Evening star., 1934-02-09
MOOSE ENDS LIFE
| Of VERNE SANKEY
Confessed Kidnaper Hangs
Himself in Cell With
NeCktie.
Continued From First Page.)

| dcqulttal on charges growing OUT OF
the Hamm kidnapping case.
| Plotted Death Carefully.
Sankey announced only q few days
ago that he would plead guilty to
charges in the Boettcher case today.
! The ex-railroader-ranche bootleg.
fger-kidnaper apparently plotted his
death carefully. He waited until the
, two guards on duty in his cell block
were out Of sight. Quickly he knotted
| the necktie-rope to the bar Of the
| cage. slipped the crude but strong
moose about his neck and stepped
from his bunk. They found him dead,
his body swinging from the bar
Sankey's brain had engineered
schemes that netted him 100000 In
the Boettcher case and $4,000 in the
kidnapping of Haskell Bohn of st.
Paul, but it was unable to trick the
law that snapped its talons on the
| desperate in Chicago last week and
flung him into prison cell here.
Alcorn Will Go to Court.
Sankey's mode Of cheating justice
held no lures for Gordon Alcorn.
companion, seized in Chicago a day
after Sankey.
I'll go into court and take mine
| that way" said Alcorn, who is held
in a cell close to that which had been
occupied by Sankey. Alcorn also was
/ to have pleaded guilty today, but an
inquest into Sankey's death may alter
this plan.
With Sankey's passing the Govern
ment lost its chance of definitely as
| certaining If the former Canadian,
whose fancies led him to the tinseled
| honkey-tonks and gaming tables Of
| fashionable resorts in his hey-day,
had any connection with the Lind
bergh baby kidnap-murder that stirred
Nation.
| Department OF Justice operatives
have declared they believed Sankey
had nothing to do with the Lind
bergh crime. Melvin H Purvis. Chi
cago. Department of Justice agent,
who was here. refused to comment on
the Sankey-Lindbergh angle, but it
was known he questioned Sankey
about the baby abduction.
Cites Mysterious Telephone Call
| IAA4lhCdO, ol lkdLlScy
County attorney. clung to the belief,
however, that Sankey had not been
completely removed from the Lind
bergh crime picture. He maintained
that a mysterious telephone call to
New Jersey, 10 days after Col. Charles
Lindbergh's first child was seized and
killed was made by Sankey.
This, together with notes and news
paper clippings on the case found on
| the Senkey turkey ranch at Gam
valley, led Kinkead to believe the des-
perado might have been connected
with that case.
No notes were left by Sankey. who
apparently had contemplated suicide
since last Saturday when he appeared
moody. depressed and morose. At that
| time he paced nervously in his cell,
| guards said
An hour before he was found dead
he appeared in good spirits and
sought to make arrangements to see
his wife Mrs. Fern Sankey, held in
the county Jail in lieu of s25 900 bond
on a charge Of conspiracy to kidnap
as result OF the Boettcher abduc-
, ton.
Lie Ot0y vi OdIlheS WdS ny
Frank Gilmore, one of his two guards.
When Gilmore returned from getting
a headache tablet for Alcorn, Sankey's
body dangled from the cell bar.
Confessed Two Kidnapings.
Sankey had confessed to both the
Boettcher and Bohn kidnapings, AL
corn had admitted the Boettcher alb.
duction. With Sankey's death, and
Alcorn's imprisonment. all of the gang
/ behind the Boettcher seizure have
been brought to justice. Three COM
panions now are serving prison terms
| for the crime.
Mrs. Sankey became hysterical
when told of her husbands death.
Why couldn't I have spoken to
him? Why couldn't I have spoken
to him?" she sobbed when Holton
Davenport, Sioux Falls. one of her at
torneys, and H. D. Brown, Gannval-
ley, Buffalo County States attorney,
broke the news to her
She screamed for an hour In her
cell before trained nurse could quiet
her A physician was summoned to
threat her.
| She is very, very nervous" DR.. s.
A. Kellar, Government physician, said
later, but it is quite probable she
will be all right"
Mrs. Sarkey was asked II she
wished to have her children with her.
Ethel, IS, and Orville, 6, were to ar
rive here today.
Il must. l must" she cried.
Did you wish them to start inne-
| diately?"
! mo. no. Not the baby. Not now"
Product of Bootleg Era.
Sankey was a typical product Of the
bootleg era.
Reared on q farm near Oakland,
Nebr., he came to Wilmot, S. OAK. as
a youth and assisted his father and
two brothers in operation of q farm.
Later he took up railroading.
| His first encounter with the law
came in 1925 when he was arrested in
Detroit Lakes. Mimi. on liquor
transportation charge. A small mat
ter of cash bond was easily dis.
posed Of Once posted. it was forgot
ten and Sankey forfeited it.
| Police next sought him for q
Canadian bank robbery but Sankey
was never apprehended for that al
legged crime. He next turned up in
Denver, Colo. and resumed, or con-
tinued. his pursuit of bootlegging, the
authorities say, but business wasn't 80
good.
His appetite for money had been
whetted but not satiated and he toyed
with the idea of kidnapping for gold.
The die was cast in 1880 when, with
his remaining dollars. he came here.
/ built a hideout. and allegedly plotted
his first big scheme-the $4,000 kid
napng Of Haskell Bohn, son Of st.
Paul refrigerator manufacturer, ab-
Quoted in June, 1882.
Then came the 100000 Charles
Boettcher, second. kidnapping in Dem
yer last year After that Sankey scut-
tied away. Police say he robbed the
Vayland, S. Dak. State Bank in Oc-
tober Of that year.
They indicted him in Denver for