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In 1941, Laura Ingalls, a famous American aviator and activist, was indicted under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) for failing to register as an agent of the German government after receiving a salary from the German Embassy to promote U.S. non-intervention in World War II.

Ingalls was born in 1893 to a wealthy family in New York City and was best known for her aviation career. She set several records during her years flying, including a non-stop transcontinental flight from west to east in 13 hours and 34 minutes, beating Amelia Earhart’s record at the time. She was also the first person to fly solo around South America in a landplane, the first American woman to fly over the Andes Mountains, and she set a women’s distance-flying record of 17,000 miles.

Ingalls’ engagement in activism began in the late 1930s when she took an interest in the non-interventionist ideals that were becoming common during WWII. She became involved with the “America First” Committee, an isolationist movement campaigning to keep America out of World War II, and she often gave speeches and held rallies in support of this goal. As a part of her activism, Ingalls also famously flew over the White House and dropped leaflets advocating non-intervention in 1939. This stunt increased her public attention and preceded a lengthy FBI investigation, during which the nature of her agreement with the second secretary at the German Embassy, Baron Ulrich von Gienanth, was uncovered. Ingalls was indicted for failure to register and arrested in December 1941. Her trial began in the following months, during which she pleaded not guilty.

During the trial, prosecutors presented evidence that Ingalls was being paid $300 a month from the German Embassy in exchange for her promoting American neutrality. She had obtained approximately $500 from this agreement by the time of her arrest. Evidence of correspondence between Ingalls and von Gienanth was also presented, in which he told her that the best thing she could do for the German cause was to continue promoting the America First Committee. The prosecution argued that her attempts to influence public opinion while accepting payment from the German government and failing to disclose this agreement to the U.S. government demonstrated that she had acted as an agent of a foreign principal without registering, in violation of FARA.

Ms. Ingalls’ defense, however, claimed that she was not violating the Act and was instead trying to thwart Hitler by acting as a self-directed counter-espionage agent. They noted that she had contacted the FBI several times, wanting to act as an agent for them, and only after being denied did she decide to take matters into her own hands and try to obtain information from the Germans, proclaiming herself an international spy. Ingalls admitted to accepting the money from the German Embassy, her defense claiming it was a misguided attempt to integrate and gain information. Ingalls, however, had no findings on German operations to report.

The jury deliberated for just over an hour before returning a guilty verdict, after which Ms. Ingalls was sentenced to 8 months to 2 years’ imprisonment for failing to register under FARA. She served just over 1 year and 7 months in prison, during which she had to be moved from a prison in Washington, D.C., to a reformatory in West Virginia following an altercation with another inmate. She was released on October 4, 1943, but her reputation remained tarnished for the remainder of her life.

Special thanks to Sonia de Jong for her efforts on this Blog piece.

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