Today is Saturday, June 27th, 2020.

On this day in 1942, the FBI captured the last of eight Nazi saboteurs planning to decimate the American war machine.

Bureau leader J Edgar Hoover was hailed as an American hero, but heroics can be deceiving.

Welcome to today in true crime, a parcast original.

Due to the graphic nature of today's crimes,

listener discretion is advised.

Extreme caution is advised for listeners under 13.

Today we're covering an early turning point in World War II when the US government

thwarted a Nazi attempt to sabotage America on its own soil. Now let's go back to the morning of June 27th, 1942. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover was two arrests away from taking down an entire unit of Nazi spies.

The mission was crucial, not only to the safety of the country, but also to the reputation of his organization.

The German unit was called Operation Pastorious, and they plotted bombings of various cultural and business

institutions all across the East Coast.

Most of the team had already been arrested in New York,

their locations given up by their unit's leader,

a man named George Dash,

but two had been assigned to Chicago

and were harder to track down.

One German-American Herber-Taupt was found when he walked right into a local FBI office

to explain why he had not registered for the draft.

The agents quickly identified him as one of the spies and tracked him to his uncle's

home.

Herbert was only 22, the youngest of the group of eight men. He was terrified by the

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