WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1955

Wednesday, November 23, 1955

HEADLINE: K. LINDBERGH STILL MISSING: BANK OFFERS $5,000 FOR HIS SAFE RETURN

Bank cashier’s car and $1,530 in silver found in Minneapolis Friday.


Despite recovery of most of the silver of the loot, as well as the car belonging to Kenneth Lindbergh, Northern State Bank cashier who is believed to have been abducted Saturday, November 12, authorities reveal little progress. In the search for the Thief River Falls banker or for the stranger believed responsible for the robbery -- kidnapping, the Northern State Bank this week offered a $5,000 reward for his safe return.


The Federal Bureau of investigation, (FBI) disclosed last Thursday that $8,300 of the $14,000 in traveler’s checks reported missing had turned up in Detroit on Monday.
Friday, the Lindbergh car was found in Minneapolis where it is said to have been abandoned Sunday morning at six o’clock, less than 12 hours after Lindbergh had been seen in the city.


Fifteen hundred and thirty dollars of the $1750 in silver coin which had been taken from the bank was found in the trunk of the car.



Another link in the fantastic chain of the events was supplied Tuesday, November 22, by the FBI disclosure that a Herbert F Johnson, Route 1, of Racine, Wisconsin had registered in a downtown Minneapolis hotel at 11:52 p.m. Friday, November 11. He was reported to have checked out of the hotel at 6:30 a.m. on Sunday, November 13 at which time he cashed four $50 Bank of America travelers checks. A bellboy at the hotel said he had brought ice to the room at 3:30 a.m. at which time Johnson was alone in the room.



Sheriff Arthur Rambeck said numerous other leads have been investigated and found to have no basis. One of the reports-- is the report by Soo Line passenger train that a man and a car had been seen at 2:00 a.m. on Tuesday in the Detroit Lakes city dump with its headlights off and the door open and the dome light on.



Rambeck also disclosed that an area resident whose identity has not been made known, observed two men leaving the rear door of the bank on that fateful Saturday night at nine o’clock. The informant said that the larger of the two was carrying a satchel, and that the two got into a car further north from the one in which the observer was sitting.


The Detroit travelers checks were signed by Charles Kenwell and he used a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania address which TRF Police Chief Elton Cummings said was proved fictitious. Only $500 worth of checks were cashed, these at a Detroit hotel, $7,800 worth were left with a Detroit bank where Kenwell sought to open a checking account Monday afternoon.


Shortly before that, the same man had registered at the Detroit Statler Hotel and had given the credit clerk $10,000 in traveler’s checks for safekeeping. A half hour later he returned seeking to withdraw a portion of the checks. The clerk informed him that a partial withdrawal was not possible.


Kenwell then cashed $500 in checks and took the $10,000 worth of un-endorsed checks with him.
At the Detroit bank, he had said he would like to open a checking account with $7,800. Informed that he would first have to put his second signature on the checks, he began signing them. When he had endorsed $6,000 worth he said he was tired of writing and would come in the next day to finish. Meanwhile, he asked that the bank hold the other $1800, bearing only one signature, until the following day.



When asked for his credentials before formally opening the account, Kenwell was unable to furnish the bank with any identification. He said he left his billfold at the hotel and would bring it with him the following morning.



On Tuesday Kenwell purchased $275 worth of new luggage at Hudson’s, a leading Detroit department store, and wrote a personal check on the Detroit bank as payment. The store called the bank which advised them against excepting the check.



On the same day, two of the missing travelers checks were cashed in Chicago at Capitol Airlines and one at the Morrison Hotel. All three were of $20 denominations.
A $5,000 reward was offered by the Northern State Bank for information leading to the safe return of Kenneth Lindbergh. George Beito of Gonvick, who is the president of the bank said that all pertinent information should be given to Sheriff Art Rambeck.



Due to the policy of concrete information, numerous suppositions and theoretical solutions have been passed along until many people supposed them to be facts.



One of them was the information conveyed by the first letters of the name Charles D. Kenwell .(Called home as requested; left early Sunday Detroit. Ken well). Authorities pass that off, by saying it is an intriguing bit of detective work but cannot conceive any plausible excuse for the message.


They feel that the job could not possibly be the work of a professional bank robber because of the tactics used. Taking 100 pounds of silver, which has been established as the weight of $1750 in coins, -- of which $1100 was in relatively conspicuous silver dollars -- and then abandoning all but $220 of this portion of the booty, laying themselves open to a possible kidnapping charge, audaciously presenting such large amounts of travelers checks at a metropolitan bank, and other aspects in the case make it quite apparent for crime detection experts that it was not a work of a pro.



Meanwhile the distraught family is grasping for every thread of hope that Kenneth may return safely. Mrs. Lindbergh and the couple’s four children, Janice, 15, Ronald, 10; Evonne, 8; and Nancy, ; 1, live at 910 N. LaBree Avenue. A brother, Merle , is a business manager for the Starkow Clinic here. His parents Mr. and Mrs. Lindbergh also live in this city, where Mr. Lindbergh is an appraiser for the Veterans Administration.