. Ji\HU/iRY 16. 19K5 Good Evening, Everybody:- H you don’t like crime and thrills you1# better tune out right now* For the battle between criminals and the law is smeared in glaring headlines. Your newspapers tomorrow morning will give you a graphic account of the melodramatic prison break in California, Only the sketchiest details are at hand right now. It happened this af ternoon at San Quentin, CaliforniaT s grim fortress of punishment, where Tom Mooney is the most famous prisoner. It today. The details of what happened are not clear, what sort of incident led to the outbreak. But the main facts are ±±x vivid and startling. The California Prison Board was in of San Quentin, one of America’s best known penologists, and three Prison Board members, were deep in discussion when has long been known as a tough pen, and it was tougher than ever session in a meeting room of the prison. Warden James Holohan suddenly a gang of Ejamciss convicts entered. They wei’e armed LEAP - 2 with pistols and two machine guns. They seized the V/arden and the three Prison Board members, and forced them to come along to the prison yard. And there the escaping convicts took the four officials in an auto and went dashing away in a wild ride for freedom J Tonight the highways of the Sunshine State are swarming with police and posses. There are reports that Warden Holohan was beaten up by the convicts and thrown out of the car a short distance from the prison. And a late rumor that the convicts have all been captured. There are rumors likewise that weapons made by the prisoners, have been found in the cells, nut the details are all sketchy, News flashes from the coast will keep m ' coming all night -- to provide drama for your newspaper in the morning. And there was machine gun drama in that other Sunshine State CRB£B And now -- before we take a look at what happened today at Oklawaha, Florida, let's answer a few questions about Fred Barker. He was born in Oklahoma. Together with his brother he engaged in a series of Midwestern crimes. Fred Barker was one of the prisoners who escaped from the Kansas State Penitentiary in 1931, Since then, he has had a career of hold-ups and killings. The authorities identified him kk with the notorious Blackburn Gang, the mob that for more than a year hac been hunted in connection with the kidnapping of Edward G. Bremer, the Saint. Paul brewer. Federal men announced sometime ago that the two Barker brothers had been identified by finger prints as members of the Bremer kidnapping gang. So Fred Barker has been rated as one of the country's most dangerous outlaws. And now let's see where Oklawaha is. The lake country of Florida runs down the center of the state, honey-combed with lakes and ponds, A region of farms, truck farms, where the Florida winter vegetables are grown. Oklawaha is on Lake Weir, a small town drowsing in the mellow warmth of the South. And now -- what happened? Fred Barker and several others of the 7 •; > *i J* CHII-IE -£ Blackburn Gaag wey» summer cottage on the banks of the 'X /V lake. ;ith them was Barker’s mother, sixty-five years old. They call her "Ma Kate”* The federal ^agents got a tip so today fifteen government men of J, Edgar Hoover’s staff, helped by the local x=>olice, surrounded the cottage on Lake Weir and the battle was on. The outlaws and Ma Kate barricaded themselves in the house and fought it out with machine-guns. The federal vvuivi u> »»» fought like skirmishing soldiers on the outside, from places of shelter, from cover. The £ gunfire was^ incessant. People from the surrounding country reported that the continuous shoot­ ing sounded like a small battle. ment The fight lasted for five hours. The govern^adm agents riddled the cottage with bullets. And how did it end? The announcement tonight is -- the chief outlaw, £ red Barker, shot C&wji, killed. And his sixty-f ive-year-oM mother, Ma Kate — shot dead w&m a machine-gun at her side. The several others of the gang -- all accounted for, either killed or captured. It looks as if the federal agents with one stroke, down there in the lake country of Florida, had wiped out the Black- CRIME - 3 turn Gang. That * s one gun-fight story, and here's another. It happened at Lenore, Illinois. A gang of bandits with machine- guns descended on the bank at Lenore. The robbery didn't go off so smoothly* shots crashed. The mobsters killed the cashier and wounded the bank president* They were driven