Thursday, May 22, 2008

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1955

Wednesday, December 14, 1955


HEADLINE: HEARING THURSDAY OF SUSPECT IN KENNETH LINDBERGH SLAYING


Seek to Identify Man Arrested in Missouri as Banker’s Abductor


Preliminary hearing for a Detroit ex convict, arrested in Joplin, Missouri last Thursday morning in conjunction with the Kenneth Lindbergh case, has been set for Thursday morning, December 15, in Minneapolis federal district court according to the Associated Press.


James F. Taylor, 30, waved removal hearing at Kansas City where he has been held on charge of transporting stolen traveler’s checks which were part of the loot taken from the Northern State Bank here November 12.


The Minneapolis warrant, filed Monday charges Taylor with complicity in the robbery through checks cashed in Minneapolis under the alias of Herbert F. Johnson, the same name used by a man who was with Lindbergh at the local bank before the latter was kidnapped and murdered.


Taylor was arrested after Federal Bureau of Investigation agents had trailed him from Detroit to San Francisco and back to Joplin were he was posing as a novelist under the name of Kenneth McKinney.
A fingerprint from one of the stolen traveler’s checks, cash in Detroit two days after the local banker was kidnapped, put the FBI on Taylor’s trail. The Detroit checks had been signed Charles D. Kenwell.


Originally scheduled for trial at Detroit on that charge, officials in the Michigan city have yielded to the Minneapolis court. Bail set on the Detroit warned at $10,000, has been upped to $25,000 on the new charge.
Pennington County Sheriff Arthur Rambeck said today that he had not been notified of any move to bring Thief River Falls people who had seen Johnson to Minneapolis for a possible identification of Taylor as the same man.
Rambeck surmised that with further identification of Taylor by witnesses from Thief River Falls and Minneapolis, he may be charged with a more serious crime. As yet, he said he hadn’t been notified that Taylor would definitely be moved from Kansas City.


Taylor had been released from Federal Prison at Terre Haute, Indiana on October 29, just two weeks before Lindbergh disappeared with a mysterious stranger who had made an appointment to confer on a property transaction.


Registering at a Joplin hotel under the McKinney alias, Taylor had stayed in Missouri city until November 8, when he left to gather some materials for the book he said he was writing.


He returned to Joplin, December 3, where he was a guest in the home of Elizabeth Richards, a travel agency operator, with whom he had struck up an acquaintance previously.


Described by Miss Richards as being cultured and of gentle manner, Taylor did not offer any resistance when arrested by the FBI agents last Thursday. He had a 30.06 rifle and a snub nosed .22 caliber pistol in his room when arrested.


Taylor had served two federal prison terms of about 18 months each during the past four years. One was on his conviction of impersonating an officer and the most recent term for transportation of a stolen automobile across a state line.


Local authorities expressed the opinions Wednesday that the hearing would be held Thursday. As yet, they had no official word that a definite date has been set.

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