MYSTERY STILL UNSOLVED

Taranaki Daily News, 9 March 1932, Page 7

MYSTERY STILL UNSOLVED

LINDBERGH KIDNAPPING

TRAP SPRUNG BY THE POLICE

THREE ARRESTED RELEASED

MEDIARIES NOW MISSING

By Telegraph—Press Assn. —Copyright. Rec. 8.30 p.m. New York, March 7. ' Another 24 hours have passed without • information of any value concerning the fate of the Lindbergh baby or the progress of the plans for the intended negotiations of its parents with the kidnappers. Efforts to communicate with Spital and Bitz, the two men selected by Colonel Lindbergh as mediaries, have been, unsuccessful, and their movements are clothed in seerecy.

The police continue to affirm, at least publicly, their belief that the baby is still alive and unharmed. Two men and a woman were arrested to-night at Bristol; Pennsylvania, in a trap set by the State police for the writers of the note demanding £lO,OOO ransom. Colonel Lindbergh received the note at Hopewell on Saturday. The three were later released, however.

The letter was disclosed to-night for the first time. It instructed the Lindberghs to meet the writers beneath the railroad bridge at Croydon, near Bristol, at 8 p.m. with no-one else. Unless they kept the appointment and brought the money the baby would be killed.

A man and a woman were placed by < the police in an automobile at the designated spot, and plain-clothes men hid nearby. When a car drove up the police leapt from their hiding places and seized, the three occupants, who were taken to Bristol for questioning. A letter addressed to Colonel Lindbergh, demanding a ransom of £lO,OOO for the return of his baby, and proposing a meeting with his representative at the Cross Trail restaurant, near Mansfield, Pennsylvania, to-night, was \ intercepted at Elmira (New York), so Sidney barracks officials informed the Associated Press.

A message from South Bend (Indiana) states that the United States Marshal, Mr. E. O. Hall, this afternoon telephoned the secretary of Governor Moore, New Jersey, that he had been informed “that a certain aviator threatened to get even with Lindbergh.” This aviator was obsessed with professional jealousy the acclaim Lindbergh has received and made a threat three weeks ago. It is understood that Marshal Hall has provided the dovernor’s secretary with the pilot’s identity. Captain J. J. Lam'b, of the - State police, announced on Monday that no demand for ransom had ever been made for the Lindbergh baby. Neither Lindbergh nor the police had had any communication from the kidnappers.

The statement was an indirect contradiction of the information given by inwestigating forces last week that a note had been pinned to the nursery window-sill demanding ransom and threatening harm if the text was made public. Captain Lamb made his announcement at a Press conference.

Another message states that it was learned on Monday from a reliable source that two communications identified as authentic by handwriting and paper wore received on Sunday by the Lindberghs from the kidnappers.