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Post by acondon on Mar 26, 2008 9:18:47 GMT -5
I did not know where to post this. What do we know of Al Reich?
Was he the kindly exboxer and good friend and partner to Condon, faithful and patient? or do we see a different Al Reich when we read old newspaper clippings of his bouts. When he fought Sailor Fritts, he beat him until Fritts was "out" on the ropes, with the ropes preventing Fritts from falling to the floor. Reich continued to beat Fritts even thoug Fritts was out. Reich would not stop except for the referee putting his arm around Fritts' body and stopping the fight. Al Reich was known for a bad temper in the ring. He was get angry and then not listen to his trainer or managers and he would fight the fight his way which accounted for many of his losses.
Does anyone know when Al Reich met Condon? It appears that Condon was 30 years his senior.
Does anyone have information on Condon's Last Will and Testament? I would like to know if Condon provided for Reich in death. Reich moved to the Ossining/Tarrytown area buying a home overlooking the Hudson River. I am wondering when he moved there?
Maybe understanding Al Reich, and Jafsie's relationship with Reich might help us understand Condon and his part in this case, at least a little better.
On the night Condon and Lindbergh delivered the ransom money (St. Raymond's) it sounded like Reich wanted to go along. When Al didn't get to go, he told Jafsie that he would remain at Jafsie's house in the event that he, Al Reich, was needed.
Anyone with info on Reich, please post.
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dena
Detective
Posts: 129
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Post by dena on Mar 27, 2008 21:17:37 GMT -5
I have tried & been unable to find anything out about Reich's origins before he entered the boxing world. I wonder if he had been a student of Condon's since Condon had a good thirty years on him. But Condon had also been very involved in teaching boxing to young men in the Bronx so maybe they met this way?
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kevkon
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Post by kevkon on Mar 28, 2008 20:35:23 GMT -5
Als wife, Agnes was a school teacher.
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dena
Detective
Posts: 129
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Post by dena on Mar 28, 2008 22:15:34 GMT -5
Thats one more piece of the puzzle then. I wonder if she worked with Condon. Does the whole Al Reich as "bodyguard" strike you as strange too, Kev?
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Post by rmc1971 on Mar 28, 2008 22:36:51 GMT -5
That's a good point that really I haven't heard mentioned before. Why would Condon have needed a bodyguard before the LKC?
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kevkon
Lt. Colonel
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Post by kevkon on Mar 29, 2008 7:28:06 GMT -5
Dena, I think almost everything about Condon is strange! But then I remember that he was from a completely different era , actually century. Think about when he was born. I doubt Condon needed a bodyguard. I think he enjoyed the company and more to the point, I think it satisfied his ego. There are so many things regarding Condon that can be viewed as either suspicious, eccentric or just plain false. Here is one, the night of the ransom drop Condon and Reich were supposedly having dinner at Parry's in City Island. The owner reported that Condon had a "package" on the table which he later surmised was the ransom box. So what's Condon doing with it at a restaurant? See how easy it is with Condon to speculate. He invites it!
Hey Dena, BTW Do you think that is DB Cooper's parachute that was found?
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dena
Detective
Posts: 129
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Post by dena on Mar 29, 2008 10:42:36 GMT -5
LOL We are all aflutter out here in Clark Co WA that it might be DB's chute. Im thinking about putting a sign on my fence that says "Hope you made it, DB!" ;D
I HOPE it's his chute. The FBI loves to say he's dead because it has always rankled them that they never solved it. But, yes, I do think there could be a good chance it was his chute. although the guy who packed it said, when it was first found, that he'd recognize it immediately, I haven't heard anything again from him again. It was obviously buried. and I don't think they found a body yet. And since Frenchman's Bar , where the $5,000 was found in 1980, is roughly 32 miles away from where the chute was found, that would mean he made it. Because there is no way that money could have made its way down to the banks of the Columbia river by itself. No river in chute area that could have carried it down.
