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Sign of the G. Mystified was Reporter Racusin by an enigmatic white placard bearing the letter G which hung at intervals from a window in Dr. Westrick's house. Early-morning editions of the Herald Tribune that day ran a picture of the house (see cut) with a white circle around the placard and a close-up showing the G enlarged. In later editions the close-up disappeared (along with Newsman Racusin's references to it), but the circle remained. In final editions the circle too was gone.
Probable reason was given by Ace Reporter George Dixon of the New York Daily News. Wrote Satirist Dixon: "Phantom-like men in white have been responding by day and night to mysterious signaling from a secluded Westchester mansion—now disclosed as the secret quarters of Dr. Gerhardt Alois Westrick. . . . Invariably they carry carefully wrapped packages. . . . They salute with all the precision of storm troopers, deliver the packages, salute again—and silently depart. . . . Super-sleuthing finally solved the mystery just before last midnight. Jerome Glasser, treasurer of a large corporation, revealed that ... his company has been doing business with the Nazi household. 'That sign,' said Glasser, ' . . . can mean only one thing—somebody wants a Good Humor.' "*
So What? Reporter Racusin provided no real evidence that Nazi Westrick was a conspirator, probably for the reason that he isn't—his object is not small time spying but big-time propaganda among U. S. businessmen. But the "revelations" proved highly embarrassing for a number of people. One of those embarrassed was Captain Rieber, who had made the mistake of doing small favors for a Nazi propagandist who was an old friend. He saw the press in a hurry and declared that he did not like the idea of dictatorships, but that his company was in the oil business, not in diplomacy or politics.
Dr. Westrick, who had made the mistake of trying to conceal his identity and whereabouts (apparently for the honest reason that he was harassed by telephone calls from angry anti-Nazis), hurried to Manhattan's motor vehicle bureau (in a taxi) to explain his license applications. He denied that he had lost a leg in World War I, admitted he had lost a foot. He denied that he had told a falsehood in naming an engineer of Texas Corp. (his client) as his employer, but admitted he had failed to notify the bureau when he moved to Scarsdale. He also tried belatedly to claim diplomatic immunity. His driver's license was revoked but he managed to have his car registration transferred to his wife.
Said Harold A. Callan, Manhattan lawyer who leased the Scarsdale house to Dr. Westrick: "I have asked the Westricks to leave my home as soon as possible. . . . If I had known that he ... was representing the German Government, I would not have closed the deal. ..."
Lawyer Callan happens to work for the firm of Shearman & Sterling, one of whose clients is Captain Rieber's Texas Corp. At week's end, Dr. Westrick packed his trunks without haste, made ready to move out of Lawyer Callan's house "as soon as possible." Next week, on Aug. 12, his three-months lease expires.
*Brand name of ice cream on a stick peddled by white-uniformed salesmen throughout the U. S.