FBI AGENTS (COMPOSITE)
INSPECTOR FRITZ “FRED” SPENGLER
CHARACTER SKETCH DETAIL
40, intelligent, honest, hard-working, devout Lutheran, conservative true-believer, family man, straight arrow.
Fred Spengler is a by-the-book, career FBI man who has run afoul of Hoover in years past, due in part to clashes with then-Assistant United States Attorney Roy Cohn over questionable practices during the Rosenberg case. Now he’s been assigned to lead the FBI’s Matusow task force, and sees a chance to resurrect his career. But is he doing the right thing? And is there something behind the fact that he's been handed this case?
What does Spengler believe? That God will provide. By the power of His grace, Spengler has been given the gifts of a beautiful family to cherish, a law to follow, a government to serve, and an enemy to vanquish. It is divine will that he play his humble part in the fight against the godless scourge which threatens them all — communism. And he doesn’t know it yet, but God’s greatest test for him lies ahead, when he will find that the commands of his government come into conflict with God’s law.
Spengler finds himself blessed to be living in the best country in the world, at the height of it progress and during the most crucial point in its history. The future of America and the freedom of the world depends on the defeat of this sinister evil, one even more dangerous than those that lay on battlefields overseas during the recent World War. Communism, and the subjugation of the people under its control, takes root in the invisible world Satan inhabits — within the hearts and minds of men. In facing this threat, Fred must not let this darkness best him in the most devious of ways, by asking him to abandon his own morals in order to defeat it.
This is a test he has faced before. Years earlier, Spengler's unauthorized clash with then-Assistant US Attorney Roy Cohn over the death sentences of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg earned him a reprimand from Hoover and a demotion. His punishment: exile to a sleepy Midwestern FBI Field Office. Having done his penance and earned a return to Washington on assignment to lead the Matusow task force, Spengler finally sees his chance to get back into the Director's good graces, redeem himself in the eyes of his fellow agents, and make good for his wife and children.
It’s been hard on Spengler’s family to move about the country, always awaiting his next assignment. Their German heritage has made life even more difficult. Spengler is a first-generation American and loves the country and the promise it holds as much as anyone. He supported the Allied war against his ancestral homeland. But anti-German sentiment still runs deep in the United States and no amount of explaining away his desk job during the war or using the nickname “Fred” over his given name of Fritz lessens the suspicious looks and comments from community members and co-workers alike. Spengler knows that when he takes over the Matusow task force, he’ll have much to prove to everyone, himself and his family included.
Fred first throws himself into searching for the ex-informant and later into trying to derail Harvey’s book. But as the case spirals out of control, Hoover's cover up deepens, and Spengler comes up against a new class of less scrupulous agents, he struggles to reconcile his idealism with his sense of right and wrong. Soon, he begins to question whether his selection for the job was God's handiwork, or that of something, or someone, far more clandestine. While he and his agents keep watch over their surveillance targets, he has uneasy sense that he, too, is being watched.
STAKES
Spengler needs to rebuild his career and redeem himself in the eyes of the Bureau and his family. He risks losing his moral compass along the way.
CHARACTER ARC
Spengler’s desire to serve the Bureau comes into conflict with his desire to serve God’s law. Ultimately forced to choose sides, he is likewise forced to redefine himself and his principles.
FIELD AGENT BILL WARD
CHARACTER SKETCH DETAIL
25, eager, apolitical, unmarried, recently graduated Field Agent, commended for his surveillance and tactical skills while in training.
Bill was raised admiring the heroism of FBI agents depicted in film and on the radio, and joined the Bureau believing in its storied ideals. Assigned to the Matusow task force, he soon falls in with a “black bag squad” that carries out surreptitious, warrantless break-ins against FBI investigative targets. Will these activities challenge his beliefs in the clarity and purity of the mission, or will his path lead him further away from his values?
What does Bill believe? Duty above all else. All the spoils of life - wealth, family, security, power, happiness are best derived from an unwavering dedication to a singular, superseding purpose. As a younger man, Bill craved structure; at the FBI academy, he found it. He has emerged a new disciple in the church of Hoover.
Arriving in New York City from his home in rural Ohio, Ward’s ability to avoid detection while a new member of black bag squad earns him the nickname "Ghost" and lands him on Spengler's Matusow task force. But he chafes at Spengler's textbook approach to intelligence gathering. When Hoover's wrath forces Spengler to begin bending the rules, Ward takes full advantage by leading risky, unsupervised surveillance missions and cooking up brazen intimidation tactics, even against the young Kahn family. His aggression may lead to his own glory, or Spengler's undoing.
BIO NOTES
Through our research, we have turned to our historical expert on the FBI, various memoirs of FBI agents from the period, and the reams of FBI files at our disposal in order to develop composite characters. The two we’ve chosen reflect the profile, experiences, and daily protocol typical of both a career FBI man and a new recruit to the Bureau, as well as the paradoxical culture of the FBI during the McCarthy Era.