Evening star., 1936-07-23
RACKETEER
PR0BERS BAFFLED
TelI.TaIe Clues Sought in
Letters to Clients of
UndertakerS.

without promising clue, pOStal
inspectors and headquarters detectives
continued independent investigations
today to solve new and morbid
death" racket, which, 1t Is believed, is
designed to destroy the business cf
several of Washington'S undertakers
If they fail to pay tribute to the
racketeers.
For three weeks, the death
racketeers" have been sending through
the mails anonymous letters to the
relatives of persons who recently died.
containing vicious criticism Of the
undertaken who buried the body. and
suggesting that substantial deductions
be made on the funeral bill.
The investigation was initiated at
the request of one Of Washingtoa's S
prominent undertakes. He said al
least so persons with whom he had
business relations in the last three
weeks received the letters and turned
them over to him.
Reward Offered.
The letters. however. have been re-
ceived by persons who had business
relations with several other large un-
dertaking establishments. A reward
Of $500 for any information which will
lead to the Identification of the
racketeers has Been offered by one
unoertaker.
The letters are typewriter. and
bear a Washington postmark. The
text of each varies slightly, indicating
that all of them originated at the
same source.
One reads:
The shySter undertaken with whom
you have recently had dealings. openly
boasts that he buys bodies from doc
tors and nurses and the suckers
meaning yoW pay.
Take a tip from one who knows
and deduct at least S35 and maybe
$50 from your bill and you will still
be paying for more than you got.
In case I have not made my mean
ing clear will go into a little more
detail
When death occurs the doctor,
nurse or hospital attendant very tact
fully offers to call a reliable under
taker, who has previously agreed to
pay this CRATER for every body. and
common sense tells you that this un-
ethical undertaken will not pay this
out of his profits, so-thet is where you
get burned up. my friend.
Sucker, my sympathy"
Text of Another Letter.
The text OF another one of the letters
follows:
The undertaken whom you recently
had the misfortune to call received his
training from cne of our colored un-
dertakers, and it is quite obvious that
he learned lot about unethical prac-
tices, but the one I want you to know
is this:
He openly boasts that he buys
bodies from doctors and nurses and
hospital attendants-paying them as
much as $50, and increasing the
amount of your bill that much.
so, my friend, my tip to you Is to
deduct that amount from your bill and
rest assured that you have paid amply
for any service you have received.
1T is indeed a disgraceful situa-
tion which exists in this city. where
a man of this type holds monopoly
and has pledged himself to run the
other undertakers out of business.
Il would not write this If I were
not in a position to know what am
talking about"
Capt. Ira Keck of the Detective
Bureau and Detective Sergt. Frank o.
Brass have been conducting the police
department investigation, but thus
far, according to Inspector Bernard
Thompson. chief of detectives. have
failed to locate the source of the
letters.
Inspector Thompson declined to ex-
press any views as to the possible
motive behind the death" letters.