other words, Colonel Lindbergh might have been able to demand proof of the fact that they had his child still alive and in custody.

In cases of missing persons and in accidents, the civil file has been very valuable. We had, for instance, a missing-person case, the case of a man who died in Salt Lake City. The police sent his prints to us and we were able to identify him as a resident of Montana. He was identified solely because we had his police record. Had he not been a criminal, we would not have been able to identify that man and his family would not have learned of the fact that he had died. They would still be looking for him.

The same is true of cases of amnesia. In Milwaukee last year, in July, they sent us the prints of a man who was suffering from amnesia. By reason of his police record, he was found to be a native and a citizen of France, and we were able to make that identification. The police authorities were able to contact his family, only by reason of that identification of his police record.

This fingerprint service has been of invaluable aid in cases of men who have been declared legally dead. For instance, there is one case that I recall from Arkansas. In 1929 the courts declared a man there legally dead. We have since found his record as of 1933. The presumption that he had been missing for 7 years applied, but subsequently he had been arrested in some other part of the country. Through that particular record we were able to furnish the Arkansas authorities the information and thereby avoid the perpetration, probably, of an insurance fraud.

INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE OF PRINTS

In regard to the international exchange of prints, as I said a little while ago, we receive prints from practically all law-enforcement agencies in the United States and also we have extended our exchange of prints to foreign countries.

I have here a list of 79 foreign countries and possessions which are now participating in that exchange. That is to say, where an American citizen is arrested abroad, his finger prints are taken by one of those 79 countries in which he happens to be and they are sent to us in Washington for purposes of checking. In return, we give the same service of a citizen of some foreign country who is arrested in the United States in order that their foreign records may be complete.

During 1936 we received 13,643 such finger prints, and we were able to render service of identifications from our files for the foreign authorities of 2,741 persons. That is to say, those persons had had criminal records or police records in this country.

The value of that, of course, is that crime is international. The criminal in New York today may within the course of a week be in London or Paris. We get excellent cooperation from foreign countries as well as from the Canadian authorities.

VALUE OF SINGLE FINGERPRINT FILE

There is a branch of our bureau which is of inestimable value particularly in kidnaping and extortion cases. That is called the single fingerprint file.

I might explain this for the information of the committee. The large collection of 650,000,000 are files of 10 fingerprints. That is,

they are based upon the classification of 10 prints, and are so filed. However, it has frequently happened, that only one fingerprint will be found at the scene of the crime, either on a water glass or on a beer bottle or a gasoline can or an automobile window, something of that kind. That one print will be all that is left. It would be technically impossible to search that one print in our collection of 650,000,000, because, as I say, the basis of that collection is based on the 10-finger classification.

We have established what is known as the single fingerprint file in which we today have a total of 13,528 prints of so-called public enemies. They are the most notorious kidnapers, extortionists, bank robbers, confidence men, and racketeers.

The 10 prints of those 13,528 men are divided into single fingerprints, and each one of the 10 is filed separately.

It might be interesting to the committee to know that of these 13,528 of the public enemies of our country, 3,930 of them, or 29 percent, have been the recipients of some form of clemency; that is to say, parole, probation, or pardon.

THE BREMER CASE

I can cite the value of that latent fingerprint service in the Bremer kidnaping case. Mr. Bremer, as you will recall, was kidnaped from St. Paul by a gang of men, and a $200,000 ransom was paid. Upon his return to St. Paul he was, of course, questioned at some length by our agents, and he related many details. He referred particularly to the fact that he had ridden for many hours he could not tell the distance, but he thought it was certainly several hundred miles-and at various times the automobile stopped. There was some discussion about getting gasoline, and a man would get out and be gone a little while and apparently come back with a can and fill the gasoline tank and throw the can to the side of the road. That was the only clue that we had to go on to solve that case. Our agents had no idea whether he went north, south, east, or west of St. Paul, because he was blindfolded. They searched every main highway in every direction, because from the manner of the travel, so far as Mr. Bremer could best tell, it was a well-paved road. Finally, many miles south of St. Paul we found a gasoline can at the side of the road. It was sent to our laboratory in Washington and on the can was found the finger print of "Doc" Barker, one of the members of the notorious Karpis-Barker gang.

We then knew whom we were looking for, and by circularizing the entire country with pictures of the members of the gang, the two Barker boys and "Ma" Barker and several others, we were able in that way to bring about their apprehension and conviction, or kill them in gun battle.

THE KANSAS CITY MASSACRE

In the same way, there was the case of the Kansas City massacre. The only way we were able to establish the identity of the perpetrators of the Kansas City massacre, in which one of our own agents was killed and in which a police chief from Oklahoma was killed, as well as two police officers from Kansas City and a prisoner, and three men were wounded was from a single fingerprint upon a beer bottle, which turned out to be that of Adam Richetti, who was later tried and is

under sentence of death, which is on appeal at the present time. From that one clue we were able to locate other members of that gang, such as "Pretty Boy" Floyd, who was later killed in gun battle with our men, and to bring about the solution of that case. That represents the great value of the single fingerprint file.

