[dramatic music]
♪ ♪
[David] Tonight on "Secrets Declassified"...
the ultimate masters of deception
who pulled off schemes so convincing,
they stayed hidden for decades.
From the FBI agent posing for six years
as mobster Donnie Brasco...
- He's so deep undercover, he's the best man
at a Mafia wedding.
[David] To one cop's unbelievable mission
to become a Black Klansman.
- The idea of a Klan chapter in his city?
He ain't having it.
[David] And the World War II weapon that's
disguised as a treat good enough to eat.
[Sami] All you'd have to do is stick
a detonator into a loaf of bread,
you've turned a baguette into a bomb.
[David] These are the astonishing
and sometimes terrible deceptions carried out
by governments and the people who work for them.
It's time to bring them to light.
♪ ♪
Imagine taking a job for six months
and ending up living a double life for six years.
That's exactly what one FBI undercover agent does
to bring down one of New York's most feared crime families.
[tense music]
- In the mid 1970s, five Mafia families
are locked in a battle for control
of New York's underworld.
- This mob war creates an explosion of crime
in the greater New York area.
Murder, prostitution, drug dealing--
this has to be brought under control.
[David] To take down organized crime,
the FBI needs informants.
But when it comes to the Mafia, nobody talks.
- A Mafia family is an impenetrable fortress.
Its activities are shielded by a sacred code
of silence known as omerta.
Informers and their families
face threats of brutal retaliation.
[David] With no one daring to rat,
the bureau takes a different tack.
- The FBI decides to embed one agent in the Mafia's world
for six months, long enough, they hope,
to win the mobsters' trust and gather the intelligence
needed to begin breaking apart the mob.
[David] This is the FBI's first long-term
undercover operation targeting the Mafia.
To pull it off, the bureau turns to Joe Pistone.
[Greg] Pistone is a young but seasoned agent
with a unique set of qualities,
qualities that make him perfect for infiltrating the Mafia.
[Dan] He's of Sicilian descent.
He speaks fluent Italian, and he grew up
in the blue collar neighborhoods of New Jersey.
Those are Mafia heartland, so he has an intimate
understanding of mob culture and its rules.
[David] To enter the Mafia's world,
Pistone first creates a bulletproof cover story.
- Pistone is reborn as Donnie Brasco,
a slick, small time jewel thief with a yellow Cadillac
and a bling fashion sense.
The FBI forms this new identity
with painstaking precision.
They give Pistone a fake driver's license
and a fake Social Security number.
[David] Next, Pistone needs someone
who can get him an in with New York's Mafia,
so he spends night after night in the city's mob haunts
looking for an opening.
- After weeks of work, he finally gets his break.
A contact introduces him to Benjamin "Lefty" Ruggiero,
a respected foot soldier in the Bonanno family.
[David] Lefty could be Pistone's ticket
into the heart of this notorious crime family.
But to win this mafioso over, Pistone must convince him
he's the real deal.
[Greg] The only way to gain Lefty's trust
is to help him commit mob crimes.
This means that Pistone has to hock stolen goods,
sell weapons, and collect on loans.
- As an FBI agent, it's a constant balancing act.
He's permitted to get his hands dirty,
but they have two strict rules:
no violence, and he can never be the one to initiate a crime.
[David] While the FBI keeps tabs from afar,
Pistone plays the aspiring mobster to perfection.
Finally, Lefty brings him into the Bonannos' inner circle,
and Pistone is plunged into New York's underworld.
- Soon, Pistone is gathering a mountain of evidence
against dozens of Bonanno mobsters.
And the operation's going so well that,
when the six months are up, his supervisors decide
to extend it indefinitely.
[David] But Pistone faces a problem
he never saw coming as the line between
his two identities begins to blur.
- Pistone begins to develop genuine friendships
with Lefty and his crew.
- He's so trusted by Lefty that Lefty invites him to be
the best man at his wedding.
[Sami] That's one of the highest honors
in Sicilian Mafia culture, and here it is,
unknowingly being given to a cop.
He's constantly forced to confront
an impossible question.
Do his loyalties lie with his new friends or with his badge?
- By 1981, Pistone has been living his life for six years.
He's so trusted, his mob associates want to make him
a fully initiated member of their world, a made man,
but that means one final test, committing cold-blooded murder.
