William Rhodes Davis
Encyclopedia
William Rhodes Davis was an American businessman, named in assistant U.S. Attorney General
Attorney General
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general, or attorney-general, is the main legal advisor to the government, and in some jurisdictions he or she may also have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions.The term is used to refer to any person...

 O. John Rogge's Nazi Report, published in 1961, as Abwehr
Abwehr
The Abwehr was a German military intelligence organisation from 1921 to 1944. The term Abwehr was used as a concession to Allied demands that Germany's post-World War I intelligence activities be for "defensive" purposes only...

 agent C-80, financed with the personal approval of Hitler, engaged in supplying petroleum
Petroleum
Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...

 to Germany.

Biography

William Rhodes Davis first married Pearl Peter, (she later married Paul Chandler Matthews). The couple had three sons, William R. Davis, Jr., Joseph Graham Davis, Sr., and Currie Boyd Davis.
William R. Davis, Jr., at age 24, was killed in a 1933 airplane crash in Nicaragua, along with two fellow employees of his father's Davis & Co., Inc. of Boston.

Sometime after 1925, William Rhodes Davis married his second wife, Marie Marjanna Tomkunas. After Davis's sudden death in August, 1941, M. Marjanna Tomkunas Davis became beneficiary of half of Davis's $5 million estate trust, Davis's longtime, personal secretary, Erna Frieda Wehrle became chairman of Davis's Crusader Petroleum and Davis & Co, Inc., oil companies, and Werner von Clemm
Werner von Clemm
Werner C. von Clemm was born into a German family that married into German nobility, the Nazi party and prominent American families. His father-in-law was a Vice President of Citibank. In 1922 he immigrated to the United States. Prior to this he had served in the German army during World War I...

 became vice-president.
Werner von Clemm
Werner von Clemm
Werner C. von Clemm was born into a German family that married into German nobility, the Nazi party and prominent American families. His father-in-law was a Vice President of Citibank. In 1922 he immigrated to the United States. Prior to this he had served in the German army during World War I...

, while under U.S. Federal indictment in 1942, was accused in a complaint received by the U.S. State Department to be linked to a network of Allen Dulles.

In 1940 Sam Pryor, Jr., in his private plane, flew William Rhodes Davis to Indiana to meet with republican presidential candidate Wendell Willkie
Wendell Willkie
Wendell Lewis Willkie was a corporate lawyer in the United States and a dark horse who became the Republican Party nominee for the president in 1940. A member of the liberal wing of the GOP, he crusaded against those domestic policies of the New Deal that he thought were inefficient and...

 at Willkie's home.
Drew Pearson
Drew Pearson (journalist)
Andrew Russell Pearson , known professionally as Drew Pearson, was one of the best-known American columnists of his day, noted for his muckraking syndicated newspaper column "Washington Merry-Go-Round," in which he attacked various public persons, sometimes with little or no objective proof for his...

 reported in 1946 that William Rhodes Davis was working as an Nazi agent for Hermann Goring
Hermann Göring
Hermann Wilhelm Göring, was a German politician, military leader, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. He was a veteran of World War I as an ace fighter pilot, and a recipient of the coveted Pour le Mérite, also known as "The Blue Max"...

 to finance Willkie's campaign, along with labor union leader John L. Lewis
John L. Lewis
John Llewellyn Lewis was an American leader of organized labor who served as president of the United Mine Workers of America from 1920 to 1960...

.

In January 1941, U.S. Senator Josh Lee, (D-OK) said of William Rhodes Davis, in reaction to Davis's role in forming and financing
the No Foreign Wars Committee, that Davis's support of the new group was
"..the diabolically cunning betrayal of the American people." Senator Lee went on to say,

"The record of this man Davis shows conclusively the great financial stake he has in a complete Nazi victory in the European war. Much of the gasoline sending showers of fiery death into the defenseless heart of London was sold to the German government by this man Davis. ... He is still trying to promote a phony peace through the White House to pull Nazi Germany's chestnuts out of the fire. ... The No Foreign Wars Committee is a timely object lesson in the technique of all Nazi infiltration."
In his book, "A Man Called Intrepid", author William Stevenson
William Stevenson
William Stevenson may refer to:* Sir William Stevenson , English poet* Sir William Stevenson , Governor of Mauritius* William Ford Stevenson , Fellow of the Royal Society* William E...

 claims that the famed British spy, William Stephenson
William Stephenson
Sir William Samuel Stephenson, CC, MC, DFC was a Canadian soldier, airman, businessman, inventor, spymaster, and the senior representative of British intelligence for the entire western hemisphere during World War II. He is best known by his wartime intelligence codename Intrepid...

 killed William Rhodes Davis.

A New York Times article, dated January 14, 1968, states that Doris Jane Davis is the daughter of Mrs. Armand M. Morell, and the granddaughter of Mrs. Paul C.Matthews and of the late William Rhodes Davis.
Mrs. Armand M. Morell was (Mrs. Morell was formerly Doris Meyer Davis, the wife of Joseph Graham Davis, Sr.), the mother of, and Doris Jane Davis is the sister of, former Governor of California
Governor of California
The Governor of California is the chief executive of the California state government, whose responsibilities include making annual State of the State addresses to the California State Legislature, submitting the budget, and ensuring that state laws are enforced...

, Joseph Graham Davis, Jr., aka Gray Davis
Gray Davis
Joseph Graham "Gray" Davis, Jr. is an American Democratic politician who served as California's 37th Governor from 1999 until being recalled in 2003...

.

External links

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