KIDNAPPING A MILLIONAIRE

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 142, 18 June 1938, Page 8 (Supplement)

KIDNAPPING A MILLIONAIRE

ByPiers England

ON Saturday night, July 22, 1933, Mr. and Mrs. Charles F. Urschel were entertaining Mr. and Mrs. Walter R. Jarrett at their magnificent house in Oklahoma City. After dinner the two men and their wives went and sat at a card table on the screened porch to play bridge. Just after 11 o'clock, Mr. Urschel was dealing the cards when two men! leapt into the porch. One was armed) with a madnae-gan, the other with an automatic pistol. "Which ef you two guys is Charles Urschel?" demanded the with the machine-gun. The women screamed. "Be quiet or well give it to you!" the man ordered. "Now, come on, which of yon is Urschel?" Neither Urschel nor Jarrett spoke. "Dumb, eh?" the spokesman went on. "Hell, that's just too had. Well take the pair of yon." Then, turning to the women, he said: "Listen, yon dames, keep quiet and do nothing if you want, to see these guys alive again. You'll be hearing from as later." Mackiae Gmm •And with that they hnstled Urschel and Jarrett oat of the porch into the grounds and down the drive to the street, where a car was waiting. Urschel and Jarrett were pnt into the back with one of the kidnappers. . The other drove. "Step en it!" ordered the with the machine -gun in the rear. The car shot forward rapidly towards the outskirts of the city. going to listen to me," said the sua addressing the captives, "if you're vase. Which of yon is Urschel?" "I am," replied Urschel, anxious to keep his friend out of danger. "S# jwrti the big guy!" the kidnapper said sarcastically. "Charles F. Urschel, the ofl millionaire! Well, yon look like a tramp to me. Hand over your wallets, both of you!" lie wallets were examined until proof ef Urschel's identity was found. Ten miles out of the city, the leader ordered the car to stop. Jarrett was bandied out, after having been relieved of his wallet.' "Now get going, Jarrett!" the man said. "Walk straight on till you get home. If you warn anybody of the way we're heading, we'll come back and pick yon up—for keeps. Tell the Urschel dame she'll be hearing from us." Then the ear moved eff towards the south. Three days later Mr. E. E. Kirk patrick, an Oklahoma City friend of

Urschel, received the following typewritten letter: "Immediately upon the receipt °f this letter you will proceed to obtain the sum of 200,000 dollars in genuine used Federal Reserve currency in the denomination of 20-dollar bills. "Run this ad. for one week in the Daily Oklahoma':— Tor sale.—l6o acres land, good fiveroom house, deep well. Also cows, tools, tractor, corn and hay. 3750d01s for quiek sale. Terms, Box — "You will hear from us as soon as convenient after insertion of ad." The advertisement was inserted and on July 28, Mr. Kirkpatrick reoeivecj a special delivery air mail letter, posted from Joplin, Missouri. It read: — "You will pack 200,000 dollars in used genuine Federal Reserve notes of 20 dollar denomination in a suitable lighteoloured leather bag, and have someone purchase transportation for you, including berth, aboard train 28, which departs at 10.10 pjn. for Kansas City, Missouri. "You will ride mm. the observation platform, where you may be observed by someone at some station along the line between Oklahoma Crty and Kansas City. If indications are all right, somewhere along the right-of-way you win observe a fee on the right side of track (facing direction train is bound). That first fire will be your cue to be prepared to throw bag to track immediately after passing second fire. "Mr. Urschel will, upon our instructions, attend to the fires and secure the bag when you throw it off, he will,open it and transfer the contents to a sack that he will be provided with, so, if you comply with our demand and do not attempt any subterfuge as according to the news reports yon have pledged, Mr. Urschel should be home in a -very short while. "Remember this—if any trickery is attempted you will find the remains of Urschel, and instead of joy there will be double grief—for someone very near and dear to Urschel is under constant surveillance and will likewise suffer for your error. "If there Is the slightest hitch in these plans for any reason whatsoever, .not your fault, you will proceed on into Kansas City and register at the Muhlebach Hotel under the name of E. E. Kincaid, of Little Roclc, Arkansas, and await further instructions there. However, there should not be if you comply with these simple directions. "You are to make this trip Saturdav, July 29, 1933." Mr. Kirkpatrick made the journey, accompanied by a friend, a Mr. Catlett. He remained alone on the observation

