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Germany's dapper, womanizing consul in Atlanta, Georgia orchestrated campaigns of espionage and sabotage in the Southeastern US until he fled to Latin America in early 1917. This article looks at Wilhelm Mueller, his scandalous Yankee lover, and his flight to the Andes.
Sometime in late September or October, 1918, a US military intelligence agent passing through the Columbian Andes near Manizales came across clues that suggested a secluded German wireless outpost high in the mountains. The agent was Charles Waite, a middle-aged travelling salesman for a St. Louis stationary company with much experience in rural Columbia. Waite set out through the mountains on horseback to the suspected location of the German wireless outpost. In his pocket was a photograph of the dangerous German spy Wilhelm Mueller, given him by the U.S. Army Intelligence Office at Ancon, Canal Zone weeks before. On a narrow mountain trail, another rider suddenly emerged from the fog. Waite was electrified with fear--the man looked just like the photograph. Waite did nothing, but his horse was wise enough to take the inside of the shoestring trail. The horses bumped as they passed, and suddenly the German and his mount plunged hundreds of feet into the canyon below.
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