Oldest Newspaper in Alaska._____Member of The Associated Press
DEVOTED TO THE BUILDING OF A BETTER NOME AND THE SECOND DIVISION.
NOME IS THE STRATEGIC WORLD FLIGHT AIR BASE—ESPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR COMMERCIAL AND MILITARY AVIATION
THE NOME DAILY NUGGET
Volume 36. Number 163. NOME, ALASKA, FRIDAY, JlTLY 12, 1935. Per Copy Ten Cents
Army Stratosphere Balloon Exploded
ANNOUNCES CAPTURE EXTORTION WRITER
Head Of “G” Men Melvin Purvis Resigns Department
Admits Employing
Slayers Her Son
In Law Saturday
Mother-in-law Admits Hir
ing To Have Son Killed.
Searching For Killers
HIRES SLAYERS
Police Believe Revenge Was
Motive, Following Death
Of Daughter December
(By The Associated Press)
CHICAGO, July 12, — Mrs.
Blanche Dunkel, who allegedly con
fessed to hiring assassins to slay
her son-in-law Ervin Lang, aged 29,
admitted to the police today her
connections with the crime.
She said she had taken Lang to
her apartment where “knockout
drops” had been administered to
him before he was slain.
Lang’s legless body was found
Tuesday in a swamp near Hammond
Indiana. The motive is believed to
be revenge for the death of Lang’s
wife—Mrs. Dunkel’s daughter—last
December.
The police said Mrs. Dunkel de
clared that Evelyn Smith, a former
dancer in a burlesque show, induc
ed Lang to take four drinks of
whiskey each of which contained
the drops, last Saturday night.
Officers are seeking the actual
killers in the Chinese district.
Exchange Bill Of
Lands With Nome
Passed Congress
Congress Passes Bill Swap
Certain Lands With The
City of Nome, Alaska.
(By The Associated Press)
WASHINGTON, July 12, — An
echo of the fire which swept Nome
last September, was heard in the
House Friday, when Delegate Dim
ond called up the senate bill to per
mit the federal government and the
City of Nome to swap some lands,
an exchange was needed to straight
en and widen some of the streets of
the city.
The fire cleanup bill passed unani
mously and was sent to the presi
dent. I
The house also passed and sent
to the senate, the bill to permit1
Anchorage to issue up to seventy-five
thousand dollars in bonds for the
purpose of construction of a muni
cipal building and telephone exchan
ge.
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STRATOSPHERE BAG
EXPLODES UNKNOWN
CAUSE-NO FLIGHT
(By The Associated Press')
RAPID CITY, July 12—Disaster overtook the National
Geographies’ U. S. Army Air Corps stratosphere balloon,
when the giant bag collapsed of an unexplained cause, one
hour before her scheduled take-off, at four AM today.
No one was injured. Five men working on the gondola
preparatory to lashing the metal ball to the balloon were
forced to jump to safety. Guards also scattered to avoid
injury.
The bag burst without warning, permitting three hun
dred and seventy-five thousand cubic feet of helium to es
cape, thereby definitely halting the flight.
Captain Albert Stevens, Commander, said “there is
absolutely no explanation” of the mishap. The helium,
which is colorless, rushed out of the bag and a blue haze
appeared. Offices of the National Geographic said that the
haze was caused by talcum powder inside the balloon which
was used in folding the balloon up, to prevent friction. This
couldn’t have been the cause of the accident, they added,
because the friction would have occurred before the helium
was in the bag. It was inflated only about one-eighth capa
city so as to allow for expansion by the sun. The expedi
tion cost one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars, and
whether another attempt will be made is unknown yet.
Sun Continues On
Heat Rampage As
Temperature Is 114
Town In Kansas Record 114
Degrees Temperature As
Sun Continues Heat
(By The Associated Press)
UNDATED, July 11, —Moving in
to the middle west to emphasize
summer, the sun continued to con
tribute its bit to the cycle of dust,
floods and heat.
Thirty-five deaths have been at
tributed to the recent heat wave
which has occurred in eight mid
west states, with no signs today
of abatement.
Temperatures on the Atlantic and
Pacific seaboards remains cool to
day. Phillisburg, Kansas reported
a temperature of 114 degrees today.
Laura Ingalls Now
Holds The Record
East West Flying
Laura Ingalls Sets Record for
Women in East to West
Flight—Over Course
(By The Associated Press)
BURBANK, July 12, —Laura In
galls landed at the airport here at
7:51 p.m. last night, on a non-stop
flight from New York, being the
fifst woman to make such a trans
continental (light.
Her time was 18 hours, 19 minute
and 30 seconds. The West to East
mark is held by Amelia Earhart
seventeen hours, seven minutes and
thirty seconds. The westward flight
however, generally takes longer on
account of headwinds.
Mrs. Waley Takes
Stand Eli Odense
At kidnap Trial
(By The Associated Pres^ i
TACOMA, July 12, —Testifying
in her own defense in the Weyer
haeuser kidnap trial, Mi's Waley de
clared that William Dainard, alias
Mahan, now a fugitive from justice,
threatened to kill her husband and
the boy “if I asked any questions
or let on like I knew what was go
ing on".
These threats were coupled with
Dainard’s display of two pistols, she
told Judge E E Cushman, and this
caused her to rent the hideout house
in Spokane.
The court denied John F Dore's
motion for a directed verdict. The
court then recessed Thursday night
after Mrs Waley’s direct evidence,
had been given. She will cross-ex
amined today.
LOST—On airport, a Hamilton
pocket watch. $5 reward. Finder
return to Jack Stewart, Pacific Al
aska Airways, Nome.