♪ ♪
- The Bonanno family eventually asks Brasco
to carry out a hit as a means of proving
his loyalty to the family.
- Undercover agents are granted some latitude
to break the law, but murder?
Firmly off limits.
[David] The bureau has no option
but to pull Pistone out.
In July 1981, he boards a plane leaving New York,
and Donnie Brasco disappears forever.
♪ ♪
One year later, a landmark trial begins.
The star witness? Pistone.
- His explosive testimony helps dismantle
the Bonanno family and their rivals,
sending more than 120 mobsters to prison.
[David] Among them is Lefty, who is sentenced
to 15 years for racketeering and conspiracy.
With so many foot soldiers behind bars,
the Bonanno family is decimated and left reeling
for more than a decade.
- This is one of the most devastating blows
the American Mafia has ever suffered.
[David] Four years after the trial, Pistone leaves the FBI
and finds himself needing a new way to make a living.
So he cashes in on his remarkable story
with a best selling book, laying bare how one cop
fooled New York's Mafia
into accepting him as one of their own.
Joe Pistone deceived the mob with the right clothes,
the perfect accent, and a watertight backstory.
Our next spy's undercover mission
hinges on an altogether more intimate detail--
not what's in his papers, but what's in his pants.
♪ ♪
[Hakeem] In the late 1950s, Egypt's President Nasser
is determined to turn his nation
into an unshakeable power in the Middle East.
One of the ways he wants to do this
is to launch an Egyptian ballistic missile program.
- The problem is that he doesn't have the expertise
inside the country to be able to launch this program,
so he turns to German rocket engineers
who were actually part of the missile program
during World War II.
[David] For Egypt's neighbor, the state of Israel,
the rocket program is a major red flag.
- Israel is alarmed by the idea of the dictator
of an unfriendly country having long-range missiles.
If Egypt perfects these missiles,
they could strike Israel with no warning.
[David] Israeli intelligence decides to send in a spy,
but that means finding a Jewish agent
who can befriend former Nazi scientists.
One man fits the bill.
[Andrew] Wolfgang Lotz is an Israeli spy who was born
in Germany to a Jewish mother.
He's blond-haired, blue-eyed, and speaks fluent German,
which makes him the perfect fit to go into Cairo
to cozy up to some German rocket engineers.
[David] In December of 1960,
Mossad deploys Lotz to Egypt
armed with an extravagant cover.
- Lotz's cover story is that he's a fabulously wealthy
ex-Nazi officer who has
an unquenchable thirst for champagne.
[David] To find his marks, Lotz begins wining and dining
Egypt's high society.
- Lotz is a fun guy. He's really good at parties.
He's great at cocktail conversations.
He quickly becomes the drinking buddy
of a lot of high-ranking Egyptian officers,
including, in particular, General Osman.
[Greg] This is the very general who
oversees security for the rocket bases
that he's here to spy on.
[David] Lotz's party is cut short
when Mossad sends an urgent report.
- Israeli reconnaissance identifies what it believes
to be a rocket base in the desert east of Cairo
in a place called Shallufa.
- They want to send Wolfgang Lotz in
to basically see whether or not this is an active base.
If it turns out to be the real deal,
Mossad will probably recommend that
the Israeli Air Force bomb the site.
♪ ♪
[David] Lotz heads into the desert to investigate.
He brings his wife along so they can pose as tourists
visiting a nearby lake.
- At a crossroads, they identify a lone track
and a sentry box, no barriers, and a single guard.
And that one guard steps away for a bathroom break,
so the two of them jump on the accelerator
and charge down the track past the barrier.
[Paul] This is a terrible idea.
They haven't thought through
the ramifications of what they're doing.
Lotz and his wife are intercepted by a Jeep load
of heavily armed Egyptian military troops.
[David] Inside the base, the commanding officer
interrogates them.
[Andrew] Lotz makes up a tale about how they were trying
to find a place to picnic, and they just got lost,
so he tells the base commander to call his friend
General Osman to prove his identity.
- A few minutes later, Lotz is chatting with Osman,
who even unknowingly teases him about his spy mission.
Osman has no idea how close to the truth he really is,
and the pair is set free.
[David] But just as Lotz's operation is gaining momentum,
his plan falls apart.
