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Sa a emeter in emer ee er ¥ - y : e $100,000 Paid ‘Bugsy’ _ byRich Friend Probed | By Ray Richards . i Les Angeles Examiner Washington Bureau WASHINGTON, July 19.—Payment in 1937 of $1 to Ben “Bugsy” Siegel, gangster, byCharles Wa multi-millionaire president of a St. Paul’ calendar-maki firm, has been placed under in-¢ - - vestigation as an aftermath of|Perforations which some of Siegel's recent gunshot death injinvestigating officers insisted]: iCalifornia. could have been made only by|' Letters showing the paymentipunets, probably fired from al as made to Siegel in two in- if th aliments have been scrutinized|"! 09 We shore. ity Federal officers and turned| Ward inherited $1,000,000 from| - over to the Los Angeles Police/Bigelow and soon succeeded him|' RT net tas Karned. al*s president of the firm, which|\ e investigation evive: : . the remarkable story of the rela- last year did a $21,000,000 busi- tions of Ward and- Herbert H./eS5. ; Bigelow of the big Brown and| The letters to Siegel were) Bigelow advertising specialt y/found by Federal officers in the firm of St. Paul. investigation of Brooklyn’s “Mur- The two met in the early 1920's|der, Inc.” of which Siegel was a as fellow convicts in the Federal/Mmember. ; penitentiary at Leavenworth,| The first letter, bearing th | Bigelow was doing time|Signature “Charles Ward” an 524 reoties law violation, Brown and Bigelow letterhead,| When Ward was released, Bige-|was addressed to the gangster at w sent him to a job with the)$28 South McCarty drive, Bev- irm. When Bigelow regained his|€rly Hills, Calif, shortly after freedom, he raised Ward rapidly/Siegel had become West Coast to a high position in the com-|Trepresentative of “Murder, Inc.” pany. The letter follows: “Dear Ben: Enclosed find two BIGELOW KILLED—— ' riverty bonds for $20,000, ; Sorry I couldn't make it $25,- In 1933 Bigelow and a woman , companion were killed on a lake wd tof coon von now i am Hf f, hunting + alas tock deals, Am lucky to ha The bodies were never recom C2Ough to eat on. Hope t ed, Accidental drowning wal Will help. e final official theory, But th 4 ‘“chpsized canoe was found wit] Los #veki&s LH MIME RELI A ~ 20-4 2 SECOND LETTE | he second letter to Siegel tite same address was dated ber 6, 1937, on the jetterh of the Midway National Bank "St. Paul and bore the signature yof the bank's president, A. L. Ritt. It follows: . : “Dear Mr, Siegel: At the re- quest of Mr. Charles Ward we are enclosing our draft No. 7128 in the amount of $80,000, drawn on the Guarantee Trust Company of New York, pay- le to yourself. Will you kind- acknowledge receipt and for- yard same in the enclosed en- elope?” : Ward is quoted as explainifg that the $100,000 was repayment of a loan irom Siegel. | When Siegel was tried at Mos! Angeles in 1940 for the killing of “Murder, Inc.,” gangster sus- ‘pected of giving information to the Jaw, he was asked if he had visited Ward at St. Paul at about the time of the Bigelow death. He denied it, and the line of ques- tioning was not pursued, Siegel’s killers last month, and the reason for their act, remain! known. Ward’s career has been widely imublicized as one of the strang- f in American big business. orn at Seattle 60 years ago, he crossed the Pacifie many times S & Seaman, wags a flunky in laskan saloon, and joined th volutionary forces of Panch ia in Mexico. . In 1919 he was arrested for a. arcotics Jaw violation at Hi 'a50 and met his benefactor at Leavenworth as the result of that misadventure. Owner of a big farm at Hudson, Wig, Ward was for several years a Fewer in the Progressive Party of that state, and was referr 'to by some publications as poli ic boss of St. Paul as well. | _ Pea. 8 Mer ae pars Lut ; 15) one ier JUL 91 ~ ale Se ai AAA | QS) BREARTUEST OF MoT.CE r | 4/9) eee ee