off* And then followed a wild chase. The bandits grabbed an automobile with two men in it, and took the two along on a wild ride. A town posse, led by Sheriff Axeline, sped after them in a gun-fighting chase. In the battle the sheriff was killed. .out the roboers couldn't shake off the pursuit. They were finally trapped in a farm-house -- the end of the trail* One bandit committed suicide. Two others were captured, one badly wounded, the remaining one got away on foot through a cornfield, and is being hunted right now. So, today was gunfire day along the line where crime meets the law. LINDBERGH And the theme ot the law is rounded out by the events at Fleming ton, though there *s not much of luminous interest to be told - a full long day of testimony5 still handwriting, nothing but handwriting. It can all be summed up in the fact that If, hree more experts today identified Hauptmann as the writer of the 1..111 ..................... . . irrr iiinimr-Tlr ----------—..... ..... ...... ......... .. ransom notes, l The defense is acts more and more pointing the accusing finger at the dead man, Fisch. One of its intimations in the face of the State*s heavy batteries of expert handwriting testimony,is that Fisch, writing the ransom notes, might have imitated Hauptmann*s handwriting. Meanwhile, the relatives of the late Isidor Fisch, come from Germany to clear the memory *of their kinsman, arrived at Trenton today, there to be questioned by Attorney General Wilentz, who is prosecuting Hauptmann. As—for-the file handwriting complexities can*t last forever. Andtime nov/ the graphological maze is scheduled to come to an end and the ca.se will break open with new sensations. I SAAR From the Saar Valley angle of ne’ffs we have tvfo pictures one bright, the other morose and melancholy, zJT The bright angle follows ^ declaration of Hitler which we quoted last night, the triumphal statement that the Saar Valley victory opens the way for better relations between Germany and France. That was followed by a statement made by Minister of Propaganda Goebbels to the Foreign newspaper correspondents, in which Goebbels declared that Germany is eager for peace and friendship with France, On top of that German patriotic societies and Nazi newspapers burst forth A with egressions of good will towafd the great republic which has so long been at odds with the Teutonic Reich. That's the bright angle — better prospects of international harmony. gloomy picture is seen in the stream of refugees leaving the Saar, Jews, Socialists, anti Hitlerites in general. There seems to be no prospect that the Nazis wall go easy on their opponents in the valley of the coal mines SAAB - £ So itfs the old story of refugees closing their shops, abandoning their homes, and taking the trail. RUofrXii h The grim Communist spotlight is on a court of law - the trial of the old Bolshevik leaders, Zinovieff and kameneff and their associates, for complicity in the raurder of Kiroff. We heard some weeks ago that Zinovieff and Kaaeneff were being exiled to a bleak Arctic island In the White Sea. Moscow now explains that this exile had been ordered, but that meanwhile new evidence has been discovered, linking the Zinovieff and Kameneff group more closely with the Kiroff assassination, It is another one of those terrifying law court proceedings. with significant aspects of a political, circus, The spectacular part of it takes that form so characteristic --- -- -——.. . .. . | _ ^ Jn Red Russia - confessions, abject, enthusiastic confessions. For example, there*s the old Bolshevik warrior Zinovieff himself. shouting confessions in that curious - Communist jargon. He is Quoted as saying, concerning the Kiroff assassinations f,Thls foul crime throws such a ghastly light‘upon our anti-party activity, that 1 admit the parry is fully justified in holding our former opposition politically responsible for the crime.1* Strange confessior that. I One of Zinovieff a co~v/orkex'S, a prominent Bolanevik leader in the days of Lenin, falls all over himself confessing machinations against btalin. And he concludes by declaring1 ’’Zinovieff was horrified at being put on a level with murderers and bandits, totidt but I feel”, the confession continues, "that we all wore guilty of systematically poisoning the minus of the people and must bear responsibility.” iinrrminn— RUSSIA - 3 rearing the responsibility in this case would logically mean being executed by a