The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-12-18
u. S. FSHERLOCKS' WAR ON CRIME
Agents Pursue Meager Cezey to Solue U,hel KIDNAPPING

working and here came the rem
devious with the kidnapers. We
had detectives in all the bushes
for blocks around. You couldn't
lift leaf without uncovering a
policeman or detective.
Our agents were up on top Of
a hill looking down on the place.
We were hidden behind a shack
on the racetrack grounds. All of
sudden, like a humble bee a
coming out. man tries to get out
of the shack. He was an old hobo
who was drunk and had geen
asleep in there.
"IELL, you can see that if he
w came down that hill and
showed the kidnapers anybody
was watching around there We
were lost. We pushed him in one
door and he came out another.
We Slushed him and showed him
in and he crawled out the roof.
We popped him down and-well,
We got him quiet after a while"
The agent can not accept re-
ward-ever. He has no power to
arrest. He is an investigator who
must call a detective or deputy
marshal to make an arrest.
Palpably, he draws an astonish-
ing pleasure from his work, and
has a Suave tact, Wlng-cOllar-
and-silk-hat politeneSS and a
plush diplomacy that would do
credit to a charge d'affairs of an
embassy.
A lawyer, he digs for evidence
and knows what good evidence is.
Unlike detectives, he does not
seek person but quests the facts
that will prove guilt to a jury of
twelve laymen.
Rarely is he allowed to bed down
in any one post longer than year,
never more than three years, so
that local politics has a nasty
time giving him candy. Anyhow,
other cities are usually concerned
in a case and it would be i'm
possible for him alone to spoil
case save in rare instances.
How does his Sleuthing go
Sherlock, 1894? His first princi-
pie is negative-"Never from
theory and try to find facts for
it," Given case, he collects and
follows every possible clew and
lead. Not one is left unchecked,
even though it involve searching
for example) all the records of
a corporation for twenty years to
find a single handwriting sample.
He hunts facts, not a defendant,
to give to jury.
Watch him trudging through
the east side with package in
his hand, ringing doorbells, I'M
wrapping his package, exhibiting
Its. contents. In it he has the face
of a dead girl, incredibly life-like
and griSly. 1t is the face of a
girl who has been murdered and
thrown into sewer. Agents,
using one of their new scientific
weapons (moulage work., have
nodded cast of the child'S face
and painted it to life with Spe-
cial paints.
For weeks he tolls through the
tenements, unwrapping his hide
Gus handiwork a Thousand times.
At last a woman stares at it and
&c ic oil
Questioned, the woman confeSses
to numbering her own child. That
murder was a police case on
which federal help was asked.
Police practice too often is to
smell out suspect, scoop him up
on suspicion and punch, kick or
gouge confession out of him. Fed
eral units, with one alleged eXcep-
ton in one case, never have been
accused of third-degree methods.
That's an admission of your
own incompetence" says Mr..
Hoover, when you try to beat
confession out of a suspect you
thereby admit you are not yourself
in possession of facts that will
convict him. A badge is never
license for brutality. We expect
our agents to be so superior in
intelligence to the criminals they
work against that they will be
able to guild up complete cases
against them without a confess
sion"
In the last fiscal year the di-
vision of investigation obtained
95.5 convictions in all cases it I'M
dertook. That record never has
been matched in all the history of
police work.