Episode Details

Today in 1942, Detroit restaurant owner Max Stephan was convicted of treason and sentenced to death for being a Nazi spy. A member of the local German immigrant community, Stephan was turned in by his peers, making the case a national sensation. It was only the second time in U.S. history someone was sentenced to death for treason, the first being during the Whiskey Rebellion. Hours before his execution, President Franklin D. Roosevelt commuted Stephan's sentence to life in prison, where he died of cancer in 1952.