Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-05-27
MYSTERY DEEPENS
IN CHICAGO Staying
Of 13-YEAR- OLD BOY
Threat and Confession Let
tiers CompIicate Clues in
Hands of Police

CHICAGO. May 25.-Two letters,
one a threat and the other purport-
ing to be. a confession of murder
added last night to the seemingly i'm
penetrable wall of mystery sur
rounding the staying Of Robert
Franks, 13-year-old son of a Chicago
millionaire, whose nude body was
found in a swamp Thursday while
his father waited to pay $4,000
ransom to kidnapers.
The threatening letter was re-
ceived by Jacobs Franks, watch
manufacturer and father of the slain
youth. 1t was written in scribbling
style, was ungramatical in phrasing
and warned Franks that his daugh-
ter would be next" A half dozen
detectives were hurried to the
Franks home and placed on guard
although the police attached little
Importance to the missive.
The second letter, signed "a sorry
man" and addressed to Chief of
Police Collins, purported to be from
the slayer himself and minated
he had committed suicide.
Dear chief" this letter read, 81
am the murderer and the kidnaper
of the Franks boy. When you get
this letter [ will probably be dead
man. [ intend to commit suicide. [
am sorry L did this inhuman piece
of work.
Police Interest Aroused
The police at first attached little
Importance to this missiVe, which
was typewriter, but took a sudden
interest when it was compared with
the typewriter demand for $40, 900
received by Franks the morning aft
err his son disappeared. A prelimi-
nary examination caused the police
to believe that both were written
on the same typewriter, the shad-
ing of the letters and other charac-
teristics being similar.
With this theory in mind, detec-
tives hurried to a west side sub-sta-
ton postoffice where the letter was
mailed last night, but obtained lit
tie information of value. The police
al<o started checking up on Il man
whose body was removed from the
lake this morning, he apparently
having been dead only a few hours,
In an effort to learn if he was the
writer or had any connection with
the Franks case.
Another bit of mystery was in
jected into the case when a woman
called the Franks home and said
she was a former consort of con-
fidence man and narcotic addict
whose name she gave and who, she
said she thought murdered the boy.
The police were frankly skeptical of
the tip but started hunt for the
man.
Two men, both instructors at the
exclusive private school which Rob
ert attended, were under surveillance
tonight, and a third man, a former
instructor, was being sought for
questioning.
Search Is Extended
1t also was reported that the
search had extended outside the city
today and that two suspects were
being hunted in another city. The
police refused to comment on this
report.
Possibility that a woman is in
volved in the Staying was given
more serious consideration today,
with two facts pointing to the pos
sibility. One is the pair of spec
tacles found near the culvert in
which the boys body was stuffed,
and which occulists said probably
We're the property of woman. The
other was the statement of WON
an residing near the place where
the body was found that she saw
4 man and woman in an automobile
near the spot a few hours before
the body was discovered, and said
that they seemed to be quarreling
and had a squirming bundle in the
rear seat of the machine.
The police added little to the list
of clues on which they are work
ing. These consisted of the spec
tacles, a gray stocking of the slain
boy, found near the spot where his
body was secreted, a gray automo-
bile in which his abductors are be-
lieVed to have taken him away. and
the letter demanding the $4,000
ransom.
All the authorities apparently
agreed tonight that the boy was
kidnapped for money alone, and not
that he probablv was suffocated by
his captors, possibly accidentally.
Theories that he had been poisoned
were discarded when an analysis of
his stomach showed no trace of the
heavier poisons.
Postal Authorities Aid
Postal authorities took a hand in
the case today when several inspec-
tors were detailed to watch the
Franks mail. 1t was said that eff.
forts were being made to trace the
letter demanding ransom and the
threatening letter received today.
/ The latter missive was written IN
rambling fashion. and some of it
was undecipherable.
1t referred to the father as a
skunk and expressed the inten-
ton of harmins his daughter un-
/ less the investigation of the boy $
death is stopped. Police termed it
( the probable work of a crank.
/ While the entire police department
and every resource of the city was
at work on the mystery, plans were
/ made for the funeral of the youth
i who disappeared Wednesday after
noon and whose body was found
next day in a swamp on the far
south side.
/ Funeral services. it was an
/ nounced. probably will be held Mon
! day morning from the home. with
/ only the family and immediate rel,
atives in attendance. The mother
/ is near collapse, and neither she nor
two other children were informed of
the threatening letter received by
( Mr. Franks today. Franks said TO-
day that money meant nothing 10
+ him now. and that he was ready TO
! spend a million dollars to bring The
/ slayers of his son to justice.
| What the authorities believed to
10 l, 70 nhf in