One of the biggest triumphs ever achieved by America s G-Men in their var against crime Teas when they rounded up the notorious Machine Can Kelly, kidnapper of Charles F. Urschel, the millionaire oil £ing. It was a masterpiece of scientific detection, a victory so complete that nobody even remotely connected with the crime escaped. Here is the inside story, as approved and authorised by J. Edgar Hoover, "C-Man No. 1."

platform of the train all night, but did not see any fires. So he went to the Muhlebach Hotel, Kansas City, as directed, and registered in the name of E. E. Kincaid. Just before six o'clock, Mr. Kirkpatrick was called on the telephone. A voice said: "Leave your hotel now in a taxi, drive to the La Salle Hotel, and walk west for a couple of blocks. Bring the money bag with you." Mr. Kirkpatrick followed the instructions. Walking westward after leaving the taxi, he was approached by a man, who said: "Mr. Kincaid, I will take that bag. Now go straight back to your hotel. What you want will be delivered in 12 hours." The next morning a taxi pulled up in front of the Urschel house. Out of it staggered the oil millionaire. He was so exhausted that he had to be carried straight to bed. When he recovered he told the G-men an amazing story. One of the first things the G-men noted wag the exceptionally high and keen intelligence of Charles Urschel. At every point in his narrative he supplied information of the utmo3t value to J. Edgar Hoover's agents. He said that after Jarrett had been put off the kidnapper's car, he was blindfolded by cotton wool and bandage, strapped to his face by adhesive tape. The last thing he saw was the light of the power plant at Harrah, Oklahoma. After the car had driven on about an hour, as far as Urschel could judge, it passed through two oil fields. He could smell the oil and hear the pumps working "I'm tired," he told his captors. "What's the time?" "Half-past three," replied one of them. Soon after this the car drove over bumpy ground and pulled up. Urschel was ordered out of the car and told to take a seat on the ground. He sat on grass and could feel weeds and small scrub near him. He felt something bite his hand and caught it. It was a red bug, common in the district. After a quarter of an hour om of the party returned with petrol for the car, and for another hour they drove on. The light of dawn filtered through Urschel's bandage. Some time later the car stopped and the driver got out to open a gate. Three minutes afterwards another gate was opened. One minute later the car drove into a garage, which was perhaps a barn, since Urschel could smell manure.

Here he heard the men removing license plates from the car and fixing them on another vehicle. "There's no gas in this bus," said one man. "Well, siphon it out of the other," he was told. The kidnappers Jthen ordered Urschel into a jnueh larger car, with a bunk in the back. He was told to lie down on it, and the car was driven off, passing through the gates again. After what might have been two or three hours, they pulled up at a filling station for petrol. Urschel noted that a wornm worked the pump. Unsleeping and alert, the oil millionaire heard the rain come down. The car began to skid. At one time its wheels would not bite into the muddy r.»ad, and the men had to get out and push it free. "At no time did we drive on paved roads," Urschel told the G-Men. Hours afterwards the car slowed down again and apparently drove into a garage. One of the men said: "Now come on. Urschel, get out." "We seemed to pass through a front door," Urschel told the G-Men. "Then we turned left and passed through what I took to be a narrow gate; it pushed open. In a few feet I steppvl up one step on to a board walk. I theu walked 15ft and up six steps through a door into a house. I am certain I was led tlirough one room into another, where they sat me down on a bed. "Then," the oil millionaire went on. "I could hear a man and a woman talking in the next room, but one of the men returned and filled my ears with cottou wool and strapped adhesive tape over them." But this did not prevent his hearing. The next day he was taken away by the same two men in a small car, which was driven for about 20 minutes. "I should have told you," he Raid, "that while being taken from the house into the car, I heard dogs barking and cows mooing, and the screaming or" guinea hens. I could hear no sounds of a town." Breakfast on Bacon and Egg* When the car stopped he was taken into another house, which he entered by one step. There was no carpet or linoleum on the floor. He passed through one room and was pushed down upon a heap of in another. Again he heard a man and woman talking—strange voices. Then he heard them leave the house. Night fell again. One of his wrists was handcuffed to a chair. He sank into an exhausted sleep, vainly striving to keep awake. They roused him the next morning, gave him a breakfast, of bacon and eggs, and ordered him to write to Kirkpatrick. Urschel could hear the noise of chickens, cows and pigs outside. He asked for a drink of water. One r.f the kidnappers said he would go and get some. Urschel heard him leave the house and in a few moments could detect the sound of a bucket on a pulley clat tering down against the walls of a well. Judging by the direction of the light through his bandage the well was to the north-west of the room. The kidnappers returned with water in a tin cup without a handle. It hail a peculiar mineral flavour. Urschel noted the tast* keenly. The next morning the captive heard an aeroplane pass over the houee. "What's the time?" he asked one of the men. "Nine forty-five." Urschel noted that, too. And when, later in the day, he heard another aeroplane pass, he again asked the time. "Five forty-five," was the reply. Every day while he was in the house he heard the aeroplanes pass at the same hours, but on Sunday, July 30, there was a rain storm and he could not detect the sound of the machines. The next day Urschel was told he was going to be released. He was put into a car which followed a pilot car, and. after hours of driving, the bandages were taken from his eyes and ears, and lie was dropped at Norman. Oklahoma, given a 10-dollar bill and told to go straight home.

