I walked into the Greystone Hotel with Lindbergh. We both walked directly to the men’s room. After coming back from the men’s room, Lindbergh stopped in a little hallway to use a pay phone to call his wife. I stood within 6 feet of Lindbergh every moment he was on that phone. When Lindbergh had finished his conversation I did not have the bag with me. The bag was in the car.
I think Lindbergh went along with me on this primarily because he was afraid that the syndicate might hurt his family.
Lindbergh and I, then walked to the front door of the hotel. We had just gotten through the door when Lindbergh remembered then he needed cigarettes. I told him that I would get them for him. He went over and sat on the arm of the davenport or chair with his arms folded awaiting a while I got his cigarettes.
I left him and I re-crossed the lobby and went to the woman who is that the hotel desk and bought cigarettes for Lindbergh.
I then returned to Lindbergh who is still waiting for me near the door and we walked out of the hotel together. I handed him the cigarettes at this time. We got back into the Lindbergh’s car and started towards Minneapolis.
Lindbergh, at this time had grown very apprehensive and exceedingly nervous.
I had already checked train and plane schedules out of Minneapolis, (I knew) that I had to follow a very fast schedule from here on in. I knew that I could not carry all that silver around with me. Twice I turned off the main highway 10 and started down roads looking for an appropriate place to ditch the silver. On the second or third time I found the road that turn followed to the Fiereck farm road.
I stopped the car, Lindbergh and I each got out. He asked me what I was go
ing to do. I told him I was going to hide the silver.
I took the bag out of the backseat with Lindbergh’s help transferred it to the trunk where we emptied the bag of its contents. Lindbergh did not see the hatchet we just emptied the money there. The boxes of silver were very, very heavy.
I decided that we would try to find a place on the other side of the barbed wire fence in which to bury the silver. The only digging tool I had at this time or could use as such, was the hatchet.
At the time Lindbergh reached into the trunk of the car and got one of the boxes of silver dollars in each hand and turned toward the fence which were going to cross. I picked up one box of silver dollars and the hatchet with the other hand to use to make some kind of entrenchment.
HE HELD THE WIRES FOR ME
I held the wires open on the fence, the barbed wire fence while Lindbergh crawled through and then he held the wires open for me. Then Lindbergh and I then began walking down the incline toward what looked like a little patch or thicket.
We walked almost to the bottom of this incline and saw no place to bury the silver. We worked our way up and down looking for a suitable spot.
As we started to go down the incline once more and more about halfway down, I noticed what looked like or felt like a slight depression, it was pitch dark out.
I slipped and stumbled towards Lindbergh. Lindbergh with a box of silver dollars in his hand, apparently thinking I was attacking him, hit me on the side of the head with a box of silver dollars, which he had in his hand.
We then commenced to have a struggle -- which I remember very little-- I do remember, how much later I don’t know -- trying to find my hat. I found it and put it on my head only to find it was Lindbergh’s. I then, on my hands and knees, search the area to find my own hat.
I found my own hat, picked up some of the silver dollars, returned them to the trunk of the car, leaving all the silver and the hatchet.
IT WAS HORRIBLE
It all happened so fast that I don’t remember the incident. I knew that after he hit me I was fighting for my life and I think Lindbergh felt the same way. The first conscious thing that I can remember after the struggle with Lindbergh was the fact of what a horrible thing I had done and what do I do now? I took the hatchet and put it in the trunk of the car and laid it upon some newspapers. I then got in the car at very high speeds drove directly to Minneapolis.
(During a court hearing several weeks ago at which the government demanded that the Taylor case be submitted to a jury qualified to inflict the death penalty , MacKinnon contended that the Lindbergh slaying was premeditated, that Taylor bought a hatchet for that purpose and that Taylor considered Lindbergh’s death was the essential to Taylor’s successful getaway).
During the struggle with Lindbergh I had been given a slight nosebleed, had a bruise on the side of my face and hands, which I used talcum powder on for several days.
