VOL. LVI No. 3 NOME, ALASKA, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 6, 1954 Per Copy—15^
Four Arrested In
$1611000 Theft from
Engraving Bureau
WASHINGTON, UP)-—The Secret
Service today picked up a man
they described as a fourth sus
pect in the $160,000 New Year’s
Eve theft of new $20 bills from
the Bureau of Engraving.
The Service earlier had report
ed recovery of all but $31,700 of
the money.
Charles Howard Nelson, 27, a
Negro, was brought under custody
the Secret Service of the Trea
sui’y said.
The case broke open yesterday
with the arrest of a Bureau em
ploye, his wife, and a soft-spoken
little flagpole painter on a tip
furnished — after all-night soul
searching — by the father of the
woman.
The three all are Negroes. They
were arrested one after the other
in a day that began with a 5
a.m., phone call to Virginia State
police by Irving Grant, father of
Mrs. Mamie Landis, and ended
with the recovery of $128,300, in
three separate caches, of the loot
apparently smuggled from the
money printing plant in the tail
o‘f a suit jacket.
Those accused:
James Rufus Landis, 29, a $1.42
an hour checker in the heavily
guarded plant which makes the
government’s currency.
Landis’ pretty, 26-year-old wife
Mamie, whom he married when
she was 14.
Willis Giles, 27, the flagpole
painter, who freely admitted driv
ing with the Landises to the cabin
of Irving Grant in an effort to
hide $95,000 of the “hot” cur
rency.
“I did it for the future of my
family,” said Giles. “I can’t give
them all the things I want to give
them.”
Virginia State police said Mrs.
Landis’ father agreed — when one
of his visitors produced a gun —
to hide the money after his dau
ghter and her companions drop
ped in on him Sunday night.
Then, till dawn, he wrestled
with his conscience and fear of
the law. He told his wife what
had happened. She had a heart
attack. Finally Grant went to a
telephone. He had, he told the
police, “a big pile of Treasury
money” — and was “scared to
death.”
What became of the missing
$31,700?
The chief of the Secret Service
said he didn’t think it all had
been spent—though the Landises
lived high between New Year’s
Eve and the time of their arrest
five days later, buying among
other things a 1953 Oldsmobile.
Ketchikan Bar Operator
Reports Loss Of $25,000
KETCHIKAN, UP) — Josephine
Hill, operator of a bar and liquor
store here, reported the theft of
$25,000 in cash from her home
three miles south of the city on
Sunday morning.
Such a sum would be the big
gest total ever taken in a Ketchi
kan robbery or burglary.
Mayor Rivers Vetoes
Bill To Permit Licensed
Gambling In Fairbanks
FAIRBANKS, UP — The Fair
banks City Council failed by one
vote Tuesday to override Mayor
Ralph Rivers’ veto of a bill to
permit licensed gambling in the
city.
The council failed to override
veto of the bill which would have
permitted and taxed poker and
pinochle games, pinball machines
and punchboards.
The mayor gave the council five
reasons Monday night when he
delivered a special veto message.
Gambling is specifically prohibit
ed in the Alaska Organic Act, he
pointed out to the council, and
additional police officers would be
needed to enforce the $5 limit on
poker and other card games.
Many wage earners would lose
money needed by their families,
he continued; federal authorities
no doubt would “lower the boom”
if the city opened up gambling,
and there was no actual need seen
for gambling here since many
local charitable organizations con
duct ice pools, bingo games, raf
fles and other games of chance.
These, Rivers said, “should be suf
ficient to satisfy the proclivity of
the average persons to take a
chance.”
Eisenhower Will Ask
Senate Confirm Over 130
Recess Appointments
WASHINGTON, UR — President
Eisenhower will shortly ask the
Senate to confirm more than 130
appointments, including those of
Earl Warren as Chief Justice of
the United States and James P.
Mitchell as Secretary of Labor.
There is no evidence of serious
opposition to most of these nomi
nations, made while the Senate
was in recess.
But at least one, that of Robert
E. Lee to be member of the Fed
eral Communications Committee,
is certain to receive searching
study by the Senate Commerce
Committee.
