Paul F. Kassay insisted he was an innocent man falsely accused of a crime.
Federal agents alleged he was a diabolical fiend plotting death and destruction.
Which was the truth?
Kassay and his wife, Goldie, were having dinner on March 19, 1931, when someone knocked on their door at 965 Lindsay Ave., a two-story bungalow overlooking Akron Municipal Airport and the Goodyear-Zeppelin Airdock, where Kassay worked.
''What do you want?'' Kassay asked the three well-dressed men who stood on the porch.
Summit County Assistant Prosecutor George Hargreaves, Akron Patrolman Robert Prease and Summit County Detective W.W. Mathis told Kassay he had to go downtown. They had a warrant for his arrest.
After four hours of interrogation at the police station, Kassay transformed from American laborer to international villain.
Federal authorities accused Kassay, 37, of a radical plot to sabotage the USS Akron, a naval dirigible under construction in the cavernous airdock. Agents
said the mechanic planned to spit on rivets to weaken the framework of the giant airship.
''I was trying to do something to help and now everything has been turned against me,'' Kassay cried. ''It is a frame-up.''
Kassay served as a corporal in the mechanical corps of the Hungarian army before immigrating to the United States in 1920. He built torpedo bombers at Great Lakes Aircraft Corp. in Cleveland, then landed a job in June 1930 as an expert mechanic at the Akron airdock.
He earned a good salary — 80 cents an hour (about $10.42 today) — to assemble and rivet the duralumin framework of the USS Akron. About 6.5 million rivets were needed to hold together the rigid airship, which was 785 feet long, 146.5 feet high and 132.9 feet in diameter.
Some co-workers didn't like having a foreign-born mechanic as a supervisor, Kassay claimed.
''I know that many of the men under me resented the fact that a man of alien birth, a young man, should be over them,'' he said. ''They also resented it when wages were cut but mine was not reduced, in recognition of my merit.''
Rumors spread that Kassay was a communist who might be scheming to wreck the dirigible.
With Goodyear's permission, the U.S. Department of Justice planted two agents at the airdock to cozy up to Kassay. Agent L.G. Turrou posed as ''Petrov,'' a Russian communist, while Agent O.G. Hall played ''Oscar Peterson,'' a Swedish communist.
According to a federal report, Kassay welcomed the comrades and began to confide in them.
''I have done great things for the communist cause in America and Moscow knows of it,'' Kassay allegedly told Turrou.
The agents reported that Kassay had hatched a devilish plot to destroy the USS Akron. While working on the upper fin, he reportedly spit on the rivets.
''Eventually, Kassay showed our inside man all about his scheme,'' reported Harold Nathan, acting chief of the Bureau of Investigation, forerunner of the FBI. ''He was to take a rivet, place it in the hole in the frame and instead of hammering it into place, would wet it with saliva so that the rivet would freeze fast in its socket. When the inspector came around to test the rivet, he would find it apparently solid and pass it as fit.''
Warm weather or vibrations would loosen the rivets while the USS Akron was aloft, and the dirigible would eventually crash.
Akron newspapers referred to Kassay as ''the rivet spitter.''
U.S. Rear Adm. William A. Moffett, chief of the Bureau of Naval Aeronautics, doubted that such a plot would work.
''We have constantly in progress a very careful and accurate inspection of the ship for safety of operation,'' he said.
Kassay denied the allegations, saying he was suspicious of ''Petrov'' and ''Peterson,'' and strung them along to gather evidence.
''I did observe that one of the men certainly was not the mechanic he pretended to be and I reported him to my superiors,'' Kassay said. ''He was removed soon afterwards and I was told he had been discharged.''
Authorities alleged that 20 planes that Kassay built in Cleveland were taken out of service after two crashed because of defective parts. Kassay countered: If his work had been bad, his ex-employers wouldn't have recommended him for the Akron job.
Kassay pleaded not guilty to criminal syndicalism, an Ohio law that made it illegal to advocate ''the duty, necessity, or propriety of crime, sabotage, violence, or unlawful methods of terrorism as a means of accomplishing industrial or political reform.'' He faced 10 years in prison and a $5,000 fine.
''My lifetime ambition to be recognized as one of the best aircraft mechanics and engineers in the world has been ruined by the false charges against me and I am sorry,'' he said.
Kassay remained in the Summit County Jail until 22 friends signed $40,000 in property bonds for his release on March 26. He spoke that night in Zigler Hall on East Voris Street at a rally sponsored by the legal arm of the U.S. Communist Party.
''I am not a member of your organization, but I thank the International Labor Defense for what it has done for me,'' he told the crowd. ''I wish I could make a speech, but I cannot. I can only tell you that I am innocent.''
Cleveland communist Herbert Benjamin said Kassay was the victim of a conspiracy.
''That great ship may not come down as well as it goes up when the final tests are being made,'' he told the rally. ''Then I suppose that Goodyear will say 'some Red spit on the rivets.' ''
Kassay's trial was set for April 27, but defense attorney Yetta Land made a bold tactical move, challenging the constitutionality of the criminal syndicalism statute as a violation of free speech.
Summit County Common Pleas Judge Walter B. Wanamaker, a World War I hero, studied the case for days before deciding Kassay's team had a point. In a stunning decision, Wanamaker ruled the 1919 law was invalid.
''Mere talk, in and of itself alone, unattendant with evil consequences that might reasonably be expected to flow therefrom, cannot be made by law a crime in Ohio,'' he noted.
Kassay was free to leave.
''I am glad, of course, because it is a victory,'' he said.
More than 100,000 people watched as first lady Lou Hoover christened the USS Akron on Aug. 8, 1931. The silver airship became a symbol of U.S. pride.
In December 1932, the Ohio Supreme Court reversed Wanamaker's ruling and upheld the syndicalism law, which remained on the books until 1964.
Authorities lost interest in prosecuting Kassay. His name was all but forgotten until the USS Akron crashed off the New Jersey coast during a storm on April 4, 1933. The disaster killed 73 men, including Rear Adm. Moffett. Only three survived.
A naval inquiry blamed the crash on weather, not sabotage.
Kassay moved to New York, passed a security check for defense work in World War II and produced airplane spark plugs for B.G. Corp. in Queens.
In late 1949, his name resurfaced in a startling bulletin.
The New York Daily News reported that Kassay was the ''No. 1 suspect'' in the attempted dynamiting of the United Auto Workers headquarters in Detroit. The article called him a ''Moscow-trained assassin.''
Three days later, the newspaper retracted the story, saying Kassay was hundreds of miles away during the bomb attempt.
Kassay kept a low profile for the rest of his days. He retired to Riverside, Calif., where he died in obscurity at age 80 in 1973.
Innocent man or deadly saboteur? Paul F. Kassay took the truth to his grave.
Mark J. Price is a Beacon Journal copy editor. He can be reached at 330-996-3850 or send email to mjprice@thebeaconjournal.com.