STATE OF SHOCK
On the way to Minneapolis from Crescent Lake when I first got to the outskirts of town, I saw a bridge --I got lost at first.
I drove out partially upon this bridge, I was assured no cars were in the vicinity, suddenly stopped the car, took the papers which the hatchet head rested on, and the hatchet and threw them into the river.
I asked several cabdrivers directions on how to get to the Nicolet Hotel.
I parked the car within a half a block of the Nicolet Hotel picked up the bag with the travelers checks, (the silver was still in the trunk,) and walked into the Nicolet Hotel. I was almost in a state of shock myself, so much so that, muddy and bloody as I was I can not remember being apprehensive about someone seeing me.
I went right to my room and took a shower and change my clothes and while doing so, call for the bellboy to bring me some ice.
I used this ice to make stiff drinks. The realization of what I had done had still not completely dawned on me.
If it had, I would have used the silver in the automobile to leave town.
After changing clothes went back to Lindbergh’s car. I changed the gray flannel suit for a light gray gabardine suit. My topcoat was so soiled that I had put it in the bag and was not wearing it.
I took Lindbergh’s car to north Minneapolis and parked it on the first dark and deserted street I saw.
Just as I started to get out of the car, a newsboy came out of the house and walked to his car, parked just a little way up the street on the opposite side. I therefore got back into Lindbergh’s car and waited until this man had driven off.
I then walked about a block and a half to two blocks to an all night eating place where there were a great many milkman having coffee, etc. early in the morning. This must have been around 5:45 a.m.
FIRST CHECK CASHED
All I took out of Lindbergh’s car were a set of car keys and the registration which was on the steering wheel. I got rid of them in Chicago -- threw them away. I then ordered a cup of coffee at this all-night eatery. I called for a cab to pick me up at this address.
Shortly thereafter in came. I got into the cab, still without an overcoat and traveled directly to the Nicolet Hotel.
I told the cab driver to wait as I would be out in a few moments as soon as I had checked out.
I went inside the hotel, went upstairs, and had another quick stiff drink.
I think I called for some coffee. I then checked out of the hotel, called for the bellboy and went down to the desk. Up to this time, since arriving in Thief River Falls, I had only the balance of money Lindbergh a given me to pay for gas. I now was pushed into using the first travelers check which I did. I cashed 4- $50 travelers checks with the woman clerk. This woman did not ask me for any identification whatsoever.
The cab driver then drove me to the airport where I caught a plane at approximately 7:15 in the morning for Chicago.
This was the morning of November 13. Then I caught a cab from the Midway Airport after arriving in Chicago and went directly to a hotel in downtown Chicago. I cashed a small amount of checks at this hotel and in Chicago a various places. I also disposed of the car keys and registration which had belonged to Lindbergh. I tore up the registration so it would not be readable and ditched it in the trash can.
That evening I took a plane to Detroit, Michigan and from the Willow Run airport outside of Detroit I went to a friend’s home where I had been invited to attend a birthday party.
I might add at this point that although several people have claimed that I had an overcoat on after I arrived in Minneapolis and at this time I arrived in Detroit, this is completely false.
CHECKS LEFT AT HOTEL
After leaving friends home at the party’s conclusion, I went to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Emil Keller in Detroit, Michigan. Keller was an old friend. Monday morning I went into Detroit and went to Kearn’s Department Store where I bought an overcoat. I registered at the hotel right across the street from the bank in Detroit.
I had first put some travelers checks in the hotel safety deposit box.
When I asked to withdraw a portion of these checks, I believe that I was informed that I would have to withdraw all of them. I withdrew all of them and went across the street to the bank for a began endorsing the checks and opening a deposit or account under the name of Kenwell.
(A nationwide FBI search for Lindbergh slayer then unknown, began within a few days after Taylor deposited nearly $6,000 worth of stolen travelers checks in the downtown branch of the Detroit bank under the name of Charles Kenwell. It was fingerprints Taylor left on some of these checks that later established the slayer’s identity and led to his apprehension).
