J.Edgar Hoover wasted no time and called a conference in his office immediately after reading Anderson’s report. Hoover was nervously underlining words in the text as Tucker walked in with two other deputies and closed the door.
“My first question is: what do we have in our files concerning Fred Vickers?”
“Very little, Mr. Hoover, and we already sent it to over to New York. Vickers is practically a ghost. Only one very hazy photo from his naturalization papers in 1931 is all we could find. We will have to have an artist’s rendition for a wanted poster.”
“Let’s go ahead with that but hold the likeness until we agree to distribute it. Have you spoken with the agent in charge in New York…---he looked at the memo once again—William Anderson?”
“I just got off the phone with him. He’s been on the case for weeks and has found one person, who is also a person of interest in other matters, who knew Vickers before he left this country in 1935. She could …”
“No, no, Tucker, if she’s involved we don’t want to tip off whoever is pulling the strings and could possibly be ready to take action against us. We have to keep this very low key until we understand the ramifications. There has to be a whole network of spies involved not just one man and we have to have reasonable certainty.”
“I will proceed with the artist’s sketch.”
“Have a team of researchers work on the Vickers profile some more and let’s talk with Anderson in one hour.”
A three-man team went to work in the huge FBI files for any further cross checks and clues regarding Fred Vickers. The first item they turned up was a 1935 report concerning a dinner at Maria’s Isle of Capri restaurant attended by the well-known Italian anarchist Carlo Tresca who was being shadowed by the FBI since his militant involvement in the Sacco and Vanzetti case in the 1920s and as a self proclaimed anarchist.
The report stated that Vickers was sitting opposite Tresca at the table and that they engaged in some verbal sparring in Italian. Tresca was pouncing on Vickers for being too favorable to the Mussolini regime. The FBI informer was focusing on Tresca who had a reputation as an effective labor agitator. The rest of the information on Vickers was very thin, nothing more than a mention of his presence at one event or another in 1935. Among the many “sightings” by routine FBI surveillance were a few visits to the Italian consulate on Park Avenue in April and June 1935. He apparently left for South America later that summer if the interview of Maria Nicolosi was accurate. Then he simply disappeared after booking passage to Venezuela on a ship out of Miami in the first week of August.
Hoover felt nervous about the case. There were too many unknowns and alerting an already harassed Maria Nicolosi could easily jeopardize the operation. For the moment they would limit any action to heavy surveillance of the restaurant and Maria with twenty-four hour wiretaps under suspicion of Axis espionage.
Tucker traveled to New York to meet with Anderson the next day bringing a top-secret artist’s sketch of Vickers. It was to be used only very selectively by FBI agents.
Anderson had found something new in the meantime:
“Vickers rented an efficiency apartment on August 15 at the Croydon Hotel at 86th Street and Madison Avenue under his real name. He stayed there until October 21 and then vanishes completely. The doorman only had a vague recollection since Vickers apparently avoided the hotel’s main entrance and would go through the coffee shop most of the time like many other customers.”
“He sounds more and more like the real McCoy!”
They went to the Croydon for a talk with the employees. The result was disappointing, no one seemed to remember what the man looked like nor did they react with any certainty when they were shown his likeness. The apartments on that floor had changed tenants a few times but the permanent residents of the hotel, one after the other, said they couldn’t remember seeing the man in the picture. Tucker and Anderson returned to Foley Square disappointed. Vickers had gone successfully underground once again.
Later that afternoon fresh information came in from Maracaibo. The FBI office noted that the passengers named Secluna on the Bolivar de Panama had applied for entry into the United States under the name of Rothmann at the U.S. Legation in Caracas and produced a signed affidavit from a cousin living in the Bronx, a Doctor Irwin Meyer. That same night at 9 p.m. Anderson and special agent Davenport went to Dr. Meyer’s residence on the Grand Concourse. They felt lucky when they were told that Hermann Rothmann was temporarily staying in his cousin’s apartment with his family.
Anderson wasted no time and got right to the point,
“Mr. Rothmann, you were a passenger on the Bolivar de Panama from Recife to Maracaibo in August of last year?”
The man looked very concerned and had to be reassured,
“No, well, yes but under a different name …”
“We’re not interested in you Mr. Rothmann, so please relax. We are looking for this man who was also on board that ship. Take a look.”
He showed him the artist’s sketch and Rothmann looked carefully but shook his head,
“No sir, the man on the boat had a thick black beard. He had a small mermaid tattooed on his right forearm, which I remember because one day he was in his short sleeves on deck. But unfortunately he didn’t look like this picture.”
“A beard, you say. Did he use the name Angel Castillo?”
“Yes, that name I do remember now, Castillo. The captain would talk with him at dinner. But you know the trip only lasted a few days and the details are fading by now. We were so nervous about our chances of being admitted into this country…”
“I understand Mr. Rothmann, if you remember anything else call us. We may need your help again and rest assured it will all remain completely confidential.”