Evening star., 1934-02-09
TRAIL Of Bremen |
K|DNAPERS "HOT"||
Justice Department SIeuths
Have Several Clues.
Victim in Bed.
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
ST. PAUL, MINI, February 9.-The
law bayed close on the heels Of Ed
ward Bremer's kidnapers today.
The hunt swung in widening circles.
blazed by several definite clues, while
the 37-year-old victim of the kid
napers remained abed under doctors
orders.
The Department Of Justice. priding
itself on a near-perfect record in run
ming down abductors, bent methodic-
ally over trail, three days cold, that
led from st. Paul and ended at
Rochester, MINI, where Bremen was
freed late Wednesday night.
Other trails were being swiftly fol-
lowed, too. There we're leads which
gave definite indications that the law
was not far behind the hdnapers and
the 100000 ransom the gang exacted
for Bremer's release.
The officers had, among other in
formation, the story Of Bremen him
self. The president and owner Of the
Commercial State Bank was not as
helpful as they had hoped, officers ad-
mitted, but his story gave them sew
eral pegs on which to hang q plan Of
action.
10 or IL In Gang.
There were 10 or IL members Of the
gang, Bremen said. He based the
estimate on the sound of their voices
as they held him captive % days. He
got no view of any of them. he said,
for he was kept captive in a dark
room from the time he was kidnapped,
January IT, until three men took him
In an automobile and pushed him,
blindfolded, from the car in Rochester.
During his imprisonment, he said,
they threatened to kill him If he dis
obeyed their commands. and guards,
working in relays Of two, were with
him constantly
Adolph Bremen, father Of the kid
nap victim and the man who ar
ranged for the money with which to
meet the huge ransom demand. had
little to offer in the way Of help to
the officers.
Communications exchanged with
the kidnapers, however. were avail
able to the State, city and Federal
officers. who are joined in the hunt.
1t is on these communications and
the experience Of Walter Magee, the
Intermediary who delivered the ran
som money-in IS and $40 bills
that the officers pin their hopes.
1t was Magee who received the first
note, demanding 100000 and warm
ing against bargaining with US" 1t
was left on his Office doorstep a few
hours after Bremen was seized.
Trip to Hotel.
1t was Magee, too, who, Just prior
to last Saturday was to have gone to
Des Moines with the 100000. regis
tered at hotel named by the kidnap-
ers and used a pseudonym supplied by
the gang. At the time Magee received
these instructions the ransom was
guarded by time lock in a st. Paul
bank and the plan could not be fol-
lowed. Silence masked the gangs
activities then. prompting Adolph, the
father, to issue his appeal for early re-
turn of his son and giving the mob
three days and three nights in which
to communicate. with assurance Of no
police interference.
Spurred to action by the elderly
brewers word of honor, the captors
Immediately conveyed final instruc-
tions for turning over the money.
Magee followed orders. He went to
prearranged place in st. Paul. looked
in a strange automobile parked at the
curb at specified place. and read a
note secreted In a pocket Of the car.
In accordance with instructions. he
replaced the note, climbed in the car
with the money, and drove South.
At Faribault, MINI, he took cross
road, slowed to Is miles an hour and
drove on in the lonely night. Then
the signal-four flashes of an automo-
bile's headlights
Magee stopped, placed the money on
the ground, re-entered the car and
drove away.
The experience of DR.. H. T. Nippert,
family friend and physician of the
Bremers, also was counted upon to fig
ure in the hunt Nippert. though he
refused to confirm it. was understood
to have gone to the kidnap lair at the
gangs orders, to treat Bremen.
Slugged by Kidnapers.
The victim had been slugged with
pistol butts by two of the kidnapers
when they invaded his car the morn
ing Of January II when he was en-
route to the bank. The car later was
found abandoned, its interior spotted
with blood.
Nippert. blindfolded. was taken for
five or six hour automobile ride
at night after receiving the second
contact made with the family by
the gang. That contact was delivery
Of three notes in an envelope ad-
dressed to Nippert and slipped under
his front door January 20.
The front door glass was shattered
by q milk bottle to attract his at
tention to the missives. One letter
was addressed to him, another to
Magee and a third to Adolph.
Some time within the next two
weeks another contact was made.
That was Magee's cue to 90 to Des
Moines, but the time lock safeguard