(3 of 5)
representations
to the U. S. State Department, claiming that Factor's abduction
was a ruse under which he was making an escape to Mexico in order to
avoid extradition to England, where charges resulting from the
$7,000,000 coup are pending. But Jake the Barber was neither in
Oklahoma, Virginia, Florida or Mexico. He never left Illinois. An
unnamed friend turned over $50,000 to some unnamed men in an
automobile, reputedly at Hinsdale, western Chicago suburb. After twelve
days in captivity. Factor was released at La Grange, 111., three blocks
from the police station. His clothes were disheveled, his beard long,
his eyes swollen from their tape bandages. He tottered into the station
house and asked for whiskey. He said that guns had been poked in
his back, shears snipped threateningly under his ears. "I was
treated like a dog. The bed they gave me was infested. They called me
every vile and filthy name they could think of." Kidnappee Factor
however, for all his brutal treatment, was unwilling to hazard a
guess for the authorities as to his captors' identity. He threw a bad
scare into many a wealthy Chicago home by announcing: "The
gangsters told me that they had a list of men they were going to take
and that every one of them would pay." Instantly local and state
police guards were thrown around the homes of 40 rich Chicagoans, among
them: Arthur Cutten, John D. Hertz. President Warren Wright of Calumet
Baking Powder Co., Otto W. Lehman (former owner of The Fair department
store). The names of the other 36 marked men were withheld by
police. Politicians. Beer drenched and politics complicated another
major kidnapping of the week. For four days the relatives of John J.
("Butch") O'Connell Jr. kept secret the fact that he had
been abducted as he stepped out of his car in front of his Albany, N. Y.
home one midnight. Potent relatives they are. Uncles Edward &
Daniel are the unchallenged bosses of Albany, control New York's most
potent upstate Democratic machine. "Butch," 24, onetime
school footballer and a strapping lieutenant in the National Guard,
was the hope & pride of the clan O'Connell. He had been in charge
of beer distribution from the Hedrick brewery, partly owned by his
uncles. The brewery's legal operation since April 7 has helped put
Albany beer runners out of business. Revenge on that score might have
been a motive for his kidnapping. Or his abduction might have been
motivated by persons who recently threatened his father. John J.
("Solly") O'Connell Sr. used to be a Republican ward boss
before his family took over the town's Democracy. His chief interest
now appears to be sport. He frequents race tracks, raises gamecocks
on Brother Daniel's Catskill farm. Thence last week the Clan O'Connell
directed negotiations for its scion's return. Obeying the kidnappers'
instructions, the names of three sets of intermediaries, 31 in all,
were published in code in Albany and New York newspapers. The intermediaries
were cabaret operators, ex-beer truck drivers, saloon
waiters, tipsters and other questionable characters—all friends of the
democratic O'Connells. Neither the district attorney's office, local or
state police, nor the dozen Department of Justice agents sent to
Albany specially by Attorney General Cummings at the request of New
York's Senator Copeland were