Eisenhower’s recess appoint
ment of Lee to the FCC has been
questioned by some Democrats in
connection with Lee’s participation
in the 1950 election campaign of
Senator John Marshall Butler
R-Md).
Lee, a former House employe, is
a friend of Sen. McCarthy, who
campaigned for Butler against the
Democratic incumbent, Sen. Mil
lard E. Tydings. A Senate Elec
tions subcommittee criticized that
campaign as a “despicable, back
street type.”
5,000 Persons Apply But
Only 200 Jobs Available
WASHINGTON, UR — The Re
publican National Committee has
a list of about 5,000 persons who
want jobs in the Eisenhower ad
ministration. And there are only
about 200 political job open.
President Eisenhower has 12
high level positions to fill. Four
of them, it was learned, are aboxit
to be filled, four more are going
through the screening process, and
four are open for recommendation
from state patronage organiza
tions.
Indian Affairs
Bureau Wants
ANICA For ANS
SEATTLE, UPi— Federal Judge
William J. Lindberg Monday or
dered Louis C. Peters, manager of
the Alaska Native Industries Co
operative Assn., to appear and
show cause today why he should
not be restrained from acting as
ANICA manager.
The injunction and restrainer,
sought by U.S. Attorney Charles
P. Moriarity and Asst. U.S. Atty.
Edward J. McCormick Jr., also
asked that Peters be enjoined to
relinquish all ANICA records and
assets in his care.
The action came after Peters re
fused to yield his office in re
sponse to a letter from the Bureau
of Indian Affairs saying it could
not arrange for a mutually accept
able new contract.
The bureau requested that the
assets of ANICA, owned by 33
Alaska native villages uhder a co
operative arrangement, be turned
over to the Alaska Native Service.
ANICA was organized in 1947
with the approval of the Indian
Affairs Bureau as a means of
speeding the development of the
economic life of the 33 villages.
ANICA moves huge quantities of
freight to' the North each year.
The organization is indebted to
the U.S. Government for about
$530,000 and the government
agreed with the village members
of the ANICA to take over their
interest in the cooperative as col
lateral for the debts.
The Indian Affairs Bureau
claimed in the suit filed by the
government that Peters’ contract
expired in December, 1952, and
that he has been retained only on
a month-to'-month basis since.
Peters said he will give up his
post only on the advice of an at
torney. “I’m not turning over the
assets without being certain who
they’re going to,” he said.
Aleut Suit Against
Government Dismissed
WASHINGTON, OP — The 'U.S.
Court of Claims has rejected ef
forts of the Aleut community of
St. Paul Island off Alaska to sue
the United States for loss of its
seal fishery.
In granting a government mo
tion to dismiss the community’s
petition, the court said yesterday:
“Whatever rights the Aleuts had
to take seals in the waters off
St. Paul Island under Russian do
minion, there can be no' doubt
that upon acquisition of that terri
tory by the United States their
right to do so was subject to the
paramount power of the United
States to regulate and control it.”
Attorneys for the Aleut com
munity, located on one of the Pri
bilof Islands about 350 miles off
the west coast of Alaska, alleged
that since acquisition of the island
by the United States in 1867,
rights of the residents “have been
consistently disregarded.”
Since 1950, the government has
regulated sale of all seal furs in
the islands.
The community contended it
had been deprived of its pro
perty without just compensation.
Gouzenko Gives Senators
Information Usable For
Internal Security Of U.S.
NEW YORK, —Two senators
said Tuesday Igor Gouzenko, who
helped smash a Russian spy ring
in Canada, had given them names
and information usable for the
internal security of the United
States.
Senators William E. Jenner (R
Ind) and Pat McCarran (D-Nev)
told newsmen on returning from
a trip to Canada that they ques
tioned Gouzenko for more than
five hours Monday.
- Gouzenko formerly was a code
clerk for the Russians in Canada.
Jenner, chairman of the Senate
Subcommittee on Internal Secur
ity, said he would study the tran
script of the hearing and probably
make a formal request to the Can
adian government to release the
information.