I have a question for you, Kev. Supposedly none of the other loot from DB's hijacking (abt $195,000) has never shown up. However, I asked a few people who worked at banks back in the 1970's & 80's if they ever remembered seeing any lists of serial numbers to check against & they did not. In addition, it was $20.00 bills. L series from San Francisco mint. I'm not sure how it works with the mint, but do you really think that all $20.00's from there were checked as part of the loot as the years went by? Esp before computers?
So if someone moved to Mexico for instance wouldn't it have been easy to launder that monery? Esp if they had held onto it for years before they did so?
As far as Condon goes, I cant read enough about tyhis guy. Theses so much more to him than meets the eye. and so much more to his & Reichs friendship that meeets the eye too. In my opinion. Just from what I DO know.
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Post by rick3 on Mar 29, 2008 11:32:49 GMT -5
Condon was not only hooked up with Al Reich, but also the editor of the Bronx Home News (Gregory Coleman) and Liberty Magazine (Fulton Oursler). Coleman was seen by Ueber at St. Raymonds with JFC and Oursler went along to Panama with Myra and Dr. John? hanging around with these Editors makes Condon appear less suspicious to me? So if Al Reich didnt get to go to Panama when were his services terminated and by whom?
Kevin: "While Dr. John F. Condon secluded himself with neighbors near his quiet home at 2,974 Decatur Avenue, the Bronx, yesterday, the proprietor of a tiny seafood restaurant in City Island told the story of how Jafsie and Al Reich, his friend and bodyguard, had eaten supper there the night the Lindbergh ransom was paid. NYTimees" Sept 27, 1934
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mairi
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Post by mairi on Mar 29, 2008 11:35:19 GMT -5
I agree with you Kevkon, that Condon just probably enjoyed the company (or would that be more like "audience"? ) of Reich. Somehow I have the impression that "bodyguard" was just a tag someone put to it later. I can't help but think Condon was playing a sort of double game throughout. By that I don't mean criminal involvement , but maybe that he knew or thought he knew something, that he was working all on his own. To me this might account for some of his contradictions (or lies). I can't escape the sense of "activities of duality" going on there, with him.
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mairi
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Post by mairi on Mar 29, 2008 11:55:28 GMT -5
Rick~`Re:Uebel (All my LKC books are still packed up in the moving boxes ) Was this the same occurrence as when Condon was also there and some exchange of an envelope(?) was observed? Had been wanting to review that whenever I can re-discover it's source.
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Post by kit on Mar 29, 2008 14:17:38 GMT -5
Reich and Condon's relationship has always puzzled me, too...Condon's involvement with boxing may have introduced him to Reich and, as I think Dr. Gardiner mentions, may have had him cross paths with the younger Hauptmann during his sparring days. I still can't believe that Condon had never seen Hauptmann - he seems like the kind of person who made a point of knowing as many people as possible in his beloved burrough, or at least having them know him. But back to Al...perhaps he functioned as Condon's link to the seamier side of life; so much speculation possible here.
BTW, does anyone know the finer details of Condon's brush with misconduct in his earlier days?
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kevkon
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Post by kevkon on Mar 29, 2008 14:45:49 GMT -5
Dena I think Michael or Rab know more about the details of the currency checking. I have often wondered also as to how efficient the process is. I also wondered about money being passed internationally. I still think Condon was enamored with his own presence and was almost Quixotic in his sense of his own importance. That's why I tend to take his statements and boasts with a grain of salt. I know others see it differently, though. It's interesting to look through the various news stories on him. You can see how carried away he can be with himself. I think he was one of those types that actually believed it.
