The Washington times., 1935-09-03
COUPLE FLOWN
TO ST. PAUL
FOR TRIAL
Living With Adopted
Baby on Florida
Chicken Ranch

ST. PAUL, Sept. 8 G.N.SD.
William Weaver, 38, charged with
being a member of the Barker
Karpis gang who kidnapped Ed
ward G. Bremen, wealthy st. Paul
banker, and his sweetheart, Myrtle
Eaton, 80, were under heavy
guard in the Ramsey County jail
today, where they will wait ar
raignment.
They we're captured by Depart
ment of Justice agents at a
chicken ranch near Allendale,
Fla, Sunday, and rushed here by
plane yesterday.
Bremen, popular young banker
and heir to brewery millions, was
kidnapped January IT, 1884, and
held for 100000 ransom. He
was held for 81 days in a house
at BenSenville, Ill.
The Eaton woman is charged
with maintaining an apartment
here as headquarters for the alb
duction gang, and with aiding in
the preliminary arrangements.
A paroled convict and woman
have been arrested by Omen
as the central figures in the kid,
naping of Edward G.. Bremen,
wealthy St. Paul banker, the De
partment of Justice announced.
Special agents, acting under the
personal supervision of j. Edgar
Hoover, director of the Bureau Of
Investigation, captured William
Weaver alias Phoenix Osborne, 38,
and Myrtle Eaton, 80, on a
chicken ranch near Allendale, Fla,
early Sunday.
After 36 hours of grilling at the
Jacksonville, Fla, office of the
bureau, the pair were hustled
aboard a special plane guarded
by G-Men and taken to st. Paul,
where they were placed in jail
last night.
E. J. Connolly, agent, in charge
of the Cincinnati office, who is
especially assigned to the Bremen
case, led the raid on the chicken
ranch. Connolly was in command
last January when a squad of
G-Men swooped down on Fred
Barker and his mother in a Flor
ida hideout and killed the pair in
a pitched battle.
Adopted Boy
He said no difficulty was en-
countered in arresting Weaver
and the Eaton woman, who had
been living on the ranch as "Mr.
and Mrs. Osborne" and had
adopted a 3-year-old boy under
that name. Connolly refused to
divulge any details concerning
the boy, who was taken on the
plane trip.
Connolly and four agents went
to st. Paul via Atlanta, Louisville
and Chicago. They were met at
the st. Paul airport by five more
agents and rushed in closed cars
to the Federal building. The boy
was excited over his first plane
ride. The prisoners, however,
were sullen.
Four Still Free
Score in the Bremen case now
stands:
Fifteen members of the Karpis.
Barker gang in prison, one mur-
dered by other gangsters, two
slain b. Federal agents, two wait
ing trial and four at large. Alvin
Karpis, one of the ringleaders;
Harry Campbell, w. J. Harrison
and Joseph P. Moran are those
still at large.
Weaver, it was stated, was one
Of the gang to capture Bremen,
and guarded him en- route from
st. Paul to Bensonville, ILL.,, where
the banker was held captive pend
ing the ransom negotiations.
The Eaton woman, it was stated,
maintained an apartment in ST..
Paul during the time when the
kidnapping was being planned, and
kept headquarters for more than
a dozen members of tn e Karp1s-
Barker gang.
Weaver, who was born in Little
Rock, Ark, in 1896, began his re-
corded criminal career at Joplin,
Mo-, in 1918, where he was arrested
for vagrancy. He ran through a
series of minor crimes until 1922,
when he was arrested at Garden
City, Kan, for attempted Jail de-
livery.
In 1925 he was sent to the Okla
homa State penitentiary on a life
term for murder, and there met
doc" Barker. He was paroled in
1882 about the same time Barker
left the Oklahoma prison and the
pair Joined up in st. Pauls gang
life.
Weaver, according to Federal
agents, was one of the chief or
ganizerS of the Bremer kidnapping.
He was described as an obscure
but desperate criminal.
The Eaton woman, native Of
Des Moines, Iowa, has long rec
ord as Shoplifter and has associ-
ated with criminals practically
throughout her adult life, accord