FBI HISTORY FILES: Gerhard Authur Puff

Gerhard Arthur Puff

Gerhard Arthur Puff took his first steps toward a life of crime at the age of 20 when, in his home city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, he was arrested on June 21, 1934 and convicted on a charge of disorderly conduct. Seven years earlier he had come to the United States from his native Dresden, Germany, and only the previous month he had been admitted to U.S. citizenship through the naturalization of his father.

Puff’s next conviction occurred a year later for stealing domestic animals. On August 22, 1935, he was sentenced to serve three concurrent terms of one to five years each in the Wisconsin State Penitentiary. Several months later he was transferred to the State Reformatory at Green Bay.

While at the reformatory, Puff assaulted one of the guards and, on conviction, was sentenced to an additional term of one to 10 years to begin at the expiration of the sentences he was then serving. He was sent back to the State Penitentiary in February, 1937 and was discharged on May 24, 1939 after serving a total of approximately three years and nine months.