Evening star., 1935-01-01
US. AGENTSPRESS
WAR ON LAW[ESS.
GangIand's Killers Met by
Own Type of Justice
During Year.
~ the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
Dread name after dread name was
rubbed off the Nations list OF public
enemies in 1884 as the Federal Gov
eminent gave blasting answer to the
challenge of gangland's killers.
The Department Of Justice, which
in 1888 had Joined with State and
municipal law enforcement agencies
in a smashing drive on the kidnapping
racket, directed its offensive against
a coterie of desperadoes whose muir
derous exploits had spread terror
among peace officers and citizens.
In showers of lead from the guns
of Federal agents, John Dillinger,
Charles pretty Boy" Floyd, George
"Baby Face" Nelson and others en-
countered the same kind of death
they themselves had dispensed so
ruthlessly.
Patiently pressing their quest for
the perpetrator of the Lindbergh alb
duction- murder, investigators of the
Department of Justice assisted New
York and New Jersey police in run
ming down the clues which led to the
arrest Of Bruno Richard Hauptmann
for "the crime Of the century"
Mrs. Stoll Returned.
Fast work by the Division of Inves-
tigation resulted in the return within
six days after her abduction of Mrs.
Alice Speed Stoll, socially prominent
young matron of Louisville. Thomas
j. Robinson, jr., of Nashville, was
named as the kidnaper
The pace set by Federal, State and
local officers in bringing kidnapers
and killers to summary justice was
hailed throughout the Nation as evi-
dence that an aroused public, sup
porting energetic and co-ordinated
police action, can triumph over an
audacious underworld.
From the enactment in July, 1882,
Of the Lindbergh kidnapping law to
the capture of Hauptmann, Federal
agents had investigated 20 major alb
duction cases-and 81 of them had
been solved. In those cases IA per-
sons were convicted, 16 life SEN
tences and two death penalties were
imposed, while the grand total of
prison terms amounted to 1926 years,
according to Federal officials.
Many Fugitives Traced.
singly, in pairs. and in larger
groups, violators of the law were
marching to death or to prison cells.
In the last fiscal year investigators
located 928 fugitives from Federal
justice, while hngerprint work Of the
identification unit resulted in the
tracking down of 1856 persons want
ed for offenses of all kinds.
A year of extraordinary onslaught
on the forces Of gangland cost the
division of investigation the loss of
three of its most capable agents.
w. Carter Baum, Samuel P. Cowley
and Herman E. Hollis met death in
fusillades from gangster guns.
Another development of the year
in the war on crime was the CONVEX
sion of the military prison on AL
cartaz Island, of San Francisco's
famed Golden Gate, into an escape
proof" penitentiary for dangerous
Federal prisoners. This isolated Bas-
tile holds George Machine Gun"
Kelly, his notorious confederate,
Harvey Bailey, Al Capone and sun
dry other scof1aws.
Congress Aided Battle.
Buttressing the Nations drive on
outlaws was the "twelve-point" Grim
inal legislative program enacted by
Congress. This provided drastic pen
alties, including death sentences for
kidnapping and extortion, with certain
interstate features, for national bank
robberies, assaults on certain classes