Evening star., 1938-09-02
WIFE Of RANCHER
HELD FOR $4,000
Woman, SIS, Is Kidnapped in
California by Two Masked
Bandits.
Pv the Associated Press.

=
YUBA CITY. Calf, Sept. 1.-Two
masked, roughly dressed young men
kidnapped Mrs W. r. Meeks, 55-year-
old wife of wealthy Sutter County
rancher, from her home early this
morning for $4,000 ransom, Sheriff
Bert Ullrey reported
Meeks said the kidnapers, one of
them threatening him with pistol,
forced their way into his home shortly
before midnight. bound both him and
his wife and then ransacked the house.
They fed with Mrs Meeks, in her
husbands automobile. leaving the So
year-old rancher bound hand and foot
on his living room floor.
AS they were leaving the house the
pair stood over Meeks and demanded
the ransom. He said they told him:
Wen contact you in couple of
days for that Is thousand"
G-Men Are Called.
Notified of the KIDNAPPING by the
Associated Press, Federal Bureau of
Investigation agents left for the scene
early today to join sheriffs officers
and the State highway patrol. NIL.
Pleper, head of the San Francisco
ONCE OF the F. B. l.. said his agent
in Sutter County would take charge
Of the case.
Orders to all members Of the State
Highway Patrol to watch the roads
we're issued by Raymond Cato, head
OF the patrol.
Meeks' automobile later was found
abandoned on one of the main streets
OF Marysville, and F. B. ]. men exam
lned it for flngerprints. Sheriff Ullrev
theorized the men must have used
two automobiles when they drove away
from the Meeks place.
The rancher guessed" the men were
about "a or IS years old. They were
about feet 9 or 10 inches tall. Both
were roughly dressed. White hand
kerchiefs covered their faces up to
their eyes and kept the rancher from
being able to give a good description
of either of his Wife's abductors.
The Meeks ranch is at Rio Oso. -
miles south Of Marysville. which ad-
JOINS fuba City, on the highway to
Sacramento.
First Kidnapping in Years.
1t was the first kidnapping for ransom
IN Northern California in nearly five
years. TWenty-tWo-year-old Brooke
Hart OF San Jose, department store
heir was the victim Of the last North
ern California kldnap, in November,
1888. His abductors demanded s4O,-
900 ransom and killed Hart the same
day. His body was recovered from
San Francisco Bay and IL hours later
an infuriated mob lynched his con-
| fessed kidnapers-Thomas Thurmond
and Jack Holmes.
Mrs. Meeks' kidnapers made no at
tempt to harm her and made no at
tempt to injure her husband.
Sheriff Ullrey said the men walked
up to the side door of the house. which
sits about 100 feet back from the high
way, but he was unable to determine
whether they came from the road.
where they might have parked an
automibile, or whether they had
walked through the peach orchard
Both Meeks and his wife were awake
and fully dressed when the men enter
ed the house. Both We're badly
frightened and Meeks was unable to
remember whether the second man
carried gun. The OrchardiSt and his
wife made no attempt to resist the
kidnapers
Sheriff's officers did not know what
loot, if any, the gunmen obtained after
tying up the Meeks. The couple was
left lying on the floor of the living
room while the men searched the
house.
When the masked men returned to
the living room they spoke of the kid
naping for the first time.
They picked up the slenderly built
woman from the floor and carried her,
still bound, to the orchardist's auto
mobile. Mrs. Meeks weighs ITO pounds
and is S feet inches tall. She wore
blue fiowered chiffon dress with
short sleeves and black shoes.
As soon as his wife had been carried
from the house the fruit grower began
TO work his bonds loose. He promptly
telephoned the sheriff, but was so
badly Frightened, Ullrey said, that he
could tell officers little at first except
that his wife had been kidnapped. 1t
took him an hour to recall the license
numbers of his own automobile.