The Bergdoll Boys

Heirs to the renowned German-American Bergdoll Beer fortune at a young age, the Bergdoll boys used their millions to become champion racing car drivers and pioneer aviation heroes in the early 1900s. Grover, the most notorious, is celebrated for his daring record-setting flights in a Wright Brothers airplane. Erwin drove a powerful Benz to win a prestigious race, the equivalent of the Daytona 500. Then, just as Grover was trying to buy a bigger plane and attempt to fly to Europe a decade before Lindbergh, they were snared by vengeful local military draft officials. Running and hiding from their war duty, the fugitives were so reviled by nationalistic Americans that two older brothers changed their names to avoid infamy. Eluding capture for years with financial help from their wealthy German mother, the Bergdoll boys were entangled with kidnapping and murder, federal agents and bounty hunters, Nazis, and Congressional investigators. There was an incredible story of release and escape from an Army jail with bribery, and tales of the search for buried gold went all the way up to the White House. Hounded by the unsympathetic press and public, and congress, the Bergdoll fortune was confiscated by the federal government, but Grover remained one step ahead of bungling lawmen by hiding in Germany until the start of World War II. This first, full history offers an intriguing insight into the downfall of this once famed and immensely wealthy family, set against the backdrop of the U.S. draft in World War I and the inter-war years.