Evening star., 1938-08-16
EX-CONv|CT SHOT
RESISTING ARREST
IN FAHEY CASE
Two Desperadoes Confess
Abducting D. c. Man
and Companion.
PAIR ARE IDENTIFIED
FROM PHOTOGRAPHS
Couple Leave for Chicago on Way
Back to St. Louis After
Experience.
(PictureS on Page A-5.)

The Federal Bureau of Investigation
announced at st. Paul, MINI, toda,
the arrest of Otis James Meredith an,
John Couch, Southwestern despera
does, adding that the two had con
fessed the kidnapping of Daniel Co.
Fahey, ir., 81, formerly of Washing
ton, and Miss Peggy Gross. %, ST
Louis socialite.
An Associated Press dispatch from
st. Paul said the two were located
last night by special agents of the
F. B. I. at the farm home of Charles
Root 9 miles east of Efie, MINI
Meredith was wounded in a gun fight
which preceded the capture, it was
learned from the Federal officers
Both Miss Gross and Mr.. Fahev
who graduated from the University OF
Maryland in 1923 and formerly was
a member of the track team there
identified the two men as their kid
napers, the Associated Press dispatch
stated. The Identification was made
from photographs according to Robert
Hendon, chief of the F. B. I. ST. Paul
Office.
Abducted Late Friday
Mr.. Fahey, who is a landscape
architect with the National Parks
Service and lived here until two years
ago, was abducted with Miss Gross
in st. Louis late last Friday night
They were found at 10 pm. Saturday
near Champlin, MINI, bound with
wire and gagged. Mr. .Fahey's car was
used for the trip from ST. Louis tc
Minnesota
Mr.. Fahey's mother. a widow, live.
here at 4550 Connecticut avenue. Tht
family originally came from nearb,
Riverdale, Md, and the abduction vic
tim formerly was. president of tn,
Prince Georges County Chamber o.
Commerce
The st. Paul dispatch said Merealtt
Is in hospital in Grand Rapids
MINI, about As miles from Effie.
Agent Hendon said he was wounded
when he resisted arrest. He is under
heavy guard. Couch is held in tht
Grand Rapids jail.
Confess Abduction.
Both men readily admitted kidnap
ing Miss Gross and Mr.. Fahey, Agen
Hendon said. He also asserted the,
admitted number of other crime.
in the Midwest and Southwest. in,
cluding the recent gunhght with
Texas officers between Dallas and For
worth. Tex.
Complaints charging the two men
both ex-convicts. with kidnapping un.
der the so-called Lindbergh law, were
filed in St Paul this afternoon by
District Attorney Victor Anderson He
said in all probability he would de-
mand the death penalty, since Mr.
Fahey told officers he had been struck
in the face with a gun butt. The Law
provides the death penalty in cases
where victims are harmed.
District Attorney Anderson said he
would demand 100000 bail for each
prisoner when they are arraigned ir
Vic IuiiiutSctd dplbdl.
Root, at whose home the men wer,
captured, is the father-in-law Of
Meredith. Officers emphasized, how.
ever, that he was not involved in any
way with the abduction.
An attending physician at thu
1tasca County Hospital at Crane
Rapids said Meredith was critically
injured. but declined to give details
He said the victim was brought in late
last night.
Both men were armed at the time
Of arrest.
Taken at Farm House.
Police Chief Miller at Big Fork
Mimi, said he and Deputy Sheriff
Harry Ramson went to the farm home
of Meredith's father-in-law with two
Federal men last night and surprised
Meredith and Couch in the yard.
Meredith ran toward the woods
Miller said. and was shot twice ir
the back, but Couch stood motionless
while the Federal men clamped hand.
cuffs on him.
Fahey's automobile, stolen by the
pair after they dumped Miss Gross
and Fahey out near Minneapolis, was
recovered at the Roots farm, the Fec
eral agents said.
A Federal complaint has been out
standing against the pair, charging
transportation of stolen automobile
across State lines, since August g.
That complaint was filed at Fort
Worth and alleged the automobile
was taken at Greenwood, Mo, and
transported to Fort Worth.
Leave for Chicago.
Both Miss Gross and Mr.. Fahey
left last night for Chicago, en- route
to st. Louis.
=, Couch was released June 9. 1885,
from the Missouri State Penitentiary.
Meredith, under the name of Otis
Seller. was paroled from the State
institution several years ago.
Meredith is d years old and
Couch %.
Meredith once claimed residence at
Kirkwood, Mo, and was employed in
Minneapolis at one time as a punch
pressman Couch was born in St.
Louis Mo.
Couch and Meredith we're first
linked with the abduction when Miss
Gross said one of the kidnapers had
showed her a newspaper clipping re-
lating to James Clyde Reed, now held
on assault and robbery charges in
Kennett, Mo.
Reed had told Kennett officers he
had been in touch with Couch and
Meredith but parted from them not
long before he was arrested in Blythe
vile, Ark.