THURSDAY 12th JANUARY 2017
WEEKLY TRANSMISSION N°02
TWENTY-FOUR AMERICAN CITIZENS UNDER SUSPICION
N°9, charged with murder, detail.
FAMILY OF MAN :
contents: The Past is constructed from the Present (Edgar Morin) NBCI to FBI: Roosevelt - Bonaparte - Hoover Hoover and The Child Snatcher, 1938 24 Citizens under Suspicion The Original Law of Suspects, 1792 WWW.PLANTUREUX.FR
II III IV
1-24 25
N°7, case of amnesia, detail
“The past is constructed from the present, which selects what in its eyes is historical, that is to say precisely what has developed in the past to produce the present.” (Edgar Morin) “Le passé est construit à partir du présent, qui sélectionne ce qui, à ses yeux, est historique, c'està-dire précisément ce qui, dans le passé, s'est développé pour produire le présent”. (Edgar Morin) The e-bulletin presents articles as well as selections of books, albums, photographs and documents as they have been handed down to the actual owners by their creators and by amateurs from past generations. The physical descriptions, attributions, origins, and printing dates of the books and photographs have been carefully ascertained by collations and through close analysis of comparable works. When items are for sale, the prices are in Euros, and Paypal is accepted. The 24 vintage portraits are proposed as a collection for three thousand euros.
N°02-2017 : TWENTY-FOUR CITIZENS UNDER SUSPICION
NBCI - Roosevelt - BOI - Bonaparte - DOI - Hoover - FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States, which simultaneously serves as the nation's prime federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of Justice, the FBI is concurrently a member of the U.S. Intelligence Community. Although many of the FBI's functions are unique, its activities in support of national security are comparable to those of the British MI5 and the Russian FSB. The FBI is primarily a domestic agency, maintaining 56 field offices in major cities throughout the United States, and more than 400 resident agencies in lesser cities and areas across the nation. Background. In 1896, the National Bureau of Criminal Identification was founded, which provided agencies across the country with information to identify known criminals. The 1901 assassination of President McKinley created an urgent perception that America was under threat from anarchists. The Department of Justice and the Department of Labor had been keeping records on anarchists for years, but President Theodore Roosevelt wanted more power to monitor them. The Justice Department had been tasked with regulating interstate commerce since 1887. It had made little effort to relieve its staff shortage until the Oregon land fraud scandal erupted around the start of the 20th century. President Roosevelt instructed Attorney General Charles Bonaparte to create an autonomous investigative service that would report only to the Attorney General. Bonaparte reached out to other agencies, including the Secret Service, for personnel, investigators in particular. On May 27, 1908, Congress forbade this use of Treasury employees by the Justice Department, citing fears that the new agency would serve as a secret police. Again at Roosevelt's urging, Bonaparte moved to organize a formal Bureau of Investigation with its own staff of special agents. The Bureau Of Investigation was created on July 26, 1908 — after Congress had adjourned for the summer. Attorney General Bonaparte hired thirty-four people, including some veterans of the Secret Service, to work for a new investigative agency. Its first chief was Stanley Finch. Bonaparte notified Congress of these actions in December 1908. The bureau's first official task was visiting and making surveys of the houses of prostitution. In 1932, the BOI was linked to the Bureau of Prohibition and rechristened the Division Of Investigation (DOI) before finally becoming an independent service within the Department of Justice in 1935. In the same year, its name was officially changed from the Division of Investigation to the present-day Federal Bureau of Investigation, or FBI. J. Edgar Hoover served as Director from 1924 to 1972, a combined 48 years with the BOI, DOI, and FBI.