- Lotz has been secretly communicating with the Israelis
using a covert radio transmitter,
and the Egyptians pick up on his transmissions.
- In February of 1965, Lotz and his wife
return home, and it's filled with Egyptian agents.
They find the radio transmitter.
Lotz knows at this point the game is up.
- Lotz and his wife are accused of being Israeli spies.
The punishment for that is execution.
To save them both, this smooth-talking spy
must spin his greatest lie of all.
[Hakeem] Lotz insists that he's a German patriot,
and he only agreed to spy for Israel
because he needed the money,
and they threatened to expose his SS background
if he refused.
[David] The problem is,
Lotz's interrogators aren't convinced.
- They press him with the same question over and over,
is he Jewish?
[David] Luckily for Lotz, he has one ace left to play,
a bold move that could put their doubts to rest.
- Lotz's father wasn't Jewish, and his Jewish mother
wasn't particularly religious, so he'd never been circumcised.
- Lotz decides that his best form of evidence
is to pull down his pants.
♪ ♪
- Faced with this incontrovertible
physical evidence, his interrogators
finally buy his story.
[David] Lotz is imprisoned for spying,
but he escapes execution.
Three years later, he's returned to Israel
in a prisoner exchange, yet the details of his mission
remain secret.
Then, in 1972, Lotz breaks his silence
by publishing an explosive memoir, "The Champagne Spy."
The book finally reveals how this silver-tongued spy
fooled Egypt's military by baring it all.
- Stealing secrets is part of the spy game.
But what about stealing hearts?
When East German intelligence needs
to reel in new informants,
they settle on a ruthless solution:
building an entire army of catfish.
[suspenseful music]
[Martin] It's the 1950s. Germany is a divided nation.
Both sides are desperate to learn
information about the other.
[Dan] Western intelligence agencies
can afford all kinds of sophisticated
electronic surveillance,
but East Germany's secret police, the Stasi,
don't have that kind of budget.
They rely on this vast network of informants.
[David] The man tasked with recruiting this network
is Markus Wolf, the elusive head
of the Stasi's foreign intelligence unit.
Looking into Western Germany, he spots a potential goldmine.
- He comes up with an idea to take advantage
of a situation that develops naturally
in both the East and the West after World War II--
there are more women than men.
[Dan] Young women outnumber men about 2 to 1.
A whole bunch of women now hold jobs in government, parliament,
and intelligence services, and they have access
to tons of classified documents and confidential chatter,
just the kind of intelligence the Stasi is looking for.
[David] Many of these women find themselves alone.
Sensing an opportunity, Wolf devises a plan
to target lonely hearts.
- Markus Wolf decides to create an army of eligible men
who in reality are Stasi agents sent to court these women
and steal the government secrets they hold.
- To ensure these women fall head over heels,
Wolf handpicks a special cadre of suitors.
He calls them his Romeos.
[Kavitha] Wolf recruits men who aren't
stereotypical womanizers.
Instead, they're educated, well-mannered men
who can listen, empathize, and create genuine emotional bonds.
[Greg] Only one in a hundred candidates make the cut.
Those who make it through are sent to what
is effectively a dating school for spies.
[Kavitha] The Romeos are given meticulous instructions
on everything from how to wine and dine a partner
to the finer points of female anatomy.
[David] Across three decades, Wolf molds around 80 Romeos.
one of them is a blond, blue-eyed physicist
named Rudolf Reck.
- While Reck is undergoing training,
Stasi agents are building detailed profiles
of women who have access to high-value intelligence,
who could also be susceptible to Reck's charms.
[David] Wolf's matchmakers soon set their sights
on a young West German woman named Gabriele Kliem.
- Kliem is the ideal target because her job as a translator
with the U.S. embassy in Bonn puts her in a position
to get her hands on information
that is classified.
- She's also 32, single, and she's told her friends
that she had this love affair with a blonde hair,
blue-eyed math teacher.
So the Stasi knows that Reck is her type.
[David] Now Reck's entire mission rests on one question:
will she say yes to a date?
♪ ♪
- In July 1977, Kliem is sitting
on the banks of the Rhine when Reck approaches her.
He introduces himself as Frank Dietzel,
a Munich-based physicist who works
at a peace research institute.
