Child of Wealth. Race car driver. Aviator. Draft evader. He was the son of Louis Bergdoll, Jr., and Emma Barth. He was a race car driver, aviator, and draft-dodger. He raced in the 1915 Indianapolis 500. As an aviator, he flew the Wright Brothers' Model B Flyer; the plane is now on display at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia and was built for Berdoll by the Wright Company. War broke out in 1914, and in 1917 Bergdoll failed to respond to his draft notification. He was captured, tried, and sentenced to five years in prison. Somehow Bergdoll convinced authorities to allow him to dig up a "pot of gold" supposedly buried in Hagerstown, Maryland. On the way from the New York prison to Hagerstown, Bergdoll and his guards stayed at the Bergdoll mansion in Philadelphia. There he managed to escape to Canada, and then to Germany. As a result of his escape, the US seized his fortune of $800,000 and revoked his US citizenship. Ironically Germany demanded that he perform military service. After eluding US pursuit for 19 years, he finally did prison time. The New York Times described him as "America's most notorious wartime draft dodger." Suffering from mental illness, he spent the last years of his life in guardianship, dying in a psychiatric hospital.
Child of Wealth. Race car driver. Aviator. Draft evader. He was the son of Louis Bergdoll, Jr., and Emma Barth. He was a race car driver, aviator, and draft-dodger. He raced in the 1915 Indianapolis 500. As an aviator, he flew the Wright Brothers' Model B Flyer; the plane is now on display at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia and was built for Berdoll by the Wright Company. War broke out in 1914, and in 1917 Bergdoll failed to respond to his draft notification. He was captured, tried, and sentenced to five years in prison. Somehow Bergdoll convinced authorities to allow him to dig up a "pot of gold" supposedly buried in Hagerstown, Maryland. On the way from the New York prison to Hagerstown, Bergdoll and his guards stayed at the Bergdoll mansion in Philadelphia. There he managed to escape to Canada, and then to Germany. As a result of his escape, the US seized his fortune of $800,000 and revoked his US citizenship. Ironically Germany demanded that he perform military service. After eluding US pursuit for 19 years, he finally did prison time. The New York Times described him as "America's most notorious wartime draft dodger." Suffering from mental illness, he spent the last years of his life in guardianship, dying in a psychiatric hospital.
Family Members
Children
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
Advertisement
