chief of security for the bank. It was logged in at the Thirteenth Precinct at ten forty-eight A.M., May twenty- second.”
Excuse me for interrupting. Is the Merchants Bank on Beaver Street in the jurisdiction of the Thirteenth Precinct?
No. It would be in the First Precinct, on Front Street. Rabinowitz is a former police officer, however He put the call through direct to division headquarters, which is located in the Thirteenth Precinct building. It was the correct thing to do; it saved a bit of time.
I see. Go on, please.
“Information was received by Captain Henry L. Grofeld, chief of First Division, that a crime was in progress at the Merchants Trust Bank. This information was received at eleven oh nine, and Captain Grofeld responded by-”
Excuse me again. But that indicates a gap of twenty-one minutes between the time Rabinowitz phoned the division and the time the case came to the attention of the divisional commander. Isn’t that excessive?
No, sir. It’ll explain itself as I read on.
Very well. I’m sorry to keep interrupting you.
It might go faster if I simply read the whole statement into the record and you asked your questions afterward, Mr. Skinner.
I’ll try to do that. Proceed.
“Captain Grofeld responded by ordering Special Investigations Squad to dispatch a team of officers to the Merchants Trust Bank. He was informed that this action had already been taken by his deputy commander, Lieutenant James O’Hara, and that O’Hara had also instructed the nearest street-patrol team of officers to respond to the call personally.
“According to statements by officials of Merchants Trust Bank, the first officers to arrive on the scene-foot patrolmen Lester Weinstein and Salvatore Cris-cola-entered the offices of the bank president at ten fifty-seven. They were informed of the facts, to the extent of his limited knowledge, by Mr. Rabinowitz. They then informed the perpetrator, then identified as Willard Roberts, that he was in custody. The perpetrator was advised of his rights.
“A team of three officers from Special Investigations, headed by Sergeant William J. O’Brien, reached the scene at eleven oh six.”
O’Brien
Your name, please?
Yes sir. William J. O’Brien, Sergeant, New York Police Department. Assigned to Special Investigations Squad of the First Division, Manhattan.
Do you have a prepared statement, Sergeant?
No, sir. Captain Grofeld told me there was a formal statement coming in from the PC’s office. He told me to just answer your questions to the best of my ability.
We’ve been told you were sent to the Merchants Trust on the morning of May twenty-second, and you arrived there with two other officers at a few minutes after eleven. Is that correct?
Yes, sir.
What did you find when you got there?
Two uniformed patrolmen had the suspect in custody. That was in the bank president’s office.
Who was present when you arrived?
Do you mind if I consult my notes, sir?
Not at all.
Well, those present when we arrived were as follows: Mr. Paul Maitland, president of the bank. Mr. Ira Rabinowitz, security officer for the bank. Mrs. Leslie Villiers, who is Mr. Maitland’s secretary-she let us in, but she didn’t stay in the office. I assume she went back to her desk in the outer office. Uniformed patrolman Salvatore Criscola. Uniformed patrolman Lester Weinstein. And the suspect, of course. He gave his name as Willard Roberts, but later we found out his name was Charles Ryterband.
No one else was present at that time?
Not inside the main office, no, sir. There were a couple of bank security guards posted in the outer office. I believe Mr. Rabinowitz had stationed them there to prevent the suspect from trying to get away.
Had you been advised in advance of the nature of the case?
Lieutenant O’Hara had told me there was a nut down there who was threatening to blow up the city unless the bank paid him a fortune in cash. I’d put in a call to the bomb squad from the cruiser when we were on our way to the bank. The bomb-squad fellows arrived about five minutes after us, but of course there wasn’t anything for them to do there. They hung around, on my orders, in case any questions came up that they might be able to answer-about the bombs in the airplane, you know.
When did the FBI come into it?
Not until after I’d tried to interview the suspect, and reported back to headquarters by telephone. Then I believe Captain Grofeld consulted with the Deputy PC, and they decided to call in the federal officers. The FBI agents, two of them, arrived at the bank at approximately twelve fifteen, and about twenty minutes later the FBI District Director showed up.
That was more than an hour after you reached the scene, then.
It didn’t take that much time to establish that the threat was authentic, but there were a lot of phone calls to the lieutenant and the captain and the Deputy PC before they rang through to the federal people. It couldn’t be helped, you know. Things were a little confused.
I can readily understand that, Sergeant. Now let’s get back to the point where you first arrived. What did you do?
I asked Patrolman Criscola to report. He filled me in, as much as he could. He didn’t know much more than we did at that point. Ryterband hadn’t said much to him-just given him the name Willard Roberts.
What was Ryterband’s general attitude at that point?
I’d have to call it stubborn nervousness, sir. He was scared, but he was smug at the same time. He knew he had us over a barrel.
Did he seem perturbed that the banker had called in the police?
Not particularly, no, sir. He seemed to have expected it.
Then he hadn’t told Maitland or Rabinowitz to keep the police out of it?
Not to my knowledge.
Isn’t that a bit curious?
He probably knew there was no way to avoid having us brought in.
Why not?
Because he was asking for such a tremendous amount of money. He must have known the bank would have to go outside its own resources to raise that much cash. The word was bound to get around. He figured things would go faster if the authorities were in on it right from the beginning. They had a fairly foolproof scheme, sir. At least that was the way it looked to us.
How quickly did you form that opinion, Sergeant?
Pretty fast, to tell you the truth. Criscola brought me up to date as soon as I walked into the room. It happened that the B-17 was making a pass over the Wall Street area just then. I could see it from the window, going overhead. It was right down on the deck. Maybe fifteen hundred feet above sea level. You could just about count the rivets in its belly. I doubt he was clearing the World Trade Center and the Empire State Building by more than a few hundred feet. If he had armed bombs in the plane there was no way to get him down without blowing something up.
You know something about airplanes, then?
I was a bombardier in the Eighth Air Force, sir. On B-24s, but it comes to the same thing.
Then it would appear you were the right man at the right place at the right time.
