Herbert Johannes Wilhelm Haupt was born in Stettin the son of Hans Max Haupt and Erna Haupt. Hans Haupt was a World War I veteran who came to Chicago to find work in 1923. His son and wife followed in 1925. Herbie Haupt became a US citizen when his parents were naturalized in 1930. Haupt attended Lane High School and later worked at Simpson Optical Company as an apprentice optician. In 1941 Herbie Haupt and two friends began a world wide trek where he ended up in Germany after going to Mexico, Japan and France. He won a medal for helping his passenger ship run the British blockade on the way to France. While visiting his Grandmother in Stettin, the United States and Germany went to war. Haupt was recruited to return to America as a saboteur. Haupt and twelve others were trained in Brandenburg for Operation Pastorius. Eight eventually graduated and in June 1942 were sent to America via U-boat. Haupt and three others landed on June 17 near Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. From Jacksonville Haupt took a train to Chicago, to visit his parents and girlfriend. Two of the four who landed in Long Island went to the FBI and gave the whole plot up. Haupt and his family were arrested on June 27th. Herbert Haupt and six others, Edward Kerling, Hermann Neubauer, Werner Thiel, Richard Quirin and Heinrich Heinck were tried by military tribunal. All were found guilty of being enemy agents and sentenced to death. On August 8, 1942 starting at noon, all were electrocuted in the District of Columbia electric chair. The two informants were deported after the war. Hans Max Haupt got a life sentence but was deported in 1957. Erna Haupt was deported in 1946. Gerda Melind Saure, Herbert Haupt's girlfriend said in a 1997 interview that she never thought Herbie would have gone through with the plot but only wanted to get back home to his parents. One of the original saboteurs, Ernst Zuber said in a 1982 interview that Haupt told him in Germany "The only way to get home in wartime is by submarine." Haupt had tears in his eyes as he spoke of his parents because he was homesick. Lieutenant William Adams who was assigned to guard Haupt during and after the tribunal said Haupt was not told of his pending fate until just before the executions occurred. Haupt broke down while being prepared for death, but recovered and "died like a man." Haupt passed a message along to be given to his father. "Try not to take this too hard, I have brought nothing by grief to all of my friends and relatives who did nothing wrong, my last thoughts will be of mother". It took Herbie Haupt seven minutes to die in the chair. In 2001 after the terrorist attack on New York and Washington, Herbert Haupt was in the news once again as President Bush attempted to use military tribunals on suspected terrorists, even if they were American citizens, as President Roosevelt did with Haupt, the only one of the agents executed in the mass electrocution who was an American citizen. Herbert Haupt was buried along with his comrades in the District of Columbia's potters field. Haupt's grave marker was only a wooden marker labeled 278. In 1982 a German American organization marked the graves of the six agents with an appropriate tombstone.