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dena
Detective
Posts: 129
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Post by dena on Mar 29, 2008 16:45:07 GMT -5
I think you have summed up Condon's behavior really well, Kev. I was just reading some of the old newspaper articles on him & he changed his stories so many times. And the thing that is so surprising is that no one seemed to really ever call bull _ _ _ _. Pat, I did find out that Reich had a brother, Ernie, who was a famous athlete (basketball, I think) who died very young, in the early 1920's, I think. I'll send you the articles I found. I'm going to try to figure out how to download images for proboards56 again. I must have done something wrong. It's not very much yet but I'm trying to find more info on Reich's background. I also am intrigued that Charles Schippell, had rented his Mt rose shack to a man who went by several aliases, "Joseph Gerardi". When Cerardi was arrested in 1934 for having kept his wife a nude & starving hostage for several years, it was said in the papers that he had been a middleweight boxer. One of Cerardi's many aliases was "Frank Jerome" which was interesting since I did find a "Frankie Jerome" who had been died from a blow to the head after a match in 1924. Maybe Cerardi had appropriated the name Frankie Jerome for one of his aliases. I believe (but need to check) that Frankie Jerome had boxed Reich at one time too. But of everything Condon said & did I find the story he told Oursler about being taken to a room where he saw heads being preserved in jars behind glass just flat out disturbing. Creepy. Why would he tell Oursler this story? If true, why would he not have ran immediately to the police after this alleged serial killer & collector of heads let him go? Having let him go of course because, he, the great John Condon, had answered the killers question correctly ,& having matched wits with him & bested him, the killer let JAFSIE go. Because as with many murderers who decapitate their victims, they stick by their word. LOL But usually with all great liars, there is always some kernel of truth somewhere though. So I wonder what the kernel of truth is in THIS story. Just as Im trying to corroborate the FBI blurb about Condon having been arrested in April of 1888 for stealing $300.00 from someone. Oursler said that he also saw Condon as a very frightened man. I wonder why he thought this. Generally people who are frightened don't take their show on the road as Condon did. I saw him posing with the ladder & giving "lectures" on the law. Why? He wasn't a law professor. I also wonder if Al Reich accompanied him on the vaudeville circuit. I sure wonder what Agnes Sweeney Reich thought of Condon's presence in her & her young husband's life. And I wonder what Condon's sons thought of Reich. Did they seem as a brother or as a usurper? Because being a business partner is one thing. But the whole bodyguard thing is something else altogether. Didnt Condon claim to be usually armed.? In my experience a handgun is a pretty good bodyguard in & of itself. Was this "bodyguard" scenario perhaps just an excuse to have Al with him at all times? So I wonder if anyone knows for sure how Reich & Condon met. And I wonder if Reich went with Jafsie on his two month extended vacation to Panama? And after all of Condon's spiels about how he loved the Bronx, why was he not buried there? Wasn't he buried in the same county that Reich ended up moving to? I guess we have all these questions but not too many answers. I think that if Condon was being blackmailed into acting as go between, or he was part of it from the get go, basically, WHATEVER part he played, big or small, Reich was in on it too. They spent far to much time together for him not to be. Or was it perhaps Reich all along who was calling the shots & "bodyguard" was just the front used for him, Reich, to keep an eye on Condon? AKKKKKKKKK Just more questions. Sorry, Pat
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dena
Detective
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Post by dena on Mar 29, 2008 20:50:37 GMT -5
Okay, I might just have found a miniscule clew. Very tiny. Al Reich is mentioned nowhere (at least in the mainstream press) before Sept 1913. But in 1919 I found an article referencing his return to "Stillmans Gymnasium". Which was a gym known for training boxers & was boarded up to keep in the smell of sweat. This must be a guy thing. Anyway, apparently Stillman's Gym was started by a Marshall Stillman (haven't found exact date of opening yet). But it was originally called " Marshall Stillman's Gym to Help Ex-Convicts". When the gym was purchased in the early 1910's by Lou Ingber, rather than change the name of the gym, he changed his name from "Lou Ingber" to "Lou Stillman". He was a retired cop. After 1920 the gym was purchased by a Billy Grupp. Who was apparently a very anti-Semitic hateful man. But I am theorizing that Stillman's Gym was probably a pretty good place to come into contact with ex-convicts. And most certainly those convicts would have included underworld types amongst them. And maybe Al Reich met some of those underworld characters at his gym. An exclusively male enclave. And I wonder if Condon ever hung out/trained there too. I know that he liked to tutor young boys in boxing. And hadn't Condon himself been an amateur boxer at one time? As Al Reich had been pre-1913. Not too much to go on. But I sure wonder if the Psychopathic Pugilist Cerardi trained here with Al Reich. It seems to me as if the boxing world was rather small at this time. And apparently the "Stillman Gym to Help Ex-Convicts" was THE place to go to train. I must confess, the name of that gym just brings fits of giggles upon me. A lot of these old articles do. Woe to the poor person who lost their mind, even momentarily, because it would be in the next days paper how this person was now "insane". I imagine that would be a pretty difficult bell to unring.