ACTIVITIES OF THE BUREAU IN THE TERRITORIES OF THE UNITED STATES

Mr. TARVER. Mr. Hoover, reverting for a moment to a portion of your testimony of a few moments ago, in regard to foreign contributors and the exchange of fingerprints, I note that you have listed the names of the various Territories of the United States, including Alaska, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, the Philippines, and so forth. Are those Territories properly within your jurisdiction, just as the States of the Union

are?

Mr. HOOVER. We do not have agents stationed in those Territories but we cooperate with the fingerprint bureaus operating in those possessions.

MODUS OPERANDI FILE

Another phase of our work at the seat of government and I am citing this information concerning our operations at the seat of government to indicate to you the employment of the personnel which we now have and the value and the necessity of it-is that we operate what is known as a modus operandi file, separate from the single fingerprint file. This deals with the methods of operation, particularly of bank robbers.

It is a well-known fact in the criminal underworld that the average criminal in a bank robbery or a pickpocket case, or any one of the criminal classifications, performs his crime in exactly the same manner over and over again. The pickpocket does it. We are not interested in that, because that is not a violation of a Federal statute. The bank-robbery law which Congress passed gave us jurisdiction over bank robberies, and we found that condition to exist in such cases. We have classified 699 bank-robbery methods; that is, special methods of these gangs. Since the operation of that file-it has been in operation about a year we have had occasion to make 158 searches in it. Of those 158, we have been able to find 74 that showed a similarity and led to the apprehension and the wiping out of certain bank-robbery gangs.

In order to ascertain the identity of those for whom we are looking, such a method is necessary. In crime, the important thing is not only to get the evidence that may be left at the scene of the crime, but after you have that, to ascertain the identity of the perpetrators of it. Then comes the job of apprehension. But it is much easier, of course, when you can circularize the entire country, as we do through our bulletins, with photographs and fingerprints of persons for whom We are searching. This modus operandi file has been of inestimable value to us in bank-robbery war.

FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION LAW ENFORCEMENT BULLETIN

We also have a monthly publication which is of considerable value not only to ourselves, but to local law-enforcement agencies, known as the F. B. I. Law-Enforcement Bulletin. This is the issue of Jan

uary 1937. We started the issuance of this monthly publication in 1932. It contains single fingerprints and descriptions of all badly wanted fugitives, who are being sought not only by the Federal authorities but by local authorities as well. Prior to the issuance of this bulletin, it was impossible for the chief of police of Boston, let us say, if he had a crime in his city and was looking for the perpetrator to circularize the entire country within a short period of time. He could communicate with a few police chiefs whom he might know and ask them to look for the man. Today all that is necessary is for him to communicate with us, and we will include the notice in the next monthly issue. The bulletin goes to 12,500 law-enforcement agencies of the country each month.

We have had instances where this has proven extremely valuable. One recent instance was the case of a man by the name of Robert Benowitz. He escaped from jail in Kentucky, having been sentenced on a bank-robbery charge in 1934. In escaping, a man was killed. Benowitz was arrested in Detroit several months ago as Robert Beck. He was identified by the Detroit police through information contained in the Law Enforcement Bulletin. He was returned to Kentucky, where he was tried, convicted, and sentenced to 17 years in the penitentiary.

Also there are included in the bulletin various articles of assistance to local law-enforcement officers, such as those dealing with the preservation of latent fingerprints.

One of the important things in crime detection is the fact that there is no mystery about it. All you have got to do is to try to preserve what evidence may be left at the scene of the crime, a footprint, a tire tread, a fingerprint, a piece of hair, some blood-something of that kind. We have printed in the bulletin from time to time scientific articles upon the preservation of pieces of evidence that would be of aid. That has proven to be of inestimable value to local law-enforcement officers.

I recall a case in Connecticut where the police were looking for a hit-and-run driver. A person was killed. They got the tire tread that was left in the mud on the side of the road. Later, they located what they believed might be the car, and by comparing the tread which they had with the tread on the tires of the car, as to measurements of wear and pressure, and so forth, they were able definitely to establish that it was the same car. The owner of the car confessed and was tried and convicted. We were advised of the fact that they had been able to do that solely through the information obtained as to how to take tire treads.

It is those little things that really bring about the solution sometimes. of a major crime.

UNIFORM CRIME REPORTING SYSTEM

We also maintain a project of the Bureau at the seat of government which furnishes an accurate measurement of the volume of crime in the United States. Congress authorized the establishment of what is known as the uniform crime-reporting system in August 1930. We now receive from practically every community in the country a monthly report of the amount of crime committed in that community.

In 1930, when the project was initiated, there were 1,127 cities and communities sending crime statistics to us. Today, we have a total of 3,336 such communities sending us those figures.

We publish a quarterly bulletin which shows the volume and fluctuation of crime. I have here some figures that might be of interest to the committee. For instance, we have taken recently the figures for 23 of the cities with over a hundred thousand population. We found, in connection with robberies, that 54.7 percent of robberies in those communities were committed on the city highways; 39.5 percent were committed in commercial places, and 2.8 percent in private residences.

It gives an interesting picture of the crime situation and is of value to the local law-enforcement officer in coping with his particular local problem.

STATISTICS ON AGE OF CRIMINALS

I have here a tabulation which gives that in detail and which might be of interest to the committee. Also the statistics relative to the age of criminals, which is interesting.