[Greg] Reck puts all of his newly acquired skills
to action and quickly sweeps Kliem right off her feet.
The plan works beautifully.
After three months of dating, he asks her to marry him.
And of course, she says yes.
[David] Reck has wooed his target.
His next move is to build a relationship
where he holds all the power.
- Reck claims to be away on business for long stretches
and insists that they only meet in hotels every few weeks.
The arrangement keeps her isolated and removed
from his real life.
- He talks about their future life as a married couple,
having children.
But through all of this, he manages to keep
delaying the actual wedding.
- Reck has been trained in psychological manipulation,
and he uses it to control Kliem.
She's terrified of losing him, so she feels obligated
to do whatever he asks for.
[David] With Kliem firmly under Reck's thumb,
he moves to the final phase of his mission--
convincing her to bring him intelligence
he can take back behind the Iron Curtain.
- Reck begins to insist that she prove her love for him
by photographing top secret documents
all for his supposed peace research.
- She finally caves in,
and for years, she smuggles out top secret documents
from the U.S. embassy, including training programs
and plans for advanced weapons.
- Unknown to her, Reck is funneling all this information
straight to East Berlin.
[David] But Kliem can only take so much.
In August 1984, she breaks off the engagement.
Even then, her ordeal isn't over.
- In 1991, Kliem is arrested for espionage.
It emerges that a Stasi defector has exposed
the Romeo operations, revealing Kliem's name and her role
in stealing documents from the embassy.
[David] Kliem receives a suspended two-year sentence
and a heavy fine for espionage.
But she's not alone.
Over 40 victims of the Stasi's Romeo program
are prosecuted, with some jailed for years,
but the man behind it all evades justice.
- For decades, Markus Wolf keeps his secrets
hidden from the West.
But in 1997, he publishes his memoir.
And in that, he pulls back the curtain
on the disturbing realities of his Romeo operations
for the very first time.
[David] Wolf offers no apology.
He was running an intelligence service,
not a lonely hearts club.
In fact, he writes, "As long as there is espionage,
"there will be Romeos seducing unsuspecting Juliets
with access to secrets."
- When one Jewish prisoner is forced
to help save the lives of Nazi troops,
he conspires to do the exact opposite
and spins a lie that will kill hundreds,
all from inside a concentration camp.
[tense music]
- By 1942, German forces on the Eastern front
are being decimated by the Red Army,
by the brutal Russian winter, and also by an invisible enemy,
typhus.
- Typhus is a bacterial infection
that is caused by lice.
And if it is left untreated, it will produce
a neurological decline and eventually death.
- Under the grueling conditions of the Eastern front,
it is spreading like wildfire.
[David] More than 40,000 German soldiers
have been struck down, and 4,000 have died
in just 12 months.
Hitler's generals need to find a way
to protect their troops fast.
- Effective typhus vaccines already exist.
The problem is scale.
- They can only produce 6,500 doses per month.
And yet, they have millions of people in uniform
who could be potentially exposed.
This is a major problem for their ability
to continue to wage war.
- The SS decides to establish a large scale
vaccine production facility
inside the Buchenwald concentration camp,
where they can use forced labor to make
vast quantities of vaccine.
[David] But untrained inmates
don't make great microbiologists.
They fail to produce even a single working dose
of typhus vaccine, let alone enough
to inoculate the entire German army,
so the Nazis seek out an expert they think
will solve the problem.
[Hakeem] Dr. Ludwik Fleck is a renowned
Polish-Jewish microbiologist and immunologist.
- He has developed typhus vaccines previously.
And convenient for the Germans,
he's already being held in the concentration camp
at Auschwitz.
- Fleck is transferred to Buchenwald
and ordered to produce a working vaccine.
But this scientist has no intention
of helping Hitler's army.
Instead, he gambles his life on a truly audacious deception.
[Hakeem] Fleck sees the opportunity
to convince the Nazis that he's producing
a working typhus vaccine,
but then mass produced a useless version
and send it out to thousands of Nazi troops on the front line.
- German command is gonna believe their soldiers
have been vaccinated when, in reality,
they're just sitting ducks,
totally vulnerable to this disease.
[David] This is no easy deception to pull off.
For Fleck's plan to work, he must produce two vaccines,
one real and one fake.
