The Washington times., 1934-10-16

OUTLAWS SEEK
EASY MONEY
BY SNATCH
Justice Departments Record
Shows Only One UnsoIVed
CaSe-June Robes
By EUGENE A. KELLY
Repeal and the Lindbergh cas-

Dy EOOAINE "A NCAAI
Repeal and the Lindbergh case.
Officials of the Department Of
Justice today Llamed these two
factors for the wave of kidnapping
which has swept the country for
the last two years. Renewed in
terest in the crime and its causes
springs to life as front pages
scream the latest developments in
the Lindbergh kidnapping case and
a watchful nation awaits the safe
return of Mrs. Alice Stoll, the lat
est victim of an act which strikes
at the very root of the sanctity of
the home and person.
Since 1882, thirty men, women
and children have been dragged
from their homes, sometimes beat
en-, always intimidated and finally
released when the ransom money
was paid.
Logical Crime Outlet
Inexplicable as it seems to the
uninitiated, the kidnapping racket
is, in the eyes of re criminolo-
gists, the logical path outlined for
the criminal by the repeal OF the
prohibition laws. Hardly had
there been definite talk OF legal
beer and liquor when the bootleg
ger who had lived for years in ease
and luxury becaus. of a nations
desire for a drink it could not
have, struck out for new revenues
and illegal activities which offered
the greatest safety.
In the summer of 1892 the cita-
dels of the righteous dry cause
began to crack, and by late fall
it was apparent the entire pro-
gram would collapse. The racke-
teer, always cagey and acquisitive,
began to look ahead.
Bewildered at first in their
choice of illegal activities which
were to supplant the booze racket,
they hit upon kidnapping, mainly
because, as time dragged on, they
thought the efforts of the law-en-
forcement agencies dealing with
the kidnaper of the Lindbergh
baby had completely failed.
Thought Selves Safe
It was thus that the seed of the
kidnapping racket terminated in
the minds Of the country's worst
criminals. Patient waiting by
agents of the Department of JUS
tice in swooping down on the
Lindbergh kidnaper was mistaken
by the racketeers for futility. BY
late fall of 1882 they were certain
the booze racket was doomed.
Then commenced the long series
of kidnapings which swept the
country from coast to coast. Every
week citizens of some town or city
awakened to learn that one of
their members was in the hands
of brutal kidnapers.
It would be an inaccuracy to
state that some of the "snatches"
were more important than others.
In every case there we're tears and
heartrending hours of anxiety.
Some, of course, such as the June
Robes case and the Brooke Harte
case, were more brutal and vicious.
But every case, without exception,
was a direct attack on the per.
Sonal security guaranteed by the
Constitution of the American peo-
pie.
June Robes Gagged
June Robes. six-year-old daugh.
ter of Tuscon, AriZ., family, was
grabbed by a man as she walked
home from school. The kidnaper
later demanded $4,000 ransom
money. Like an animal she was
cast into a cage buried in the hot
sands of the Arizona desert and
fed through the bars.
The tiny youngsters body was
scorched as she sat in the sun
beaten cage of iron. She was re-
leased after 19 days of torture and
the greatest manhunt in the his
tory of Arizona came to a close.
It is the sole blight on the almost
perfect record of the Department
of Justice. The case has never
been solved.
More spectacular in it's conse-
quences and more sensational in
its solution is the case of Brooke
Hart, the California college boy,
who was kidnapped and later
thrown into San Francisco Bay
while his captors negotiated for
the ransom money.
Two Men Lynched
Crack agents of the Department
of Justice were given the case, it
being one of the first turned over
to them since the Presidents ex-
ecutive order of October, 1892,
which first brought them into the
famous Lindbergh case. Two
thugs-Holmes and Thurmond-
were quickly arrested.
A frenzied California mob,
aroused by the brutality of the
murder, stormed the San Jose jail,
took the two men from their
jailors and hanged them to trees.
Shortly after this crime, in
January, 1884, to be exact, the
town of st. Paul, Mimi, was
thrown into an uproar as news.
papers told the story of the kid.
MAPPING of one of its faVorite
citizens, Edward G. Bremen, g.
wealthy banker. Beaten into in