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dena
Detective
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Post by dena on Mar 29, 2008 22:18:17 GMT -5
KIT WROTE "BTW, does anyone know the finer details of Condon's brush with misconduct in his earlier days?"
Kit, Im sure trying hard to find out. I know of only one mentioned in the FBI report, from April of 1888. He was accused of stealing $300.00 from someone. I am having such a hard time finding stuff on Condon Im starting to wonder if he led a double life in his younger days too & used aliases. Do you happen to know of any more Condon crimes? Or I guess I should say "alleged" crimes" . Have you ever read the Oursler report on Condon? I would love to hear your thoughts on it. That one just got under my skin & just flat creeped me out.
Dena
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kevkon
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Post by kevkon on Mar 30, 2008 7:19:42 GMT -5
The two "incidents" I am aware of are the charge of stealing a purse and the charge of some inappropriate behavior with a minor(s). I don't know if either are true. I know these were discussed on this site if you want to search for them. If not you might ask our oracle Michael when he returns as I am certain he knows.
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dena
Detective
Posts: 129
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Post by dena on Mar 30, 2008 12:09:39 GMT -5
I thought there was more than one incident regarding Condon & charges of indecent liberties with children though?
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Post by Michael on Apr 2, 2008 19:37:36 GMT -5
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Post by Michael on Apr 9, 2008 5:50:09 GMT -5
That he, Dr. Condon, purchased a lot on City Island about 1928 at an auction sale; that he subsequently sold a half interest in the lot to Al Reich, either in 1928 or 1929, and that later, possibly in 1930, he repurchased Al Reich's interest in said lot; that the lot was located at Reveille Place, formerly Queens Place, City Island, New York. (Special Agent Sandberg, 7-24-34, p.9)
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Post by Michael on Apr 9, 2008 15:51:28 GMT -5
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dena
Detective
Posts: 129
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Post by dena on Apr 10, 2008 8:46:31 GMT -5
Thank you for this, Michael! This is exactly the kind of document I have been wanting to see.
Dena
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Post by kit on Apr 10, 2008 10:26:14 GMT -5
Thanks, Michael. What a great resource this is - I knew I should have spent more time poking around.
For a child to make such an accusation in an age when, if proven false, the consequences could be dire is interesting. Plus, the word of a child against that of a trusted teacher, etc. Innocent until proven otherwise, of course, but this is coming from a time when the resources for children and families making this charge weren't what they are today.
Not sure where this is going; I was struck by a comment in The Case That Never Dies about Condon's familiarity with the shack in Van Courtland Park (I think) and the activities therein. Just sounds a little creepy. Not that being a pervert has much direct bearing here, unless it is suggestive of a domineering and manipulative personality which, in Condon's case, may already be well established.