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Thursday 12th January 2017
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Hoover and The Child Snatcher, 1938 (extract from David J. Krajicek article) “J. Edgar Hoover needed a crime - a big crime, a headline-grabbing whopper. Times were hard in 1938. Congress was stingy with the $7 billion in tax money it had to play with as the Great Depression held fast and war loomed. The FBI was smarting from a budget cut, and the agency's cantankerous director made an I'll-show-you move by furloughing half of his 670 agents and shuttering five bureaus. His instinct was to find a crime that would restore the FBI's eminence - like the 1934 "Public Enemy" publicity bonanza when John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, Pretty Boy Floyd, and Bonnie and Clyde got their comeuppance. The Teletype Hoover had hoped for arrived at FBI headquarters on May 28, 1938. James B. Cash Jr., a plump blond 5-year-old known as "Skeegie," had been kidnapped from his bed in Princeton, Fla., a farming hamlet set amid orange groves and tomato fields on the Miami-Key West highway. The 1932 Lindbergh Law had given the FBI dibs on kidnappings, and Hoover and 14 agents were on a charter flight to Miami before the Teletype stopped clattering. Skeegie Cash's parents operated a store connected to their home. Mrs. Cash had tucked in her son about 9:30 that Saturday night and went to the store to help her husband lock up. They discovered the boy missing when they returned to the house. A rear screen door had been sliced open. Shortly, a local black man named John Emanuel arrived at the Cash home with a ransom note. Emanuel explained that he had been ordered to deliver the note by a man who came to his home and stood outside in the dark. He said he did not recognize the man's voice (see portrait page 5). The kidnapper wanted $10,000 for the safe return of Skeegie. Cash was instructed to drive his car to several spots in the Everglades. He was to flash his lights. If he got no return flash, he was to go on to the next location. As word spread, some 2,000 farmers assembled in Princeton. They were split into nearly 50 posses and assigned to comb half-mile sections. But for days they searched and found nothing. Horse sense told Dade County Sheriff D.C. Coleman that the kidnapping was a local job. The kidnapper must have known that both of Skeegie's parents would be busy in the store at closing time, and he obviously was aware that James Cash's brother lived in Princeton. Another point: James Cash Sr. was not wealthy, but he worked hard at his business and lived a frugal life. He had just over $10,000 in the bank. It was as though the kidnapper had seen the Cash balance sheet.
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Thursday 12th January 2017
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For two nights after the kidnapping, Cash Sr. drove to the assigned ransom locations but got no reply to his flashing lights. Cash finally made the ransom drop - $10,000 in a shoe box - a few days later after a third note with new locations was found on the floor of a Princeton filling station. A customer pointed the note out to an attendant who hadn't noticed it. "What customer found the note?" Sheriff Coleman shrewdly asked. "Frank McCall," the attendant said. Franklin Pierce McCall, 21, an evangelical preacher's son from north Florida, had moved to Princeton with his young wife a couple of years earlier, looking for work as a tomato picker. Coleman learned that the McCalls had boarded with the Cash family during two tomato seasons. Frank McCall had been an avid member of the Skeegie search posse, and he had annoyed other searchers with odd comments about how easy it would have been to snatch the child. Coleman hauled him in for "acting mysteriously." Hoover big-footed the sheriff and took charge of the interrogation. McCall denied all. But under relentless grilling, he went through the customary changes in his story: He didn't do it, but he might know who did; he was there, but he didn't participate; the boy was dead, but he didn't kill him. Finally, 10 days after the disappearance, McCall admitted everything and led Hoover and Coleman to a sandy grave in a palmetto thicket near Princeton. The safe-return promise had been a lie. The boy was dead within minutes of the kidnapping. Hoover said McCall snatched Skeegie, covered his face with a hankie and carried him to his house, 15 minutes away. "McCall said the child did not move at any time he held it, and he thought it was asleep," Hoover said. "He tried to awaken the child but found it to be dead." He buried the boy and went ahead with his ransom plan. Why had McCall done it? His preacher-father must have recoiled at his progeny's reply: It was greed, with a Depression-era twist. Hoover said, "He claimed he wanted the better things of life for his wife and himself and had been unable to get steady employment." The good life was fleeting. McCall spent just $5 from the ransom money. McCall had considered two other victims from wealthier families before settling on Skeegie. He said he knew from his time as a Cash boarder that the family had a five-figure bank balance. The Skeegie kidnapping was front-page news from New York to Los Angeles, and Hoover was hailed as the investigative hero, despite the sad conclusion. Just days later, "friends in Congress" - as Time magazine put it - amended the Deficiency Bill to restore the FBI to its full manpower. Down in Dade County, authorities fought off a vigilante mob that wanted to lynch Frank McCall. He pleaded guilty, was condemned and was electrocuted on Feb. 24, 1939.�
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Thursday 12th January 2017
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FBI PHOTOGRAPHIC SERVICE. Frank P., on Approval, Chicago, Illinois, April 1922. Vintage silver print, circa 245x195 mm, captions and date stamp verso.