After signing or endorsing the bulk of these checks, which was quite a job in itself, I decided to call it a day and return later. I believe that was almost, if not, after the closing hours of the bank.
The man who I was dealing with at the bank informed me that before I would be able to withdraw from this account that I would have to provide him with identification.
I said that my identification was in the hotel; that I would return the next day to finish signing the checks, and bring my identification with me at that time.
FORGET THE MONEY
I thought that I had taken every check into the bank with me. The reason for this being is that, when I was first arriving in Detroit, I had rented an automobile. These checks had slid down behind the back seat when I had taken the others out. The American Express checks were the ones that had fallen behind the seat.
After leaving the bank I went to Hudson’s Department store and bought two pieces of luggage, giving a check written on the new account. This check, I was told, would not be clear until the next day. I now decided the devil with the whole doggone thing. Forget the money.
One day, I lifted up the backseat of the car before I returned it to the agency and discovered the balance of those checks. I decided to cash them. I stayed with the Keller‘s, I believe until the 19.………….
I went to Birmingham, Michigan, and saw one or two of my old acquaintances and then later, I don’t know the date, played basketball for a man the name of Roger Reynolds in Detroit, with the industrial team of some city league. I had planned to go to Joplin, Missouri for the Christmas holidays…..Keller said to save me money, said that I could use his car to drive to Missouri and he would use the rental car; thus saving all the mileage.
It was at this time that I discovered, when turning in one car and getting another, the American Express checks underneath the back seat. I kept these locked in a brief case. I then decided that before I went to Missouri I would get rid of the balance of the traveler’s checks I had just come upon. Knowing full well all that had happened and that everyone would be watching for these checks. I can not say why I did this.
TRIP TO MIAMI
I took a plane to Miami, Florida. When arriving, rented an automobile, registered at many different hotels, cashing those checks as fast as I could. Upon completion of cashing the last one, or what I thought was the last one, before leaving Florida, I visited my parents and got all of my clothes and personal belongings which they had been keeping in storage for me.
My parents were very cold toward me……drove with me down into the city of Fort Lauderdale where I bought a steamer trunk in which to put some of the many things that they had been keeping for me.
I also at this time, bought a machete and a canteen. The purpose of buying this machete was for a hunting trip to clear the underbrush.
When I returned to my parent’s house, I parked the rented automobile in the driveway and began packing all of these boxes that had been in storage into the steamer trunk and other bags of mine.,…After completing this packing, I said good bye to my parents, returned to Miami, and there in Miami, shipped a great bulk of my boxes through air express and railroad express to Joplin, Missouri. I then returned via plane to Detroit, Michigan.
While in Florida I had bought a 30.06 deer rifle and a .22 caliber target pistol. The pistol was for the purpose of plinking only. It was my intention at this time to go hunting when I returned to Michigan, which circumstances prevented. I’ve been returned to Detroit and to the Keller’s home. Keller met me at the airport and took me to their home. I then drove Keller’s car to Joplin, Missouri.
When I had first arrived in Detroit I took the soiled topcoat that I had at the time I was in Thief River Falls, plus all the papers and folders which the traveler’s checks came in, out to an isolated area which I knew near Birmingham, Michigan, bought a can of gasoline and burned them.
The night before I was arrested, I played basketball in the town of Anderson, Missouri for a Joplin team…. During the night, I had called Keller in Detroit, telling him that I would be there for a while and asking him what I owed him so I could send it through Western Union…..
And was awakened just a few hours later by a cordon of the Federal Bureau of Investigation agents, who surrounded my bed with guns and searchlights.
A day after I arrived in Joplin on this last trip I was going through my luggage and found another traveler’s check. I put it away in my luggage to be disposed of. I understand it was found in my belongings.
Kenneth Lindbergh had no knowledge whatsoever or had anything at all with this crime and previous to the crime I only once in in the state of Minnesota, which was for a period of three hours when I dropped off some children.
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