FBI Uncovers Plan to Steal U.S. Submarine

ST. LOUIS, Mo.--The FBI arrested three men yesterday accused of a plot to steal a nuclear submarine, kill the crew, put out to sea, sell the submarine, and perhaps fire a nuclear missile at the East Coast.

The FBI arrested the three--two in St. Louis, one in New York--on charges of conspiring to steal the USS Trepang, based in New London, Ct. Roy B. Klager Jr., an FBI agent, said the FBI discovered the plot when Edward J. Mendenhall and James W. Cosgrove, two of the accused conspirators, contacted an undercover agent seeking funds for training and supplies.

Klager said the men showed the agent written plans for using a twelve-man crew to take the Trepang into the Atlantic Ocean, where they would make a rendezvous with an unidentified buyer