Evening Star Newspaper, February 24, 1935, Page 47

Stage Music e = rt 4—12 Pages - -— — Screen — Radio WASHINGTON, FEATURES Che Sundny Stare D. C, SUNDAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 24, 1935. Books—Art Notes Autos—Aviation TEACHING THE D. J. AGENT TO SHOOT STRAIGHT AND TRUE But, Here in Washington, He Also Has His Class Room, Study Periods and Home Work as a Part of Training. By Rex Collier. ED by a veteran criminologist of the Justice Department's noted Federal Bureau of Investiga- | tion, a group of special agents, with fingerprint magnifying glasses and other para- phernalia, entered a room at the De- partment of Justice where a *‘crime” had just been committed. On the floor of the disordered room lay a body, one arm outstretched to- ward a pistol. Nearby was a safe, its door open and spilled out upon the floor. Chairs were overturned, drawers of @ desk were pulled out and other fur- nishings were in marked disarray, The group paused for a moment in apparent bewilderment as its mem- bers surveyed the scene. “All right, gentlemen,” said the veteran officer, “you are confronted with a murderous bank robbery. Get busy and investigate it!" Such “crimes” as this are being committed and investigated regularly | in the new Department of Justice Building—all for the sake of better law enforcement. ‘The corpus delicti is “Oscar,” a limp d helpless dummy, who has been “murdered” and kicked around re- peatedly by student-agents attending one of the strangest institutions in the world—the Bureau of Investigation's scientific crime detection “university.” The fake murder-robbery investiga- tion is but one of a series of test “cases” which newly-appointed agents must study, analyze and report upon before they are adjudged ready to fare forth in quest of kidnapers, murderers, bank robbers and other public enemies on the list “fugitives wanted.” ‘HE alumni of this university num- I+ ber approximately 600 men. They are the quiet, straight-shooting “G men” whose activities in recent years have thrown consternation into the ranks of organized crime as no other single agency before them has done. Out of this school, organized in a small way several years ago, have come such heroic foes of gangland as Inspector Samuel P. Cowley and Agents Herman E. Hollis and W. Car- ter Baum, who lost their lives in smashing the machine-gunning Dil- linger gang. Cowley was in personal charge of the squads which shot and killed both Dillinger and “Pretty Boy” Floyd, and he and Hollis shot it out with “Baby Face” Nelson in the fatal gun battle at Barrington, IIl. Baum lost his life in the battle with Dillin- ger's gang at the Little Bohemia Inn. “Our men are not gunmen and so- called ‘trigger men,’” J. Edgar Hoo- ver, director of the bureau, explained. “But every one of them is trained in the use of firearms. They have never received any ‘shoot-to-kill’ orders, but if any gangster raises a gun against them, they have blanket orders to shoot first and shoot straight.” These men, more than 83 per cent of whom have had previous legal training or were expert accountants before entering the field of law en- forcement, are being taught how to shoot straight in a special pistol gal- lery in the basement of the new Jus- tice Building and on the rifle range at the Quantico Marine post. Two weeks are spent in actual trig- ger practice with revolvers, machine guns, high-powered military rifies, sutomatic shotguns and gas guns. Each agent is expected to qualify as & marksman, sharpshooter or expert before he goes into the war against the underworld forces of outlawry. The firearms course includes prac- tice in “running gunfire.” Experi- ence with the Dillingers and Nelsons eand Floyds and Barkers has shown that such training may come in handy when the chase is on. To qualify in running e an agent must be #ble to hit a moving target while fir- ing from a rapidly moving automo- bile. Running gun “battles” simu- lating actual fire on the crime front are held at stated intervals on the Marine reservation. A training stunt that is even more spectacular is a “raid” staged on a certain vacant house near Quantico by the students. On the hypothesis that the house is known to be & hide- out of dangerous Federal fugitives, the hovices are shown how to plan |ced and carry out a raid with a view to capturing the occupants. *blocked off,” a cordon L } Roads are of agents is] equipment, | its rifled contents | making notes at the “scene.” At left: A “staged crime,” with two Department of Justice agents Above: A class room where agents are taught the A B C’s of their important work. At right: A “Tommy gun” in the hands of a Department of Justice agent. Below, at left: secreted in places of vantage encir- cling the premises and strategy for effecting the final coup is discussed. If the situation is deemed