net—well, all to the good.”

  “I am excited to collaborate, Eugène. I will call Alina as soon as we hang up.”

  “Then, don’t let me cause you delay, Horst. Good bye.”

  Before Eugène could make his next call—to Adolf Henckel—his phone rang with a call from Moscow, which was a rarity in Eugène’s long experience.

  “Hello,” he said, “this is Senior Detective Chief Superintendent Dentremont.”

  “Thank you for taking my call, Chief Superintendent. I am Lieutenant of militsiya Trushin Vasilyovich Stepanovich, the Moscow police officer in charge of the investigation into the murder of Lieutenant General of Cavalry Grigory Yegorivich Lagounov.”

  Eugène’s interest was piqued immediately. Investigations had a way of taking on a life of their own; and if this call was related to the other murders, then “the thick was beginning to plotten,” as he like to joke with his subordinates. They spoke English together, the common language between them.

  “Please fill me on the details, and I will see if or how we can help, Lieutenant. Also, would it be all right if we used first names. It is easier to remember and to say Trushin and Eugène than to go through all of the titles.”

  “Thank you, sir. Russian names are difficult on the ears of people outside the Soviet Union; so, ‘Trushin’ may save us time as we work together.”

  Eugène liked the authoritative presumptiveness of the young man and was hopeful to have any new information be a valuable addition to the growing investigation.

  “Ordinarily I would not consider this case to be within the purview of INTERPOL, Eugène; and, of course, the Soviet Union does not recognize INTERPOL—we have ‘socialist legalism’ as you know. There are officers above my position who would have my job in a minute if they knew that I was talking to you. The reason I want to collaborate about the murder of Gen. Lagounov is that my administrative assistant found newspaper articles from several countries which detailed murder cases very similar to ours. Maybe it is just a hunch, but I am becoming more and more convinced that we are seeing an international criminal conspiracy or linked crimes in multiple countries.”

  “I am inclined to agree with you, Trushin. Can you bring me up to date on what you have discovered so far in your case?”

  “Certainly, and I assume you can make your findings available to me as well.”

  “Easier said than done, my friend, since the Soviet Union has not yet elected to join the rest of the world in sharing criminal record information. How can we go about this sharing?”

  “My administrative assistant�
�Militsiya Private Lada Kornikova–is very capable of utilizing the new communications machines, and I think we can transmit written material by telex, telegraph, and Morse code apparatuses. She is also very much able to handle secrets properly. Do you have someone she can work with, Eugène?”

  “I certainly do, Trushin. We are fully aware of the delicacy of communications between our two services; so, we will make every effort to keep transmissions strictly between us.”

  Eugène listened to the cacophony of telex, telegraph, and Morse code machines being operated by more than forty technicians in the large room outside his private office, and made his decision.

  “I will have my senior technician, Forensic Specialist Marianne de la Reynie, contact your Militisyi Private Kornikova to begin the exchange of information. Would that be satisfactory for you?”

  “Yes. However … and this is a sensitive problem between our two services … can we be certain that there will be no undue influence from the Nazi sympathizers remaining in your organization, Eugène?”

  “Another officer would possibly be offended by your question, Trushin; but I am all too aware of the dark history of INTERPOL during the war. It is true that INTERPOL submitted to Nazi authorities in World War II and later refused to pursue war criminals. It is also true that INTERPOL has preferred to camouflage behind the rule that it must avoid all involvement in politics. There are some who still have that bias. I give you my word that I am in the business of pursuing criminals of all stripes and will not flinch in the least if we encounter Nazi criminals during our investigations. Do you feel that you can trust me, Trushin? Our association will hinge on our mutual trust.”

  “I do. But the test of our trust will come as we move along. You and I must have an open and candid communication at all times to deal with such questions. If you can agree to that, I will take the very considerable risks attached to my inclusion of your service into my investigation. I will hold nothing back. It is more than my life is worth to be betrayed to my superiors.”

  “I will protect you with every resource at my disposal, Trushin. My team is hand-picked with one requirement being that they–like me–are truly nonpolitical. Another requirement is that they must be highly professional and competent. Finally, they must be entirely loyal. For the past nearly twenty years, I have found my team to have an excellent record in all of those aspects.”

  “Good enough for me, Eugène. Let me start with a summary of our findings.”

  CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT

  Le Bureau Central National (BCN) d’INTERPOL pour la France [The International Criminal Police Organization, or INTERPOL], Office of Senior Detective Chief Superintendent Eugène Léon Dentremont, 200 Quai Charles de Gaulle, 69006 Lyon, France, August 30, 1962, later that same day

  Lieutenant of Militsiya Trushin Vasilyovich Stepanovich had gone to considerable effort to prepare for this conversation with the senior detective chief superintendent of INTERPOL. He was fully aware of how much was at stake—mutual trust and security and conveying to the INTERPOL officer that he and his MYC [Moscow Criminal Investigations Department] were worthy of being considered to be a professional police department and not one that served as a puppet of the Soviet regime. He would be a dead man if it became known that he was entering into a partnership with a bourgeois capitalist organization with a dubious background with the Nazis. He determined to enter into the partnership fully and to accept the risks of his decision.

  “We have begun inquiries in several directions, Eugène. Lada and Marianne can deal with the rather large quantities of background documentation separately.”

  “That sounds good, Trushin. We have extensive contacts around the world outside the Soviet Union, and already they are beginning to look into different areas of interest involved in the possibly connected murders internationally.”

