The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-01-05
JEWELS SMUGGLED INTO
 COUNTRY, REPORTS SAY
By Associated Press

CHICAGO, Jan. 4.-Crown jewels of the Russian czar's valued at from four to five million dollars are
 buried in the grave of James Jones.
 an American seaman, in the Ma tional cemetery at Cypress Hills.
 Brooklyn, according to copyright
 ed story published today by the Chi
 cago Daily News.
 The jewels, the News says. were
 smuggled into the country by New
 York men who obtained them in
 vladivostols in 1920 En route to
 Amercia, one Of the conspirators. the
 story says. decided to doublecro
 his associates, and hid the jewels in
 the coffin of Jones, messman, who
 had died aboard ship.
 Cemetery Guarded.
 The body was buried, the story
 says, before he had a chance to re-
 cover the jewels and as the cerne-
 tery Is under guard, they are pre-
 sumably hidden in the grave.
 The News says William B. Will
 Hams, of the New York office of the
 department of justice, and customs
 officials will ask Federal Judge
 Hand for an order to open the grave.
 Federal officials. the story con
 tinues, have been working on the case for two years. They eventually unearthed records which fitted in with anonymous tips received by the department and by the former inn perial Russian ambassador telling of the plot These records show that the army transport Edellyn. sailed from New York January IT. 1920, and reached vladiyostok May 29, leaving
 June for New York by way of Gi- braltar.
 A short distance out of Gibraltar the seaman, Jones, died and his body was emba1med, eventually being buried September 23, 1920, in Brook lyn. All these details correspond to the information furnished anony- nous letters which purported from two members of the band who were doublecrossed.
 Desert Ship
 The records also show that three members of the transports crew de- serted at Yokohama. The letters said members of the band who had shipped in the crew to reach Siberia and get the jewels were forced to desert ship and proceed by another route because the transport had been delayed and would not reach the Si- berian port in time for them to keep their appointment with the persons who had the gems.
 At the department of justice of- fees here agents admitted they knew of the investigation and that the News story coincided with their in- formation, but they said the case was in the hands of the treasury depart ment secret service and Agent Will Hams in New York. As confusing as any of the stories which have come out of Russia since the downfall of the Romanoffs have tr t~r1 jewels. With reports of the execu- tion of the royal family came first word that some of the crown jewels had been placed on sale in Holland, after having been smuggled across the frontier by Russian communists. This was in January, 1920.
 Various "saIes. Reported Then was recorded in New York the sale of jewels purported once to have formed part of the royal collec- tion. England next was mentioned as the country to which the jewels had been taken; then Germany, Italy and France.
 More recent dispatches have as- serted that the collection was being jealously guarded In Moscow; that the Bolsheviki were unable to find purchasers and that they even were considering railing them off. Some of the royal gems-four giant emeralds-were reported 10 be safe in Buffalo. included in the million dol lar collection of jewels owned by Mrs c. P. Hugo Schoellkopf, who on New Years eve was robbed in this city of stones valued from S150,000 to | $50o,0oo.
 At his home in Greenwich Village, "Iliador" said tonight he had been questioned by no federal agents in search of crown jewels. The royal collection, he said. was under close custody of the bolsheviki in the Kremlin, Moscow. While small thefts | by guards has been reported from time to time, he added, 1t seemed ridiculous to him to imagine that $4 ,000, 900 worth could have smuggled