Today in 1942, Detroit restaurant owner Max Stephan was convicted of treason and sentenced to death for being a Nazi spy.
TRANSCRIPT
Today in 1942, a Detroit restaurant owner, Max Stephan, was convicted of being a Nazi Spy and sentenced to death for treason. Stephan was an active member of the local German Immigrant community, and it was this community that ultimately informed authorities of Stephan’s Nazi affiliation. The case in Detroit was a national sensation. It was also only the second time in U.S. history where a defendant was convicted and sentenced to death for treason. The first was during the Whiskey Rebellion in the 1790s, though George Washington pardoned the two convicted men. Archival reports from the Detroit News say that just hours before the gallows, Stephan received clemency as President Franklin D. Roosevelt commuted his sentence to life in prison, which is where Stephan die of cancer in 1952.