Checking the four names, and police chief and sheriff were quickly able to eliminate three of them. They were residents of the area, well known men, who were questioned as a matter of routine and a knowledge. They stated the fourth man was a stranger to them.
This fourth man had listed himself as J. O’Malley. The authorities were unable to tie that name to anyone in the area.
Bank officials were at a loss to explain ’s disappearance. His reputation was considered beyond reproach; he was a trusted employee for many years.
“And besides, there couldn’t have been any money taken from the bank,” the officials said. “Everything is kept in the vault.”
“Everything?” An officer asked.
“All the paper money,” the official said. ”Everything but some silver and the travelers checks.”
The officials said the vault’s time lock was set when the bank closed for routine business early Saturday afternoon.
Plans were made for an inventory when the bank opened the next morning -- Monday.
Kenneth did not appear in Thief River Falls and no calls were received from him throughout Sunday night and Monday morning.
An inventory at the bank showed cashed in the vault all intact.
But there was $14,000 in traveler’s checks and $1750 in silver coins missing.
“It doesn’t add up,” a puzzled bank official told the police.
‘I’d state everything on his honesty. And besides that, I can’t see him running out in his family -- especially for what’s missing. Those travelers checks are negotiable, but each one is a number and can easily be traced. And the silver -- 100 pounds of coin?
He couldn’t spend much of it at one time -- it would look too suspicious, especially now that news of this case is getting around. Why should a bank cashier who could have pulled off a much better robbery without even half trying to do so much, do such a foolish thing?”
The authorities had no answer because they too couldn’t see as a criminal. The sheriff and the police chief were both personal friends of the missing cashier. He had lived in Thief River Falls since he was 10, coming from another small Minnesota town.
He was now 44, had been with the bank since it started in 1935 had worked his way up to cashier -- a job he held for four years. He was a pillar in the community, an active member of the Trinity Lutheran Church, a devoted husband and father. For diversion he likes outdoor sports -- skating, hunting, and fishing.
The authorities drove to Detroit Lakes, where the desk clerk at the Greystone Hotel identified a picture of Lindberghh as the man who made the phone call about 11:20 p.m. Saturday.
“He made it from a phone booth,” the clerk said.
He reported that had been with a “mean looking man and rather nervous, a little on the chunky side.” He said the chunky man was seated in a chair at least 20 feet from the phone booth where Lindbergh made his call, and could not possibly have overheard the conversation.
The clerk said the chunky man scowled at him when he asked where he was going to go.
“I just tried to make a little friendly conversation, “ the clerk said. “He even snarled when I tried to talk to him about the weather.”
The Federal Bureau of Investigation and police throughout the Midwest were alerted to be on the lookout for Kenneth , the mysterious Mr. Johnson, and Lindbergh’s car. Investigation at Minneapolis turned up some interesting facts.
A well-dressed man, described as suave and dapper, had registered at the Nicolet Hotel as Herbert F. Johnson. Descriptions given by the night auditor and a bellhop tallied closely with those given in Thief River Falls by persons who had seen Johnson.
Johnson had checked into the hotel on Friday night, November 11, carrying a small dark satchel. The bellhop recalled carrying a grip to Mr. Johnson’s room, and remembered it was surprisingly heavy for its size.
The hotel records disclosed that at 3:27 a.m. on Sunday, November 13, Johnson called for ice, which the bellhop delivered. The bellhop said he received a $1.25 tip. He reported that Johnson appeared to be alone in his room.
At 5:15 a.m., Johnson ordered a large container of coffee. The same bellhop delivered it, and recalled remarking to Mr. Johnson that it appeared he intended to stay up all night.
At 6:25 a.m., Johnson appeared at the hotel desk to check out. The night auditor said that he appeared mild, neat and undisturbed, and that she talked with him about eight minutes. She gave him his bill for $20.40, and he asked if she would accept a traveler’s check. She agreed when he produced several credit cards and club membership cards made out to Herbert F. Johnson of Racine, Wisconsin.
She remarked that he had the same name and hometown as the president of the Johnson wax company, and the man retorted: “I am Mr. Johnson!”
The Hotel employees said Johnson had a large number of travelers checks a $50 denominations in loose fashion, not enclosed in the customary folder.
She said he appeared every inch the executive type, and up right. After she cashed a $50 check for his hotel bill, he had her cash two more, stating he wanted the cash to buy a plane ticket for New York.
She recalls that the New York plane was due to leave at 7 a.m. and Johnson didn’t appear to be doing the necessary rushing in order to catch it.
He asked her to get him a cab and she relayed this to the bellhop who appeared to be puzzled. She later learned that the bellhop noted that Johnson had a cab waiting; that he had brought the luggage down an already placed it in the waiting taxi.
