Again, Reporter Rogers

When the headlines scream KIDNAPED, St. Louis has learned to wonder at once whether it will be the worthy Post-Dispatch or the noisy Star that ultimately takes credit for solving the case. Last January it was the Star's Reporter Harry Thompson Brundidge who brought about the capture of the kidnapers of 13-year-old Adolphus Busch Orthwein (TIME, Jan. 12). Last May it was the Post-Dispatch's ace, John T. Rogers, who returned the kidnaped Dr. Isaac Dee Kelley to his home (TIME, May 11). Last week it was Reporter Rogers again who, on the strength of his success in the Kelley case, was given an inside track on the kidnap case of Alexander Berg, well-to-do fur dealer. Four days, six hours after the furrier's abduction newsmen were handed copies of the following statement by the Berg lawyer, Morris G. Levinson:

Mr. Berg has been returned safely to his home. This was brought about through information furnished by John T. Rogers of the Post-Dispatch and the aid of the police. No ransom has been paid.

Fourteenth kidnaping in St. Louis in two years, the abduction of Furrier Berg was one of the most brazen. It occurred on busy Lindell Boulevard in heavy traffic while Mr. Berg's Negro chauffeur was driving him home from the office. As the car slowly crossed Euclid Avenue, just around the corner from the Park Plaza, two men jumped aboard, displayed revolvers, blindfolded Mr. Berg with taped goggles and forced the chauffeur to continue driving to the outskirts of the city. There they put the chauffeur out, and took their victim to a flat. Soon the first of a series of notes, illiterately penned by Furrier Berg at dictation of his captors, reached his frightened wife and lawyer.

By that time the Press was on the job. A "pressroom" was prepared on the mezzanine of the Park Plaza. For the Star, Gang-Reporter Theodore Link, instead of Brundidge, had the bulk of the work. But Rogers of the Post-Dispatch was immediately taken into the confidence of Mrs. Berg and her lawyer. He alone of the newshawks was shown the Berg notes, including this astonishing one:

"I want you to hire Paul Richards to represent me to handle the negotiations for my release. Pay him about $1,000 and I will pay you back. . . . Some one will get in touch with him soon."

Reporter Rogers called upon Lawyer Richards, whom he knew to be a defender of criminals and arranged a lawyers' meeting. When the terms and rendezvous were made he told the police.

For at least one good reason the Post-Dispatch did not try to press its advantage on the story to the point of sewing it up like the Kelley story, as a P-D scoop. The reason: Reporter Rogers found Dr. Kelley with such dispatch and apparent ease that a strong suspicion was voiced by opposition papers that he had withheld important information from the police, who never caught the kidnapers. In the Berg case it was understood Reporter Rogers' editors instructed him "not to get mixed up in it." In the Post-Dispatch's report of Rogers' visit to Lawyer Richards it was stated that "here the reporter acted on his own initiative and responsibility, without the knowledge of his office."

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