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No sooner had he spoken than in Brooklyn occurred a good example of how kidnappers can be caught by prompt action. Three men had tried to extort $10,000 from Dr. Jacob Wachsman. Dr. Wachsman happens to be honorary physician of the New York Detectives' Association. He telephoned his detective friends and they promptly threw a network of espionage around him. A detective was his chauffeur. Detectives with fake ailments haunted his waiting room. When the extortionists finally named the location for the payment, the place bristled with sleuths selling oranges, taking stock in grocery stores, sweeping sidewalks in janitors' clothing. As soon as the money changed hands, detectives shot the tires off the crooks' car, ran it into an iron fence, found two of the gang in it, beat them unmercifully. The third crook they caught later.
Lest the public get the notion that the Law is helpless in the face of thugdom, the Associated Press called to mind that in 18 notorious kidnapping cases in the past three years, 43 criminals have been jailed, three are dead, ten await trial. Prior to last week, the four most important kidnappees of the year were Broker Charles Boettcher II of Denver, little Peggy McMath of Cape Cod. Mary McElroy, daughter of Kansas City's city manager, and Brewer William Hamm of St. Paul. The abductors of all save Hamm are either doing time or awaiting trial. On the basis of that record the average kidnap victim not only stands a good chance of getting home alive but of living to see his captors imprisoned.