Tuesday, August 20, 1957
400 Tips Checked in Hunt for Killers
Police Trace Bullets used in Slaying
Police Monday Fitted together clues like pieces in a giant jigsaw puzzle as they sought the gunmen who killed one Minneapolis policeman and critically wounded another.
More than 400 persons called the department yesterday with tips on the case.
Detective Inspector Charles Wetherille said the investigation was going "fairly well." Three or four "solid leads" are being checked out, he said.
Police sifted the calls and checked every possible lead.
Hundreds of cars were stopped yesterdays police continued their spot check, throughout the city.
Wetherille reported progress on these specific clues:
Water in an army canteen abandoned by the fugitives was analyzed, and found not to be from Minneapolis. Police refused to say what city the water was from.
A straw hat left at the scene of the gun battle was traced to the "tore which sold it. Police declined to identify the store.
However, it was learned that detectives in Duluth were checking the possibility the hat was one of six of its, type sold by a Duluth store.
A box of .38-caliber armor piercing bullets which was left behind by the gunmen was traced to the store which sold it, A merchant saw the picture of the box in the Minneapolis Tribune and called police to say he had sold the bullets. Police would not identify the merchant.
Three ticket stubs left in the fugitives' abandoned car were found to have been sold Aug. 10 by the Hilltop Drive-in theater, 4711 Central avenue NE,
Police said the plates were relatively new, and were either bought or stolen from a trucking or steel firm. Anyone having any information on the plates was asked to notify police.
THE STOLEN 1955 Chrysler abandoned by the three men were searched for fingerprints but none was found, police said.
Mrs. Alvin Anderson, 9448 Clinton Avenue, Bloomington, who was abducted and later released by the fugitives in their getaway, furnished a piece of information which several teams of detectives checked out.
During the ride, Mrs. Anderson said, the men kept talking about "Forty-second and Second" presumably referring to Forty-second street and Second Avenue S.
Mrs. Anderson was transferred from her car to the fugitive's car in a garage. Police believe the garage may be In the Forty-second Street and Second Avenue area. They checked the region on the possibility the gunmen may have rented a garage.
WHILE SHE was being transferred from one car to the other, Mrs. Anderson said, the door of the fugitive's car scraped the side of the Anderson car, leaving a smear of blue paint.
That clue prompted police to search for a 1951 or 1952 Buick or Oldsmobile convertible, black on top and blue on the bottom.
This is the type of car used in the holdup of Knight's pharmacy, 2201 W. Broadway, July 27 by three men Who escaped with $l, 600.
Police believe the men who held up the drugstore are the same ones who were Involved In the gun battle Saturday.
Wetherille believes the three men are from the Twin Cities area and may have been forced to stay in the area by police roadblocks.
(Information on suspects who were later cleared, omitted)
Police said a number of crank calls have been coming in and have hampered work of the detectives.
Some detectives and patrolmen are working on the case on their own time, but the police department is back to a normal shift operation.
REWARDS totaling $3,750 have been offered for information leading to arrest and conviction of the killers.
The Minneapolis Police 0fficers federation posted $2,000, radio and television station KSTP offered $1,000, Central Labor union $500 and an anonymous donor $250.
Meanwhile, in General hospital injured patrolman Ward L Canfield, Doctors Fight to Save Canfield 35, 5740 Blaisdell Avenue, continued in critical condition. He suffered a bullet wound in the abdomen and a crushed chest, broken collarbones, fractured pelvis, dislocated hip and broken right knee when the gunmen ran over him.
Services for his partner, Robert Fossum, 31, 6043 Vincent Avenue S., who was killed by the fugitives in the gunfight, will be at 11 a.m. Wednesday at Gleason mortuary, with burial in Resurrection cemetery.
Doctors Fight to Save Canfield (From this paper)
Article from Minneapolis Labor Review
George Grim Article (Publication date unknown)
Benefit Fund Passes $41,000 (Publication date unknown)
Fossum Funeral (From Thursday Aug, 22nd Star)
September 1st Tribune pictures showing suspect drawings and crime map