Franz Bopp

Franz Bopp was the German Consul-General in San Francisco from 1914 until his arrest on April 8, 1917. He was the most senior defendant in the Hindu-German Conspiracy trial in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, which ran from November 20, 1917 to April 24, 1918. The trial concerned the Indo-German-Irish plot to ship American weapons to India for an uprising against British rule and to disrupt British and Allied munitions shipping. As Consul-General, Bopp directed the network from his San Francisco office, communicating in coded messages routed through his clerical staff (including Margaret E. Cornell) to operatives such as private detective Charles C. Crowley. He was convicted of conspiracy to violate U.S. neutrality and sentenced to two years federal prison and a $10,000 fine. He was confined at the federal penitentiary on McNeil Island, Washington. His mug shot was published in Butterick's Delineator (July 1918) in the magazine's Huns, Spies and Traitors gallery.