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29 Sheriff Fox was burning the midnight oil, poring over the thick files on Trotsky from the FBI and the American Medical Association. It was clear that the man of many aliases was a master at escaping punishment through the skillful use of guile. His long trail of repeat offenses proved he was a career criminal without a conscience; but he had managed to escape any serious jail time for nearly two decades of continuous felonious conduct. He would barely be released from one jail term before he was at it again. Yet, in the whole sordid list of Trotsky’s criminal activity, there was no indication he had any penchant for the kind of violence wrought against the Frome women. He was never convicted of using firearms in any of his crimes, preferring instead to use his glib tongue and oily good looks to prey upon his victims. Then Fox came upon a file on an obscure, four-year-old case out of Arizona that showed Trotsky at least knew how to use a gun. The AMA file revealed a 1934 Nogales, Arizona, case against Trotsky in which he had coerced local doctors to cover for his unlawful practice and serve as alibi witnesses to help him beat abortion charges. The doctors weresodeeplyensnaredinhisschemesthatcomingtohisdefenseputtheir own, legitimate medical licenses in jeopardy. Still, they doggedly covered for the con man’s illegal activities. In that case, Trotsky was flagrantly running an abortion ring under the guise of an eye, ear, nose, and throat surgery practice. The initial investigation was launched by the Arizona Board of Medical Examiners. The case was referred to the FBI as a federal matter when a doctor with the U.S. Public Health Service stepped up to vouch for Trotsky’s credentials. The investigation soon revealed that Trotsky was performing the illegal operations in cooperation with a Dr. W. F. Chenowitz, whom the FBI identified as “a well-known abortionist” and a good friend of a doctor from the Public Health Service.163 The government doctor accused of facilitating Trotsky’s and Chenowitz’s criminal activities was identified as Dr. Glenn L. Harker. spies on the border 167 A synopsis of the investigation stated that the public health service physician “allowed Romano N. Trotsky to use his office for the illegal practice of medicine, knowing that Trotsky was not a licensed practitioner, and that Trotsky had a criminal record; further, subject made bond for Trotsky when Trotsky was arrested.”164 The FBI found that Chenowitz and Harker refused to cooperate with theArizonamedicalexaminer’sorderstoceaseabettingtheillegalactivities, which allowed Trotsky to practice for several months in early 1934. “Dr. Harker was very foolish in appearing as a witness for Trotsky after he knew Trotsky was making a laughing stock of him,” the FBI reported. Harker was accused of lying to investigators by telling them that Trotsky was working as an intern in his U.S. Public Health Service Hospital in Nogales. The investigation concluded that, because these doctors continued to support Trotsky—including making bond for him on several occasions, evenaftertheywerepresentedevidenceofhiscriminalbackground—“any statements they made would not be reliable.” There were other examples in the AMA file of Trotsky’s successful use of gullible physicians in the furtherance of his schemes. Sheriff Fox determined that Trotsky’s pattern of co-opting doctors as alibi witnesses was clearly analogous to his ploy in the Frome case. During the Nogales investigation, the FBI also found that Trotsky had used a firearm at one point, but on himself, not a victim. Apparently, in an attempt to gain sympathy from the court, Trotsky concocted a story that twomen,“probablySovietagents,”hadkidnappedhim,takenhimintothe desert, and tried to kill him. He claimed he escaped after the men made him kneel and began shooting at him. As evidence, Trotsky showed up at an emergency room with a minor gunshot wound in his arm and bullet holes in the sleeve of his suit coat and shirt. An investigation by Nogales police chief J. J. Lowe concluded the story was made up and that Trotsky had actually inflicted the wound on himself. This report also provided Sheriff Fox with proof Trotsky could use a gun, even if not in the commission of a violent crime, and was somewhat skilled in the use of firearms. Trotsky’s breathtaking audacity was exhibited in the Nogales case when he persuaded his then wife Elsie to pen a letter for his signature to FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. The last thing a person with such a...
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