The unknotting of an alleged spy tale: The story of Leopold Cobianchi
Leopold Cobianchi comes to Bristol and finds he is the subject of a spy investigation. | Public Domain
MARCH 29, 2025
By Rit Carter |
I. Welcome to Bristol
On the morning of March 17, 1917, 22-year-old Leopold Cobianchi, an aspiring Yale law student, boarded a train in New Haven bound for Bristol.
Toting a wooden suitcase filled with his clothes, pencils, pads and notebooks, he arrived in Bristol by early afternoon and found his way to 357 N. Main St., where he settled into a boarding house owned by George S. Scheer.
At the encouragement of his family and teachers, he came to Bristol to take a break from his studies. However, nine days after his arrival and only 11 days before the United States entered World War I, he was arrested on suspicion of espionage for Germany.
II.
In the spring of 1917, the United States was on the verge of war, so the mood was tense and patriotism was at a fever pitch.
A week before Cobianchi’s arrival in Bristol, State Sen. Charles C. Hemenway spoke on loyalty and patriotism before the Young Men’s Catholic Club at Bristol’s GAR Hall. The speech was well received.
Within days of Cobianchi’s arrest, at the urging of many prominent Bristol female citizens, Bristol Mayor Joseph Dutton appointed a committee to organize the town’s women for patriotic service.
That same day, in a drenching rainstorm, 300 Bristol residents attended a patriotic rally at the Armory.
And it was not just patriotism that was punctuating the times.
The search for spies had become manic. Each week, newspapers were peppered with stories of German spies and saboteurs.
The Connecticut Council on Defense published a pamphlet warning residents to be mindful of spies and “enemy eavesdropping.”
In 1914, actor William Gillette, while staying in London, Scotland Yard authorities were tipped by chambermaids that incriminating documents were in his hotel room. The papers described in detail someone secretly sneaking into an embassy to steal documents. The suspicious papers turned out to be a play he was writing.
With the anxiety of a world war looming, it is no surprise that on the afternoon of the 26th, Bristol had its own spy story.
III. Judging a book by its cover
On Tuesday, March 27, 1917, newspapers across the state and as far away as Oregon and Canada splashed headlines that a spy was caught in Bristol.
Since his arrival, Mrs. Scheer became suspicious of Cobianchi and a companion he was rooming with when she discovered documents hidden in his bed. Her suspicions were furthered when Cobianchi received mail under the alias “Ed Coby.” When asked about the nature of their business, they told her they were government inspectors in the city, working on government projects. Due to her suspicions, she called the Bristol Police.
When they arrived at 357 N. Main St., a trove of documents awaited them.
Maps of Bristol’s business and industrial sections, as well as maps of the United States, Mexico and a Mexican Central Railroad timetable.
A notebook containing a cipher.
Rough sketches of the city and descriptive sketches of the location of various large factories, including a gun mounted on a hill in the north section of the town, which included algebraic equations.
Coordinates for a German submarine base in Mexico, located at 45 degrees N. L. and 20 degrees E. M. and the best way to reach it without discovery.
An essay defending German unrestricted submarine warfare.
Bristol PD also came across a blue button with white lettering that read “1 of 1,000.” Police took the pin to mean Cobianchi was one of 1,000 plotters against the government.
According to Leopold, it was then that police ramped up the intensity of their search. Among his papers, they found a letter addressed to his wife under his alias, in which he referred to Bristol as a cemetery.
Led by Detective Edward Cullem, the police took Cobianchi to their Main Street station for further questioning by Police Chief Ernest Beldon. Finding his answers inconsistent and “rambling,” a United States Marshal was summoned. Deputy Marshal T.E. Hawley arrived, and, along with Detective Cullem, the shaken college student was taken by train to Hartford for interrogation by the United States District Attorney.
At the time, BPD thought Leopold was merely a stooge being controlled by someone.
Once in Hartford and over the next few days, federal authorities zeroed in on the button and began to turn the screws.
William Murphy, a watchman at Russell & Erwin Manufacturing in New Britain, was summoned to Hartford. Two weeks before Cobianchi was detained, Murphy saw a suspicious man in the factory yard and chased him off the property. The watchman was brought in to determine if Cobianchi was the suspect. He wasn’t.
On the surface, it seemed that a spy had been rooted out.
However, back in Leopold’s hometown of New Haven, folks were not buying the spy story because Leopold’s reputation was stellar.
Leopold was the oldest of nine kids, and while attending school, he was also working nights at the Sargent Hardware.
Census records show that Leopold’s parents, Pasquale and Anna, immigrated to the U.S. in 1899 and settled in New Haven’s large Italian immigrant community. Pasquale was the publisher of the New Haven weekly L’Indipendente.
New Haven Police Chief I. Phillip Smith and New Haven Police Captain Henry Donnelly vouched for his innocence.
Arthur Booth of the Booth Preparatory School, where Leopold was studying at night in preparation for the entrance exam to Yale Law School, came to Hartford to speak about his character.
The United States v. Leopold Cobianchi began to fall apart rather quickly once the context of his activities was understood and proven.
Map of Bristol marked with a cannon: Police connected this to sabotage and gunfire, but Cobianchi was using the map to work on physics problems, incorporating local landscape features into his studies.
Calculations of a gun’s firing range: The police assumed this meant Cobianchi was involved in a plot, but it was just part of his academic studies, not criminal activity.
Button with “One of 1,000”: This cryptic phrase was assumed to represent a coded message about a supposed plotters against the government. However, it was the slogan of a local political club, the New Haven Young Democratic Club, of which Cobianchi was a member.
Essay defending German unrestricted submarine warfare: Given the times, this was seen as suspicious, but Cobianchi wrote it as part of an academic exercise to learn how to argue both sides of an issue per his father’s advice.
IV. The innocence of Leopold Cobianchi
On the morning of April 10, United States District Attorney Thomas J. Spellacy wrote to the court that all charges against Leopold were being dropped. “I beg to advise you that after a most careful investigation, it has been found that the defendant is innocent of any wrongdoing and consequently should be discharged.”
Where once the story dominated the headlines for two days, the dismissal of charges was relegated to the back sections of newspapers, buried in the news. Most papers outside Connecticut did not report that the charges were dropped.
Did the newspapers realize they had made an error? Perhaps. In those initial days, they were eager to report his guilt. However, a search of local newspapers shows they went silent on the matter from March 29 until April 10, the day he was released. There were no story updates, letters to the editor published condemning Leopold, or editorials about lurking spies on every street corner.
In New Haven, though, the newspapers knew it to be a nothing burger from the start. “This promises to turn out to be a huge joke,” wrote one.
The New Haven Currier opined, “Perhaps these facts might seem suspicious in themselves, but when the truth is stated, it will be seen how ridiculous the whole is so far as Cobianchi is concerned.”
Bristol would eventually get their story, but it would be another year to get their man.
On the day of Cobianchi’s arrest, Theodore Beussel, a German Lutheran pastor on Judd Street, was accused of encouraging parishioners to stay loyal to the Fatherland during a sermon.
The following April, he was arrested on charges of sedition. He was tried and convicted, and his U.S. citizenship was revoked. Later, the Justice Department wrote that while Beussel was pro-German, he had not violated the law. He was tried as a warning to others to stay in line.
The story of Leopold Cobianchi illustrates how, in times of heightened tension, political and societal tensions can lead to extreme conclusions and consequences.
Leopold died in 1929 at the age of 35. He served two terms as an alderman for the City of New Haven. He is interned at the Evergreen Cemetery in New Haven.