Skip to content

Charles C. Crowley

Released
Full name:Charles Crowley
Date of birth:October 1857
Date of death:25. 10. 1937
Gender:Male
Race:White
Era:1910s
State:California
Support
Charles C. Crowley

Biography

Charles C. Crowley was a San Francisco private detective hired by the German Consulate under Consul-General Franz Bopp during World War I. Federal prosecutors alleged he was the consulate's principal field operative in plots to plant bombs aboard Canadian munitions ships docked in U.S. and Canadian ports and to disrupt Allied shipping more broadly. He was a co-defendant in the Hindu-German Conspiracy trial (November 20, 1917 - April 24, 1918, U.S. District Court, N.D. Cal.) and was convicted of conspiracy to violate U.S. neutrality. The coded messages he exchanged with Bopp were transmitted through clerk Margaret E. Cornell, who was also convicted. His mug shot was published in Butterick's Delineator (July 1918) in the Huns, Spies and Traitors gallery.

Photo: Press Illustrating Service. Borders cropped from the original scan.

Case

U.S. District Court, Northern District of California
Charges: Conspiracy to violate U.S. neutrality
Convicted: Yes
Institution State: California