The Meridian times. (Meridian, Idaho) 1909-1938, 1922-01-06

VANISHING MAN

lance wire from Buffalo, that the
police Of that city had captured the
| four men responsible for the murder
Of Patrolman Leroy Boukef. be smiled,
shrugged his shoulders, and muttered:
Zine work That much ID out Of
the way i'
/ But, had Rabshaw only known
4 1t. his troubles were only beginning
! for one of tile bandits, man by the
name Of Meaney, determined to fight
| for his life with every weapon that
the law afforded him.
Securing an attorney familiar with
the kinks and twists Of criminal law.
he quickly succeeded In maaufactur-
Ing an alIbi which appeared to be iron
clad. Half dozen witnesses swore
| that, at the time Bouker was shot,
Meaney had been In their company,
and that 1t was physically impossible
for him to reach the scene of the crime
In time to take part In the murder.
Meaney's lawyer followed his clients
Instructions to make the aiibi good
4 enough for me to have "a hours clear
4 ance-o once I'm out of Cleveland they'll
i never Hllu INC duu llc ui5tlAtt ~
torney, rather than imperil the entire
case. decided to drop the proceedings
against Meaney and concentrate his
attack upon the other three men who
had the foresight to provide themselves
with capable legal assistance. There
fore, In spite of the pleadings Of Chief
Rabshaw, Meaney was released.
Less than twelve hours later, the
chief OF detectives secured evidence
that riddled the carefully prepared
aiibi--evidence which proved that
Meaney had been directly implicated
In the murder. But 1t was too late.
i The gunman had vanished, apparently
Into thin ar
Spurred on by realization that he
had had the man he wanted, actually
lodged In Jail, only to have him slip
through loophole in the legal wall
which surrounded him, Rabshaw de-
termined to nail the escaped murder
er If. as he stated, ut took ten years
and every man on the force to do It,"
The city of Cleveland was combed
from one end to the other. Every
known meeting place In the under
world was watched and raided and
closed.
But the days heightened into weeks,
and the weeks Into months and still
there was no trace Of Meaney.
At night, when his Gays work was
finished, Rabshaw would relieve the
man always on watch at the former
Meaney home, for the chief had q
theory that some day the fugitiye's
wife would provide the clue which
would lead them to the man they
wanted
eyes, / know It's hard work and
tedious work. Rabshaw would say,
as he took up his nightly vigil. "But
there's no woman alive that can out
wit us Ii we keep steadily at 1t.
AS events proved, however, Rab-
shaw was wrong. The clue which led
to the final capture came from an
other and unexpected source.
1t was some eleven months after
tie Bouker murder-after Meaney had
bssn traced to Toledo and Pittsburgh
and st. Louis and Toronto and yari-
GUS points In between. the police al
ways one jump behind him-that Rab-
shaw dropped into the Cleveland post
office to purchase stamp. There was
nothing unusual In the action itself.
lie lad bought stamps at that window
hundreds of times before. But there
was something In the attitude of the
woman ahead of him in line, some
thing furtive about the manner In
4 ,i,1f, cla "a al 40 10
address of the letter which she car
ried. which made the chief Of the de.
tectiyes wonder what was wrong.
When he caught flash of her face
half-hidden under long black veil
he had an intuition chat he knew her
reason for trying TO prevent anyone
from seeing the letter. The woman
was Meaney's sisser-ip-law.
AS she purchased The stamp and
lent forward to afflx 1t, Rabshaw
slepped swiftly out OF line, and sue
ceeded ii catching glimpse of the
envelope, One glance was all he
needed. The missiye was addressed
20 John NJ Oliver, at II number which
Ilabshaw knew was in a secluded and
iiuiet part Of Indianapolis.
Early the following morning Rab-
nhaw took up his vigil outside the
house where Oliver was supposed tc
be living. But no one answering to
The description Of the missing man
nade his appearance, so the Cleveland
chief determined to force the issue by
sending TIVE Of the local police in to
! and out If anyone by that name re.
svded there Scarcely had they re
ported that oliver lived there, but
; was out az the time," than Meaney
, strolled dosn the street and started
to mount the steps Of the house. total
iy unsuspicitals Of his danger. An in
stGnt later, Rabshaw was upon him
his automatic ready for action, but
the fugitive. realizing the folly Of op
!. position TO superior force, threw uI