JULY 12 AND JULY 16

Thursday, July 12, 1956

HEADLINE: TAYLOR TAKEN TO HOSPITAL ON WAY TO PRISON

Cause of Sudden Illness of Lindbergh Slayer is Not Definitely Learned.


Murder or James P. Taylor was returned to Ramsey County jail cell Wednesday after being hospitalized four hours following an apparent seizure.


His illness was laid a curiously to emotional stress, a flair for drama and attempted suicide.


Whatever the cause, the 31-year-old former Detroiter, under life sentence for the hatchet murder of bank cashier Kenneth Lindbergh, was pronounced in good condition and capable of returning to jail.


There were no immediate indications whether Taylor’s transfer to Leavenworth Federal Prison would be delayed for any appreciative time.


Taylor suffered his apparent attack shortly before 9 a.m. Wednesday while he was being driven from the Hennepin County Jail to the Ramsey County Jail here are for a brief stopover before continuing to Leavenworth.


His face heavily sloshed and his breathing heavy, Taylor was rushed to the hospital. Attendance at first thought he swallowed poison. Symptoms of poisoning appeared to be president. The theory was heightened by a suicide note Taylor scribbled to a deputy marshal.


After his stomach had been pumped, Taylor was questioned by deputy marshal Robert Allie. He complained of pain in the abdomen but denied taking poison.


Dr. William Mazlelio gave this description of Taylor’s illness: “ It was an acute tension reaction. It was a culmination of very severe emotional and mental strain which affect the stomach and the chest. You might call it psychosomatic. In other words the pain he felt its were all in his imagination. There were no findings that he had taken anything organic.”


This, however left unexplained and note which Taylor addressed to Allie in the Ramsey County Jail.
The note read, I don’t want to put the heat on you, but this is the best way. Possibly I am wrong.


Allie himself offered an explanation. He said Taylor probably was pretending that in the prisoner’s own mind he might actually have believed he was committing suicide.


Taylor’s defense attorneys had argued earlier in the year that he needed psychiatric treatment. Taylor himself pleaded, for such care last Thursday, when Judge Gunnar Nordbye sentenced him to life imprisonment for the November 13 slaying of the Thief River Falls, Minnesota cashier.


Sheriff Arthur Rambeck of Thief River Falls assigned to help guard Taylor during the transfer to Leavenworth, said “I’m no doctor but I think he’s putting on a show.”



Monday, July 16, 1956

HEADLINE: SHERIFF TAKES JAS. TAYLOR TO PENITENTIARY

Rambeck Accompanies Lindbergh Murderer to Leavenworth ‘Pen’


Chained and handcuffed confessed murderer James P. Taylor was taken from St. Paul to Leavenworth Federal prison on Thursday to serve a life sentence.


Convicted of killing Thief River Falls bank cashier, Kenneth Lindbergh, Taylor was taken to the Kansas prison by three officers.


This trip was delayed 24 hours by a nervous reaction when hospitalized him briefly on Wednesday.
At 6 a.m., Thursday he was picked up by Deputy United States Marshal Robert Allie, Sheriff Arthur Rambeck, of Thief River Falls, and an off-duty Minneapolis city policeman hired as a guard.


Allie and the others drove straight through to Leavenworth except for brief stops for gas.


Originally, they had intended to pick up two other prisoners in St. Paul Wednesday. But after Taylor’s illness, they decided to take only him.


Taylor said little as he was picked up by the officers and debarked with them. He was quiet and apparently still somewhat under the effects of sedatives administrated following his seizure.


Sheriff Rambeck who sat with Taylor in the back seat of the car on the journey, stated that Taylor was quite talkative and insisted that he had not deliberately murdered Lindbergh, but that circumstances had forced him to commit the act.

Where are these people now?