HEADLINE: RESIDENTS SEEK TO IDENTIFY TAYLOR, LINDBERGH SUSPECT
Potential witnesses, who viewed a suspect being held in Minneapolis in connection with the Lindbergh bank robbery -- kidnapping -- murder case, refused to comment after returning from the Monday morning show up.
At least eight Thief River Falls residents, all of whom had previously been shown photos of the suspect, conferred with the Federal Bureau of Investigation man after looking at James P. Taylor, 30, who is being held on a charge of causing stolen traveler’s checks to be transported across state lines.
The checks in question are part of the $14,000 loot which was missing from the bank along with the cashier, Kenneth E. Lindbergh, after Lindbergh had met a Herbert Johnson at the bank after hours to accept $25,000 for safekeeping.
Reportedly, several of the witnesses identified Taylor as the man who flew in here under the name of J. O’Malley; appeared at the Pennington Hotel to confirm reservations, and met Lindbergh at the bank at about 4 p.m.
However, none of the local people would comment on the show up beyond the fact that they were making no statements for publication or otherwise.
Some of the witnesses made it clear that they were free to say what they wanted; but each was advised that talking of the case jeopardize his position as a possible future government witness.
Taylor appeared in federal court Tuesday as the check charge with his court appointed attorney Irving Nemerov of Minneapolis. He wavered preliminary hearing.
Arrested in Joplin, Missouri on December 8, after the FBI had trailed him from Detroit to San Francisco and back again, Taylor had been released from federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana on October 29.
Lindbergh’s frozen body had been found by some youthful hunters on November 25, at an isolated spot near Clear Lake, Minnesota where he had been murdered by repeated blows on the head from a sharp instrument.
Apparently the murder had been committed on the same night that Lindbergh had disappeared, Lindbergh had called his wife in Detroit Lakes, 150 miles north of that point at 11:40 p.m. on Saturday.
A man who had registered at the Nicolet Hotel in Minneapolis Friday as Herbert F. Johnson had room service at 3:30 a.m. Sunday and checked out shortly after 6 a.m. that morning.
Lindbergh’s car, which had not been discovered until six days after his disappearance was said to have been parked about 2 miles from the hotel at 5:40 a.m. Sunday. A news boy said he had seen the car stopped there, and had observed a man as he got out of it.
It is understood that all these potential witnesses were at Monday’s show up, along with Minneapolis airline employee, and a cab driver as well as others.
A total of 23 potential witnesses were said to have viewed the suspect, but it was not made clear whether this figure included authorities from Pennington and Sherburne Counties who were present.
Local authorities, Sheriff Arthur Rambeck, Police Chief Elton Cummings, and County Attorney L. W. Rulien, all of whom were at the show up Monday, flatly refuse to divulge any information regarding the results saying, it’s the FBI’s case and they’ll make the statements.
The Minneapolis FBI office and George MacKinnon, US District Attorney, both refused to comment on the case; but MacKinnon said that no new charges would be brought until the FBI completes its investigation.
Authorities said that at that show up, five other county prisoners of approximately the same height, age, and build as Taylor were in the lineup. The potential witness is viewed them through a two-way mirror. Taylor is being held in lieu of $25,000 bail bond, with the possibility that evidence may be presented to a federal grand jury should further charges be brought against him.
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