Kidnapped

From small beginnings has grown the large and lucrative business of Kidnapping. Once the trade of gypsies or of city criminals with more imagination than daring, it is now freely practiced by the better class of gangsters. Where only children used to be taken, now full grown men are not considered too difficult to handle.

Last week two major kidnap deals were consummated. At a New York police station appeared Charles Marvin Rosenthal, 24-year-old stockbroker, to announce that he had been freed by kidnappers who had held him 17 days in a New York apartment. A few hours earlier a black bag containing $50,000 had mysteriously disappeared from the check room of a hotel near Broadway. Kidnappee Rosenthal, who prior to his disappearance had lost heavily on the stockmarket, said he had been dragged out of a taxicab by three men, later said a beautiful brunette had delivered him into the hands of his abductors. Negotiations were carried on in the personal columns of the New York Times. The kidnappers got the $50,000 from Mr. Rosenthal's mother, who is guardian of a fortune he may not have until he is 30. Then, he said, they gave him $10, let him out of a car in The Bronx, left him with a two-week growth of whiskers and an uncertain memory. After much patching together of diverse clues the police were able to track down in three cities four men (one a Negro) and a female octoroon, alleged members of a "ring." Taken with them were $17,000 of the Rosenthal $50,000 and a small book listing names of wealthy "prospects."

Near Chicago John J. ("Jack") Lynch, part owner of a turf news service, was left on a road in his own automobile and promptly drove to his home at Lake Geneva, Wis. There he denied that an associate had paid $50,000 for his release. Unlike Kidnappee Rosenthal. Kidnappee Lynch said he would do all he could to help capture and convict the seven men who had held up his car with shotguns, tied him up and held him for six days. During those six days friends of Mr. Lynch had appealed to no less a person than Chief Gangster Alphonse ("Scarface") Capone to effect his release. Mr. Capone, deprecating kidnapping, promised to do all he could to persuade the kidnappers to accept $50,000 instead of the $250,000 they demanded, took trusteeship of the $50,000. Unappreciative Chief Investigator Patrick Roche immediately ordered Mr. Capone arrested. A squad of detectives rushed to Capone's hotel. Capone was not there.

Investigator Roche thought Lynch had been kidnapped by the gang formerly headed by Fred ("Killer") Burke of St. Louis, where the kidnapping business is so highly developed that socialites leave their expensive cars in their garages and go to parties in inconspicuous small cars. Kidnapped this year in St. Louis were strapping Dr. Isaac Dee Kelley Jr. (TIME, May 11) and Adolphus Busch Orthwein. 13, grandson of President August A. Busch of Anheuser-Busch. Inc. (TIME, Jan. 12). Kidnapped near Chicago four months ago was a gambler named James Hackett, whose seizure Investigator Roche blamed on the Burke gang. Hackett was freed for $150,000.

Other kidnappings of this year:

P: In Monroe, Wis., Fred J. Blumer, neer-beer manufacturer, was captured, chained and blindfolded, held nine days for $150,000 ransom, released when police trailed the kidnappers.

P: In Flushing, N. Y., Patrick McGee, race track follower, was taken from his home, held for $50,000, released for $18,000.

P: In St. Petersburg, Fla., six men and a woman kidnapped one R. W. Oxford, flogged him. Police thought the motive was not ransom but revenge.

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