COVENANT OF DEATH

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21520, 17 June 1933, Page 2 (Supplement)

COVENANT OF DEATH

GIRL HELD FOR RANSOM PAYMENT OF £12,000 MADE RECOVERY OF THE MONEY Dramatic moves by the Massachusetts police recently, completely solved tho mystery of tho kidnapping of the ten-year-old daughter of an American steel magnate. Within 24 hours of the child's restoration to her distracted parents the authorities arrested two brothers and recovered tho whole of the ransom of £12,000. Tho brothers, who ax - e alleged to have confessed their responsibility for tho abduction, posed as friends of thq girl's family while the hue and cry was in progress. Swift justification of the police boast that they would run tho kidfiappers to earth came when they made two arrests in tho case of Margaret (" Peggy ") McMath, tho ton-year-old daughter of Mr. Neil McMath, a retired Detroit steel magnate, who fell into tho clutches of kidnappers at Harwich Port, Massachusetts. The first man taken into custody was a garage proprietor and who, it is alleged, is ono of the intermediaries in the ransom negotiations. Shortty afterward his brother was arrested. The police allege that tho latter has made a detailed confession to them regarding his part in tho affair: Ho is stated to have said that he blackened his face with burned cork before the abduction of the girl, who was seized as she left school and driven off in a motor-car. Originally £50,000 was demanded from the parents, but this sum was whittled down during negotiations in which ono of the men is allegpd to have said that his brother acted as " intermediary." Tho whole of tho ransom was recovered, tho police having found £2OOO in a cupboard and £IO,OOO in tin cans in the " intermediary's " homo. Three Days of Anxiety After three days of terrible anxiety Mr. McMath, accompanied by the " intermediary " and Mr. Harold Sawyer, put to sea in the Bob. a 50-foot cruiser launch, to keep a rendezvous with the kidnappers. The ransom was paid, and tho child was restored to Mr. McMath on the undertaking that he was to remain at sea for 48 hours to givo the kidnappers time to get clear of the region. But this undertaking was not fulfilled, through no fault of Mr. McMath, as a coastguard cutter with police officers aboard, which had been warned to keep a watch for any suspicious ships, came upon Mr. McMath's boat, and, upon hearing his story, insisted that he return to port, father and child were immediately taken to the Woods Hole Coastguard station, where the police questioned them in the hope of obtaining every possible clue to the identity of the abductors. Peggy McMath, a dark-eyed,, vivacious schoolgirl, and her father had a vivid story to toll of their terrifying experiences out at sea. For 15 hours McMath, with his daughter tightly clutched in his arms, isolated himself on the yacht Bob in order to keep what amounted to a covenant of death with the kidnappers. " If you dare to take the little girl ashore before the time is up," they told him, " wo will return and kill not only you, but your wife and every member of your family." With lights dimmed, the terrorised father and the little girl started to keep their bargain. Then, " out of nowhere," hours before the truce had expired, came the speeding coastguard cutter. A small boat was lowered and officers were rowed to the yacht. Mother and Daughter's Reunion The first man to hoard the-vacht was Brigadier-General Needhani, Massachusetts State Director of Safety. Mr. McMath went ashen pale. It was not his fault that the officers of the law had broken the bargain forced upon him. There had been a leakage, but it mattered not how at that agonising moment. Through his mind raced the awful reprisal threatened bv the kidnappers—death for hiniself land his family. Then all hands were transferred to tho coastguard cutter and taken to Woods Hole, where there was a joyful reunion between Peggy and Mrs. McMath. Mother and daughter flew into each other's arms, kissed and hugged, and laughed and wept. General Needham made it plain that the Stato would ignore any " honour pledge " that Mr. McMath had made with the child-snatchers. " Tho father cannot pro mi so the law's immunity,'' ho declared. ".We are going to get these kidnappers —every one of them Everybody who knows a thing is going to talk, and we will have the band under arrest in a short while. " The case is not ended with the return of the child. That is nonsense. It has only just begun." General Needham's prophecy was quickly fulfilled.