PUBLIC RAT NO. 1.

Western Star, 2 October 1936, Page 2

PUBLIC RAT NO. 1.

lOWA BANK ROBBER. OBJECT OF NATION-WIDE HUNT. FIVE INDICTMENTS WAITING. Five minutes before 4 o’clock closing time, tlie three employees of the State Bank of Ellsworth, Minnesota, were preparing to call April 1 a day, and go home to pork chops and gravy. Glancing up from her ledger, the bookkeeper, Miss Theresa Burke, saw three men sliding through the door, revolvers drawm. She knew it was no April fool joke. So did her colleagues, when the bandit trio threw the bank trio and a stray depositor out of their car a quarter of a mile from town, and skipped off with over 3000 dollars.

So, too, did the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which went after the gang in earnest, and the newspapers, which daubed its mild-looking, sharp-nosed, smallish leader America’s latest public enemy No. 1. Known to his companions as ‘Bubbles or ‘Blondie,’ he is known to J. Edgar Hoover, chief of the F. 8.1. as Maurice Denning, 28 years old, a native of Afton, lowa, and “one of the most notorious thank robbers at large. Five feet six inches tall, weight 1451 b, blue eyes, light brown hair, medium ruddy complexion.” BUSY RAIDER. At first glance the new No. 1 nuisance seems a milk-and-water imitation of such illustrious predecessors as “Scarface Al” Capone and “Pretty Boy” Floyd. Actually, for a man who started in a small way as a Council Buffs, lowa, bootlegger, he has not done badly in crime. At present he is under indictment in Federal Courts for five national bank robberies—at Hawarden, Iowa; Dell Rapids, South Dakota; Superior, Nebraska; Hudson, South Dakota; and Smith Centre, Kansas. The amounts stolen ranged from 1363 to 10,000 dollars.

The job of which Denning is no doubt proudest was pulled off in August, 1934. The gang raided the National Guard Armoury at Windom, Minnesota, got away with nine Army automatic pistols, two Springfield rifles and other equipment. Not even the soldiers could catch him.

But Mr Hoover and his famed “G men” intend to catch the man they insist on calling Public Rat No. 1. As a preliminary, the F. 8.1. last w r eek began distributing 250,000 circulars concerning Denning. Thus, officially the country again had a Class AA criminal—after having been without one for a couple of months. The whirlwind clean-up staged by G" Men” in May, when Alvin Karp is, William Mahan, Harry Campbell and Thomas H. Robinson were captured in different parts of the eounnry within a few' days, had left No.- 1 spot without an occupant.

CALLING THE ROLL.

The designation was first used a decade ago in connection with Capone, beer and vice overlord of Chicago, who is nowserving an 11-year term in Alcatraz prison, San Francisco, for violation of the income tax law.

Among others to hold the “honour were: “Pretty Boy” Floyd, bank bandit, wanted for four murders, killed by Federal men in Ohio on October 23, 1934.

Clyde Barrow, bank robber and murderer, killed May 24, 1934, in Louisiana. John Dillinger, bank robber wanted for murder, slain by Federal men while leaving a Chicago movie theatre on July 23, 1934. “Baby Face” Nelson, bandit and killer, rubbed out by Hoover’s sharpshooters in a clmse near Chicago on November 27, 1934.

Raymond Hamilton, . bank robber and slayer, captured in Dallas and electrocuted May 14, 1935. Thomas H. Robinson, kidnapper of Mrs Berry V. Stoll, of Louisville. Kentucky, captured on May 3, 1936, in Glenade, California, and sentenced to life imprisonment in Atlanta on his plea of guilty. Alvin Karpis, leader of the notorious Barker-Karpis gang of bank robbers and kidnappers, captured by Federal men m New Orleans last May, returned to St. Paul,. Minnesota, to face trial for the 100,000 dollars kidnapping of William Hamm, jun., pleaded guilty a few days ago, sentence deferred.

Thus the list of “Public Enemies No. 1.” If Denning in his hideaway leads the papers, he knows that none of them has ever won.