◆ SpookStack

Office Memo m . UnITED OVERNMENT : MR. TOLSON TO ALL lNFORMATION CONTAINED DATE: October 24, 1958 "EREIN IS UNCLASSIFIED . FROm Ruth Kuzhw Frisdd Kuehn Ten SUBJECT: Trotler .C.Sullivo DC Tele.no For record purposes. of the "Indianapolis Star," Hoila Washington affice, advised that one af the editors af his paper in Indianapolis had come across Bernard JuliuPKuehn in Indianapolis and had checked into. Kuehn's background and wanted to do a little rehash af this old case. The Kuehn case was an espionage casedn Honolulu involving a. former German naval lieutenant, Bernard Julius Ottd Kuehn, 39 years old, '. his wlfe, Friedel, and daughter, Ruth, who, while living in Honolulu, were. in contact wlth the Japanese and who received payments of money from the Japanese for arranging various signals which consisted of utilizing lights, beacon fires, and clothing displayed at prominent positions which could be b'o observed by the Japanese two-man submarines, which slgnals would indicate. the strength af the United States fleet at Pearl Harbor. It is recalled that on. November l7, 194l, Kuehn took to the Japanese Consulate a set af 17 slgnals which would show the operations of the American fleet. The high command. in Tokyo considered the system too complicated so on December 3, 1941.. Kuehn submitted a new signal plan which met wlth Japanese approval. The Kuehns were arrested on December 8, l94l, and at the tme df apprehension. Mrs. Kuehn had secreted on her person $5, ooo in $i0o bills. She had also placed in the lining af her wlndow curtains an additlonal $2, 00o in $i0o bills.. The Japanese had made payments of more than $40, 000 to the Kuehns in a period'of a year and a half. The Kuehns were tried before a military commissior in Honolulu charged wlth espionage in February, l942, and Kuehn was sentenced . to be executed by a firing squad but the sentence was later commuted to confine- ment at hard labor and Kuehn was thereafter incarcertga?'in the U.s. Penitentiary. at Leavenworth. Kansas. Kuehn's wlfe and daughtewere ordered interned in the United States for the duraton of the war avCwere repatriated to Germany in l945.. :? has been furnished background material on this case, which. was popularly known during the early days of the war as 'The Case af the Lights in the Dormer Window." 6sds74-377 16 0CT a7 1958 1-Mr. Belmont EX-135 195