Evening star., 1934-04-29
WARD BOSS JAILED
AS MASTER MIND
IN BREMER CASE
J. J. Mclaughlin, Chicago,
Named as Ransom Pos
SCISSOR by Gambler.
SON ALSO DETAINED
AS MONEY IS SOUGHT
Accused Denies Charges, Shows
Tooth as Evidence of Po-
lice Beating.
By the Associated Press.

CHICAGO, April 28-An old-time
political boss, John j. Mclaughlin,
was dubbed by the Government to-
day as the brains" of the 5000 900
Bremen kidnapping plot and with the
gambler who accused him was de-
tanned for trial at st. Paul while Fed
eral agents hunted his treasure boxes
for the Bremen ransom.
Il think they're dreaming" said
the 66-year-old prisoner, protesting
the whirl of events that put him be-
hind Federal bars in S10O, 900 bond.
"Ridiculous!" he exclaimed, when
told that his son, Jack, II, had been
seized on the floor of the Board of
Trade. Department of Justice men
said they were convinced Mclaughlin
and his accomplices still had most of
the 100000 collected from Edward
Bremen after his abduction January
II, and they believed the son had the
keys to his safety deposit boxes.
Son Held Without Charge.
Jack. an employe of grain COM
pany, was held without charge. and
Federal operatives who took him in
were reported to have discovered
sheaf of papers secreted in the lining
of his hat.
The man who sent the officers after
Mclaughlin was William E. Wider,
gambler, in whose pockets Federal
agents found $2,665 of the S5 and $40
Bremen ransom bills He, too, was
arraigned before United States Com
missioner Edwin K Walker and put
away under the prohibitive $1,000 900
bond for removal hearing on May Z.
when witnesses from st. Paul must
appear against both men. Two others
named as John Doe and Richard Roe
in the warrant with Mclaughlin, were
hunted
We have information" said Prose-
cutor Leo J. Hassenauer, that Nc
Laughlin was the brains of the kid
naplng plot, even If he himself did not
personally participate in the kidnap-
ing We believe that he may still
have in his possession the unbound
portion Of the ransom"
Conspiracy Is Alleged.
The warrants specifically charged
conspiracy to possess portions of the
ransom, offenses IN violation of the
"Lindhergh" Federal kidnapping act.
Mclaughlin was already under s25.-
600 bond on a Federal indictment
charging him with part in the $780,
600 Chicago mail robbery of Decem-
Der 6. 1882, when Edward Bremen, the
st. Paul banker, was snatched last
January II by kidnaperS who nabbed
him in his own car as he stopped for
a traffic light. Bremen was a captive
% days before the ransom was COL
lected and the band turned him loose
near Rochester. MINI.
So the charge of managing a big
fence" for hot" money and bonds
was no novelty to Mclaughlin. An
old-timer among political bosses of
the West Side, he was for years a
member of the Illinois State Legisla-
ture, reputed pay roller sans port
folio III the grating era of the Chi
cago sanitary district, and linked
with the late Edgar B. Lebensberger.
who killed himself the day they were
indicted, while disposing of the quar-
ter million loot gathered from regis
tered mail sacks at Clark and Adams
streets.
U. S. Agents Make Arrest.
Who, me?' was the general re-
action of Mclaughlin as he emerged
from day in secret custody of the
Government Agents of Melvin H.
Purvis, chief of the Bureau of In
vestigation here, had grabbed him at
home yesterday, directed to him by
Vidler.
He told newspaper men of his
arrest and questioning in an air of
hurt innocence.
They came into my home and
turned the place upside down." he
said But they didn't find any
Bremen money, because 1 never had
any. Finally, about o'clock, they
took me downtown and began ques-
tioning me. They kept me up all
night and only gave me some coffee
When l wouldn't tell them what I
couldn't tell them, one of them hit
me in the jaw"
With a wounded look he reached
into his pocket. withdrew a tooth
and showed his listeners the vacancy
it used to fill.