Evening star., 1924-06-19
MASTER MIND NAMED.
( IN Big MAIL Theft
Max Greenburg. Notorious St.
Louis Gang Leader, Said to Be
Brains" of Huge Robbery.
CONFESSIONS GIVE DETAILS
Police Able to Trace Crime Plot to
Saloon Farley.

By the Associated Press.
CHICAGO. June l9.-Search for the
'aniaster mind" who planned the hold
up of the Chicago. Milwaukee. and st.
Paul mail thain near here week ago.
when eight bandits obtained s2.0I5,
goo in cash and securities, extends
throughout the country today, while
fedtrai authorities prepare evidence
for the grand jury against four men
In custody.
Max Greenberg, former leader of
kSan's Rats of ST. Louis, who, inyes-
tigators said, proposed the robbery
at East St. Louis. is at large Ernest
Fontano, Chicago; Samuel Grant and
Blackie Wilcox escaped convicts from
the Huntsville (Tex) penitentiary,
are wanted as the remainder of the
band.
Confessions solving the robbery
have been obtained from three of the
four alleged actual participants under
arrest, police say Wills Newton
who first gave his name as j. II.
Wade. and Willie Newton, who said
he was John Wayne, seriously wound
ed during the robbery, all brothers,
and Carlo Fontano, brother OF ernest,
: Political Leader Held.
IA federal warrant charging James
Murray, prominent politician, with
being an accessory to the robbery,
was issued last night. His bonds
were fixed at 100000. Also held as
accessories are Walter McComb and
his wife, in whose fiat the Newton
brothers were found. and Anna Mead
Spf Milwaukee, who came here with
$4,000 to effect Willis Newton's re-
lease.
: Only 100000 In non-negotiable Sc
scurities, found in an abandoned au-
tomobile near Joliet has been recov-
erred. in addition to the $4,000 seized
when the Mead woman was arrested.
One missing package contains $780,
900 in liberty bonds, postal author
,ttieS say.
From the confessions and from
other evidence, police and postal in
spectors have reconstructed the de-
tails of the crime.
i Bandits Carefully Drilled.
: In an East ST. Louis saloon a
month ago the plan was broached by
Greenberg, police say. and the other
sseven members of the band selected
and drilled in their parts. Last
Thursday, while all but Grant and
Willis Newton went in two stolen
automobiles to Rondout, ILL.,. the scene
eof the robbery, the pair boarded the
train and rode blind baggage" until
they reached Rondout, thirty-two
miles north of Chicago.
: At the point where their confed-
serates were waiting, Grant and VIII
lis Newton crawied over the tender
and compelled the engine crew to
stop the train. The others surround
ed the cars and threw bottles contain
the clerks out. The clerks subdued,
the registered mail car was looted of
sixty-two pouches, which were piled
in the waiting automobiles.
Willis Newton. stationed as a look
out. was mistaken for mail clerk by
7GFant, who shot him five times be-
lfore he recognized him. The wound
ted man was stretched on top of the
piles of pouches and the robbers pro-
seeeded to near Joliet. where the bags
were rif1ed and discarded and one au-
mobile was abandoned.
Shooting Ipsets Plans.
Later, according to the police story,
1.-THE four men held returned to Chi
cago. where they were arrested on
tip supplied by one of a group of sus-
poets taken shortly after the robbery,
and later released
. The bandits had first arranged to
escape to East st. Louis and divide
the loot in the saloon where the rob-
berry had been planned. The shooting
of Newton marred the otherwise care
FULLY planned and executed robbery,
the police say, and led to the subse-
,quent capture of the four and the So
lution of the crime.