The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1930-12-17
AIR PILOTS join
POSSE IN CHASE
OF BANDIT GANG
Planes Use Regarded as
Great Step Forward for
Crime Fight.
BY CARLOS LANE
Times STAFF Correspondent. who zcoom-
panied National Guard Fiiers to

panied National Guard flters TO
scene Of the bank bandits capture.
In the near future, watchdogs of
the air may present an additional
Encouragement to bank bandits and
other major criminals in Indiana as
the result Of a test made Tuesday
while police and civilian posses pur-
sued the Clinton robbers.
Besides the innumerable autos
and persons armed to combat the
bandits, two planes Of the One
Hundred Thirteenth observation
squadron, Indiana national guard,
we're dispatched from Stout field,
Mars Hill, to join the chase.
They we're set down in a small
pasture adjoining the cornfield near
Sidell, Ill. in which the bandits
finally were cornered, a few min
utes after the final battle, despite
virtually every handicap the pilots
could experience.
In the pilots cockpits were
Lieutenant Matt Carpenter, with
Lieutenant Rex Risher, state police,
as passenger and observer, and in
the second plane, Lieutenant Robert
r. Taylor, with the writer as pas
senger.
Ordered Out by Henley
They we're ordered to the air by
Adjutant- General Manford G. Hen
Icy on request of Grover c. Garrett,
state police chief, at 1920 a. m,
two hours after the robbery, when
it appeared the chase might con-
tinue through the Indiana and ILL
llois countryside indefinitely.
BY necessity stored in unheated
hangers at the flying field, the mo-
tors were cold. 1t required an adj
ditional hour to warm them to safe
aging temperature.
Maps were drawn studied, and
then revised hurriedly as the scene
Of the battle shifted into Illinois,
and finally, at 1890 both ships left
the field. At Danville they landed
TO obtain latest information con-
corning the case and went on to
Sidell.
Fly Chiefly by Guessing
without maps for that section,
the pilots we're forced to fly chiefly
by guess to the vicinity oI Sidell.
where several minutes we're spent
picking up definite landmarks.
Finally the field was located, an
open cornfield. with no woods near
by. Above the field the big ships how
cred, looking for figures hiding in
the corn. Men on the ground be-
low signaled the pilots to come
down.
They dropped into a small pasture
adjoining the Leo Moody farm,
where the last stand of the bandits
was made, to find that the last man
had been captured twenty minutes
earlier.
Land in Small Pasture
Although they carried no arma-
ment, the planes could have been OF
great service had they been able to
get under way from the field here
two hours, or an hour before they
did, police and squadron officials
pointed out.
While unable to participate in
the actual fight unless guns and
bombs had been mounted, they
could have spotted hiding places and
communicated with ground forces,
or could have harried the gang,
either on the ground or in their
car, by diving steeply to within a
few feet of them.
At Sidell. Lieutenant Risher
viewed the bodies Of Bell and Landy,
and reported to headquarters in IN
dianapolis. En- route home the
planes circled over Clinton, where
several hundred citizens sensing
their mission, crowded the streets to
cheer them.
Planes Checred at Clinton
The Indiana state police depart
ment soon will have use of an air
plane for such emergencies, accord
ing to Garrett, who declared today
he was satisfied planes could be-
come an important part in such
pursuits if placed on the trail i'm
mediately.
The plane belongs to Lieutenant
Risher, who will bring it from its
hangar in South Bend soon. Later,
if funds are available, the depart
ment will purchase plane.
-Four state police Joined in the
gang hunt Tuesday. They were
Lieutenant John Hamilton of Sui
Ivan and Patrolmen Lawrence
Letzkus of Terre Haute, Frank
Youngblood of Veedersburg and Guy
Engle of Rockville. Chauncey Man
ming Of the criminal Identification
bureau. sent at once to Sidel to
Ninn. the bodies and nrisOncrS