The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-12-28
KIDNAPPING FAKED FOR PUBLICITY.
MILNE ADMITS TO j. s. AGENTS
Aspiring Actor and Author
Breaks Down After All
Night Griiling.
NEEDED CASH, HE SAYS
BIames 'HeIIiSh Financial
Affairs; Denies He
Had ACCompliCeS.
BIZ Tnitcd Press

| ny CHiCd fFtSS
NEW YORK, Dec. Is
Caleb j. Milne ", youthful
scion of an ariStocratic and
wealthy Philadelphia family,
confessed to Department of
Justice agents today that he
had faxed his own "kidnap-
ing" for the sake of publicity.
j. Edgar Hoover, chief of the
Bureau of Investigation of the De-
partment of Justice, himself made
the announcement. To newspaper
men assembled at a. m in the elab-
crate headquarters of the G-men,
in midtown Manhattan, he said that
Milne would be arraigned later to-
day before a Federal Court on an
unspecified charge.
The announcement eliminated q
kidnapping" that had been sus-
pected as hoax by authorities and
newspapers from the beginning.
Milne disappeared in New York.
Dec. IA, and was found bound and
gagged in a roadside ditch near
DoyleStown, Pa, the morning Of
Dec. 49,
Federal agents held the 23-year-
old aspiring actor and short story
writer in an undisclosed place. They
had questioned him all night, after
bringing him here from his mothers
home at Woodstock, N. Y. At 4
a. M, with trembling hand, he put
his name to a full confession.
Denies Wanting $4,000
Young Milne insisted he had no
intention of taking $4,000 ransom
for his own release from his veal
thy grandfather, Caleb j. Milne Jr,
retired textile manufacturer of
Philadelphia. The elder Milne re-
ceived at least one letter demanding
that amount in ransom during the
time the youth was missing. Young
Milne said that all he wanted was
publicity, hoping this would gain
him an important stage part, a goal
for which he had struggled in vain
for number of years.
Mr.. Hoover said Milne would be
arraigned by an assistant district
attorney and that the charge was
up to the district attorneys Office.
Milne said he had no accomplices,
having put himself into the condi-
ton in which he was found-eyes
and lips tapped wrists bound to
knees. He had appeared, then, as if
drugged by narcotics and had num-
bled in supposed delirium-"don't
stick that needle into me again."
Marks on his arms had appeared as
though made by a hypodernic
needle. This, he said, was an ex-
ample of his histrionic art.
Financial Affairs HeIlish'
Mr.. Hoover said he was convinced
that Milne worked alone Federal
agents had questioned Robert
Keaser, his brother, John L. Smith,
and Max Ritkin, who found Milne
! in the ditch, and his brother Fred
eric, who received the first note.
Milne and his brother had been
living in a furnished room in New
York. Caleb received a $40 a month
allowance from his grandfather.
Frederic is a clerk employed by j.
P Morgan & Co.
"Hellish financial affairs" caused
him to carry out the hoax, Milne
said
Mr.. Hoover refused to divulge the
full text of the confession, but read
a summary of Mines account of
the plot and events during his abb
sence. while police and Federal
agents hunted him over virtually all
the East.
Worried Over Illness
Milne said he conceived the hoax
Dec. or 5, while worrying about
his inability to obtain work. He
mulled the idea over for three or
four days, determined definitely on
its execution about Dec. and i'm
mediately began preparations to
put it into effect
| He bought pair of cotton gloves.
a tube of mucilage and a rubber
| printing set at Indifferent
store. The gloves, he said, were to
be used to prevent finger prints
in the manner of criminals about
whom he wrote in detective stories
he had attempted unsuccessfully to
| sell.
| At home, when Frederic was abb
sent, Caleb painstakingly clipped
letters and words from newspapers
and pasted them on other paper to
compose the ransom demands he
sent later to Frederic and his
grandfather. The toy printing set
aided in the composition.
/ Saturday morning. Dec II, he put
his plan into execution. He asked
his landlady, as he left the house,
the location of Oracle Square.
Mailed Letter, Package
He told her his grandfather was
| seriously i'll in Philadelphia and that
he planned to pick up DIR.
Greene" on Oracle Square and go to
the elder Mines bedside immedi-
ately.
He took with him a package con-
tanning his watch, some of his
clothing and an Albany newspaper
stained with blood, prepared for
mailing TO his grandfather at mo-
ment when the mute proofs" of Vi
olence to favorite grandson might
work effectively on his emotions.
He actually went TO Oracle Square,