Terrorism is not new

The 1978 plot to nuke New London

By Will Collette

There are so many different schemes that terrorist may concoct to bring death and chaos on society that it's almost impossible to defend against them all. Sometimes we have to count on luck. This bit of local history is a case in point.

Thirty-five years ago, three idiots came up with a scheme that, if it had succeeded, it would have become the worst instance of post-World War II terrorism, making 9/11 seem minor.

Their plot: steal a US Navy nuclear submarine from the base in New London so they could sell it to a foreign buyer. They planned to cover their escape by firing off one of the sub’s nuclear weapons at New London or some other southern New England city. Maybe even Charlestown.

This is a true story and an early example how often such plotters trip themselves up by recruiting FBI agents to be part of the conspiracy.

Hat’s off to Dirk Langeveld, whose article in the New London Patch led me to dig deeper into this story.

The three plotters, Navy vet James Cosgrove, carpet cleaner Kurtis Schmidt and Edward Mendenhall who worked for an insurance company, targeted the USS Trepang which was docked in New London. Cosgrove once served on the Trepang.

Put a mustache on him and he's
a match for Gabe Kaplan on
"Welcome Back, Kotter"

In case you’re wondering, “Trepang” is a sea cucumber in the Tagalog dialect of the Philippines. This Trepang is the second US sub to bear the name. The original was a conventional World War II attack sub with a distinguished war record.

The plan was to recruit a crew of 12 buccaneers who would sneak aboard and blow up the sub tender Fulton tied up next to the Trepang as a diversion. In the ensuing chaos, the boys would board the Trepang and kill its crew of 100 seaman and officers and then head out to sea.

While they were leaving New London, they would fire off one of the Trepang’s nuclear tipped torpedoes (the Trepang was an attack submarine, not a “boomer” or missile sub) at New London or other unspecified coastal town as another diversion.

They would then rendezvous with the buyer for the sub. Or not. 

What emerged in their trial is that they planned to make the deal with the Mafia for the sub, asking for a $300,000 down payment on their asking price of $200 million, but not necessarily deliver the sub.

Their Plan B was to simply divide up the Mafia's $300,000 and disappear.

As the plotters bumbled around, searching for some made guy who could help broker the deal with the Mob, the FBI got wind of it after being tipped off by a supposedly “made” guy.

Sea cucumber, or "trepang" in Tagalog, namesake of the sub

A meeting was set up for the boys to meet their  Mafia contact in St. Louis to cut the deal. Cosgrove sent Schmidt and Mendenhall and they were promptly arrested. Schmidt was picked up later.

Since their scheme had not actually jelled into anything more than a plot to defraud the Mob, in itself a really bad idea, the plotters were charged, tried and convicted of wire fraud. (Washington Post, Dec. 13, 1978) even though the prosecutors started out with the intent of leveling far more serious charges against them.

Apparently, the implausibility of the plot factored into the lesser charges against the plotters. Most naval experts quoted in the media at the time said there was no way twelve would-be pirates could have overpowered the crew or even have taken the Trepang out to sea, never mind fire one of its nuclear-armed torpedoes back at land.

However, the feds have made a number of post 9/11 cases against would-be plotters just as stupid who had just as slim a chance of pulling off their scheme as Cosgrove and his associates.

Another factor was apparent, though unspecified, prosecutor misconduct. 

Edward H. Kohn reported in the Washington Post (Dec. 13, 1978) that Chief US District Court Judge James Meredith stated that the case was being taken back to the grand jury for a new indictment. 

That new indictment only charged wire fraud and not the actual mass murder plot.

Schmidt the carpet cleaner dodged jail time by testifying against his co-conspirators. Mendenhall got five years and Cosgrove four years in prison.

The story of the plot to nuke New London dragged on a few more years when the key informant, businessman Charles Rossene, sued the government to collect the reward he felt was owed to him. 

The FBI found out about the plot after Rossene was approached by the plotters who assumed Rossene was “connected,” and Rossene took that information to the Bureau.

Rossene claimed the Bureau promised him a reward of $250,000 and a ride on a submarine.

But in 1985, the US Court of Claims threw out Rossene’s case based on his lack of evidence that the reward had actually been offered. 

Even though the FBI admitted that Rossene’s tip broke open the case, they only reimbursed him $2.50 for a book they borrowed from him and lost, and $23.14 in phone charges (Washington Post, Dec. 11, 1988).

Moral of that story: if you are promised a reward by the FBI, get the promise in writing.

During the years around the Trepang plot, there were quite a number of maritime terrorism incidents. I stumbled across a 1983 paper done by the Rand Institute for the federal government that cataloged these incidents, including the Trepang plot. Click here to read the report.