Bureau of Missing Persons (Warner Bros.) (1933)

New York’s Famous Bureau of Missing Persons Investigates Mysterious Disappearances of Over 25,000 Men, Women and Children Yearly, With Network of Telegraph, Teletype, Radio, Cable, and Other Aids. WHAT PART DOES KIDNAPPING PLAY IN THE NEVER-ENDING PAGEANT OF HUMAN MISERY VER twenty-five thousand persons disappear every year in New York City alone! Why do they leave home? Where do they go? How many are found in East River? How many in the North River? How many find their way to madhouses, brothels, prisons? If one of your own should disappear tomorrow, how would you go about finding her? “Before an intelligent and effective search can be made,” says Captain Ayers, Head of the New York City Bureau of Missing Persons, “many questions about the missing person must be asked before a successful search can be undertaken. For example: What was his domestic background? His business background? What are his personal habits? Who are his personal and business associates? Has he had a serious accident? What sort of temperament does he possess? Is insanity in his family?” What part does kidnapping play in present-day disappearances. “Kidnapping is the Feature Crime of the present times.” So says Walter B. Weisenberger, President of the St. Louis Chamber of Commerce, adding: “Tt offers big returns and reasonable safeguards, and many of the keenest criminal minds in the country have abandoned more dangerous and less remunerative pursuits to follow it!” Missouri is the first state to impose the death penalty for this crime , . . the victim being McGee, abductor of Miss MacElroy. A number of states have existing laws for the infliction of capital punishment—among them being Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Florida, Utah, Wyoming, Montana and California—though no kidnapper has yet been sentenced to other than imprisonment. Kidnapping, though increasing with appalling speed in the last few years, was, until recently, a comparatively rare occurrence in this country, the classic example of it being the abduction of five-year-old Charlie Ross—a case which stirred the whole world. Lured from his Philadelphia home on July Ist, 1874, by two men who tempted him with sweets, his father spent all his fortune in trying to regain him and paying the huge ransoms demanded. Many theories were presented at various times of his death and his discovery. His father interviewed scores of supposed Charlies during the twenty futile years of his search. Countless mothers frightened their children into obedience by warning them that they too would be stolen “like Charlie Ross!” The mystery has never been solved! History is filled with innumerable examples of the diabolical practice. The Phoenicians stole babies to feed their bloodthirsty divinities. The Minoans raped the youth of Greece for their bull-fights. Priests of many lands demanded maidens to satisfy their greed and the lusts of Even carrier pigeons are used by the modern racketeer as purveyors of ransom money. The Grey East River By Harry Lee I think the grey East River knows The morgue’s dun driftwood as she flows, And like a mother, on her breast, She bears them to the place of rest. She knows them all—the young, the old, The wise, the fool, the weak, the bold— Out to the Island from the Town She carries them, and lays them down. This brother in his winding sheet Need trudge no more on bleeding feet; This pallid sister cares not now, That love forgets the passioned vow. This poor wee thing, a pinch of dust, A tiny, faded flower of lust— Knew but a gasp, a cry, and then— Sleep—and the folded wings again. I think the grey East River knows The barren Island’s numbered rows, Whose cross speaks neither Praise nor blame— Only—“He calls his own by name.” —From “THE Survey.” tenet oes eT N DIVE! FUSION MAY SEEK Spor Time: FINALEDITION 8 ty ae even ert = Ta a ae their flesh. “Shanghai” was the method used by the skippers of sailing vessels to recruit their crews—and legalized slavery flourished. One of the more spectacular kidnappings was that of the fifteen-year-old son of the millionaire Chicago porkpacker, Cudahy, by Pat Crowe, a two-gun man, on December 18, 1900. The lad was driven from his father’s home in a buggy, bound, gagged and hidden—while a reward of $25,000 was demanded for his return. One of the letters received by Cudahy—after mentioning the fee required—said: “We then intend to kidnap another child and will demand $100,000 for his safe return. Child is already selected. When they see your child they will know we are not to be trifled with, If you remember the Ross case you will profit by it... Ross died of a broken heart. Remember.” After many bickerings the Cudahy boy was returned, unharmed. Pat Crowe was acquitted! He was later converted, after a fashion, and when young Cudahy was married, he sent him the following wire: “Congratulations, Eddie, from your old kidnapper, Pat Crowe.” Crowe — then a Bowery character — sagely remarked, when he heard of the Lindbergh case, that the perpetrators of the deed were evidently new hands at the game since they demanded no more than $50,000 ransom. The appalling increase in crimes of abduction have without doubt resulted from the break-up of the liquor racket. Frank J. Loesch, head of the Chicago Crime Commission, notes that on the day when the country at large heard of the Lindbergh kidnapping, an eleven-year-old Ohio boy, James de Jute, was recovered from his abductors. The detectives, on knocking down a partition in the shack Cut No. 25 Cut 7Se Mat 25c SPECIAL SUNDAY PUBLICITY FEATURE ~ Page Seventeen where the lad was hidden, found him standing on bags of bootleg whiskey! One of the amazing features of the game is the variety of ways in which victims are treated. The warden of a prison, kidnapped by escaped prisoners, after being conveyed blindfolded over miles of strange roads, is put off near an inn, while his captors courteously present him with small change, and express the hope that he may have a pleasant return to his home. A husky trooper is fed on sandwiches and beer, and shaved with much concern as to the condition of the razor. A little old rich gentleman, on the verge of the grave, is put through the third degree and_ robbed, but at parting his abductors remark with much feeling? :-“Serry, pop, if we’d knowed you was so feeble, we’d never have took you for a ride!” “TI want to be like other kids—that’s why I ran away!” Though the New York Bureau of Missing Persons has located 9807, per cent of the quarter of a million people they have searched for in the last fifteen years—many kidnapped individuals have never been heard of. Charlie Ross comes first to mind. Dorothy Arnold, the young society girl who left her Fifth Avenue home one sunny noon in the winter of 1910—was never heard of, The strange disappearance of Judge Crater has never been explained. ; One of the most formidable weapons of kidnappers has been the terrorizing of families of kidnapped persons, so that the authorities may be kept in the dark. Laws will no doubt be passed, requiring relatives to appeal to the police, and making it a criminal offense to deal with intermediaries. This will be an almost insufferable hardship to the individual, but will unquestionably assist in eradicating the evil. The comedy, tragedy, romance and baffling mystery surrounding the disappearances and recovery of men and women has been made into an immensely absorbing picture ,by First National, under the intriguing title of “Bureau of Missing Persons.” The cast includes Bette Davis, Pat O’Brien, Lewis S. She reads that. she is wanted for murder! Stone, Glenda Farrell, Gordon Westcott, Allen Jenkins, Ruth Donnelly, Marjorie Gateson, Wallis Clark, Hugh Herbert, Noel Francis, Charles Wilson, Adrian Morris, Clay Clement and Tad Alexander. Roy Del Ruth directed. “Bureau of Missing Persons” will be seen at the Strand . next.