Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-01-30

| take care of that catalogue of 24,0OO,-
| 600 cards for Berlin alone!
Each one of these cards covers an
| individual who Is or was in Berlin
since the inception of the catalogue.
| On that card is registered. say, of Carl
| Schmidt, honest citizen, the following
| information: His first and family
| names; nicknames, If any; fathers,
mothers, brothers and sisters names,
with the number Of the card of each
| of these as found in the Meldwesen;
| date of Carrs birth; religion. pastor;
what kindergarten, school and college
| he attended; various occupations he
engaged in, with names of employers;
| his various changes of residence;
names of business and other assoct-
ates; name of wife, her parents, chill
dren df any,, nearest other kin; rec
ords of travel, cities, hotels stopped at;
remarks of any other kind the police
consider interesting in his case. Cross
references to any of the names men
| toned on his card, with an exhaustive
record for each, will shed still more
| light on Carl Schmidt.
If Carl were ever caught in crime
there would be in addition wealth
of other information about him.
There would be photographs of him,
front and profile, Bertillon measure
ments, f1ngerprints; q digest of his
trial; a description of his crime in
terms of the particular technique
employed by him; his aliases, If any;
his associates in crime, If any; sweet
hearts, enemies, etc.
Downstairs in the basement sits
DR.. Hans Schneikert, a scholarly
looking little man, a Phi. D., and one
of the worlds greatest authorities on
handwriting. He is not one of the
mechanical men of the machine, but
is one of its engineers, one Of the
comparatively small number of men
who direct the machine and who make
up in initiative and brains, scholar
ship and breadth and depth of culture
for the many mere figures they COM
mand. He has q machine of his own
that works together with the Meld-
wesen.
1t consists of vast catalogue of
newspaper clippings, so arranged that
the moment q crime Is brought to his
notice he lays his hands on a folio of
newspaper clippings from all over the
country and elsewhere, all dealing
with crimes similarly committed.
X X ~
INTO the big card catalogue machine
went the names of all those caught
in the Razzia, as well as the names
of all persons having anything at
all to do with the murdered Rudolph
Stenghal. So minute was the search
that a second cousin of Otto, Steng-
halls servant, was called to police
headquarters and had to supply an
alibi of the night of the murder be-
cause the Meldwesen revealed that
five years earlier he had a mistress
who had also been at another time
the mistress Of a throat-cutting bur
glar executed in prison.
Into the Meldwesen, too, went eight
men who had been brought along in
the Razzia because they fitted into
"categories 12AK and TAX" These
two categories covered blowing
with nitroglycerin. as was done with
the Stenghal safe, and also Church
thefts." 1t was found, however, that
in each case the men had perfect alibis
and were allowed to go free.
But in DR.. Schneikert's Kriminal-
Archiv, which corresponds to the
Criminal Registry Office" of Scotland
Yard, were found the cards and news
paper clippings of nine men who had
blown up safes with nitroglycerin after
cutting the threats Of those on guard
OF these six were executed, two were
awaiting death and one was still a
fugitive at liberty.
His card in the Meldwesen gave
more than Is names of relations, as
sociates and enemies. A close watch
was instantly placed over every one of
these and instructions given to bring
in three of them after observation for
certain time.
Meanwhile a special murder COM
mission" was organized at police head
quarters to deal with the Stenghal
T+ no Laf Of
mission is appointed for each murder.
But usually there is a standing com
mission" already at work specializing
in one crime or another. There are 20
regular commissions, and the degree
of minuteness to which they specialize
may be gathered from the functions
of several of these.
Commission No II devotes itself
to Church thefts"; Commission No.
3" to thefts of luggage and packages
in railroad stations; Commission No.
IT, to marriage and marriage broker
swindles, and so on.
On the Shanghai murder commission
were included three members of the
regular Commission on Church
Thefts." a police surgeon, Il pho
tographer, two members of the Com
mission on Safe-Blowing and Bur-
glaries" and a psychologist.
The man who was found in DR..
Schneikert's Kriminal-Archiv to have
previously cut mans throat and
| then blown his safe open with nitro
glycerin and who was still at large
was known as Hans Kriftel. The al
| ready active hunt for him was re-
doubled.
The Stenghal commission ordered
| brought before them Johann G.,
known as an enemy of Hans Kriftel
Johann G., the enemy, was queS-
| toned without much pressure, as it
was known he would be glad to help
capture kriftel. He had not much to
offer, however. He did tell the COM
| mission that the last he heard Of
| kriftel was that he had a sweetheart
with whom he was rumored to be
| hiding in Schoeneburg, a Berlin dis
| trict.
DOLCE found Lena s., the sweet
heart but no Kriftel. She was
! brought TO police headquarters, then
| questioned. She refused to help the
police. She was ready to go to prison
rather than betray Hans. Besides"
she protested, II really don't know
/ where he ISL
| The psychologist of the Shanghai
commission then excused the other
members of his group and addressed
| himself to Lena along a vastly diff
| ferent line.
| Listen, Lena" he said. You may
| be willing to go to prison rather than
send your sweetheart there. But
here is something else i insist on your
doing. / call off word to you. I'M
mediately on hearing 1t you must
utter the first word that comes to
your mind"
Lena puzzled over the ultimatum
A.a.