Asked if Gouzenko had men
tioned names, Jenner said:
“Yes, names were mentioned,
but under our agreement we can
not discuss it.”
Jenner described the Canadian
government and Gouzenko as co
operative.
Total Civilians Out Of
Work During December
Placed at 60,764,000
WASHINGTON, UR — The na
tion’s unemployment rolls—swell
ed by the discharge o'f temporary
Christmas help—will grow to over
two million this month, govern
ment officials forecast today.
Just yesterday, the Commerce
Department’s census bureau re
ported a 422,000 rise in jobless
ness in December, attributing
most of this to a seasonal winter
drop in farm employment. There
was little change in non-farm em
ployment.
The bureau said 1,850,000 Am
ericans were out of work last
month, the only one of 1953 in
which unemployment was higher
than the corresponding month of
the previous year.
Total civilian employment last
month, the bureau said, stood at
60,764,000 — below December to
tals both in 1951 and 1952.
Hearings Resume On
Alaska Air Application
For Direct Alaska Service
WASHINGTON, UR — Attorneys
today renewed their questioning
of Colin McIntosh, Washington
aviation consultant, as a Civil
Aeronautics Board hearing into
applications of a half dozen Al
askan airlines resumed after a
holiday recess.
The witness is a consultant for
Alaska Airlines and is sponsor
ing the major portion of the car
rier’s presentation on traffic and
revenue forecasts and related
matters.
Alaska Airlines wants the board
to permit it to fly directly to An
chorage from the states instead
of its present longer routing via
Fairbanks.
Also involved in the hearing,
along with similar applications
by other Alaska carriers, is a
board-ordered study into the fea
sibility of merging two or more
of the systems now serving the
territory.
Officials Exposed
In Ketchikan
Vice Probe
KETCHIKAN, UV—1The former
chief of police of Ketchikan, Del
Freimuth, has been charged with
operating -a bawdy house and
three other misdemeanors, it was
disclosed Tuesday with his arrest
and posting of $5,000 bail.
The other three charges against
Freimuth are that he aided a
bawdy house, aided a bootlegging
house and non-feasance. (Non
feasance is failure of an official to
do his duty.)
Three women, all charged with
selling liquor without a territorial
license, also were arrested Tues
day afternoon.
Freimuth resigned as police
chief just before the grand jury
began its 25-day investigation.
Tuesday
Ending a 25-day investigation
of vice conditions here, a federal
grand jury indicted a suspended
Ketchikan police captain and
severely criticized a former police
chief and other public officials.
It returned 11 secret indictments.
The jury reports also blamed
the city council and other city
officials for, the jury said, tolerat
ing vice, gambling, bootlegging
and narcotics which, it asserted,
centered around a red light dis
trict here.
After the report was read to a
crowded courtroom, Acting Dist.
A tty. James Fitzgerald moved for
abatement of six houses of ill
fame on Creek Street.
In other fields, the jury recom
mended establishment of a five
member police commission made
up of leading citizens; a study by
the legislature’s interim commit
tee of law to authorize such com
missions all over Alaska; adoption
of an ordinance to govern police
qualification and promotion; es
tablishment by the council of a
special committee on juvenile re
creation; careful selection of a
civic center director and establish
ment in high schools of such agen
cies as the Allied Youth.
The jury accused former Police
Chief Freimuth of allowing baudy
houses to operate and of having a
role in assignment of new “girls”
to such places after their examin
ation by a doctor.
Expedition Leaves London
For Alaska To Start
30,000-Mile Trailer Trip
LONDON, UP!—A young British
actor and a Canadian medical stu
dent left today for a 30,000-mile
motor expedition from Alaska to
southernmost Argentina.
Brian Ackworth, 25, of London,
and Peter Abear, 27, of Kamloops,
British Columbia, plan to pick up
a third member of their party,
British photographer Martin
Swithinbank, in New York.
Together ithey plan to drive
British sports car and amphibious
trailer to Alaska to begin their
long journey southward through
Canada, the United States, Mex
ico, Panama, Ecuador, Columbia,
Venezuela, Brazil and Argentina.
Ackworth said the group hopes
to make the trip in about 15
months.