His first task, make the real one.
[Amy] The inmates have been trying
to produce a vaccine by growing typhus bacteria in rabbits.
But Fleck realizes that what they're extracting
from the rabbits isn't typhus.
It's the animal's own white blood cells.
- Fleck arranges for a fresh sample of typhus bacteria
to be sent from Krakow, one far better suited
to growing inside rabbits.
- Using this, he infects the animals
and harvests their tissue, allowing him to cultivate
small batches of genuine, effective typhus vaccine.
[David] When the Nazis test Fleck's jabs,
they pass with flying colors.
Now Fleck starts the second phase of his plan, sabotage.
- He begins mass producing
a fake typhus vaccine destined for the front lines.
This is basically just water, blood, and preservatives.
It's completely useless.
[David] Tens of thousands of doses of Fleck's fakes
are created and sent east.
Then he adds one final twist to his deception.
- He returns to a secret stockpile of genuine serum
that he's put aside, and he marked it
with a little red dot.
[Dan] In a truly heroic act,
he uses those vials to secretly vaccinate
the most vulnerable prisoners of the concentration camp,
likely saving countless lives.
[David] But after months of pulling the wool
over the Germans' eyes, Fleck's plan
comes under dangerous scrutiny.
[Don] Reports begin filtering back from the front
that vaccinated troops are still falling ill.
Nazi command grows suspicious and demand proof
that Fleck's vaccine is effective.
- Fleck argues that no vaccine can be foolproof,
and he submits small samples of the real vaccine for testing.
[Don] Appeased by these lab results,
the Nazi officials are satisfied,
and shipments of Fleck's fake vaccine resume.
[David] Fleck's extraordinary deception only ends in 1945
when U.S. forces liberate Buchenwald.
A year later, at the Nuremberg trials,
Fleck and fellow inmates are called to testify
about the Nazis' medical experiments at the camp.
Here they make a shocking admission.
- They reveal for the first time that they secretly sent
200,000 doses of fake typhus vaccine
to the German front line.
[David] But the details of exactly how Fleck achieved
this incredible feat remain a mystery for nearly 70 years,
until author Arthur Allen publishes a book on Fleck
in 2015.
Drawing on survivor testimony and Fleck's own writings,
it's the first ever detailed account
of his heroic deception,
finally sharing Fleck's story with the world.
- When one of America's most notorious organizations
moves into town, one detective wants to go undercover
to find out what they're up to.
There's just one problem:
they're the KKK,
and he's Black.
[tense music]
♪ ♪
- In October 1978, Detective Ron Stallworth
of the Colorado Springs Police Department
is combing through the newspaper
when a small classified ad catches his eye.
- "Call this number to receive more information
"about joining the Colorado Springs chapter
of the Ku Klux Klan."
[Hakeem] Stallworth is the only Black detective
on the Colorado Springs force.
And the idea of a Klan chapter getting a foothold in his city,
he ain't having it.
[David] Stallworth knows exactly
what the Klan is capable of.
A decade earlier, the KKK murdered three civil rights
activists in Mississippi.
Determined to find out what they're up to
in Colorado Springs,
he takes a chance and pens a reply.
[Paul] The letter that Stallworth writes
is a work of fiction.
He's filling it with all kinds of references
to wanting to further the cause of the white race.
But when he finishes the letter,
he actually signs his own real name
and provides a phone number.
- He assumes that he's just gonna receive some pamphlets
in the mail or something.
[David] A week later, the phone rings.
- The man on the other end of the line
is Ken O'Dell, the local chapter organizer for the KKK.
O'Dell explains that he's looking
to recruit new members.
[Don] He says to Stallworth,
hey, you sound like a great guy,
but before we can admit you,
we have to meet you face to face.
[David] Secretly joining the KKK
would be the perfect way to uncover any criminal activity.
But while Ron can play a convincing white supremacist
over the phone, he can't in real life.
- Stallworth's solution is to recruit
a white colleague to impersonate him at the meeting.
He turns to a friend named Chuck,
an undercover Narcotics officer,
and explains the situation he's got himself into.
[David] Once Chuck stops laughing, he agrees to help.
A new undercover operation begins to take shape,
one unlike any other in the FBI's history.
