Evening Star Newspaper, January 18, 1931, Page 83

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, A Dozen Fugutives From United States Justice Are Now in Hiding Abroad, but the Grover Cleveland Bergdoll, drafe dodger, fugitive, exile. Though 10 years have passed, the Government feels sure i will get him yet. EDITOR'S NOTE: FICTITIOUS NAMES HAVE BEEN SUBSTITUTED FOR MANY OF THE CHARACTERS APPEARING IN THIS ARTICLE, BUT THE FACTS IN EACH CASE REMAIN UNALTERED AND ARE A MAT- TER OF RECORD. BY ALMA CHESNUT IKE detective thrillers? Try your hand at the yarn hinted in these two copied from a handbill that recently decorated the pockets of postal clerks and other officials throughout the United Btates: “Wanted—For using the mails to defraud in stock promotions, Ross I. Larion, aged 49 or 50, height about 5 feet 10 inches, weight about 160 pounds; black hair, thin or bald on top; heavy black eyebrows and long lashes; prominent nose, rather long and with ‘apple’ or bulb at end; well built and with sincere and honest- looking face. “His most prominent feature is a crippled right hand, caused by gunshot wounds in the Spanish-American War. Probably will be found wearing a glove on right hand, at least when out on street. Writes with left hand.” ““su will have to guess the final chapter in the history of this notorious swindler; it hasn't been written yet. But if you know anything about the Bureau of Investigation, United States Department of Justice, you can imagine the final scene. The Royal Canadian “Mounties™ are not the only ones who “get their man.” LARTON is just one of a number of prominent Americans, temporarily residing abroad, in whom Uncle Sam is particularly interested. Like others of his ilk, he chooses a foreign land, not for reasons of sentiment, but because the “national police” are on his trail and he knows that if he returns or if he moves to a country from which he can be extradited it will be all uwp with him. Other well known “wanted men” who keep out of the way of Uncle Sam’s investigators are Grover Cleveland Fice, A. M. Sinbane and Louis Dorosnick, wanted for irregularities in a matter of bankruptcy. For many others the furtive journeyings and long suspense have ended. In the end they were apprehended and stood before the bar of justice. Abram Kornelius, bank cashier, who absconded, was a fugitive for 15 years. He was caught last April in Cheyenne, Wyo Larton, considered the most important de- fendant in the Ruby Beach Mining Co. case at ‘Tacoma, Wash., vanished from the scene shortly after his indictment, June 5, 1926. The Bureau of Investigation got busy. Over its network of stations the information hummed. Other Gov- ernment agencies were notified and asked to co-operate in the search. Within a month he was located as a result of the alertness of a post office employe, who reported that his mail was going to the St. Regis Hotel, Mexico City. Mexican police, contacted, verified the informa- tion, reporting that he was registered in com- pany with his wife and two children. Cases like Larton’s are the most difficult of all fugitive cases to handle. The offense with which he is charged is not extraditable, and there is no means by which he can be forced to return to the United States to stand trial. In such cases the Federal detective, like a watchful cat, bides his time, keeping track of his victim's movements as best he can from a distance, ready to pounce upon him as soon as he comes within reach. Frends and relatives of the fugitive are kept under surveillance. His mail is watched and inquiries are made through the State Department and foreign police agencies MOST fugitives, says John Edgar Hoover, chief of the bureau, come back sooner or later and are taken. Homesickness, the belief that their crimes have been forgotten or that the authorities have relaxed their activity are factors that influence them to risk return Then, if immigration officials do not catch them, some enemy perhaps recognizes them, tips off the police, and they are trapped. Larton since his disappearance has followed a devious trail, but has seldom been “out of cryptic paragraphs, Government’s Secret Police Keep Tab on Their Movements and Sooner or L.ater Most Will Tryfl, to Come Back, Tired of Being Chased or Believing Their Crimes Forgotten. D. C, JANUARY 18, 1931, One of the many legendary tales of Blackmer’s self-imposed exile in France was that a group of Americans tried to kidnap him, put him aboard a private yachg, and bring him back to America, and were thwarted by two strong-arm mem Rlackmer kept constantly by his side. Sick and disheartened, John W. Worthington, known in Chicago as “The Wolf of La Salle Street,” returned from Mexico to serve out his term. The federals got him at last. sight” of the justice agents. In August, 1926, came a report that he had been seen in Miami, Fla., but before this could be verified he had skipped. In November, 1927, he was located definitely in Mexico City at the Hotel Geneva, Mexican representatives of the State Depart- ment ascertained that he planned to go to England. He did. The post office reported that a pen- sion check had been mailed him at the Ameri- can Embassy in London in March, 1930. When he called for it he revealed to officials that he planned to go from London to Paris, but in April, weary of wandering and perhaps low in funds, he visited the American Consul General al o After 15 years, a sick woman in & hos- pital bed let fall the information which meant capture for her man. in London and asked for a letter that would enable him to go home. He was not, however, prepared to face the charges against him, and the Department of Justice is not in the habit of dropping them. Immigration officials were tipped off, and have been on the qui vive ever since in case he drops around. Fugitives from justice do not forfeit their citizenship, and no passport is necessary for their return to the United States. Therefore, when Grover Cleveland Bergdoll in 1927 applied to the United States Conwul at Stuttgart, Ger- many, for an American passport, officials won- dered whether