Evening star., 1934-04-25
j. S. MEN ASSA|LED
IN D|LL|NGER HUNT
Michigan Police Official An
sWers Charges of Non
Cooperation.
Continued From First Page.)

meeting last night of so members CT
the Lakeland Development Associa-
ton, which went on record as in
dorsing the petition and favoring its
circulation.
Text of Petition.
The petition addressed to the De-
partment of Justice, read
I'VE respectfully petition for the
suspension of Melvin H. Purvis as
head of the Bureau Of Investigation
for the United States Department of
Justice for this area pending an in
vestigation of the irresponsible con-
duct of Federal operatives on the
night of April %, in raiding the
John Dillinger gang hideout in such
q stupid manner as to bring about
the deaths of two men and injury
to four others, none of whom were
gangsters We charge:
First: Failure to seek the aid OF
persons familiar with the Mercer re-
sort area who could have prevented
the escape of the Dillinger gang over
the only highways leading from the
hldeout at Little Bohemia merely by
barricading three nearby bridges.
Second: Wanton recklessness and
disregard for human life in firing on
car bearing three unarmed and re-
spected citizens, killing one and
Wounding two.
Third: Criminal stupidity of two
United States agents acting evidently
either with insufficient instruction or
I,, IA 1f 60. IN,
approaching suspicious car parked
near the Alvin Koerner home with no
attempt at concealment and with
weapons held SO they could not be
drawn for a defense, as a result of
which a lone bandit slew one agent,
seriously wounded a constable and in
jured another agent
Meanwhile Americas million-dollar
murderer with a puny S25 price tag
on his head-and the blood of 13 men
across his bullet-blazed trail-mocked
an army OF more than 5000 officers
who hunted him.
We'll have John Dillinger before
long" said the Department of Justice
through its division of investigation at
Chicago.
The earnestness of the Govern
ment'S determination was witnessed
by both the great number and high
caliber of agents they threw into the
hunt.
Cost Put at S2,000,00O.
In a criminal career dating only
from last June-not yet year-this
3l-year-old smalltown man from In
diana has cost an estimated 81 $780,
900 in law enforcement funds and an
other S500,000 in loot from banks he
has robbed; yet the only reward Of
fered today for his capture is the
nominal S25, which the State Of In
diana offers automatically for the ar
rest of parole violators.
From the Attorney General at
Washington on down, the Government
pointed its full strength at this one
man. Reinforcements went into the
field today, among them w. A. RCrer,
the officer who brought about the ar
rest OF another public menace. George
Machine Gum Kelly, kidnaper-gun-
man now serving life sentence in
Federal prison.
Rorer was in command of the small
army of Government officers concen-
ern Wisconsin, where Dillinger's Sun
day night escape from tavern left
two dead in his wake.
TIL Federal men, however, formed
only a small part of the still larger
army of approximately 5000 State,
city and county officers who were
combing the underworld haunts of
five Middle West States. confident
that it was only question OF hours
before they would either have Dill
linger alive or send him back to In
diana in "a wooden box"
Aided-or handicapped, as the case
may be-by hundreds and thousands
of tips" that Dillinger had been
seen" in various parts OF Illinois,
Indiana, Ohio, Minnesota and Wis
consin, the officers pushed their hunt
relentlessly.
Fear Break Attempt.
Among the hundreds of reports and
rumors concerning the movements
of Americas No. l outlaw was one
from Muncie, Ind, that led to the
belief that Dillingers mob might
attempt to deliver his pals, Harry
Z.
Clark, slayers of Sheriff Jesse Sarber
of Lima, Ohio, from the Ohio State
Prison, at Columbus. Four men rid
ing in an automobile with a machine
gun near Muncie gave rise to this
belief.
Extra precautions were also taken
at Madison, Wis where three OF the
gangs girl friends, captured after
Sunday nights gunplay, are held in
Jail. 1t was feared Dillinger might
try to liberate them. Similar appre-
henSion was manifest at st. Paul,
where Evelyn Frechette remained in
Jail on a charge of harboring the
fugitive in an apartment house few
weeks ago.
The consensus among the investl-
gators was that Dillinger's gang mad
split into two sections, one hiding out
in Minneapolis or st. Paul and the
other heading South and East into
Illinois, Indiana or Ohio.
United States Senator Royal S.
Copeland of New York, chairman OF
the Senate Anti-Racketeering Com
mittee, charged at Washington that
there had been a pathetic failure of
cooperation between Federal, State
and local authorities" in the Dillinger
hunt. The charge was denied by Mel
vim G. Passolt. superintendent Of the
Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Appre-
hension. and others.
If Dillinger is captured alive the
State of Wisconsin will put in :. bid
for his return on charges OF murder,
growing out of the Mercer shootings.
District attorney Edmund Drager an
nounced at Eagle River, Wis, last
night, that murder warrants would be
issued against Dillinger and four OF
his pals-George (Baby Face) Nelson,
John Hamilton, first lieutenant of the
Io.,, Carroll and Homer Van