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| 140 | hauptmann’s ladder The trail of Gold While Koehler and Bornmann scoured the eastern united states investigating lumberyards , the new york City police, headed by lieutenant Finn, were following a trail of gold notes. With few, if any, substantial leads, Finn realized that the best way to capture the kidnapper was to catch him spending the loot. Back in april 1932, the united states treasury circulated thousands of fiftyseven -page pamphlets to banks throughout the world. These pamphlets contained the serial numbers of every bill in the ransom payment. The banks were instructed to be on the lookout for any of these bills, but were not told why. The first bill from the ransom money to surface was a $20 bill. it was deposited on monday, april 4, 1932, just two days after the ransom was paid, at the amsterdam branch of the east river savings Bank in manhattan. it was deposited in an account in the name of david marcus. This lead fizzled after marcus proved himself to be above suspicion.1 For the remainder of 1932, a total of twenty-five ransom bills turned up at various banks.2 each time the police received a report, they investigated but came up emptyhanded . inevitably, the bill would be traced to a person with an alibi and no obvious involvement with the case. a great deal of time and manpower was expended. since the banks had not been notified of the real reason for the request, and the list itself was cumbersome to use, tellers were not particularly diligent in checking bills. it can never be determined just how much of the ransom money circulated through various banks only to be redistributed or destroyed. to make the tellers more interested and industrious, police officers visited various banks throughout new york City informing tellers of the real purpose behind the pamphlet. Colonel lindbergh even offered a $2 reward to every teller who found one of the bills. The efforts of lindbergh and the police did not have an immediate impact. The first report of a ransom bill with any lead at all did not occur until march 3, 1933. on that date, a $10 gold note was spotted by a teller at the Guaranty trust Company, located at 180 Broadway in new york City.3| 140 || 16 | The Trail of Gold | 141 | The police traced the bill to the united Cigar store. The owner told detectives he received the money on march 1, 1933, between noon and 1 p.m. For the first time, the police obtained a description of the spender: approximately six feet tall, forty years old, with a long thin face and light complexion. he wore a soft hat and dark clothing.4 With the exception of height, which can be deceptive, the man sounded an awful lot like the descriptions of Cemetery John given by John Condon and the man described by cab driver Joseph perrone. it would not be the last time detectives would hear this description. The police would get another major break approximately one month later from, of all people, president Franklin delano roosevelt. The united states went off the gold standard with the passage of the emergency Banking relief act. roosevelt, in one of his fireside chats, called upon residents to turn in their gold right away. While many followed the president’s advice, most did not. in response, and at the request of the secretary of the treasury, roosevelt issued an executive order on april 5, 1933, requiring that all gold coins and currency valued at more than $100 be exchanged for regular currency at federal national banks no later than may 1, 1933. Failure to comply with this directive could result in a hefty fine or ten years in federal prison.5 lieutenant Finn and his detectives were thrilled. This would make gold notes rather scarce and very noticeable. since almost two-thirds of the lindbergh ransom was in gold notes, the chances of catching the kidnapper were greatly improved. The police contacted the employees of new york City’s federal national banks and asked them to check the serial numbers of all gold certificates they received. Finn was certain that they were tightening the noose around the kidnapper. about a week before roosevelt’s deadline, the police received calls from the Federal reserve Bank of new york City. a total of $240, all ransom money, composed of twenty-four $10 gold notes, had been found. an investigation revealed that...

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