Murder Count May Be Added To Kidnapping Charge

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28057, 27 August 1956, Page 11

Murder Count May Be Added To Kidnapping Charge

(IV .Z Press Association—Copyright)

(Rec. 7 p.m.) MINEOLA (New York), Aug. 25. Police said today that they were investigating whether a friend helped Angelo Lamarca, who allegedly kidnapped the baby, Peter Weinberger, and left him in a roadside tangle of honeysuckle vines.

They said Lamarca, aged 31,- toid them he took the baby to Brooklyn, a New York borough, and left him overnight with a friend, only hours after the Fourth of July kidnapping. “The identity of the friend in Brooklyn mentioned by Lamarca is unknown and the whereabouts unknown,” a police official said. “He has repeatedly refused to identify the person or the place.”

Lamarca. a bushy-haired man with two children of his own, was held without bail for a further hearing next Friday on a kidnapping charge. He made no plea. Authorities said a murder count would probably be added to the kidnapping indictment to be sought from the Grand Jury.

Lamarca was charged with kidnapping the 32-day-old infant from tne patio of Mr and Mrs Morris Weinberger’s ranch home in Westbury. New York, last July 4. Lamarca was quoted by the police as saying he abandoned the child the next day, after he panicked in a vain attempt to collect 2000 dollars (about £890) in ransom to meet a pile of debts. Searchers found the decomposed remains of the infant yesterday in underbrush near a heavily-used Long Island highway, half a mile north of the Lamarca home in Plainview Under New York law a person who causes a death while committing a felony is liable to first degree murder charges, punishable by death in the electric chair. Kidnapping also carries a maximum penalty of death in the electric chair. Painstaking Search Lamarca was arrested early on Thursday at his Plainview home. He was tracked down after a painstaking Federal Bureau of Investigation search through more than 2.000,000 handwriting samples. It was “just plain drudgery” tffat broke the case, an F. 8.1. spokesman in Washington said. Laboratory technicians first examined 75,000 fingerprint cards of arrested persons, without results.

Then began the gruelling job of comparing the original kidnap note with drivers’ licence applications, voting registrations, and other items. The kidnapper left this note: “I hate to do this to you, but I am in great trouble. Don’t notify the police. I am not asking for a lot of money, only what I need, and I am very serious about this.” The note asked for 2000 dollars with instructions where to place it. The signature read: “Your baby sitter.” The ransom note left by the kidnapper bore certain handwriting quirks. F. 8.1. men finally found matching peculiarities in Lamarca’s signature in Federal District Court records in New York city. Lamarca received a suspended sentence last year on a bootlegging charge. Mr and Mrs Weinberger were struck mute with horror when they were officially informed that the body had been found. “The reaction was severe, very severe.” said a member of the family. The couple had desperately hoped and prayed to the end for the child’s safe return. DESTROYER FOR EGYPT (Rec 8.45 p.m.) LONDON, Aug. 24. The Egyptian destroyer Al Quaher sailed from Portsmouth tonight for Alexandria. She is one of two Royal Navy destroyers sold to .Egypt. The other is the Al Fateh. Both have been prepared for service at Portsmouth, but the Al Fateh has yet to complete her trials. An Admiralty spokesman said there was no question of preventing the Al Quaher from sailing. She had no ammunition on board, he said. Both destroyers are 1710 tons. “Dead” Woman’s Trip To Morgue Cost £3

MELBOURNE, August 25. “I am certainly surprised to get the bill—but I am not complaining,' said Mrs Sheila Baulch, a 44-year-old housemaid, who yesterday received a bill for £3 for an ambulance trip she made while officially dead. “After all, it’s pretty nice to be in a position to pay it,” Mrs Baulch said. „ The trip which Mrs Baulch made last Saturday when a doctor pronounced her dead after she had been admitted to hospital after a fall, was from the Royal Melbourne Hospital to the city morgue. A policeman noticed her cheek twitch as she was being prepared for the refrigeration chamber. She was taken back to the hospital, reinstated as alive, and later released