Evening Star Newspaper, July 5, 1931, Page 65

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, JULY - §, 1931, .. o Aid of New York Sky Police Invoked to Beat Shakedown Capt. John H. Ayers, head of the Miss- ing Persons Bureau of the New York Police Department, is devoting much gime to investigation of carrier-pigeon blackmail cases. BY CAROL BIRD. LACKMAIL by carrier pigeon is the newest and most ingenious racket of the criminal who seeks to extort money from the credulous. Pursuit of the birds by airplane is the New York Police Department's @®qually inventive method of foiling the black- mailer and setting at naught his ultra-modern *“shakedown” scheme. Most of the prospective victims of the carrier- pigeon blackmail have been relatives of missing men and women, whose disappearance has brought distrait wives, husbands and parents to the state of mind where they would do almost anything to have their loved ones re- stored to them. For this reason their black- mail by the criminal out for big sums of easy money has been particularly cruel and vicious, and with all the potentialities for huge success if the slick idea had not been crimped at its inception. The New York Police Department has handled a number of these attempted blackmail- by-carrier-pigeon cases. This spectacular form of sky blackmalil is relatively new and unusual in American police annals. STORY as exciting as any spun out in a detective or mystery thriller, and doubly interesting because it is truth and not fiction, is told by Capt. John H. Ayers, head of the Missing Persons Bureau of the New York Police Department, regarding the homing- pigeon blackmail. It is replete with absorbing details about swooping police planes starting out at dawn after pigeons to whose legs were fastened orange streamers instead of thousand- dollar bills which the would-be extortioners demanded. And marine glasses, weather re- ports, detectives, tricky habits of carrier pigeons, dark-complexioned blackmailers, feathers dip- ped in blood—all figure in the enthralling nar- rative. “This is a new racket and we must ‘nip it in the bud’ before it is full-blown,” was the dictum of Capt. Ayers, who promptly set about studying the habits of homing pigeons when the first blackmail attempt involving pigeons came to his attention. He called in homing- pigeon experts and conferred with them, the ‘Weather Bureau and police aviators, as to the possibility of successfully following the pigeons by plane. And he put into effect the airplane pursuit on several occasions, using different methods each time in his experiments. While Capt. Ayers’ activities in this direction already have saved tens of thousands of dollars to the proposed victims of the latest blackmail stunt, he has passed the experimental stage in his pursuit methods and is now working out a plar. whereby the homing-pigeon blackmailer will be nabbed as soon as his birds flutter to their cotes. This involves the use of mobile planes resembling those employed in sky- writing, and other measures now being perfected at conferences with carrier-pigeon experts, aviators and detectives. Scheme of Extorters. Chase Birds to Their Cotes to Discover the Identity of Criminals and Foil Their Get- Rich-Quick Plan. Plot as Exciting as Any Modern Detec- tive Thriller. “Blackmalil through the use of homing pigeons first came to the attention of the New York Police Department when three pigeons were sent to a well known physician with instruc- tions to attach a $1,000 bill to the leg of each of them and release them or be killed,” began Capt. Ayers, relating his experience with bird- blackmail in his office at headquarters. “As soon as the physician received the blrds he promptly b:ought the matter to our atten- tion,” continued Capt. Ayers. “We, in turn, assigned a man to guard him. As a matter of fact, his instructions were to live with him, go everywhere he went and be in his company at all times, both night and day. “After the pigeons, innocent aides of a blackmailer, were held for a few days, they were released from a point on Long Island where it was possible to follow them, or at least make an effort to follow them by plane. They were released in a group on the theory that three pigeons would be more easily followed and would retain their identity better than one. But, unfortunately, they very shortly became mixed up with a large flock of pigeons and were soon lost. This was lesson number one, and we profited by it later. “After the disappointed blackmailer had re- ceived the pigeons minus the thousand-dollar anklets the physician received a letter through the mails. It contained three pigeon feathers. They were red, and the blackmailers who sent them wrote that they were soaked in blood. The writer 2lso announced that he would re- taliate and take his own way of getting even with the man who had not responded to his demands in the right way. “Nothing ever happened to the physician, however, for blackmailers are cowards at heart. “Last Fall the second case of attempted blackmail by homing pigeon came to our at- tention. This probably resulted from publicity given to the disappearance of a boy from his home. The father of the lad received a letter instructing him to go to a candy store out in one of the many villages in Queens, where he would find two pigeons in a box. They had been left with the proprietor of the store, to- gether with instructions that they were to be called for by the father of the boy, whose name was given to the storekeeper. “Further instructions to the troubled father of the missing lad were to the effect that he was to attach a $1,000 bill to the legs of each pigeon. He was warned, under dire threats of harm to his son, not to bring the matter to the attention of the police. And he was promised that as soon as the pigeons bearing the $4,000 leg decorations arrived his son would be re- leased and sent safely home. Every effort was made by the police to trace those pigeons to their source, but the birds were too light and swift, the planes too cumbersome and heavy, and too many other disappointing factors entered into the chase. “Two days later the body of the missing boy was found in the East River. His death had occurred through drowning, and it had hap- pened weeks prior to the receipt by the father of the blackmail letter. Examination of the body showed that it had been in the water for a considerable period of time. And to con- firm the knowledge that the blackmailers had had nothing to do with the boy’s disappearance and knew nothing whatever of his