Brian Garfield: Target Manhattan

“Present were the bank president, his chief of security, several NYPD officers and the two aforementioned special agents. They held in custody the suspect, who had given his name as Willard Roberts.

“According to the report of SA Barstow, the suspect had admitted that he was engaged in a conspiracy, together with the unnamed pilot of a Boeing B-17 aircraft, to extort five million dollars by threat of excessive physical harm to the city and populace of New York.”

Excuse me, Mr. Azzard, but all this is merely going over ground we’ve established by prior witnesses. Do you mind just giving me a copy of your statement? It will be entered into the record, but I’d prefer to use this time with direct questions pertaining to your own participation in the events.

If that’s the way you’d prefer to do it.

Thank you. Now your two agents reached the bank somewhat before twelve thirty, and you yourself got there about twenty minutes later.

That’s correct.

During that interval, what did your two agents accomplish?

Quite a good deal, I can assure you.

Can you be specific?

Mr. Skinner, you asked me just now to confine this to my own participation. Now, which is it to be?

What I’m looking for is your own evaluation of the performance of your men and of the police as well.

Performance evaluations are classified within the bureau, Mr. Skinner. I’m not at liberty to divulge the contents of our personnel-efficiency reports. At your own suggestion, I’d like to confine this interview to the contents of my written report and any relevant questions you might like to ask which would have to do with my own actions.

In that case perhaps you’d allow Special Agents Cobb and Barstow to appear here and give their own testimony?

I’m afraid that’s impossible.

Why?

Both men have been transferred out of this district.

Are those punitive transfers?

No. Standard rotation policy.

I wasn’t aware the FBI had such a policy.

We don’t broadcast our internal operating procedures, Mr. Skinner.

This isn’t an accusatory investigation, Mr. Azzard. We’re not trying to pin anything on anybody. All we’re trying to do is to lay the groundwork for efficient procedures in the future in case something like this should happen again. In the light of that I must say your attitude seems rather uncooperative, not to say obstructionist.

I’m sorry. I have my own instructions, you know. We have strict regulations about revealing information to outside agencies or individuals. I had to obtain special permission from Washington to appear at this inquiry at all. I wouldn’t like it to appear in the record that the FBI was in any way obstructionist. We’re as disturbed by what happened as anyone is.

Then mightn’t it be possible to bring the two agents back to New York to be interviewed? It wouldn’t take long.

You’d have to inquire of Washington about that. They’re not under my command anymore.

I can see we’re not getting far with that tack. Let’s go back to your own part in this, then. When you arrived at the bank, how much had been ascertained about the suspect’s identity and the identity of his partner in the airplane?

Quite a lot. We had the suspect’s fingerprints by then. We Weren’t the fingerprints obtained by the New York police officers before your men arrived?

I don’t really know who actually pressed his fingers to the ink pad, Mr. Skinner. All I can tell you is that the code had been teletyped to Washington and we’d received a make on the subject back from the FBI lab. That was before I left my office-probably around twelve twenty. Suspect was identified as Charles David Ryterband, sixty-two.

Did the fact that his fingerprints were on file indicate that Ryterband had a criminal record?

No. He’d tried to volunteer for the draft in 1942. They have fingerprint records of everybody who’s applied to serve in the armed forces.

So he in fact had no criminal record? No convictions, no arrests?

None.

Had Craycroft been identified by then?

No. Not yet.

What other information did you get on Ryterband, besides his name?

A summary of his service record accompanied the teletype report. He’d applied for the Air Corps during the war, with a specialty in aircraft maintenance. He’d been rejected on Four-F grounds-health.

Anything else?

We had his wife’s name. Ellen Craycroft Ryterband. They were married in nineteen forty-four.

So he was Craycroft’s brother-in-law, then.

Yes, but of course we didn’t know that then.

Well, I’ve dwelled long enough on the identification issue, haven’t I? I imagine it wasn’t the issue of primary concern to you at the time, was it?

No. Of course not. Our primary problem was what to do about the demands. How to respond.

Had any decisions been made prior to your arrival at the bank?

What sort of decisions do you mean?

Decisions to acquiesce or not to acquiesce.

No final decision had been made, no. They were preparing for various contingencies. The bank had started to make efforts to raise the cash, in case it was decided to go ahead and pay the ransom.

Who made that decision? To raise the money, I mean.

I’m not sure. It may have been one of my agents.

Mr. Maitland says it was Police Sergeant O’Brien who suggested he’d better start getting the money up as fast as he could.

Well, I wouldn’t want to contradict him on that.

In any case it wasn’t your suggestion, then?

No. I would have suggested the same thing, but it had already been done before I got there, as I told you.

Sergeant O’Brien seems to have displayed rather keen initiative throughout this affair, wouldn’t you say?

I didn’t pay too much attention to him, I’m afraid.

Wasn’t he there?

Yes, he was there. He’d conducted the interrogation of Ryterband until my men arrived and took over.

Isn’t it possible that your men added nothing, by way of new knowledge or decisions, to what had already been achieved by Mr. Rabinowitz and Sergeant O’Brien?

I wasn’t aware we were putting the FBI on trial here.

We’re not. I’m trying to form a clear picture of what took place, that’s all. What immediate action did you take upon arrival at the bank?

My first action was to interview Special Agents Barstow and Cobb, to put myself in the picture so to speak.

How long did that take?

Only a few minutes. I was able to tell them we’d come up with an ID make on Ryterband. I then confronted Ryterband with the fact that we knew who he was.

How did he react to that?

He didn’t seem bothered by it. I informed him that he was engaged in a grave crime. That the punishment could be severe. I asked him if he had any means of getting in touch with his partner in the airplane. He said he had.

Can you recall his exact words at that time?

He said, “We’re not idiots. You’re not dealing with idiots. Of course I can get in touch with him.”

Did he say how?

By radio.

Where was his radio?

As it turned out, he’d left it in his car, which was parked in a pay lot about three blocks away from the bank. Two of the police officers immediately went to the lot and collected the radio and brought it back to the bank. Ordinarily we’d have taken the suspect into custody and transferred him elsewhere for questioning, but we didn’t want to waste the time that would be involved in transferring him from one place to another.

So you had the radio brought to the office. What sort of radio was it?

An ordinary air- and marine-band transceiver. A battery portable. Perhaps twenty pounds in weight, easily transportable.

Did you attempt to make contact with the pilot of the aircraft at that time?