- Chuck will become Ron's physical stand-in
attending the in-person meetings.
- Stallworth takes the lead on all things communication
and administrative, so he's the one
handling the phone calls.
He's the one sending the correspondence.
- And two cops playing a single alter ego
will require impeccable coordination to pull off.
Their stories, their opinions, their emotions
all need to be consistent to make sure
that nobody suspects that Ron is really two different people.
[David] On November 9, 1978,
they face their first big test,
their debut meet with local Klan boss Ken O'Dell.
- Stallworth acts as surveillance outside
while Chuck goes into a local dive bar
to carry out the meeting.
[Hakeem] Chuck anxiously studies O'Dell
for any signs that he's been had.
But it becomes clear, O'Dell and his buddies
don't suspect a thing.
[Andrew] Chuck does so well that O'Dell actually
starts to volunteer that local military personnel
are also signing up secretly for the KKK.
[David] By the end of the night,
Ron and Chuck get what they came for.
- O'Dell hands Chuck a membership application
along with instructions for paying the $10 entry fee.
- Stallworth becomes the first known Black man
to apply to the KKK.
He and Chuck have infiltrated one of America's most
secretive extremist organizations,
but their incredible double act doesn't stop there.
[Sami] Over several months, Stallworth and Chuck
both play Ron and gather detailed intel
on the Klan's activities and its members.
Their intelligence helps to prevent multiple cross burnings
and even foils a neo-Nazi bomb plot.
[David] Their biggest coup uncovers
just how far the Klan's secretive reach extends.
[Andrew] One morning, two officers
from the Air Force Office of Special Investigation,
the FBI equivalent for the Air Force,
show up unannounced at Stallworth's desk.
They've heard about the investigation,
and they wanna know whether any U.S. military officers
have joined the KKK.
[Sami] Ron's immediately escorted to a secure base
for a briefing with a colonel.
[David] The colonel asks Ron for a list of every KKK member
he's managed to unmask over the course
of his investigation.
- The colonel reviews Stallworth's list
and makes a chilling discovery.
Two of the Klan members are high-ranking officers
with top secret clearance.
[Andrew] These two men had secrets
to American air defense systems
that protect all of North America.
There's no telling how much information
they've given the KKK.
[David] The colonel takes immediate action.
[Sami] Within minutes,
the colonel is on the phone to the Pentagon,
and the men are quietly reassigned
to the military equivalent of Siberia.
[David] Stallworth and Chuck's undercover investigation
continues into April 1979, when their own success
becomes their downfall.
- Stallworth and Chuck have impersonated a local KKK member
so well that a fellow Klansman has
actually nominated Ron to be the new leader
of their chapter.
- Now, Stallworth wants to continue the investigation,
but his bosses are terrified of the potential scandal
that could erupt if word got out
that a Black cop was leading the local KKK,
so they pull the plug.
[David] For decades, the details of their operation
stay hidden.
Then, in 2006, after retiring from the force,
Stallworth speaks to a local reporter about his career,
giving "Deseret News" an unexpected scoop.
His extraordinary story eventually
catches Hollywood's attention and inspires
the film "BlacKkKlansman."
- Not all masters of deception disguise themselves.
Sometimes it's a weapon that goes undercover.
When America wants to secretly arm
resistance fighters battling Japan,
it creates an edible explosive.
[tense music]
[Sami] In early 1941, even though the United States
has not yet entered World War II,
it's already working secretly to undermine
Japan's war effort in China.
- The United States is sending a large quantity
of high explosive that the Chinese desperately
need to continue fighting.
[David] But in December, the covert supply route
being used by American agents is cut off.
- Japan seizes both Hong Kong and Burma,
two critical corridors through which the American
supply network operates.
- The U.S. has to come up with another way
to slip explosives to the Chinese resistance.
[David] That means smuggling the explosives
through Chinese ports now under Japanese control.
So the Office of Strategic Services,
America's first intelligence agency,
decides it needs a disguise.
And they find inspiration in an unlikely place.
- Chinese ports handle hundreds of tons
of ordinary flour every day.
And a lot of explosives are odorless and tasteless
and pretty much look like flour.
- The OSS comes up with this idea of,
why don't we create something that
is both flour that you can actually cook with,
but it is also an explosive.
