THREAT OF KIDNAPPING

Taranaki Daily News, 29 March 1933, Page 7

THREAT OF KIDNAPPING

“LINDY’S” SECOND SON. ALLEGED EXTORTION ATTEMPT. Two men, Joseph Bryant, aged 19, and Norman Harvey, aged 26, were arrested at Roanoke, Virginia, last month on a charge of attempting to extort money from Colonel Lindbergh by threats to kidnap his second son, who was born in August last His first son, when 20 months old, was kidnapped from the colonel’s home at Hopewell, New Jersey, and murdered. Mr. J. L. Manning, chief of police at Roanoke, said that he was informed in December by Colonel Schwarzkopf, .head of the New Jersey police, that two Roanoke men were trying to obtain £lO,OOO from Colonel Lindbergh. Letters were exchanged in an effort to trap the men, with the result that the demand was whittled down to £3400. A Roanoke policeman was appointed to pose as Colonel Lindbergh’s representative, and the men were informed that a cheque would be placed in a hollow tree in a wood. Bryant walked into a local bank to cash the cheque, and was handed a bundle of blank sheets of paper. The police state he departed with this and met Harvey outside the building, where both men were arrested. They, denied the charges. The New Jersey police said that tne notes demanding £lO,OOO were handed to them by Colonel Lindbergh some time ago, and they suggested that he. should say nothing while the investigation was under way. The first letter was posted from Pennsylvania. It asked that the money, in 20dol. notes, should be put in a suitcase and deposited at a secret spot, which has not been, revealed by the police. ■ : . At present the police do not believe that this new attempt to obtain money trom Colonel Lindbergh has any connection with the kidnapping of his first bahv. . ..._