Urschel'e amazing observation, hi» keen sense and intelligent deductions helped the G-Men considerably, but even before the return of the oil millionaire they had connected '"Machine Gun" Kelly and his wife, Kathryn, with the crime. Kelly was a dangerous bandit. He had been located at Fort Worth, Texas. But the crime had to be brought home to hiin, and the oil millionaire's aeroplane elm s were at once followed up. A systematic check was made of all aeroplane schedule* within a radius of 600 miles of Oklahoma City. It was discovered that the Amarillo Line of the American Airways had machines which left Fort Worth daily at 9.15 a.m. and Amarillo, Texas, at 3.*30 p.m. From this information the G-men discovered that the two aeroplanes would; be in the vicinity of Paradise, Texas, ' between 9.40 and 9.45 a.m., and between 3.40 and 5.45 p.m. Daily reports concerning.' the movements of these machines were scanned, and it was learned that on Sunday. July 30, the aeroplanes had been forced off their usual course by storms. Then the reports of the United States meteorologist at Dallas, Texas, were studied. I hoy disclosed that heavy rain was record"d at and in the vicinity of Paradise, Texas, on July 30. !olluwirig tin's came the information that Mrs. Shannon. "Machine Gun" Kelly s neither-in-law. lived near Para-di.-e. Kelly, a dangerous bandit, was one of the G-men's early /aspects. O-rrien, disguised as surveyors, were quickly on the spot. They examined -Mrs. Shannon* hou-e. It coincidea in every detail With the description supplied by Mr. fi-ehel. The well was toiind. tue t:n drink:ng-cup was seen, and the well water had a peculiar mineral taste. Dawn Raid By G-Men A dawn raid on the house by G-Men was -fai'ed f,,r August 12. So sudden and effective was their attack that tliev apprehended Mrs. Shannon and her husband while they were still asleep, and. in another room, -nrprised a yawning, dis-tinguished-looking man stretched out on a bed. with a machine-gun and two automatics on a chair nccrbv. I lie handcuffs were on him before he knew what was happening. Staggering to his feet, he stretched himself and smiled. "It's Harvey Bailey!" said one of the G-men. "At your service, gentlemen," answered the tall, iron-grey haired, polished bandit. They were all of them clapped intn prison and held for questioning. The Shannon couple denied any knowledge of the wh. renhouts of "Machine Grin" Kelly and his wife, while the smiling Harvey I. Bailey, a convicted murderer, who had escaped from gaol, said nothing. But out in Denver, Colorado, one of V- associate.-, a desperado named Albert Bates, drew a gun in an underworld fracas and fell into the hands of the police. Searched, he was found to be in possession of Urschel ransom notes. Hacksaws were smuggled into prison to Bailey, and he broke free, but he was arrested later the same day and placed on trial. '"Machine Gun" Kelly sent letters to the judge threatening him with ■.ledth if lie convicted Bailey. Harvey got a life sentence, and 13 other*, including the Shannons, moneychangers. hide-out hosts and contact men, went to gaol for various periods. But the Kelly* remained at large. They had picked up a little girl and settled down a* a respectable married couple with their "daughter" at Memphis. This little girl unwittingly laid a trail that w;ik picked .up bv the G-men. They held and questioned her. Just as dawn was breaking the next morning they burst into the house where Mr. and Mrs. "Machine fliui" Kellv were staying. The officers surprised friends of the crimiiwls in two bedrooms. As they entered the third they expected to be met with machine-gun fire. But they found Kelly standing in a corner with his hands up. He was shouting. "Don't shoot. G-men, don't shoot!" After the G-men had finished with the I'rschel kidnappers and their associates there were 21 criminals behind the bars. They received a total of six life senf>B years, two months and three days' imprisonment. Nobody even remotely connected with the crime escfiped. It was a 100 per cent triumph for .1. Edgar Hoover and his men of the Federal Bureau of InvestigaI tion.