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CLEWS TO VAULT ROBBERY SOUGHT IN FINGERPRINTS
Deposit Box Holders Tell Their Losses.
Fingerprints found on the looted safety deposit boxes in the vault of the closed Unity Trust and Savings bank, 3909 West North avenue, were being compared with records at the police bureau of identification yesterday. The robbery, which occurred on Wednesday afternoon, was believed to have been the work of men with long criminal boxes were opened by the seven robbers during three hour period while they held five persons captive in the The owners of forty of these boxes peared yesterday and sworn statements regarding their losses. By evening losses totaling $7,200 had been shown. One of those who did make statement at the bank not was Leonard Boltz, formerly member of beer gang and recently involved in gambling enterprises. He told the police he lost more than $8,000. Crowd Gathered at Bank.
When representatives of the bank's receiver, William L. appeared yesterday to open the bank building more than 200 were waiting. All were eager to know if their boxes had been robbed. C. E. Ummach, deputy receiver, and his son, R. T. Ummach, asked each person to tell the number of his box. They were able to relieve the fears of many persons quickly. Some were told: Probably only your money was taken as the robbers did not take documents of any kind. as far as we know. nor jewelry. Whatever they discarded is heaped together and will be sorted later and after you list the contents of your boxes we will make search for your papers, stocks or bonds."
Tracing Fingerprint Clews. There were more than 75 clear fingerprints on the boxes and It was necessary that box owners b. elim. inated. Supervising Police Captain John Stege arranged that every box owner would be notified by mail to appear at the bank building next Tuesday. Police will be on hand to take their fingerprints. In that way. Stege explained, the police will be able to eliminate those persons fingerprints were found and who had right to go into the vault and handle the Capt. Willard Malone of the Austin police, in district the bank building was situated, said he suspected of the gangsters who formerly had headquarters in the vicinity of Pulaski road [Crawford avenue] and North avenue. George Barker, notorious criminal. was killed last summer two blocks from the bank. The Touhy gang also frequented the neighborhood, police said, and they suspected that members of this gang might have looted the bank to raise a defense fund for four of their members, who are awaiting trial for the kidnaping of John Factor. The operators of several race hand books used the Unity vaults for storage of cash, Capt. Malone was told. and underworld characters had plenty of opportunity to survey the scene of the robbery before it was Bank Closed Last Year. The bank was closed March 10. 1932. The depositors were paid in full and the assets were taken over by the Reconstruction Finance which advanced money for the liquida tion. Ald. John S. Clark of the 30th ward. chairman of the city council finance committee. was director of the bank. Charles R. Stout, former president of the bank, held one of the looted boxes. He had not appeared yesterday to make known his losses. The safety vaults were kept in service after the bank closed and there was only one attendant in the bank when the robbers arrived-Joseph Kinch, 4134 North Kostner avenue. He said the robbers first looked over the board on which were kept the keys to the boxes and thus determined which boxes were rented and which were not. In that way they avoided working on empty boxes. The keyboard disclosure solved problem for the police, who at first believed the robbers knew which boxes had money and which did not. According to the statements made yesterday, many of the boxes contained only few dollars.