US UCLA Library Special Collections, A1713 Charles E. Young Research Library, Box 951575, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575. Email: spec-coll@library.ucla.edu. Phone: (310) 825-4988
Description
Access to this collection is generously supported by Arcadia funds. The Bureau of Investigation and Department of Justice set up a trap for Truman Steele George, who had been sending threatening mail to the family of Mrs. Laura Perry Vail. George testified that he had been subjected to spells of mental incapacity and was under the possession of another when he wrote the letters. Agent Hanson steps in front of Mrs. Vail while smoking a cigarette as they exit an elevator. Photograph appears with the article, "Extortion Guilt Fixed," Los Angeles Times, 01 Apr 1936: A3. Text from negative sleeve: 4542 - Laura Perry Vail w/Dept. of Justice agent (widow of William Banning Vail, pioneer rancher) Truman S. (Steel) F. George (Arkansas handyman at Vail home) Extortion 3/31/36 [stamped:] Apr 1- 1936 Text from newspaper caption: Mrs. Laura Perry Vail, wealthy widow, is shown being escorted from the Federal Building by Department of Justice Agent Hanson after Truman George Steel had been convicted of attempting to extort $2500 from her under threat of harming her children. Handwritten on negative: Laura Perry Vail hiding behind D.J. 3/31/36
Type
Image
Format
b&w nitrate negative
Identifier
uclamss_1429_13734 ark:/21198/zz002hp09x
Language
No linguistic content
Subject
Cigarettes Widows Extortion--California--Los Angeles Vail, Laura Perry, 1889-1966 Hanson, Arthur D., b. 1893
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