Those weren’t B-l 7s at Hiroshima, were they?
No, they were B-29s that dropped the bomb. But you can’t expect Hollywood to pay attention to technicalities like that, can you?
When the radio message came through to Woods, what exactly did it say? What did it tell him to do? What did it tell him about Craycroft?
I don’t know, I didn’t have a headset. All I know is what he told me. He said he had to break off the flight pattern and go chasing after the B-17, the people on the ground wanted him to take a look at it. Later on he got more chatter on the radio and he told me the guy had bombs in the plane and was threatening to drop them on New York, but that was after we’d made our first pass at the plane.
How close did you fly to it?
Pretty close. We hovered out over the docks down around the Staten Island ferry slip at the foot of Manhattan. We hung there while Craycroft made his turn over the Battery and swung out over the bridges and went back up the east side.
What was your impression at the time?
Of our instructions or of the plane?
Both.
Well, as for the instructions, Woods hadn’t filled me in, but I assumed he was supposed to try and wave the plane off. There are restrictions against flying low-altitude over inhabited areas, you know. Craycroft was violating every FAA and CAA statute I’d ever heard of. He was flying treetop over the tops of the skyscrapers in Manhattan. Incidentally that’s a hard stunt to pull off, you know. The updrafts from those street canyons toss you up and down like a kite. I could see right away he was a hell of a pilot. As for the plane, I’ve already told you that. I thought it was splendid. Beautiful.
Did you get a glimpse of the pilot?
We could see the pilot all right. But we weren’ close enough to see his face. He was wearing a radio headset, I could tell that much. Earphones, not a helmet. The plane was running like a clock. All four engines in beautiful sync. When he made his turns he made them as smooth and easy as if he was ice-skating.
Were the bomb-bay doors open?
Not at first.
Azzard
Your name, please?
Joel Azzard. New York District Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Do you have a prepared statement, Mr. Azzard?
I do. May I read it into the record now?
Please do.
“At twelve oh five P.M., twenty-second May, the New York office FBI was notified by office of NYPD Commissioner (Toombes) that a crime of bank robbery by extortion was in progress at Merchants Trust Bank Company, Incorporated, Sixty-two Beaver Street, New York City.
“Special Agents Roger V. Barstow and Alan A. Cobb were dispatched immediately and arrived at the scene at twelve sixteen P.M.
“At twelve twenty-two P.M. District Director Azzard (Joel, NMI) received a call direct from Special Agent Barstow. Apprised of the unique circumstances and dangers of the crime in progress, District Director Azzard went personally and with dispatch to the scene, arriving at the Merchants Trust offices at twelve thirty-five P.M.
“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?