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Thursday 12th January 2017
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FBI SERVICE. Elsie S., Love Rival, Witness in M. Bean Murder, Pleasant Island, March 1923. Vintage silver print, circa 245x195 mm, captions and date stamp verso.
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Thursday 12th January 2017
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FBI PHOTOGRAPHIC SERVICE. George D., 72 years old in jail, Brooklyn, NY, January 1924. Vintage silver print, circa 245x195 mm, captions and date stamp verso.
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Thursday 12th January 2017
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FBI PHOTOGRAPHIC SERVICE. Vido, 8, taken (kidnaping) February 13, 1924. Vintage silver print, circa 245x195 mm, captions and date stamp verso.
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Thursday 12th January 2017
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FBI. Nicholas K, self styled Montenegran Count and Los Angeles Society Robber, Sept. 1925. Vintage silver print, circa 245x195 mm, captions and date stamp verso.
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Thursday 12th January 2017
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FBI PHOTOGRAPHIC SERVICE. John G., Held Up the Canadian Train to Windsor, Oct. 1925. Vintage silver print, circa 245x195 mm, captions and date stamp verso.
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Thursday 12th January 2017
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FBI SERVICE. Jerry Whose Real Name is a Mystery, Case of Amnesia, October 1925. Vintage silver print, circa 245x195 mm, captions and date stamp verso.
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Thursday 12th January 2017
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FBI PHOTOGRAPHIC SERVICE. Dwight A., Who Robbed the Baby’s Bank, LA, Jan. 1926. Vintage silver print, circa 245x195 mm, captions and date stamp verso.
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Thursday 12th January 2017
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Dorothy P., Charged with Truckdriver Connors of Murder of Brakeman Templeton, July 1926. Vintage silver print, circa 245x195 mm, captions and date stamp verso.
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Thursday 12th January 2017
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FBI PHOTOGRAPHIC SERVICE. Ivy, Widow of Druggist Killed by Hickman, February 1928. Vintage silver print, circa 245x195 mm, captions and date stamp verso.
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Thursday 12th January 2017
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FBI PHOTOGRAPHIC SERVICE. Gerald, Whose Mother was Killed by Agent, April 1929. Vintage silver print, circa 245x195 mm, captions and date stamp verso.
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Thursday 12th January 2017
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FBI SERVICE. Rabbi Barnett Brickner, Labor Arbitrator, Cleveland, Ohio, November 1930. Vintage silver print, circa 245x195 mm, captions and date stamp verso.
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Thursday 12th January 2017
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FBI. Ray, Yellow Cab Driver, Husband of Burlesque Dancer, Brooklyn, February 1931. Vintage silver print, circa 245x195 mm, captions and date stamp verso.
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Thursday 12th January 2017
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Robert, Who Rode in Car in Which Virginia, Taxi-Dancer, Was Shot to Death, NYC, 1931. Vintage silver print, circa 245x195 mm, captions and date stamp verso.
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Thursday 12th January 2017
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FBI SERVICE. Clarence W, 14, Held for Foster-Mother Murder, San Francisco, April 1932. Vintage silver print, circa 245x195 mm, captions and date stamp verso.
