NIGHTMARE OF FEAR

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22350, 22 February 1936, Page 28 (Supplement)

NIGHTMARE OF FEAR

KIDNAPPING MENACE j EVIL IN AMERICA EVERY HOME THREATENED/. (1 COLONEL LINDBERGH'S PLIGHT ' ; *•' i • ' • " Nations have exiled their heroes before. But when has a nation made the life of one of its most distinguished men unbearable through sheer inability to protect inm;, from its criminals and lujiatira?'' That, states a special correspondent; df-ft London journal, is tho coxijuneht of one great American newspa jter'oa' the action of Charles A. Lindbosgh--"* seeking, in Great Britain, thjit safuty Jor his homo, his wife, ancl hi* child which the United States has faijleri « iVO him - No wonder that nn ~ otl-iei* journal describes the Lindbergh departure as " a public disgrace for us." For the fact—unbelievable as it must Be<im' to the people of orderly, lawabiding Britain —is that, so long as the Lindberghs remain in America, every day, every hour, every minute, their child was in deadly peril. The American police could give no guarantee that this innocent, helpless baby, the heir to one of the greatest names of their country, ■would not be snatched from its home by the clutcMng talons of greed and murder, as its brother was snatched before. ' Police Seem Powerless While this child was still on American Boil, its parents could never know one moment's ease of heart or rest of mind. They lived' under the shadow of the kidnapper —that shadow against which the American police seem utterly and completely .powerless. That is why 1 the Lindberghs have come to Britain. Here they can enjoy the safety and security that no money can buy in their own land, but which is here the ancient and inalienable birthright of us all —and of all those who are our guests. It is this very fact which has brought the Lindberghs to our shores, that makes it so difficult for, us to understand the menace from which they have fled. " ;; t '/ • We cannot realise to what extent America li6s ; in the grip of a nightmare —a ifightmare of fear that poisons the happiness of heir homes and makes the love that binds parents and children an agony of terrified forebodings. . Hall-crazed with Anxiety For kidnapping—the menace from which the Lindberghs have fled — threatens every home where there are children —And any money that may be wrung from the heart-broken fathers and mothers, half-crazed with anxiety over the fate of a lost baby. We cannot appreciate the full extent ojF the evil by reading our newspapers. For every kidnapping we hear of over here, there are perhaps a score we do not know" of —because the victims are people of no great position. It is fairly safe to say that there is a seripus kidnapping in every one of the forty-eight States of the Union every week, and a number of smaller ones involving lesser Bums of money in ransom. £IO,OOO is an average sum demanded by the " big time " kidnapping gangs, and it is rarely that the sum is less than £IOOO. No one is immune from the new menace. And adults, as well as children, Sire sometimes held to ransom. Seized In Own Garden

I happened to be a guest at the house tif the Grace family -when Mr. George P. Grace, of Connecticut, was kidnapped while walking in his garden. Four men drove up in a car, carried him off, and within an hour sent an urchin to the house with a grubby note •to Mrs. Grace demanding that £IO,OOO •in notes should be placed at a certain ispot in, a derelict petrol station some seven miles away. ■" It's preposterous!" cried one gueßt, as we crowded round our hostess. " It's only a try on!" suggested another. *

" They'll be scared, and he'll Boon be back!" said a third. " An hour went by, with Mrs. Grace becoming more and more worried every minute. Finally she broke down. It was a tragic scene. Misery spread about that house like a plague. Servants wept; a terrified governess tried in vain to pacify the ten-year-old son of the house. Mr. Grace was a multi-millionaire, powerful, in the worlds of commerce and politics, and soon the police were called in. They " put the screw ' on the poor boy who had brought the kidnappers' message—but he had been given a dollar bill just to deliver a note, and had no notion as to its nature or the identity of the senders. " I'll get 'em if I burn up every wire in the 'State!" announced the police captain —and despatched wires all over the district, and to all the main cities of the Eastern States. But no one had spotted 'the number of the car, no one was able to give any adequate or help--1 ful description of the men in it. Release After Money Paid Mrs. Grace saw the futility of it all. " I'll get the money together," she said, and did so. A pall settled over the was as if the hand of Death itself was held in menace over it, a great dark cloud which blotted out all possible ease of mind. It was a week before Mr. Grace was * released—and in spite of all the elforts of the police, the kidnappers " got away with it." This is how they work —carrying torment into the home, disrupting the very foundations of family life, for where liberty itself is endangered, how can happiness thrive? In this instance, the gang was finally rounded up—the De Santis gang —and 1 saw the leader himself sent to prison for a period of " from sixty to eighty years," tantamount to a life sentence. Millions of dollars are involved in this terrible business. Not only are enormous totals exacted in ransom, but there is vast expenditure by the police in trying io cope with it. With the killing of tho bootlegging and allied jackets by tho tepeal of the Prohibition Law tho " big time " crooks have sought other Remunerative " lines," and kidnapping

is now a vast " business " with gangs operating from " hide-outs " in great cities, and with scouts and " info men (informers) as damnably capable assistants.

The De Santis gang, for instance, had quite a library of bookß dealing with America's! " Four Hundred " the leaders of society in the United States — and a diary in which was kept details of social happenings and the people attending them; the names and addresses of children of the wealthy, of bankers, and any other persons likely to prove remunerative game. Kidnappers have struck terror into the hearts of parents, and in New York 1 have seen nurseries lined with steelplate, their windows barred like prison cells. I have seen small toddlers in Central Park guarded by armed detectives. " I haven't walked more than the length of the rooms in the apartment for months!" the daughter of a prominent Nov,' York family told me once, when we were talking about the activities of the " body snatchers " —as they are called in the underworld.? This girl went about to dances, theatres, and cinemas, paid calls, and did her shopping in a big limousine, with an armed chauffeur at the wheel and two armed guards beside her. Unlike any other racket, this particular one does not demand courage, for the kidnapper has everything to his advantage. The police are handicapped because of the fears of the parents or others involved —for the kidnapper always threatens to kill his victim if the relatives seek the aid of the police. They play upon love, the tenderest emotion known to man; they know that people will do anything, even to leaving them unmolested, in order to get a dear one safely home again. The most accursed money in the world is

that which passes into the hands of the kidnapper. His is the most heinous crime on the criminal calendar, one which is an outrage against civilisation itself, which admits of no possibility of mitigation or i excuse.