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mairi
Lieutenant
Posts: 548
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Post by mairi on Apr 10, 2008 12:10:30 GMT -5
Hi Kit~~~"Not that being a pervert has much direct bearing here". I'm inclined to think the accusation (whether true or not) could have been used as a blackmail handle or a sort of controlling handle if there were connections at play that we just don't yet know about. As a for instance--it perplexes me as to why Nosovitsky asked Condon's kinsman if there were anything unseemly in Condon's background. Seemingly, Noso and Uncle Dinny were not even closely acquainted. So why would Noso seek him out to ask such an off-the-wall question(?) I appreciate your point about accusations of that type being handled very differently back in time. The victim being the one most thrown into a position of "disgrace", teachers being more revered/can do no wrong, back then.
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Post by Michael on Apr 12, 2008 9:42:41 GMT -5
I've been slowly going through my different files working my way eventually towards the trial transcripts. And so as I find something interesting I will post it. Here's a little something developed from Cpl. Leon's investigation concerning whether or not Hauptmann knew Condon & Reich: The investigators interviewed Horace Smith who owns a garage at City Island, and at which place Dr. Condon frequently visits during his stay at City Island, and which is also one of the places where he first became acquainted with Al Reich. (11-10-34)
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Post by Michael on Apr 19, 2008 13:29:17 GMT -5
Q: How long have you known Al Reich? A: Nearly ten years.
Q: How long has he been acting as your body guard and chauffeur? A: He was never by bodyguard.
Q: How long has he been closely associated with you? A: About five years.
Q: Just as closely as he is now? A: Never any different. I knew he was a champion boxer. I saw him punching the bag on one occasion only. I admired his character. He takes his mother out every single day. I bought some real estate and he said "how about me going into some of that?" It was fifteen hundred dollars for two lots and I sold him one log adjoining mine for half of that and the interest. I bought another for nine hundred and we went half again.
[Condon Statement 6-2-32]
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Post by Michael on Apr 20, 2008 9:55:30 GMT -5
Move to the next figure in the cast ---- a towering, heavily-built man, Al Reich. At one time the sports writers believed that he would be the professional heavyweight boxing champion of the world. He was, in 1913, the amateur heavyweight champion of boxing, and in 1911, was the amateur shot-put champion.
Reich was important in this picture. He was the unofficial bodyguard for Dr. Condon, although it was doubtful in the doctor need a bodyguard. Reich volunteered his services and the use of his automobile, a small roadster coup. Inasmuch as Dr. Condon does not drive an automobile, the offer was accepted. Dr. Condon knew that he could trust the former boxer for they have been fast friends for many years-----a friendship which started in the days when the school teacher was a constant follower of athletic activities. regarded Reich as one of his many proteges. [Written by Coleman - date unknown]
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Post by Michael on Apr 21, 2008 18:15:13 GMT -5
Q: Were you ever suspected of a crime? A: Not to my knowledge.
Q: Were you ever questioned concerning your participation in a crime? A: I was questioned about that little girl, if that's what you mean. Well I was questioned by an official of the board of Education and a committee composed of Dr. Maxwell and Thomas O'Brien. I thought it was from a newspaper that had brought that into consideration through a man. This is surmise, but I think it's correct. There was a principal who lost his position and they appointed me to take his place. I think he died under very peculiar circumstances.
Q: What constituted the complaint? A: That I had improper liberties with this little girl. Her older sister cam back, a girl about thirty.
Q: What was the age of the girl involved? A: Fourteen or fifteen.
Q: What was the disposition by the committee? A: That it was all right and I was exonerated.
Q: What school was that in? A: P. S. 12, in the Bronx. [Condon Statement 6-2-32]
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Post by Jack7 on Apr 29, 2008 23:43:32 GMT -5
The ex-professional boxers I've known have all been connected.