whereabouts, another demand for money, emanating from the same source, reached the father of the now dead boy. The carrier pigeon is being used for a new purpose in New York—a messenger of blackmailers. The receptacle for messages is attached to the rear of the " left leg, where it interferes least with the bird's flight. Bootlegger Birds Carrier pigeons are now being used to defeat the national prohibition laws of the United States, accordnig to the United States Coast Guard. An exhausted bird recently collapsed on the deck of the patrol boat Travis off New York Harbor. Marks on the metal registry disc led officers to belleve the pigeon was a messenger for rum-runners. The pigeon picked up at sea was 35 miles offshore and apparently mistook the Coast Guard patrol for the rum- carrier, which was its home cote. HERE have been other carrier-pigeon cases, and the latest one to come to the atten- tion of the Police Department resulted from the recent disappearance of a well known New York business man. When this man disappeared he had in his possession a considerable quantity of uncut diamonds, gems amounting to more than $25,000. For the first few days of his disappearance nc¢ publicity was given the matter. Then it was thought that publicity might help in solving the mystery of his dis- appearance, and the matter was given out. “A day or two following this the missing man's wife received a telephone call, telling her that her husband had been kidnaped and was held in custody by the person telephoning. He further told her that if she wanted to see her husband alive she was to have $10,000 ready to turn over to the person speaking through a medium which he would later advise her of, and he warned her under no circum- stances to tell the police of the conversation. She was told that if she reported the matter her husband would be killed. “One can readily imagine the suspense of the troubled wife and her nervous state brought on by the mysterious vanishing of her husband and the strange telephone call. With strained nerves she listened for the ring of the telephone or awaited a call from the postman. But for several days following this telephone call no further approach was made. “Two days later another telephone call was received, asking the wife if she had received a registered letter. She had not, and her tele- phone caller admitted that he had addressed the letter incorrectly, but would write her an- other. A day later she received it, and this time was told that five pigeons had been left at a place of which she later would be advised by phone. Her correspondent told her. that upon receiving the address she was to get the pigeons, take them to her home and attach a $1,000 bill to the legs of each pigeon, releasing them with their $10,000 burden. She was further informed that upon the arrival of the pigeons at their home cote her husband was to be released. “Shortly after this, the wife, trailed by sev- eral of our men, called for the pigeons. At the store, just as she had been advised, jhere were five homing pigeons in a carton. Later my men questioned the proprietor of the store, who gave them a description of the men. This tallied with what the wife had already told me about the sound of the man’s voice over the p/wne. “Our men took charge of the pigeons, and we immediately made elaborate prenara- tions to follow them upon their release. T was arranged that the pigeons were to be released early the following morning in o:der to avoid the chance of them getting mixed up with other pigeons which might be in the air. We adopted the plan of releasing the birds one at a time, so that if anything went wrong with one mes- senger we could always have the others to pursue. “Then, in order to identify them, we fastened a long streamer of orange ribbon to the leg of each bird. After that a police plane started off in pursuit, following the release of the first bird. The pursuit plane was a four-seater, and it carried a pilot, an assistant pilot, an ob- server and & homing-pigeon expert or fancier, a man familiar with the habits of pigeons in flight. “Off flew the first bird, dangling the orange ribbon in the sky, and then began the first diffi- culty, for pursuing pi ns by plane is net so simple a matter as it may appear. All the ad- vantages are with the birds. First of all, it was soon found that the plane was not sufficiently mobile to permit the observers to keep the pigeon in sight. The bird, light and free in the air, would whirl and swoop and speed onward, whirling, turning, swooping, wavering this way and that. . ISIBILITY is a very important factor in the pursuit of pigeons, but in this respect, at least, luck was with us on the recent pigeon chase. It was a clear and ideal day. Prior to this last attempt I had checked up with the Weather Bureau the night before our flight, getting a report on weather conditions for the following morning. “But even this one stroke of good luck could not offset the other discouraging factors. Car- rier pigeons are extremely difficult to follow, and their habits differ from those of the racing pigeon. He may alight en route. One of the pigeons we were attempting to follow was found on a roof three hours after he had been released! “Regardless of our efforts to track down this blackmailer, the body of the missing business man was found a few days ago in Long Island Sound, floating near the breakwater at a consid- erable distance from the city. It was riddled with bullets, had loops of wire knotted about the neck, hands and legs, and had been in the water so long that it would have been un- recognizable had it not been for identification made through dental work. “This case proved also that the blackmailer had not known of the whereabouts of the man he claimed to have in his custody, for evidence proved that he had written his first letter after the man was already dead and that he persisted fn his blackmail long after the man was dead. 11 DERHAPS the first blackmailer to get the idea of employing pigeons as a means of extorting money was a man of criminal bent who owned homing pigeons. He perhaps sud- denly became imbued with the hunch that he might use his birds to ‘bring home the bacon,’ believing that it would be a slick racket, since pe one could trace them. “In all cases of blackmail people should pay ne attention whatever to the demands of the blackmailers, regardless of how. terrible the® threats may prove to be, and no matter how aften they are warned not to notify the police, they -should: do- so immediately.” (Copyright, 1030.)