The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-05-06

| federal agents left the coast guard
station long after midnight.
Friction between the McMaths
and the police first became evident
Thursday afternoon, when McMath
asked that all officers be withdrawn
from Cape Cod, and Needham re-
fused.
Less than twelve hours after this
request, Peggy, blindfolded, was
placed in an automobile beside her
father not far from the McMath
home, according to the girls own
story. She was taken Immediately
aboard boat, she said.
But it was not until late Friday
that police discovered Peggy was
back. They had their first tip through
a Boston policeman, who reported
being commissioned to guard the
transfer of 100000 in currency from
Boston bank to Harwichport.
Found on SaiIboat
After questioning associates of
the McMaths and members of the
family, police sought coast guard
aid, and Friday evening a picket
boat moved alongside the 5O-foot
auxiliary sailboat of William Lee in
Wychmere harbor.
Coast guardSmen, armed and
ready for a fight, went aboard Lees
boat, the Bob. They did not know
what to expect-but what they
found was a pretty domestic scene.
Peggy was drinking milk and eat
ing fruit beside her father, with
Lee and Buck and others sitting
nearby.
McMath explained then his
promise to the kidnapers that he
would keep Peggy on the boat for
48 hours to let them escape, but
the police disagreed. They brought
the whole party to Woods Hole, and
Immediately started the question
ing, which lasted through the night.
At first Peggy, McMath, and Lee
were examined in different rooms,
their stories being checked con-
stantly. Peggy's story, as related
later by Needham, added little of
value to police, though it was a
dramatic story coming from the
lips of the 10-year- old.
Others Are Quizzed
Later others joined the confer
ences, including:
George Bacon, vice-president of
the Merchants National bank of
Boston, from whose vaults the ran
som money apparently came; Ralph
H. Snow, treasurer of the Cape Cod
Five-Cent Savings'bank at Harwich,
to whom the money was consigned,
and who was believed to have deliv-
cred it to McMath; E. E. Hall, chief
of the Harwich police, and Frank
E. Smith, assistant prosecutor of a
district centered at Taunton.
william c. Crossley, district attor-
ney of New Bedford, had been asso-
ciated in the examination from the
start.
Needham particularly was inter
ested in learning whence had
come the 100000, of which all but
$4,000 later went to the kidnapers.
McMath. himself boat builder
mere, had been represented by Lee
as having little money, though his
father. Francis c. McMath, and his
father-in-la William Robert Kales,
both of Detroit, are regarded as
wealthy.
Needham Is Suspicious
Some phases of this case are
worth the utmost scrutiny" Need
ham said.
On one thing, at least, all Of
hcials in the case were agreed.
Peggy, they said unanimously, is
brick. She told her story straight
forwardly, and showed unusual
powers of observation for a 10
year-old.
She assured them that she was
not afraid at any time, and she
stood up firmly for the man who
had cared for her at hideaway
where she was held most Of the
time.
He was a friend, she insisted,
who sought only to return her to
her parents without letting kid
napers get her.
Mrs. McMath. it was learned for
the first time this morning, visited
Peggy on Lees boat Friday morn
ing while police of a dozen states
still we're maintaining vgilant
watch for signs of possible kid
napers.
The mother spent half an hour
on the boat and then returned to
shore, lest suspicious be aroused