he was unaware that none was needed to come home, and informed him politely that he wasn't going anywhere else. The State Department, at the suggestion of the Department of Justice, has kept him In Germany these many years by denying him a passport to other countries. And in Germany they plan to keep him until he decides to come back to answer a number of indictments, in- cluding several charging conspiracy against the Government. The War Department is inter- ested, too; on Army rolls he is still listed as & deserter. SPECIAL agents of the Bureau of Investiga- tion have had a time with Bergdoll. They chased him from 1917 to January, 1920, pains- takingly following up numerous hot tips as to his whereabouts and keeping in touch with his mother, in Philadelphia. PFinally he was caught during a visit to her. A military court tried him and sentenced him to five years’ imprison- ment on Governor's Island. Then, after sev- eral months, he got away in a fashion that was most humiliating to his guards. Department that Bergdoll while a fugitive had buried a large sum of money at a point which he alone could identify and secured permission for him to go under guard to recover it. He gave the guards the slip at his home, where he had been permitted to go to meet one of his representatives. To Germany he was traced, where he has lived as an exile for 10 3 long as he stays there Uncle Sam can do li about it. However, if reports from the other to be credited, he is anxious to come From Berlin, about the time his passpo quest was filed, came a dispatch saying t a plea for a reduction or remission of sen return he will spend the first few years of his sojourn at Fort Leavenworth. ECHOB of the famous Teapot Dome oil scandals teverberate more faintly in Ameri- can ears as time goes by. The Government has settled its score in most instances, but Black- mer and O'Neil, the “perennially missing” wit- nesses, are still “wanted.” Seldom has the Federal Government resorted to measures so extreme as those used In efforts to bring back these two wealthy fugitives. They disappeared in 1924 and remained in hiding during 1925 and 1926, ignoring Federal sub- poenas. During 1927 and 1928, when the oil trials were under way, all Europe was scoured for a trace of them. Blackmer was finally located on a train in Monaco, and O’Neil was found living in the vicinity of Cannes, France. Atlee Pome- rene, special Government prosecutor, interviewed them and predicted that they would appear when the cases were called. But they did not. Subpocnas failing, Congress passed the Walsh act, a measure specially designed to meet tha emergency. Under this law a fine of $100,000 was levied against Blackmer, and in 1928 an additional $100,000 in bonds was seized. He remained in Paris. Finally, as a last resort, liens were filed against him in New York and Denver for income tax claims aggregating $8,498,935, and a presidential warrant was issued for his arrest in France on a charge of perjury. French officials thumbed their law books for a precedent on which to act. They finally ruled that alleged false income tax returns are no cause for extradition. In Paris Blackmer has lived a life of luxu- rious exile, the center of many legendary tales circulated by the French people. One story tells that he returned secretly to North America shortly before the Continental deal was made public and that he consulted with his attorneys from the safe vantage of Canadian territory. At one time it was reported in French news- papers that he went to New Orleans by way of Tampico after signing as a member of a ship’s crew, but living in the captain’s quarters. Still another account told how an attempt was made by a group of Americans to kidnap him aboard a private yacht and return him to the United States, a move that was thwarted by two stanch bodyguards who were always by his side. Blackmer, the fugitive, is & lawyer, and an able one. ITH him he took his law library. After ample time to peruse it he maintains that all action against him is illegal. Last April he filed, thropgh counsel in the Supreme Court, & brief announcing his willingness to have the court pass on the validity of the Walsh act, but no move has been made to date to subject the law to such a test, and Blackmer, reported suf- fering from homesickness, remains abroad. In scouring Europe to locate O'Neil, even more elusive, the “national police” surprised foreign detective agencies in 1928 by a new departure in detective work. A circular, stating that the United States Government desired ine formation regarding his whereabouts, accome panied by his photograph and description, was published in continental newspapers. Suoh “ads” are usually confined to police detective publications, and this was said to have beea the first instance of the United States thug advertising for a fugitive. O'Neil recently dispatched a statement %@ American authorities in which he set forth thas he did not form the Continental Trading Ce. and that he wished to return to the United States, but the charges against him have no# been withdrawn. Information was received no# long ago that he had applied for a new French identity card and that he is still living in the vicinity of Cannes and Nice. BANKRUPTCY of a shop, a Phoenix, Aris., corporation owned by Benjamin and Rose Fice, resulted in a loss to creditors of more than $100,000 back in 1923. Lester Fice, A. M. Sinbane and Louis Doronick, together with the . owners and other defendants, it was found, had wrongfully appropriated money from the core poration and deposited it to their own credit im Oanadies banks. All were indicted for violae tion of the bankruptey act. These three absconded shortly after the twe regularities were discovered, aad Justice f followed numerous-leads in an attempt to find them. They located them finally in Wi where they had taken up residence and connected with a legal irm. They cannot be extradited, but the agents are keeping closd tabs on them and are confident of getting thens sooner or later, Full of pathos is the story of Abram Korme- Continued om Twelfth Page