to be ad- vantageous for approaching the house stealthily, under cover of- darkness, and trapping the quarry asleep, that method is followed. Another class may decide the gangsters should be called upon to surrender. In this event the enemy usually refuses, and the agents then open fire with their gas guns. The law invariably tri- umphs in these raids, whatever the strategy used. . N ADDITION to the intensive gun practice given all new agents, the veteran members of the service are required to qualify in gun practice monthly. It is of interest to note that among Hoover's agents are a former national pistol champion and United States rifie team member, a State peace officers’ pistol champion and & number of other pistol and rifle and machine gun experts. To be eligible for appointment as & special agent of the Bureau of Inves- tigation an applicant must be an at- torney, an expert accountant or an experienced investigator and must be between the ages of 25 and 35 years. Before being accepted for training he must pass rigid oral and written ex- aminations designed to test his per- sonal qualifications, _education, re- sourcefulness, tact and general ability. He must also submit to a thorough investigation of his character and reputation in the community. ‘These hurdles passed, he is enrolled for the 12 weeks of training in the crime detection school. The “dean” of this school is Hugh H. Clegg, an assistant director of the bureau and one of its most experi- enced investigators. There are five full-time instructors on the regular faculty and nearly 30 special lecturers on sundry phases of criminal detec- tion and apprehension. Of the five full-time faculty members, two have majored in education at college, two have had college teaching experience, three have had teaching experience in prparatory or high schools, two are Phi Beta Kappa men and one is a Rhodes scholar, There are three main class rooms, equipped with chairs and desks in the manner of any up-to-date college lecture hall. All three class rooms usually are occupied at once, for two or three groups of men ordinarily are in training at the same time. One group may consist entirely of veteran agents who must come to Washington at least once a year for a month of retraining in latest methods of pro- lure. For every five prospective agents in training there is one experienced agent assigned as guide and counselor, He ¢ advises his proteges in and out of the class room and aids them in their “home work” after classes are done for the day. At the outset of the course much of the work is dull and heavy, in com- parison to later instruction, but all of the studies are regarded as essen- tial to effective investigation. Not all of the work of a special agent is spectacular or adventurous. He must know how to investigate anti-trust violations, intricate bank- ruptcy cases, mail frauds, bank em- bezzlements, perjury, bonding and surety irregularities, bribery, peonage, war-risk insurance conspiracies and claims made against the Government. Officials and agents who are experi- enced in these types of investigations describe the problems peculiar to each and procedure to be followed in con- ducting an inquiry. THE more colorful duties of the agents grow out of the bureau’s jurisdiction in kidnaping and extor- tion cases, crimes on the high seas or on Indian or Federal reservations, national bank robberies, interstate transportation of stolen automobiles and other articles, murder or assault of Federal officers and location and capture of fugitives from Federal Justice. Men who have distinguished them- selves in the actual round-up of kid- napers. extortionists, bank robbers and other gangsters and roving des- peradoes are detailed to lecture on these dramatic and dangerous phases of the bureau’s investigative work. Because kidnapings and bank rob- beries have claimed a major share of attention since enactment of new Federal laws in the war on crime, special “test cases” are arranged .in these subjects toward the end of the period To prepare the men for the test cases a thorough schooling in the theory and practice of scientific means of identifying criminals and investi- gating crimes is given. Lectures are given on fingerprint, hand-writing and typewriting identi- fication, on forensic ballistics or the science of identifying guns used in crimes, on dust analysis, on violet light examinations and on numerous other related topics. In connection with these scientific lectures the students are taken to the new technical laboratory of the bu- reau, where experts give demonstra- tions in the latest processes for lo- :l“fi:w suspects and detecting their In this laboratory they are shown official hand-writing exhibits in the Hauptmann and other famous cases, are given an opportunity to examine bullets under the powerful comparison