Story of the Ransom Fraud

Manawatu Times, Volume LV, Issue 6833, 14 April 1932, Page 7

Story of the Ransom Fraud

Haw the Money Was Paid Over UNIVERSITY LECTURER’S PART New York Times Broadcast. NEW YORK, April 12. A mysterious woman figured in the preliminary negotiations which Dr. John F. Condon carried on as he dealt with the men he believed to he tho kidnappers of Charles Augustus Lindbergh, junr., the Bronx Home News said in a copyright dispatch to-day. Dr. Condon, a university lecturer, was yesterday revealed as the mysterious “Jafsic,” into whose coded notes in New York newspapers have been read the story of the hunt and payment of ransom for tho kidnapped Lindbergh baby. Shortly after tho 70-year-old Fordham University instructor inserted one of his advertisements ho was at his store in the Bronx when a woman entered and started pricing a violin. She did not seem greatly interested in the violin and finally said: “Nothing can be done until the excitement is over. Meet me at the depot at Tuckahoo on Wednesday at 5 p.m. I will have a message for you.” Dr. Condon went to the Tuckahoo station and again met the woman. She said then: “You will get a message later.”

Again a woman entered the scene on tho night of April 2, when Dr. Condon delivered tho 50,000 dollars ransom to the emissary he had been dealing with, the newspaper said. The newspaper added that a taxi cab called at Dr. Condon’s homo and he was given a message telling him to go to a place in front of a nursery on Tremont

avenue. Colonel Lindbergh, Colonel Bricksoridge, Dr. Condon and A 1 Reich went to the spot and found a nolo under a rock as directed, tho Home News said. This not.o advised Dr. Condon to walk across the street (the sidewalk paralleling St. Raymond’s cemetery) and to walk a block. As lie reached tho sidewalk a man and woman passed by and the woman said: “This is Whittimorc avenue.” That was the name of the street Dr. Condon was told to walk along. Soon tho emissary appeared. Dr. Condon crammed the 50,000 dollars which Colonel Lindbergh carried in a box, paid it to tho emissary and then received a note telling where to find the baby.

The newspaper said the note advised that tho baby would be found aboard a 28-foot yacht anchored off Gayhcad, a southerly point on Martha’s Vineyard. The note, the newspaper said, further advised that, two women w-ould be found caring for the child, but that they were not to be molested as they were innocent of any part in the case. Colonel Lindbergh flew to the district, but, as is known now, failed to find the yacht. Although, lists of numbers of the currency paid by Colonel Lindbergh as ransom have been in the hands of bankers since April 6, no reports had been received by the Treasury of any of the notes having been located, according to Washington reports.

Lindbergh Notes in London SCOTLAND YARD BUSY. United Pres* Association,—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright. Received Wednesday, 0.50 p.m. LONDON, April Id. The Daily Mail says some of the dollar notes which Colonel Lindbergh paid to the kidnappers have been found in London. Scotland Yard is working feverishly to discover how the notes were smuggled into England. Several persons handling the notes have been asked to explain how they came into their possession.