[David] This mission to cook up
this remarkable edible disguise
is codenamed "Aunt Jemima".
But to perfect the recipe,
the OSS needs a real wiz in the kitchen.
Enter George Bogdan Kistiakowsky.
[Dan] Kistiakowsky is a Ukrainian-born
Harvard chemistry professor and the chief explosives
expert for America's wartime science agency.
Now, his first task is to find an explosive compound
that can convincingly pass as flour.
[Sami] He starts with RDX, a white crystalline powder
about one and half times more powerful than TNT,
and closely resembles flour,
though slightly coarser in texture.
[David] This explosive can visually
pass for flour at the border.
The problem is, its cover will be blown
the moment any suspicious guard puts it in an oven.
- Any baker knows that the best bread is cooked at
around 430 degrees Fahrenheit, but RDX ignites
at around 390 degrees Fahrenheit.
Meaning that if you attempt to turn it
into a muffin or a loaf, it could end
in a very explosive kitchen nightmare.
- Kistiakowsky pivots to a different explosive.
This one's called HMX.
- Crucially, its ignition temperature
is a far safer 530 degrees Fahrenheit.
[David] In the kitchen, Kistiakowsky experiments
with this new explosive, working out how to mix it
with flour to cook up authentic baked goods.
- He settles on a blend made of 80% explosive
and 20% real flour.
- When you mix this with ordinary baking ingredients
like eggs and milk, a dough can be made
and baked into muffins, cookies, or loaves
that look completely real.
[David] After baking, Kistiakowsky's treats
will still pack a punch.
- All you'd have to do is stick a detonator
into a loaf of bread, and no joke,
you've turned a baguette into a bomb.
[David] Now the OSS must make sure
whatever it cooks up tastes as good as it looks.
- If, hypothetically, a smuggler gets stopped
and questioned, they may have to eat
whatever they bake to prove that it is what they say it is.
- The problem is that Kistiakowsky's HMX mixture
in anything more than small quantities is toxic.
Any smuggler forced to eat an entire muffin
would fall violently ill, an immediate giveaway
that this is no ordinary flour.
Kistiakowsky bakes batch after batch of explosives
until he finally cracks it: a mixture that's safe to eat,
powerfully explosive, and convincingly delicious.
To prove it, he stages an unforgettable demonstration.
[Don] Kistiakowsky goes to
a high-level war department meeting
and brings with him a batch of his very own
home baked "Aunt Jemima" cookies.
Right in front of the military's top brass,
he decides to put his own life in his hands.
- He takes a cookie, and he eats it.
Then he reaches for another one.
And he goes through the whole tray,
finishing every last crumb.
[Don] It's the ultimate demonstration
that this delicious covert weapon
is finally ready to be served.
[David] The U.S. packs the explosive
into replica Chinese flour sacks
then sends them on their way.
[Don] They are delivered into the hands of the resistance.
And although many of its uses remain cloaked
in classified information, it is known that Aunt Jemima
is used to knock out a critically important bridge
being used by the Japanese military.
[David] For decades, the tale of Aunt Jemima
is whispered about only in intelligence circles.
Then, in 1963, Stanley Lovell,
the former head of OSS Research and Development,
shares the secret with the world
when he publishes the first insider account
of the OSS's technical branch,
laying out the astonishing story
of World War II's most explosive kitchen staple.
- Desperate times demand daring deceptions.
In 1941, when one American singer
wants to save her husband from the horrors
of a Japanese internment camp,
she deceives hundreds of enemy troops
and puts on the performance of a lifetime.
[suspenseful music]
[Martin] On December 8, 1941,
the Japanese begin an amphibious landing operation
on the island of Luzon in the Philippines.
- These islands host key U.S. military bases,
and Tokyo is determined to stop them
from becoming a launchpad for future American counterattacks
in the Pacific.
[David] U.S. forces beat a hasty retreat
out of the capital, Manila.
Fleeing with them is a young American couple in love,
Claire and John Phillips.
- Claire is a singer from Michigan
who's been performing in the Philippines
for the last two years.
John is a young and handsome sergeant
that she met while working there.
[David] Despite the war, Claire and John marry,
tying the knot in a makeshift chapel.
But these newlyweds are torn apart
when John is sent to the front line.
