Evening star. [volume], April 19, 1936, Page A-12, Image 12

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

Image provided by: Library of Congress, Washington, DC

                
WIFE OF SUSPECT
Away on Visit at Time of
Kidnaping, Postmaster’s
Wife Asserts.
toy the Associated Press.
BENSENVILLE, 111.. April 18.—The
red-haired wife of Acting Postmaster
Edmund Conrad Bartholmey said to
day she was away on "something like”
a visit at the time her husband was
accused by Government agents of hid
ing kidnaped William A. Hamm, jr„
of St. Paul, in their home.
Busy with her duties of running the
post office in her mate's stead, Mrs.
Bartholmey, a leader in the civic and
religious activities of this suburban
village of 1.700 persons, declined to
answer any other questions in connec
tion with the Department of Justice’s
allegations that Hamm was imprisoned
In her home after his abduction for
$100,000 ransom in 1933.
"I couldn't say. I was away from
home at the time,” she told ques
tioners.
Neighbors of the Bartholmeys said
they never had reason to suspect that
Hamm also was concealed in their
vicinity.
They said Bartholmey and his fam
ily had been active in many of the
affairs of this community of small
home owners, about 14 miles west of
Chicago's loop. Bartholmey had been
a clerk in the Chicago, Milwaukee &
St. Paul Railroad yard offices here,
had been a member of an employer
employe board to settle disputes, and
had held several public trusts.
HAMM LAUDS G-MEN.
Two Men Held in St. Paul Jail. Third
Expected.
ST. PAUL. April 18 (JP).—'William
Hamm, jr., extended congratulations
to the Department of Justice and “its
untiring investigators” today as J.
Edgar Hoover announced solution of
the three-year-old abduction of the
brewing company head.
Two of three men Hoover an
nounced had been arrested in the
case were held in jail here, along with
two “material witnesses.” one of them
a woman, and a third suspect was re
ported to be en route here from Los
Angeles, where he was arrested.
In the county jail here were Ed
mund C. Bartholmey and Jack Peifer.
Bartholmey was arraigned today and
bond set at $100,000—the same figure
as Hamm's ransom.
George F. Sullivan. United States
district attorney, who announced the
cases would be presented to a grand
jury Tuesday, said he expected the
third suspect. Charles J. Fitzgerald,
would be brought here Monday.
Held as "material" witnesses were
Morris Roisner. liquor store proprietor,
who once was a kidnaping victim, and
a woman identified only as an ac
quaintance of Fitzgerald.
Kidnaping
(Continued From First Page.)
pointed out as the place where Ed
ward G. Bremer, St. Paul bank presi
dent, was held by the same gang for
$200,000 ransom six months later.
Accused as “Finger Man."
Peifer, Twin City police character,
Is said to have served as “finger man”
for the kidnapers. Fitzgerald is ac
cused of being the man who shook
hands with Hamm before two others
poked guns in his ribs.
In disclosing the arrests, J. Edgar
Hoover, director of the F B I., re
fused to divulge details of the hunt
for the men. There remains to be
caught Alvin Karpis, so-called “public
enemy No. 1.” known to his gang
associates as “Old Creepy.” Karpis
narrowly has escaped capture on three
occasions.
The five other outlaws involved in
the Hamm kidnaping, according to
Hoover, are all accounted for. They
arc:
Elmer Farmer, serving a sentence
In the Bremer case.
Byron Bolton, also called William
Bryan Bolton, now held in St. Paul |
In connection with the Bremer case.
Arthur “Doc” Barker, eldest of “Ma"
Barker's boys, serving a life sentence |
at Alcatraz.
Fred Barker, killed with his mother
in a gun battle with Federal agents
at Oklawaha. Fla.
Fred C. (Shotgun Zeigler) Goetz,
reported killed by gangsters.
Members of the "Terrible Touhey”
gang had been acquitted of the kid
naping when Hamm failed to identify
any of them in court.
After handing his three-page mem
orandum to reporters and making a
short statement of the case. Hoover
refused to discuss details of the in
vestigation which led to the arrests.
“I'm afraid I’ve said too much al
ready.” he said.
The Karpis-Barker gang, leaders of
which were Karpic and two Barker
brothers—Arthur, alias "Doc,” and
Fred—succeeded in escaping detection
in the Hamm kidnaping for many
months.
Encouraged by their success in the ;
Hamm case, the gang plotted and I
carried out the bigger “job.” the kid
naping of Bremer. It was in the sec
-1
ond kidnaping they left clues that en
abled the Federal agents to Identify
them and track them down.
Among the cities were latent finger
prints—invisible to the naked eye—on
several empty gasoline cans discarded
by Bremer’s kidnapers on the day of
the ransom payment. Two brass ma
rine lights used in signaling to the
ransom intermediary also proved to be
damaging evidence.
The cans were brought to the bu
reau’s technical laboratory here and
by a special development process ex
perts found on them fingerprints that
matched those in the bureau’s files
of Arthur Barker, paroled murderer.
The signal lights were traced to a
Midwestern store, where a sales clerk
identified a photograph of Alvin
ICarpis. known to be a pal of the
Barkers, as the man who had pur
chased them.
With the Karpis-Barker gang
definitely identified in Bremer's kid
naping, the agents shadowed known
girl friends of the Barkers in Chi
cago, where the gang was well known.
Arthur Barker was seen to enter the
apartment of one of the girls and
emerge with the girl. They went to
another apartment house not far
away, with G-men trailing them. Then
they returned to the girl’s apartment.
Simultaneous raids were staged on
both apartments. ’’Doc" Barker was
captured without gunfire, but Russell
Gibson, alias ’’Slim" Gray, opened fire
on the raiders at the other apartment
and was shot and killed in return.
Captured in Gibson’s hideout was
Byron Bolton, who now is serving 20