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Thursday 12th January 2017
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FBI PHOTOGRAPHIC SERVICE. Loma, Wife of Gangster, Taken in Custody, LA, March 1934. Vintage silver print, circa 245x195 mm, captions and date stamp verso.
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Thursday 12th January 2017
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Stephen S, 35, Who Signed for a Frozen Death Experiment, Hollywood, CA, August 1935. Vintage silver print, circa 245x195 mm, captions and date stamp verso.
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Thursday 12th January 2017
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FBI PHOTOGRAPHIC SERVICE. Agnes S., 32, Held in Husband’s Death, September 1935. Vintage silver print, circa 245x195 mm, captions and date stamp verso.
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Thursday 12th January 2017
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Ernest W., Who Ran 3 Miles to Obtain Aid for Wrecked Bomber, Front Royal, VA, Jan. 1937. Vintage silver print, circa 245x195 mm, captions and date stamp verso.
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Thursday 12th January 2017
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FBI PHOTOGRAPHER. Mae, in Jail after her Husband was Stabbed. LA, CA, March 1937. Vintage silver print, circa 245x195 mm, captions and date stamp verso.
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Thursday 12th January 2017
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FBI. Robert W, Who Named the Dentist in the Murder Case, Charlotteville, VA, March 1937. Vintage silver print, circa 245x195 mm, captions and date stamp verso.
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Thursday 12th January 2017
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FBI. Mrs M., Whose Husband Confesses the Murder of their young Child, Brooklyn, 1937. Vintage silver print, circa 245x195 mm, captions and date stamp verso.
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Thursday 12th January 2017
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FBI. John M., the Negro Who heard the Voice of James Cash’s Kidnaper, Princeton, June 1938. Vintage silver print, circa 245x195 mm, captions and date stamp verso. (See page V)
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Thursday 12th January 2017
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FBI SERVICE. Chung Lei, charged with Opium Smuggling, San Francisco, CA, January 1939. Vintage silver print, circa 245x195 mm, captions and date stamp verso.
The Law of Suspects (French: Loi des suspects) The Law of Suspects was a decree passed by the Committee of Public Safety on 17 September 1793, during the so-called Reign of Terror following the French Revolution. It marked a significant weakening of individual freedoms. With the efficient Law of Suspects, anyone at all was deemed suspicious : "who, by their conduct or their relationships, either by their words or writings, have been partisans of tyranny or federalism and enemies of freedom, those whose [actions] cannot justify, in the manner prescribed by the decree of 21 March, their financial means and remunerations from their civic duties; those to whom have been denied citizenship certificates, removed by public officials or suspended from their functions by the National Convention or its commissioners and have not been reinstated; those former nobles, all the husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, son or daughters, brothers or sisters, and agents of émigrés, who have not consistently demonstrated their commitment to the Revolution, those who emigrated from the interval between 1 July 1789 and 8 April 1792, even though they returned to France within the time prescribed by such order or earlier." The law ordered the arrest of all avowed enemies and likely enemies of the Revolution, which included nobles, relatives of émigrés, officials removed from office, officers suspected of treason, and hoarders of goods. The following year, it was expanded and became even more strict. Implementation of the law and arrests were entrusted to oversight committees, and not to the legal authorities. It also introduced the maxim that “subjects had to prove their innocence”, which was later extended by the Law of 22 Prairial, also known as the loi de la Grande Terreur. The law of the Great Terror was enacted on 10 June 1794 (22 Prairial of the Year II), proposed by Georges Auguste Couthon and supported by Robespierre. By means of this law the Committee of Public Safety simplified the judicial process to one of indictment and prosecution. The passing of this law had important political consequences. Robespierre and his associates were now ruling more or less by decree, with the Committees sidelined and the Convention unable to oppose them. As the Terror accelerated and members felt more and more threatened, Tallien and others began to make plans for the overthrow of Robespierre and the ending of the Terror. Less than two months later, on 27 July, Tallien and his associates overthrew Robespierre in the so-called Thermidorian Reaction.
N°15, charged with murder
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