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Image provided by: Minnesota Historical Society; Saint Paul, MN
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Saturday, Nov. 12, 1927 Why a Rug Robbery Remains “Unsolved” (Continued from page 1) fer once more. Thanks. An emissary, a subordinate officer of Chief Brunskill’s de partment submitting to the victim of a robbery that, for a cash consideration HIS PROP ERTY WOULD BE RE TURNED ! “The best chief of police Minneapolis ever had,” eh? From whence did the chief secure the information that stolen property would be re turned upon payment of trib ute? Isn’t it a remarkable (shall we be charitable 'and call it a “coincidence” or be more direct?) “coincidence” that a chief of police would be able to settle a robbery upon payment of a cash sum BUT COULDN’T SETTLE IT BY ARRESTING THE THIEVES? But the chief was “out” when the Rug Company pro prietor walked in with two thousand, five hundred dollars so the “settlement” wasn’t ef fected. The victim of' the rob bers strolled up to the Fourth floor of our “justice factory” and informed the County At torney of the offer made whereupon the C. A., waxed wroth and declared : “Don’t pay him a damcent,” whatever sort of coin that is, I don’t know but perhaps some one else does. Perhaps it was unfortunate and it may have been fortu nate that the chief was “out” that particular morning. At any rate the rugs were never returned which indicates that the thieves were never appre hended and the thieves’ vic- tim saved his twenty-five hun dred dollars. Is it possible that the C. A. was actuated by an impulse to protect his former employe, Brunskill, from the taint of filthy lucre? Or was he sincere in wishing to secure the return of stolen property without stooping to bar te r with thieves? At any rate an investigator put on the case by Mr. Olson failed to locate the stolen rugs, though he was long on promises to get quick action. On one occasion he reported to the Rug Company proprietor “Go back to-your store and wait; some of the rugs are coming back this afternoon.” HE TALKED LIKE THE RUGS HAD LEGS—going to walk back! But, like the fabled kitty, they “never came back.” Later on that same after- noon, this “i n v e s t i g a t o r” phoned the proprietor “ who was “waiting at the store” that he needn’t wait any longer as the rugs weren’t homeward bound. They had struck a snag and were hung up! Now, if all these brilliant of ficials and officers knew where the stolen rugs were and who had them—knew they were delayed in transit and that they couldn’t be moved at that time, —doesn’t it strike YOU as peculiar THAT THEY COULDN’T MAKE AN AR REST ? Later, the C. A.’s investi gator reported that “you can get twenty of the rugs within 24 hours but you will be taking a chance on getting the rest of them, which are to be brought in in about a week; so have decided to wait a week and possibly get them all.” And who said anything about Sherlock Holmes being a wise guy! Old Sher was a dub! Here in Minneapolis, we have a police chief who can coax a thief to return stolen property worth ten thousand dollars upon the payment of a lousy twenty-five hundred dol lars and an investigator from the County Attorney’s office who says to the man who has been robbed: “We can get some of your property right now but we have to wait until the men who robbed you haul it in and may be that’ll take them a week. But you sit on your thumb a while and maybe we can get all the loot.” A fine state of affairs, isn’t it? Well, the Rug Company proprietor has been waiting since March, 1924, AND HIS RUGS HAVEN’T RETURNED YET! The police couldn’t get them although the proprietor in forms me that Chief Brunskill almost tearfully admitted that he knew the truck that hauled the stolen rugs, he knew the driver of that truck AND YET HE COULD NOT GET HIM. And he’s “the best chief of police Minneapolis ever had!” What a wonderful assortment of marble-tops his official an cestors must have been! And there wasn’t one of them who THE SATURDAY PRESS had graduated beer wagon class! One day some months after the robbery of the rug store, a gangster well known to the police, reported that his home had been filched of several thousand dollars’ worth of valuable rugs, silver and gee gaws and he had them well in sured. He was up-against the proposition of proving owner ship of the stolen rugs so he trotted down to the Rug Com pany proprietor (the Oriental Rug Company and asked that individual to give him a bill of sale so he could collect five thousand dollars of insurance. The celluloid medal for un adulterated bronze goes by unanimous consent to this bird. He didn’t get the bill of sale and incidentally he didn’t get his insurance. But a short time later the Rug Company's pro prietor went to Brunskill’s of fice to report the request for the bill of sale, that worthy waxed inquisitive and asked all sorts of simple questions as to the color of hair, shape of ear-muffs and general outlines of the bucko who wanted a bill of sale for stolen property. But he dried up quick when the rug company proprietor mildly inquired why all the questions, WHEN BRUNSKILL ALREADY HAD A REPORT FROM THAT SAME INDI VIDUAL REPORTING THE “THEFT” OF PROPERTY. Less than three months ago some of those rugs were of fered for sale in this city, and still neither Chief Brunskill nor the investigators from the County Attorney’s office can find them. Just how hard did they try to find rugs or rob bers? They didn’t try. Brun skill has never made a serious effort to apprehend a criminal since he has been chief of police AND HE CAME TO THE CHIEF’S CHAIR DIRECT FROM THE COUNTY AT TORNEY’S OFFICE! This rug robbery is ancient history, so to speak. And the Chinese Shanghai berr ie s, cackled over by biddies long gone to soup are no more pun gent when cracked than the record of our police depart ment since Frank Brunskill be came its chief. The statue of limitations has applied to be sure, but a sincere Grand Jury would delve into this out lawed case if for no other rea son than to establish the rela tionship existing between Frank Brunskill and the scum of the underworld. Audita Fatal “IT (Continued from rage 1) ly met, but the man who can’t meet them and resist them is doomed to oblivion. However: Men who seek public office and who obtain it, must be of sterner stuff than the private citizen who is content to plod along, unsought, unsung, un known. And Mr. Olson is no exception to that rule. He acquired the office he now holds through a turn of the Wheel of Fate. He saw his predecessor, a young man like himself, stumble, fall and go down. If he makes the same mistake that predecessor made, he has no one to blame but himself. Therefore: “IF.” The men constituting the firms under indictment ARE found guilty should be pun ished. But will they be? Ah. there’s the rub! Mr. Shapiro’s assailants were not brought to account until this small paper published the story of Shapiro’s assault and as I said a few lines back, Mr. Shapiro himself told me that County Attorney Olson had in formed him that “whenever you are ready to go before the Grand Jury, let me know” and a few weeks later, after Mr. Shapiro had given up hope of being able to get his story through the doors of that jury room, I used the United States mail to reach the ears of the Hennepin County Grand Jury. And action followed within twenty-four hours. . “If” any or all of these in dicted men or firms are con victed, the president of the United Tailors of this city re quests that they be given jail terms. He evidently has his doubts that any of them will be convicted and he has a lot of shareholders in his stock of doubts. Why isn’t the County Attorney as aggressive in hi? fight against crime as he was in his campaign for a much higher office than the one he now holds? There must be a reason. Mr. Guilford was shot down by two gunmen on the morn ing of September 26. Fortun ately the shooting took place just outside the city limits in instead of just INSIDE as the gang had planned. I, knowing something of the bond of sym pathy exisiting between our chief of police and* gangland. Continued on Page 8 'Page Seven