Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-08-16
A WHO'S WHO OF THE LAWLESs
Many uzzn Crimes Are Sved Win the did of the Federal Bureau n
Washington Millions Of Finger Prints Are File Forming an EAab
Directory Of the La7o1ay That Each Year Helping bPm
More Criminals Behind the Bars

before. Characteristic for characteristic,
bifurcation for bifurcation, ridge for
ridge, they were the same. The finger
that had made the one had made the
other.
With the whole 10 fingers now g q
key, Ground went to the master file. And
within i've minutes he had the identity
and the record Of J. HarSen FieAgle be-
fore him. He was William Harrison
Holden, alias James Reed. alias Joseph
Read, alias Joe Baker. He came from
Kansas, and his record was not appetite.
ing. A telegram to the Kansas authori~
ties elected the information that Fleagle,
at the time Of the Lamar affair, was
living at Garden City, Kans., short run
from the border.
Wheels moved within wheels. A posse
descended upon the farm Of Fleagle'S
father The father and two other sons
were found in shack in the center Of
a tract Of uncultivated land in Kansas,
They were arrested. Though none OF
them worked nor had visible means Of
livelihood, neighbors recalled that each OF
them had on several occasions exhibited
huge rolls of bills. Banks gave the fIl-
formation that they had maintained in
dividual bank accounts that ran as high
as sec, 900. From here it was but q step
to the observation that these accounts
reached their peaks shortly after suc~
cession of bold bank robberies in Kansas
and Colorado.
With information yielded by the father
and sons, detectives hammered at the
trail. In August, 1929, Herbert L. Roystoa
and G. j. ASHER were arrested at Sacras
mento, Calf, and Grand Junction, Colo,
respectively Each confessed to the Lamar
affair, and each laid the blame on the
missing F1eagle. OF the men arrested,
three have since died in the electric chair
and one is serving life imprisonment.
Last of all to be caught ironically
enough, was Jake Fleagle himself, whose
bloody index finger, touching . mud
guard and preserving its pattern in hard
ened blood. caused the trapping Of them
ALL Fleagle was fatally wounded In q
battle with postal inspectors less than Q
year ago.
OF all the aids to criminal identiflca-
- ton developed during the last CEN
tury none has so nearly attained the ma
ture Of an exact and unfailing science as
the art Of fingerprinting This case I
have just cited is not unusual have
given in prominence for the reason that,
more dramatically than most others, te
demonstrates the gertrude with whiclG
the science operates. His f1ngerprint rec@
ord Is the one thing o criminal cannot
cvade. He may change his name-on file
in the Washington Bureau is the record
of one man who operated under 30 diff
ferent aliaSes-yet each time he runs
afoul of the law his identity becomes e.
plain as If it were tattooed On his chest.
1t used to be possible for criminal "a
move from the city of his last crime and,
in another, lose himself under another
Save by the personal recollection OF
who knew him, there was no way of COM
g an aliaS.
It avenue Is almost closed now On file
ashington on July / were the fingerprints
i36, 308 major erininals-those who have
lifted felonies. They are active prints
of criminals still alive. Accompanying
are 3.541,519 index cards carrying the
name and aliases, signature and record
ch of these persons. Here police officials
e world shop for criminal Identification.
y 1000 persons are arrested each day I'm
United States for crimes for which the
require they be ingerprinted. These prints