  “So, Eugène, this is what we have learned.—I will spare you the details for the moment unless you ask questions: On October 9, 1961, Arkhangelskoye Military Convalescent Home, USSR, retired Lieutenant General of Cavalry Grigory Yegorivich Lagounov was murdered by a sword thrust during daylight hours. The murder itself was not witnessed, but several members of the Arkhangelskoye facility did see a stranger enter the general’s room and close the door. Within minutes, Lagounov was found dead.

  “Our investigation revealed that Lagounov had accumulated a very significant number of serious enemies during his career, which is not altogether unusual for a senior leader of the Soviet Union. We have narrowed the general categories to these: Lagounov served the revolution in a Workers’and Peasants’ Red Army cavalry unit headed by Gen. Budenny before 1922 when he was just a boy. His first service was during the insurrection of General Alexey Maximovich Kaledin’s Volunteer Army in the River Don region. There is not a White Russian living who does not know his name and who would not volunteer to kill the general if the opportunity were to arise.

  “Another significant area where enemies developed was in the ranks of officers and enlisted personnel during his military activities. These included civilian and military victims of the ‘Special Punitive Department or Extraordinary Commission’ which he commanded before, during, and after the Great Patriotic War. Any student of real Soviet history since the revolution knows the motto of the Cheka troops—‘Exhortation, Organization, and Reprisals’—was authored by Lagounov. He was the supervisor of innumerable atrocities while he was the head of the Cheka Special Punitive Brigades; there are serious men still living among Red Army officers who opposed his so-called ‘shock troops’ tactics during both the Great War and the Great Patriotic War because they violated the army’s traditional fixed plans. His Cheka and shock troop men were considered to be no better than mere spies by some of the generals—a few still living. There were complaints about the high rate of casualties they suffered and blamed that on Captain Lagounov. When he learned of their discontent, the captain had the senior officers shot in front of the surviving troops as an object lesson. Hundreds or perhaps thousands of soldiers and their families were humiliated, tortured, and often murdered when Lagounov accused the soldiers of cowardice, slacking, and desertion.

  “Literally millions of enemies were created during his tenure as the head NKVD German POW camps during the Red Army advance into Germany and as head of a special treatment gulag in Siberia. The West German government estimates the actual death toll of German POWs in the USSR at about 1.0 million. The last German POWs—those who were sentenced for war crimes—were released in 1956, and it is presumed that many of those who survived are still living in Eastern or Western Europe and are nursing intense grudges. There is one special subset of gulag victims to consider and that is the last group of Germans and Russians who were repatriated. They were arrested during the war–some before 1945–and kept as slaves in Siberia. They were assigned to special punitive conditions and were tortured and murdered by the scores. Some few are known to have survived. There were even a few Frenchmen who were part of Hitler’s elite guard during the Battle of Berlin. Both the French and the Russians insist that all of them are dead, but there are some records that indicate that a very few may have lived long enough to be interned in the slave labor POW camps run by the Americans and French. There is no record of them after that.”

  “You are right about me having never heard of a French unit serving Hitler until today. The longer I live the more I learn about that terrible conflict. I am in hopes that you and Lada have been able to narrow the field better than millions of persons of interest, Trushin.”

  “We have tried, Eugène. The list is still lengthy; so, maybe it would be better to leave that to Lada and Marianne.”

  “My mind is already in a whirling haze, my friend. I think you are right about getting a committee to work on what you have unearthed. Congratulations. I look forward to our cooperative endeavor.”

  After they disconnected, Senior Superintendent Dentremont squeezed his temples and wondered what he had gotten himself into. He collected himself and put in his delayed
call to Inspector Henckel in Córdoba.

  “Hello, Adolf. This is Eugène. I have learned a few things and would like to convey those to you while they are still fresh on my mind.”

  “Thank you. I will take notes.”

  Dentremont filled Henckel in on the reported assassinations of French Général de division, Ret., Étienne Malboeuf in Paris, US Army General Glen Gabler, Ret., in Alaska, British Lieutenant General Sir Cyril Goeffrey Robert Hill-Brownwell, RA, Ret., in London, and Lieutenant General of Cavalry Grigory Yegorivich Lagounov, Ret., in Moscow. He outlined his suggestions for the special investigations unit working out of INTERPOL headquarters in Lyon.

  “I am not sure if you are familiar with our agent in Italy, Giuliano Pasqualone. He is a very fine cop and has several geniuses working in his analysis unit. Would you be willing to work with him to advance the investigation into both Paraguay and Argentina to get a clear vision of what motives might be driving Nazis and neo-Nazis to remove one of their own, or what other motives might be behind a connection of Nazis to your victim, Carlos Aguillara-Dominguez, aka Hörst Dietsel?”

  “Of course, Eugène. Have him call me, and together we can get our two sets of geniuses into action. He will get to know my hand-picked unit: José Emanuel de Corsos, Teniente Policía de la Provincia de Policía de Córdoba, PPC [Detective, Police of the Province of Córdoba], Manuel de Jesus, Sargentopolicíaprovbsas Policía de la Provincia de Córdoba, PPC [Corporal, Police of the Province of Córdoba], and José Emanuel de Corsos, Teniente Policía de la Provincia de Policía de Córdoba, PPC [Detective, Police of the Province of Córdoba], Dr. Konrad Schmidt von Dresden, Córdoba Provincial Police Medical Examiner, and Gerhardt Möller, Oficial de Policía [Police Officer] Policía de la Provincia de Córdoba, PPC.”

  “I can see that this is going to be a very complex case, Adolf. I think it best to have my office serve as the administration and communications center and to pool our findings. Does that meet with your approval, Inspector Henckel?”