Subscribe For The Nugget
Man \\ ho "Got"
l)i I linger Resigns
From Dept. Justice
Ace Man-Hunter Of Justice
Department Resigns Af
:» Years Mopping Up
GOT 1)1 LUNGER
Melvin Purvis Says He Has
No Definite Plans Which
Can Yet made Public
(By The Associated Press)
CHICAGO, July 12, —Melvin Pur
vis head of the Chicago office, De
partment of Justice, Bureau of In
vestigation, and the man who dir
ected the successful hunt for Dill
inger, announced today that he had
resigned from the Department of
Justice. lie said his plans were'
too indefinite at the present time,
to disclose. He will remain in Chi 1
cago for the time being.
Purvis, who is only 31 years old,
is a mild-mannered southerner, and
a crack shot. Whether he fired the
bullet which killed Dillinger, he
will not admit.
Purvis has been chief of the Chi
cago Bureau for the past three years
and is credited with having rounded
up most of the hoodlums in the Chi
cago area.
Business Leaders
Opposing New Tax
Program Strongly
Expect Deluge Of Telegrams
On New Tax Program
Of President Roosevelt
APPREHENSIVE
Legislators Deny Tax Bill To
' Be Postponed To Some
Other Session Future
(By The Associated Press)
WASHINGTON, July 12, — The
nation-wide offensive which busi
leaders are conducting Roosevelt's
new tax plan, drew expressions of
apprehension today from some dem
ocratic legislators.
Considering the plan, they fore
saw a new .shower of telegrams
pouring down as a result of the
country wide distribution of the i
statement that the U. S. Chamber
of Commerce was attacking the tax
program as destructive, confiscatory,
and a perversion of the taxing pow
er.
Congressional leaders denied ru
mors that the President’s plan for
a “wider distribution of wealth”’
through high inheritance, gift and
income taxes, would be delayed to
a future session of congress.
EXTORTION WRITER IS
NABBED BY FEDERALS
WROTE MANY NOTES
(By The Associated Press')
ATLANTIC CITY, N. J.. Julp 12—J. Edgar Hoover,
Chief of the Bureau of Investigation of the Department of
Justice announced today the arrest in New York of Alfred
Otto Wagner, aged 38, of Brooklyn, who is charged with
writing extortion letters demanding a total of four hundred
and sixty-five thousand dollars, from relatives of seven per
sons who figured in national disappearance or kidnaping
cases, including the Weyerhaeuser case of Tacoma.
Hoover said that Wagner was trapped while attempting
to collect extortion money. He has a criminal record and
was paroled from Sing Sing in May, 1934.
The letter written by Wagner to the Weyerhaeuser
family as released by Hoover sought to imply that the writer
was one of the kidnapers and that they were changing their
plans. It read :
“If you don’t keep your mouth shut you will never see
your son. We mean business. Destroy all other notes.’’
Wagner is the father of several children, and had been
on the relief rolls until recently.
Miners & Merchants
Bank At Nome Quali
fied Now Title Two
John E. Pegues, Territorial Direc
tor for Alaska, under the National
Housing Act, was in receipt of a
wire from his Juneau office today,
that it had been advised from Wash
ington, D. C., that the Miners and
Merchants Bank of Alaska at Nome
had been fully qualified under Title
2 yesterday to make insured loans
on residential construction pertain
ing to from one to four family
houses.
A late press release from the office
of the Director in Juneau comments
on various phases of the new set-up
regarding this division of the hous
ing activities:
JUNEAU, Alaska, June 26—Im
portant changes affecting the mut
ual mortgage Insurance plan of the
National Housing Act became ef
fective June 24, it was disclosed in
a statement issued by John E. Pe
gues.
Simplification of procedure, re
iuced costs to borrowers, and more
complete insurance coverage for
lenders were cited by Mr. Pegues,
who is Territorial Director of the
Fedral Housing Administration, as
the salient points in the revised
program.
“Previously, interest rates and the
rate of mortgage insurance prem
iums varied according to the class
af residential property to be mort
gaged.” Mr. Pegues explained. “In
all, there were six different classifi
rations of such properties For new
construction a maximum interest
rate of 5',” was allowed, plus a ser
vice charge of '2 of 1%. The mort
gage insurance premium rate was
12 of lrc. For certain classes of
homes already constructed,the basic
interest rate was 5Vz%, the service
charge '■> of 1% and the mortgage
insurance premium 1%.
“AH such categories are now abol
ished. The new regulations provide
that on anv insured mortgage, the
bank or other lending institution
can not charge more than 5%, plus
‘2 of 1 % service charge, making a
maximum total interest payment of
511;% ■ All mortgage insurance pre
mium are to be collected at a set
rate of '*> of 1% irrespective of the
type of residence against which the
mortgage is placed
“Heretofore there have been two
sets of application forms—one for
new and one for existing construc
tion. Henceforth a single standard
form will be used."
The new regulations are similar
to the ones they supersede in that
they provide insured mortgages
must be confined to dwellings hous
ing not more than four families,
having not more than 25% of the
floor space area devoted to business
purposes and in other respects com
plying with the property standards
of the Housing Administration.
Mortgage funds, Mr Pegues said,
will continue to come from private
financial institutions approved by
the Federal Housing Administration.
“In many ways the new regula
tions will serve to make the mutual
mortgage program more effective
and I am confident that Alaskans
desiring to build new homes or to
mortgage existing residential pro
perty will find the Federal Housing
Administration plan offers the ideal
solution to. their problems,” declar
ed Mr Pegues.