Gerhard Puff

Who was Gerhard Puff?

Gerhard Arthur Puff was an American gangster, executed by the federal authorities in New York for killing a federal agent. A native of Dresden, Germany, on June 6, 1927, the thirteen year old Puff, along with his mother and five year old brother arrived at Ellis Island on board the S.S. Columbus from Bremen. The family moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin where he became a naturalized citizen in 1934, but by 1940, he was an inmate in the Wisconsin State Prison in Waupun, Wisconsin.

In 1952, he traveled from Kansas City to Manhattan with his 17-year-old wife, Annie Laurie. By this time, his career as a bank robber had earned him a spot on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List. Shortly after he arrived at the Congress Hotel, FBI agents waited to arrest him. He did not remain at Room 904 but returned to the first floor in a few minutes by the stairway where FBI Special Agent Joseph John Brock, aged 44, was stationed. Puff encountered Agent Brock and shot him twice in the chest and took the collapsing officer's gun. Then, with a gun in each hand, Puff zig-zagged through the hotel's lobby, firing another shot at converging agents.