ballistics microscopes, are taught how |to develop latest fingerprints with special powders, chemicals and lights. are instructed in means of reading secret messages in invisible inks and are shown how to reveal obliterated gun identification numbers through the use of certain acids and heat. One of the most interesting of the tory is moulage, a method of preserv- ing footprints, tire marks or other evidence found at the scene of a crime. The moulage expert makes a permanent record of such marks in wax, for later production in court, if necessary With this method he also can preserve reproductions of bullet wounds in a body or can make a death mesk of an unidentified per- son for later reference. Since these agents are enlisted in a real war with gangland, they are given a complete course in first-aid. 'TUDIES also are made of explosives, ammunition, bombs, legal medi- cine and toxicology, blood tests, sound and electrical equipment, X-ray tech- nique, filtered and screened light, measurements, microphotography and other aids to crime detection. Director Hoover insists that every agent must know what evidence is, so that he will be able to collect data that will be acceptable in court. identification arts used in the labora- | Practice in the new De- partment of Justicetarget range. Below, at right: Agents at outdoor prac- tice on the range near Quantico. -—All official Bureau of Investigat'on photos. Sherlock Holmes Might Be Termed a “Correspondence School Sleuth When Com- pared With These M odern Detectives. low the new agent to conduct a minor investigation in actual practice, with a veteran agent alongside as adviser and observer. Having passed all these tests, the student is ready to graduate into a full-fledged probationery special agent. There is no other criminological clinic or training school quite like this one at the Department of Justice. Its success has attracted wide attention among police and there is a growing demand that the Federal Government extend this training service to law en- forcement officers of the States and cities. Eventually the bureau's training school may become the nucleus of a great national criminological institute, envisioned by Attorney General Cum- mings as the Government's contribu- tion toward more effective law enforce- | ment in America. It is useless to collect a mass of evi- dence that is going te be thrown out as irrelevant or immaterial, he points out. Rules of evidence are given spe- cial attention at the school and at least one full day is spent in a local criminal court to observe procedure. It is because of their understand- ing of legal evidence, supplementing their ability as investigators, that the Bureau of Investigation wins approxi- mately 94 per cent of all cases it brings to court. That is a record that is said to be without an equal in the whole realm of criminal in- vestigation. ‘The new agents are given novel tests to impress upon them the fallibility of eye-witness and ear-witness testi- mony. The other day a class, arriving for Contentment House By Patricia Fitzgerald Mine's not a place fit for kings, But just a home of simple things; And yet it's very dear to me Who shaped it for tranquillity. You might not always find it neat— So often little, stumbling feet Will rumple rugs or leave a track Of mud from door to me and back. ‘Sometimes there's worry, sometimes fpain, 'And many an eager $lan proves vain— Mere stumbling blocks we rise above Who keep our hold secure on love. the day, was surprised to see a small | such testimony may prove to be ex- screen across the instructor’s desk. A | tremely valuable. In kidnaping cases desk lamp, unlighted, stood in front of the screen. Two men sat behind the desk, but were not visible to the students. One of the men back of the desk reached over the screen and snapped the switch on the light. It would not go on. The other man went to a wall switch, pushed a button, but still the lamp remained unlighted. An agent, “planted” among the students, then stepped forward, screwed the bulb into the socket and the light went on. In turning the light on, the agent tipped the screen over, giving the students a good view of the two men who had been behind it. The instructor at this point an- nounced that a “perception test” would be made. Each of the pupils was told to make a complete written report on exactly what had occurred. The reports were remarkable. Some of the students had one man snap- | ping the lamp and wall switches. Others thought two men had done the snapping, but changed the se- quence of events. There were other glaring mistakes. Few gave a fairly accurate report on the incidents. At another time the students heard a terrific crash in an adjoining room. An interval of exactly half a minute elapsed and another crash resounded. Just one minute later a third crash