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Post by A Condon on Apr 30, 2008 15:43:56 GMT -5
I think you have summed up Condon's behavior really well, Kev. I was just reading some of the old newspaper articles on him & he changed his stories so many times. And the thing that is so surprising is that no one seemed to really ever call bull _ _ _ _. Pat, I did find out that Reich had a brother, Ernie, who was a famous athlete (basketball, I think) who died very young, in the early 1920's, I think. I'll send you the articles I found. I'm going to try to figure out how to download images for proboards56 again. I must have done something wrong. It's not very much yet but I'm trying to find more info on Reich's background. I also am intrigued that Charles Schippell, had rented his Mt rose shack to a man who went by several aliases, "Joseph Gerardi". When Cerardi was arrested in 1934 for having kept his wife a nude & starving hostage for several years, it was said in the papers that he had been a middleweight boxer. One of Cerardi's many aliases was "Frank Jerome" which was interesting since I did find a "Frankie Jerome" who had been died from a blow to the head after a match in 1924. Maybe Cerardi had appropriated the name Frankie Jerome for one of his aliases. I believe (but need to check) that Frankie Jerome had boxed Reich at one time too. But of everything Condon said & did I find the story he told Oursler about being taken to a room where he saw heads being preserved in jars behind glass just flat out disturbing. Creepy. Why would he tell Oursler this story? If true, why would he not have ran immediately to the police after this alleged serial killer & collector of heads let him go? Having let him go of course because, he, the great John Condon, had answered the killers question correctly ,& having matched wits with him & bested him, the killer let JAFSIE go. Because as with many murderers who decapitate their victims, they stick by their word. LOL But usually with all great liars, there is always some kernel of truth somewhere though. So I wonder what the kernel of truth is in THIS story. Just as Im trying to corroborate the FBI blurb about Condon having been arrested in April of 1888 for stealing $300.00 from someone. Oursler said that he also saw Condon as a very frightened man. I wonder why he thought this. Generally people who are frightened don't take their show on the road as Condon did. I saw him posing with the ladder & giving "lectures" on the law. Why? He wasn't a law professor. I also wonder if Al Reich accompanied him on the vaudeville circuit. I sure wonder what Agnes Sweeney Reich thought of Condon's presence in her & her young husband's life. And I wonder what Condon's sons thought of Reich. Did they seem as a brother or as a usurper? Because being a business partner is one thing. But the whole bodyguard thing is something else altogether. Didnt Condon claim to be usually armed.? In my experience a handgun is a pretty good bodyguard in & of itself. Was this "bodyguard" scenario perhaps just an excuse to have Al with him at all times? So I wonder if anyone knows for sure how Reich & Condon met. And I wonder if Reich went with Jafsie on his two month extended vacation to Panama? And after all of Condon's spiels about how he loved the Bronx, why was he not buried there? Wasn't he buried in the same county that Reich ended up moving to? I guess we have all these questions but not too many answers. I think that if Condon was being blackmailed into acting as go between, or he was part of it from the get go, basically, WHATEVER part he played, big or small, Reich was in on it too. They spent far to much time together for him not to be. Or was it perhaps Reich all along who was calling the shots & "bodyguard" was just the front used for him, Reich, to keep an eye on Condon? AKKKKKKKKK Just more questions. Sorry, Pat 7ISLX4T Hello Dena I am not sure if I got this right. In any event, to answer re 1888 Condon "misappropriated" a purse he found. The purse had $300.00 in it. I can't remember where he found it, I think on a train. In any event the money went missing. Notice how they word it back then, "misappropriate." It really was unlike him but he was 28 years old at the time, perhaps he was married and needed the money. Not excusing it because stealing is wrong. $300.00 in 1888 would be like stealing thousands of dollars now. It really was grand larceny. I don't understand how he got away with it. Thank you to all of you, Michael, Kev, Kit and everyone who posted here. Mairi, Dena. I have learned a lot about Condon and Reich from the posts. Sorry it took so long to get back. As most of you know, I fight Hepatitis C and had the extra burden of my significant other coming down with Oral Cancer this Winter. I haven't been able to spend much time on the internet. His treatment is now complete and I won't be driving all day. Thanks Pat
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