Nobody recall seeing Johnson around the hotel Saturday afternoon or night.
The three travelers checks he cash were issued by the Bank of America, and had serial numbers corresponding to those listed as missing from the bank in Thief River Falls.
The night auditor said that she had been so taken in by Mr. Johnson’s act that later, when she was watching a television show put on by the Johnson Wax Company, she remarked to a friend that she had met the company’s president. The actual president of the Johnson Wax Company, Herbert F. Johnson was at a loss to explain why his identity was used. He told authorities he knew of no person answering the spurious Johnson’s description.
The cashing of travelers checks by forgery constituted a violation of federal law, allowing the FBI to take part in the investigation. Calvin B. Howard, head of the Minneapolis FBI office, move in quietly regarding his man and sat up liaison with FBI offices in other cities.
The FBI believed they picked up the trail of the mysterious Mr. Johnson in Detroit. On Tuesday, November 15, a man entered a Detroit bank for the purpose of opening an account. He said he wanted to deposit $7,800 worth of travelers checks. After signing $6,000 worth of the checks and various denominations, he was told he would have to produce further identification before he could withdraw on the account.
The man identified himself as Charles Kenwell and gave a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania address, told the bank officer that he would return the next day. He said he was tired of signing the checks, and would endorse the other $1800 worth when he returned. He left the checks and walked out.
He did not return, and the information was soon in the hands of the Detroit FBI office. The serial numbers of the travelers checks corresponded with the checks taken from the bank. The checks were dispatched to the FBI laboratory for fingerprint analysis.
Chicago agents picked up Mr. Johnson’s trail. He had cashed three travelers checks on November 16, one at the Morrison Hotel in the Loop and two at the Capitol Airlines counter. The casher of the checks fit Mr. Johnson’s description, and the checks serial numbers tallied with those missing from the Minnesota bank.
Back in Thief River Falls, anxiety grew as the days passed with no word from Kenneth..
On November 18, hope that he might be still alive was weakened when the missing bank cashier’s car was found parked in Minneapolis. A 1951 Buick was in front of a vacant house on 18th Ave North. A canvas of the neighborhood turned up a man who told agents he had noticed the car being parked about 5:45 a.m. the morning of November 13. He said a man wearing a gray overcoat and Homburg got out.
Other persons located by agents said they had noticed a man and a gray coat and Homburg walk into a nearby all night café and call a taxi. A cab driver was located who picked up the man, drove him to the Nicolet Hotel, waited, then drove him to the airport.
A search of the car turned up $1530 in rolled silver, all but about $200 of the coins taken from the bank.
On Friday, November 25, a week after police located the car, the body of Kenneth was found.
Three boys, aged 17, 10 and 8, where hunting rabbits on their father’s farm about 2 ½ miles south east of Clear Lake, Minnesota. The eldest son saw something that seemed to be a piece of canvas in the snow, and took a closer look. It was a body! With his brothers, he ran home and told his father, who called sheriff Chester Goenner of Sherbourne County.
In the dead man’s pockets, the sheriff found a credit letter addressed to Kenneth and the sportsmen’s club membership card bearing the same name. A hat, 10 feet from the body, had a label from a Thief River Falls store.
In a short while federal agents were at the scene.
Dr. Gordon Tesch, coroner for Sherburne County, said that the dead man had been beaten severely about the head, and that there appeared to be a bullet hole in the fore head between the eyes.
The sheriff noted that a thick, even, blanket of snow had covered the body, and no footprints were near it. ”Which means he was probably here before the last heavy snowfall on November 15.”
The sheriff went on to theorize that the body was probably carried to where it was found -- an obscure spot about 1 ½ miles south of Highway 10, near the shores of a small body of water called Crescent Lake. Nearby and towards the highway was a bluff with a barbed wire fence running across it.
“Looks like he was carried to the bluff, then tossed over the fence,” the sheriff said. “See broken bushes and twigs from the body rolling down?”
The body was 50 feet from the top of the bluff.
For Mrs. Lindbergh, the anxious days of waiting game to a horrible in when she learned of the finding of the body while watching a television program that night.
The woman went into shock, and a doctor was called.
Later, she issued a statement:
“In behalf of myself and my family I want to express my thanks for everything that has been said and done to help us face this terrible tragedy. We feel your honor and respect for Kenneth and we will all miss him. We can’t understand why such a terrible thing should happen in our community. We long for the day when all evil shall be overcome, and we’ll dedicate our lives to carry on in the inspiration and love we will always have for a beloved husband and father.”
The next day brought further developments. A search of the area where the body was found turned up about $200 in silver coins scattered about under the snow.