firing squad. This is the tribunal that has been executing a vengeance of wholesale terror as a reprisal for the assassination of Klroff Well, Moscow is that Zinovieff, Kameneff and their coterie of famous old Communist leaders, who are on trial now, will not face the firing squad. This opinion is founded in the fact that with all the terrorism, bloodshed and thousands and thousands of executions that the Communists have carried out, no one prominent Bolshevik leader has been ehot. before dreaded military Collegium of the Soviet Supreme Court It has caused a hundred Y k ATEE q POUTS I*ve seen a. few waterspouts in my time. They ««re a sight of never-failing beguilenient* Bo I certainly wish Ifd been aboard, the Japanese steamship Tatsuta Maru as she steamed off* Waikiki Bcaeh at Honolulu, To see one waterspout is fairly common; to see two is a rare thing. But three waterspouts at the same time, three whirling, swirling columns reaching into the sky - that’s almost unheard of! let it is precisely what was witnessed from the deck of the big steamer of the Nippon Yusen-Kaisha Line. Each is described as a hundred and fifty feet in diameter. The sky was overhung with low black clouds, like a heavy drif t'of smoke, and from the dark cloud mass three spouts dropped in dramatic fashion. They reached downward to the surface of the sea and remained whirling there. H*)* tfx , One was within a few hundred feet of the deck of the^Tairst^a%lto«i» The ship was weaving among waterspouts. Nearby were three United States submarines on manoeuvres, also weaving among water spouts. After s few minutes, the three swirling columns lifted slowly and withdrew themselves "back into the ziifsfx cloud- BEATTY oome day Clyde Beatty is going to decide that if* he wants a pet, a small kitten or a lazy pup is about the thing for him. But, as it is, Beatty insists on having lions and tigers for playmates and so - he*s in the hospital again. He staged another one of those thrillers. At Rochester, Indiana/ was teaching a nev?ly imported lion some tricks when the animal attacked him^Wt th a blow of its paw—., "teie giant cat knocked the trainer forty feet, all the way ex across the training arena. Beatty fought the beast In the usual way, with a chair, and held the lion off until the attendants rescued him. Tonight he,s in the hospital with several broken ribs and assorted cuts and bruises. A A MOHAMMED AH It looks as if Blew York 1 s Bar loin might fall into the throes of a black Mohammedan-Hitlerite movement. A hint of this was given by the appearance in court of &a2jfc' Sufi Abdul Hamid, who is the head of a Mohammedan in Harlem. Sufi Abdul Hamid is six feet tall and coal black. He appeared before the Judge in his purple turban, a green shirt, a gold braided cap, and riding boots. He was arrested for making a speech before two thousand Harlem negroes without / / Zcut# getting a police permit. But that negligence of the law is a minor thing beside the ideas that were being expounded in 111 1r\jjwi^jto-of Sufi Abdul Hamid. The cops say that he was xjcaxx starting an agitation for the- negroes to drive the white people out of Harlem, especially the Jews, That's why Magistrate Aurelio, of Italian antecedents, gazed sternly at^Sufi^Abdul Kamid^in his purple, green and gold, and demanded:- ^Do you think you're the Harlem Hitler?" QOf) An expression of pain crossed tie inky features of ’"I don't know what I am," he replied. "This trial conf u ses me. " And any one might be confused by the Harlem-Hitier idea MOHAMMEDAN - 2 It could Hardly be called a one Hundred per cent Aryan or pure Uordic movement. Magistrate Aurelio didn’t seem to be able to keep His eyes off Sufi Abdul Hamid’s purple turban, green shirt and gold- braided cap* Coveted them, perhaps. "What’s the idea of that uniform?" demanded the Judge. To which the Harlem Sufi replied with dignity:- "We all have our idiosyncracies. Gandhi has his goat skin. Spinoza wore long hair. And I’m dressed as I am because I don’t believe in the social behaviorism of other people." That made the Judge blink. He swallowed hard and held Sufi Abdul Hamid without bail, for trial on Saturday. The whirling dervish of Harlem says that he was born in the Sudan, where the faith of the Prophet is x ± kxx strong. The police think he was bom in North Carolina. Just a Bull Durham whirling dervish. And now I’m a broadcast whirling dervish, whirling from the mike. And, SCLONG UNTIL TOMORROW