Five months later, Claire gets the news she's been dreading.
[Greg] Claire learns that John has been captured
by Japanese forces and sent to a prison camp
called Cabanatuan, roughly 60 miles North of Manila.
- This is one of the most infamous prisoner-of-war camps
in the Philippine Islands.
[Greg] Meals are mainly basic rations of rice.
Sanitation is all but nonexistent,
and dysentery and malaria are everywhere.
[David] The thought of her husband suffering
is unbearable, so Claire dreams up an audacious scheme
to help him survive, one that will call on all her skills
as a performer.
- Claire's idea is to open a high-end nightclub
in the heart of Manila that she'll run and star in.
She'll pack it with paying Japanese officers
and use the profits to help her husband and other POWs
by smuggling money and medical supplies into the camps.
- Claire's grand plan has just one problem.
She's an all-American girl.
To run the hottest nightspot in Manila,
she needs an entirely new identity.
So Claire Phillips disappears
and Dorothy Fuentes, a Filipino-Italian showstopper,
steps into the spotlight.
♪ ♪
[Sami] Dorothy's persona is perfect for Claire.
Claire is already an accomplished performer,
and although she doesn't speak Italian,
she knows most Japanese troops won't either.
[Martin] She persuades someone who used to work
in the Italian embassy to cook up some fake documents
to support the Dorothy Fuentes cover story.
[David] Now Claire gets to work opening
the best cabaret in town.
- She pawns her jewelry, including her wedding ring,
and pours every dollar she has into leasing
a modest dance studio.
Then, she painstakingly transforms it
into one of the city's most glamorous nightspots.
- To appeal to Japanese clientele,
she names it Club Tsubaki,
named after a delicate Japanese flower.
[David] On October 15, 1942, Club Tsubaki
finally opens its doors.
- Japanese officers are treated to dazzling dance routines
and very overpriced drinks.
The liquor's flowing.
The music is hot.
And at 10:00 p.m. on opening night,
they're already turning away customers.
[David] Her grand opening is the talk of the town.
But before Claire can funnel any profits to help John,
her world is turned upside down.
- Claire receives word that John caught malaria
and has died at Cabanatuan.
[Kavitha] Claire is devastated by the news,
but she realizes that while she couldn't save John,
she can press on to help other prisoners.
[David] Driven by Claire's grief,
Club Tsubaki is soon raking in thousands of dollars a week.
Now Claire needs to get this money and the aid it can buy
to the prisoners inside Cabanatuan.
- She links up with a Filipino allied guerrilla network,
and they quickly devise an ingenious way
to slip goods past the guards.
[Kavitha] They have sweet-faced young women
pose as street vendors, and they sell bags of fruit
to prisoners on work detail for just a few centavos.
[Sami] The bags look completely innocent,
but inside are hollowed-out bananas stuffed with medicine
or secret messages, while some bags have false bottoms
that hide hundreds of pesos.
[David] Soon, Claire is funneling the equivalent
of $20,000 U.S. a week into the camps,
money that's used to buy vital rations
at the camp's commissary.
Thanks to Club Tsubaki, countless lives are saved.
But after almost two years, the curtain finally
comes down on Claire's daring act.
- In early 1944, incriminating resistance letters
are discovered inside Cabanatuan
that point directly to Claire.
- Soon after, armed policemen storm the club
and Claire is arrested.
Japanese military police subject Claire
to weeks of brutal interrogation and torture.
- She displays incredible resolve,
refusing to reveal the names of co-conspirators
who could be targeted and keeps the details
of her operation completely hidden.
[David] In November 1944,
Claire is tried in a military court
and sentenced to 12 years in prison.
- Clare endures brutal conditions.
She's starved and forced to do hard labor.
Her weight drops to a mere 85 pounds,
leaving her on the brink of death.
♪ ♪
[David] Her rescue comes in the nick of time
when, in February 1945, U.S. troops retake Manila.
Two years later, she shares her story with the world
in a sensational memoir.
Shortly after, the United States government
awards the singer-turned-spy the Medal of Freedom
for her truly heroic wartime deception.
From a fake mafioso to a Black cop posing as a Klansman,
true masters of deception can pull the wool
over anyone's eyes.
But no lie lasts forever,
and even the greatest impostors get unmasked in the end.