Evening star., 1934-02-11
Bremen CASE LINK
WITH HHAMM'S SEEN
Federal Agents Work On
Theory Both Abductions
Were Work of One Gang.
By the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
ST. PAUL, February 10.-The pos
sibility that the same gang engineered
both the Hamm and Bremen kidnap-
pings which netted $500, 900, was in
vestigated tonight by police.
Automobile registrations supplied q
possible link between the two crimes,
it was learned, with the disclosure
that an unidentified man and woman
had fled from an apartment here
the day after Edward G. Bremer's
abduction, January 81.
A few days before William Hamm,
Jr., millionaire brewer, was seized for
$1,000 ransom last June Is, sus-
pected gang abandoned a house on
Vernon avenue, good residential dis
trict here. Their automobile was dis
posed Of through a secondhand
dealer.
About the same time a new small
coupe was purchased from an agency
and registered in the name of the
used car dealer, since gone out of busi-
ness. Authorities intimated they had
evidence indicating the new car was
purchased by the Vernon avenue mob
Car Used In Flight.
1t was this same coupe that the
unidentified man and woman owned
and presumably used to flee from the
apartment house day after Bremen
was kidnapped.
Police refused to reveal whether
through this chain of circumstances
they hoped to uncover the finger
man in the Bremen case. Despite
thorough investigation of the Vernon
avenue incident at the time, police
were unable to uncover any evidence
connecting it with Hamm's abduction.
-Four members of the Chicago Touhy
MOB were later tried and acquitted
OF that kidnapping.
Meanwhile, the United States Gov
ernment took full charge of the kid
mapping case today.
lts f1rst move was to impose a
strict censorship on any DEVELOPMENTS
IN the case. Harold Nathan, first as
sistant in the Department of Justice
at washington, declaring any word of
progress in the search for the gang
must come from Attorney General
Cummings.
City police and State Crime Bureau
officials followed the lead of Federal
operatives, headed by Nathan, in
maintaining a tight-lipped silence,
though 1t was known they had the
stories of at least five witnesses. who
Claimed ability either to identify the
actual kldnapers or the gangs auto
mobile.
Notes Also Aid Search.
Coupled with those clues. were the
notes conveyed to the family by the
mob which seized Bremen, wealthy
banker. tor 5000 900 ransom. January
II, and freed him at Rochester, Mimi,
Wednesday.
Police had the statement of Mrs.
Cressens Dehmer, widow. living on
the corner where the 37-year-old
Commercial State Bank president was
seized in his own automobile the
morning of anuary II. She said she
saw the scuffle between the banker
and his captors, who slugged him
Is or 20 times over the head with
pistol butts.
She was the chief eye witness so
far discovered. though a milk wagon
driver has related to police how he
witnesses the actual abduction from
block away. At the time he be-
lieved it was traffic accident.
Two other women and an oil station
attendant. whose names were kept
secret, have given information about
the gangs car. - u
The victim himself denied he could
Identify the gangsters who took him
prisoner. Previously, it had been un-
derstood he obtained a good view of
the men.
Sankey In Suicide Pact.
Verne Sankey Americas public
enemy No. l. who hanged himself
in his penitentiary cell at Sioux Falls
S. Oak, this week, carried out his
part Of a suicide pact. Chief of
Police Thomas Dahill said today.
"Sankey and his gang" said Chief
Dahill. had an agreement to COM
init suicide If they ever were captured
They always said they never would
be taken alive"