Evening star., 1932-05-18
SUICIDE
| ATTEMPT FEARED
kHeayy Guard Placed Over
ShipbuiIder by New
u Jersey Police.
CONTINUED From First Page)

uuiry into the payment OF $50 900 ran
som money by another Intermediary
DR.. Condon-to man who represented
himself as acting for the kidnapers.
Condor himself was not called before
| the Jury. He is to tell his story Fri
day.
Condor, whose negotiations for the
return of the baby led him despite his
72 years into adventures in strange
places-the silent Bronx cemetery,
, where he paid over the ransom money,
the bay where he took duck1ng In
the cold water while seeking to renew
his contact, and to Journeys in the
dead of night, following the lure Of
messages given him by mysterious
veiLed woman-said the Curtis hoax
had been disastrous to his own efforts.
Jafae Still Hopeful.
He said that publication of a state
ment attributed to Curtis that Col.
| Lindbergh was willing to pay, through
| him. 100000 ransom, had caused the
kidnapers to drop their Bronx negotia-
| tionS and seek greater gold through
Curtis
"All the story hasn't been told yet"
said the retired Schoolmaster. He in
dicated that he still was hopeful of
ltdulIlk IIlC law W ltiC BditB llldb bOl
the $50. 600 ransom money-supplied by
Col Lindbergh from him.
A Monterey, Mexico. report that
i Harry F9eischer, the much-discuSSed
| Detroit Purple" CANISTER, had been ar
rested and had confessed the kidnap-
| ing, was quickly denied by police at
Monterey and by Federal authorities
at Mexico City.
The story, circulated by a news serv-
| ice mot the Associated Press, quoted
a Monterrey newspaper as saying the
| gangster, who has been hunted for
several weeks, was in custody and had
| admitted the kidnapping.
Several hours earlier the Associated
Press Bureau at Mexico City had
| checked this rllmor with the Monterrey
| police chief and also with federal po-
| lice authorities at Mexico City and
| found it unfomded.
The report, according to the Mon
terrey police. resulted when a police
| officer jokingly told a Monterrey re-
porter that an American, held on
minor charge, was "the Detroit gang
| ster, Fqeischer"
John Hughes Curtis confession that
his story of negotiations was untrue,
! typed in the presence of police officers
under the very roof of the parents the
| hoax hurt most seemed not to calcu-
late the additional consequences the
deceit had caused. 1t expressed ere
gret" for Inconvenience" caused Col
Lindbergh, but it said nothing of the
| expenditure Of time and money. and
the risk Of human life it incurred.
| 1t made no mention of the feet Of
| Coast Guard craft which flung itself
out to sea to search for the fishing
| schooner" that sailed only in Curtis
imagination. 1t said nothing of the
yacht that headed into a dangerous
storm on an impossible quest; nor of
dead babys father, who, with a cold
Atlantic wind whipping his bronzed
/ face. stood ON the yacht deck. flashing
brain children of the Norfolk boat
builder.
"a Distorted Mind"
"I never knew Such people as I named
to Col Lindbergh." the boat builder con-
| fessed, setting it down in his own type
writing. They we're creatures of a
distorted mind"
Curtis said he was brought back
| to my senses" few hours before the
confession was made by a telephone
| conversation with his wife, who told
| him "of the trouble she was having and
| how the children missed me-"
History has set down other hoaxes
but none perhaps so revealing of elab-
crate detail. Curtis invented a phan-
tom ship. He placed aboard her a
| phantom crew. He gave them names.
, and he gave them aliases. He sailed his
ship. with her crew ef abductors, ex-
tortionists and murderers. up and down
the Atlantic seaboard-into inlets, along
,, the coast line and into Long Island
Sound.
He invented engine trouble for the
craft and arranged repairs. He faeri-
, Gated motor cars on shore. conferences
in hotel lobbies and cafeterias, and
telegraphic messages with woman agents
of the ghost crew, and he described
these women In detail-even to the kind
of dresses they wore.
With the Curtis clues shot down like
brilliant toy balloon arrowed by an
accurate bow, the police were left today
only with the story of DR.. Condor and
with their own-found clues to hunt the
baby killers.
Il would know the man I paid the
money to-know him in a thousand"
Condor said.