Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-01-08
Staying OF Jingle
BELIEVED SOLVED.
Authorities Say st. Louis
Gangster Has Been lden-
titled as Trigger Man.

Iy the Associated Press.
CHICAGO, January ga solution
of the mystery of the murder of
Alfred E. Lingle, Chicago Tribune re-
porter, has been reached, authorities
claimed today, with the arrest of Leo
Brothers, a st. Louis gangster, who
was identified by several witnesses,
they said, as the man who shot and
killed Lingle last June Q. The identif-
cation, they said, was positive.
Brothers, it was revealed by Patrick
Roche, chief investigator for the State
attorneys office was arrested by three
detectives last December Fl in Chi
cago apartment after he had been
trailed to IL different cities. He was
known in Chicago as Louis Buster"
Bader He denied he killed Lingle, but
admitted, Roche said, that he was
wanted in st. Louis for the Staying Of
John De Blast, service car driver.
This man will sit in the electric
chair for the murder of Alfred E.
Jingle" Roche told newspaper men.
"I'll stake my official reputation on
that. If he is not the killer, then
Lingle is still alive"
Silent on Murder Motive.
Neither Roche nor States Attorney
John A. Swanson, however, would re-
veal If they had uncovered the answer
TO the all-absorbing question in Chi
cago crime in recent years, namely,
''Why was Lingle killed."
There was an unofficial report that
the investigators have been working on
the theory that the Tribune reporter
was put to death because he had in
Cured the enmity of gamblers whom
he had haraSSed. Nor would the Of
flcials give out q list of the names of
the persons who made the reported
identification.
The capture came as the climax to
. drama marked by suspense, violence,
hope and dismay for the State,
touched even by comedy at times.
Brothers movements were known for
days before his arrest, but Roche
wanted to avoid the Wounding or kill
ing of his own men or the suspicion he
wished to question Brothers.
Vote Against Raid.
Constant surveillance was kept while
awaiting q favorable chance to take
him On December 19 Roche learned
Brothers was visiting a downtown
speakeasy, but his operatives voted
unanimously against q raid, because of
the publicity and the possibility Of
Brothers escape.
The next day Roche heard Brothers
was leaving Chicago for Excelsior, MO.
He ascertained the Pullman berth num-
Der, and man in it was seized, but
proved to be some one else. A check-up
showed Brothers was still in his room
at the Lake Crest Drive Apartments.
Roche then decided to act the next
day, December 81, rather than take
chance of losing the quarry. He sud-
denly remembered, he said, that Miss
Rose Huebsch, his secretary when he
had been with the Federal Department
of Justice, was resident Of the Lake
Crest establishment.
Miss HuebSch outlined to Roche the
plan of the Railways and said that res
ddents of the fourth floor had to use
o common telephone in the hail. At
10 am. on December 81 rap on
Brothers door told him he was wanted
on the telephone. He pulled q pair of
trousers and shirt over his pajamaS
TO answer it, and Just as he stepped
out of his room he heard the command
Of Hands up!" He complied. His loaded
Police SergtS. Fred Joyner and Walter
Wendt and Roche himself made the
arrest. They together with Rathbun,
Sam Lederer, business man, crinino-
logist, and q Tribune reporter had
waited all night In Miss Huebsch's room
across the hall.
Since that time Brothers has been
held incommunicado in hotel suite,
being questioned day and night.
Served on Sub Chaser.
Brothers, q chestnut-haired, well
dressed man Of 81, served on a subma-
rine chaser during the World War.
He is a native of Belleville, H., near
St. Louis. Roche described him as "the
toughest man ever encountered"
adding that ''he hasn't a nerve In his
system" He has been arrested more
than so times In st. Louis, but never
convicted of crime. Arson and high
way robbery have been charged against
him.
He came here in July, 1929, fleeing
from the charge of Staying De Blast
in st. Louis taxicab war. Police said
he hired himself to gangsters requir-
ing a cool, fearless head.
Lingle met death in crowded tun-
mel under Michigan avenue at RAN
dolph street, leading to suburban rail-
road station. His assassin fired a 81
caliber bullet into the back of his head
from a snub-nosed pistol and escaped.