was heard. The tension was relieved by the instructor’s smiling announcement that an “auditory test” was the order of the morning. He directed the class to make written reports de- scribing the noises, with particular reference to the time elapsing between each crash. “You would be surprised at the variation in estimates of elapsed time,” Mr. Clegg said in an inter- view. “They ranged from a minute or two to as much as half an hour.” Tm! perception tests are in- tended not only to demonstrate the unreliability of so-called eye- witness testimony, but to sharpen the eyes and ears of the embryo investi- the victim's eyes or ears may catch some clue that later will aid ma- | terially in solving the crime. In the | Urschel kidnaping, for example, per- sistent questioning of the ransomed | victim disclosed he had heard an | airplane pass over his place of im- prisonment at regular times, except on a particular day. A check of all airlines in the Southwest showed that only one line had deviated from its regular schedule on that day. A storm had forced the pilot to circle around a certain area near Paradise, Tex. A search in that vicinity re- sulted in location of the kidnapers’ lair and capture of four of them on the spot. The lessons learned in the Urschel investigation have prompted the bu- reau to emphasize the importance of thorough questioning of kidnap vic- tims in the hope of obtaining some slight clue that otherwise might be overlooked, Mr. Clegg pointed out. To train new agents in this sort of quiz- zing, an instructor will pose as a vic- tim just released by kidnapers and the agents are required to interrogate him in an effort to learn the location of the hideout. . In a typical lesson, the instructor described a house he had previously selected near College Park, Md. In response to questions he said the house was about 10 miles toward Baltimore on the Baltimore Pike, was a few hun- dred yards to the right of the road, was & shingled bungalow with a high hedge around it and had a screened front porch. He divulged several other identifying points as the questioning roceed p E ‘When the interrogators felt they had learned enough about the hideout to locate it, they were instructed to pair off, get into automobiles and drive out to College Park to find the house. Most of the students are able to locate the place on the first trip, but some have to return for further directions. After the students have had ample training in test investigations, they are permitted to accompany veteran agents in actual inquiries of a routine nature. The final instruction step is to al- \ e Seek Aid in Forests 'HE Department of Agriculture, charged with the responsibility of curtailing farm products to the point that dangerous surpluses are avoided, has another problem on its hands— what to do with the labor and land taken from the production of staple crops. The forests offer the solution of the second problem. The department be- lieves that fully one-third of the area of the United States is suitable for forest and should be so developed. The tragic waste of forest land in the past through faulty lumbering prac- tices, fire and failure to carry on a reforestation program has brought about a condition giving conserva- tionists serious concern. Under the program being put into operation by the department the waste land is being turned back once more to the growth of trees, the develop- ment of recreational centers and sanctuaries where wild life can be perpetuated. The forest development is essential if the United States is to escape the fate of China and the Holy Land, for instance, where the absence of trees has brought about destruction of agri- culture and the ever-present threat of drought or flood. Chemists Attack Waste 'HE depression has turned the ate tention of research experts to new means of producing needy materials and new means of employing waste products. The Bureau of Chemistry and Soils has done important work along these lines. For instance, at Laurel, Miss., & factory has been established for the production of starch from sweet potatoes. A prospective market of about 2,000,000 pounds of starch from sweet potatoes has been found and the chemists of the bureau have de- termined that about 25 small factories can well be established to meet this demand. The employment possible would provide work for 6,500 heads of families, Another line of research is aimed at utilization of at least part of the 260,000,000 tons of straw and stalks which go to waste annually on the farms of the country. It has been determined that both paper and paper beard can be made successfully from the stalks, and with American con- sumption of these two articles totaling around 11,000,000 tons annually, the experts are seeking to produce & satisfactory product on a basis making it economically sound.