years for the Bremer kidnaping.
Hoover says he has been definitely
identified as a participant in the
Hamm abduction also.
Arthur Barker was convicted in the
Bremer case and sent to Alcatraz
Island Penitentiary for life. He and
his brother Fred have been identified
in the Hamm case. Hoover declared.
In searching the apartment where
Bolton was captured, the agents found
papers which indicated other members
of the gang were hiding in a big house
on a lake in Florida and that in the
lake was an old alligator popularly
known In the vicinity as "Old Joe."
With only this meager description
as a guide, the G-men began an in
vestigation of all the lakes in Florida
in the almost forlorn hope of finding
one with an alligator of that name, in
a believe-it-or-not sort of climax they
located such a lake before tne search
had been under way long, found on it
a hcuse w hose inhabitants had aroused
suspicions of neighbors and placed it
under surveillance.
Establishing that a man answering
Fred Barker's description and a
woman resembling his mother, Kate,
alias "Ma,’’ were in the house, a raid
ing squad approached the dwelling,
announced its official business and
called on the pair to surrender. The
answer was a burst of machine gun
fire from “Ma" Barker in a second
floor window. A lively gun battle en
sued, "Ma” Barker and her son finally
dying with guns in their hands.
It was learned from a colored
servant that Karpis and Harry Camp
bell, a companion, who is still sought,
had left the house a few hours before
the raiders arrived and were driving
north. A description of their car was
broadcast and Atlantic City police lo
cated the car in front of a hotel at
the resort. Without waiting for Fed
eral reinforcements, the police at
tempted to capture the men, who
i escaped after an exchange of shots.
Surgery Operation Reported.
Karpis has been flushed several
] times by the Federal forces. Several
j months ago it was reported he had
undergone a plastic surgery operation
i on his face. Recently he Is said to
j have fled from a house near Hot
Springs. Ark., just before F. B. I.
I agents raided it.
Information obtained from captured
members of the gang Is believed to
have led to the arrest of Bartholmey,
Fitzgerald and Peifer.
"The same gang committed both
kidnapings,” Hoover told reporters
yesterday.
Modus operandl of the gang was the
same in each case. Hamm was seized
by several men as he walked down a
St. Paul street on the afternoon of
June 15. 1933. He was released after
William W. Dunn, a friend, had tossed
a bundle of $100,000 on a lonely
stretch of road near Wyoming, Minn.,
in response to a'pre-arranged signal—
the flashing five times of automobile
headlights.
Kidnaped in Same Manner.
Bremer was kidnaped in much the
same way on January 17, 1934, as he
walked along the street after taking
his daughter to school. He was re
leased after Walter Magee, friend
named as intermediary, had thrown
a $200,000 bundle of currency to the
road near Faribault, Minn. The sig
nal for the ransom payment this time
was the flashing of red. green and
white lights from the marine lamps.
All of the 63 kidnaping cases which
have occurred since passage of the
Federal ‘‘Lindbergh law” have been
listed as solved. Some of these cases
have been handled entirely by the
G-men and others In co-operation
with local police.
Only two kidnapers besides Karpis
are on the wanted list of the F. B. I.
at the present time. They are Wil
liam Dainard, alias Mahan, sought
for the Weyerhaeuser kidnaping at
Tacoma, Wash., in connection with
which Harmon Waley and his wife are
serving long terms, and Thomas H.
Robinson, jr.t kidnaper of Mrs. Berry
Stoll of Louisville, Ky.
Like the John Dillinger gang, whose
record was •‘closed" last Summer with
the finding in an Illinois gravel pit
of the remains of John Hamilton, one
time brains of the organization, the
Karpis-Baker crowd has withered un
dter the fire of the Federal agents.
Serving long jail terms are Lloyd
Barker and Volney Davis. William
I Weaver, Cassius MacDonald and
! others have faced courts this year.
Wynone Burdette and Delores De
—
laney, trapped in an Atlantic City,
N. J„ hotel when Karpis and Camp
bell escaped the trap a year ago, are
serving five-year sentences.
"We intend to knock off every one '
who ever worked with this gang,” i
Hoover said. "It may run to 25 or
30 people.”
Wallace
<Continued From First Page.)
ed that the A. A. A. would have to
halt the mailing of past-due checks
to farmers to compile the information
sought. The Secretary said the A. A. |
A. had consistently refused to give !
names of contract signers during the
existence of the crop-control pro- i
grams.
Later Wallace said the A. A. A. had ,
begun a survey of the benefit pay- ^
merits and he furnished Smith with t
broad summary, listing the larger
payments, but withholding names of
contract signers.
At a press conference last Wednes
day Wallace said a clerical staff was
working on the list and that the
names and amounts desired by the
Senate could be obtained in five or
six weeks. However, he indicated that
names of contract signers would not
be included unless the Senate so re
quested.
Officials said they expected there,
would be little or no opposition to
the Vandenberg resolution when It
reached the floor.
HARVARD MEN TO MEET
Senator Elbert D. Thomas of Utah
will be the principal speaker at the
annual banquet of the Harvard Club
of Washington, to be held at the
University Club at 8 p.m. Wednesday.
Others on the program include Leigh
Hoodley, professor of zoology at Har
vard, and Ralph H. Hallett, secretary
of the Washington club. Music will
be furnished by the Chevy Chase
Chanters under the direction of Robert
I E. Kline.
The New Telephone
Directory Closes
April 21
To order a telephone,
extra listings, or ad
vertising in the yellow
pages just call . . .
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