A
COMMEMORATIVE WWII HISTORY SERIES
Part 3: The Case of the Betty Grable Extortion Letters
07/08/05
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Actress,
singer, and dancer Betty Grable in an undated photo.
--
Associated
Press |
It was early 1943.
FDR and Churchill had just met at Casablanca to set a goal of unconditional
surrender. Daylight bombing of Nazi Germany was beginning. Japanese forces
on Guadalcanal collapsed. And Betty Grable received a letter of extortion.
Dear Miss Grable,
This is an extortion. Under threat of your life or great bodily harm, gather $25,000 in uncut diamonds and mail them in 2 envelopes addressed to
Jonathan C. Wild, Esq.,
Gates Hotel,
5th and Figueroa
Los Angeles,
Calif.
(Signed),
The Leopard
Miss Grable was just
coming into her own as a movie star—Down Argentina Way and Tin
Pan Alley were box office hits and she'd just started working on
her favorite Sweet Rosie O'Grady. She was just months away from
insuring her legs with Lloyd's of London for $1,000,000. Now this.
But wait: the FBI
was on the case.
Why? Because the letter
had been transmitted through U.S. mail, violating the Federal Extortion
Act, enacted 73 years ago this month.
Our agents in L.A.
set a trap, but the extortionist didn't show. A month went by, then:
Dear Miss
Grable:
On March 19 at 9:40 A.M. come North on Gower Street and 1/2 block south of
Santa Monica Blvd. I will be waiting leaning on the cemetery wall. Bring $5,000
or you will not be alive on the 20.
(Signed),
Snowy
This time the trap
was sprung...and recorded on the high technology of the day: a 16mm camera
with a telephoto lens. Exact charts were made to plan the surveillance;
agents were disguised as gardeners and grave-diggers; others were equipped
with high power binoculars, portable walkie-talkies, and radio-equipped
cars. At 9:40 am, a shiny blue sedan approached the drop spot and tossed
a brown package out of the window (see the series of photos below). When
18-year-old Russell Eugene Alexanderson made a grab for it, his life
as an extortionist was over.
Or was it?
After pleading guilty and being sentenced to Army induction...and after the
Army refused to induct him as "unsuitable"...Alexanderson was
sentenced to 5 years' probation. And what do you know: he immediately sent
Miss Grable another extortion note—this one for $500. This time we
picked him up and sent him straight to jail.
It was a lot of fuss
for a small-time wannabe criminal, but American soldiers, sailors, and
Marines in tough war zones around the world would not have been happy
if anything happened to their All-American pin-up girl.
Laying out the operation |
Capturing the action on a 16mm
camera with a telephoto lens |
Getting ready to toss the "pay-off package"
from our shiny blue sedan |
Covering
the scene with powerful binoculars
and portable radios |
Recording
Alexanderson leaning on the
cemetery wall as he promised |
Closing
in on the criminal as he tries to
make a break for it. |
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