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Show The FBIs Greatest Chase TODAY'S TEN MOST Wanted men Continued from page 5 If you Tlie bandit used five names temper again got the better of his judgment. Early on the morning of May 29 he was sitting in a night spot near New Orleans when his attention was attracted by a boisterous argument at a nearby table. He couldnt resist joining. A fight developed, and Bent was caught by a deputy sheriff with a gun in his hand. When he was taken outside, he made a break for freedom. In the wild chase that followed. Bent crashed into another car, ran from the scene and was recaptured cowering under a house some distance away. During the nights adventures, Bents jaw had been broken, and New Orleans police drove their man to a hospital where it could be reset and wired. Then he was taken to Jefferson Parish jail and fingerprinted. Bent had told police he was 'Thomas Richards but he knew that the fingerprints would disclose his real identity and he began complaining about pains in his jaw. Transferred to a hospital, he escaped early that afternoon, stole a 1947 Studebaker and was off. Fingerprints don't lie Bent was right about the fingerprints. They identified "Richards as Joseph Franklin Bent, Jr., and on May 30 when the FBI learned of his escape, a squad of agents was immediately set to combing hospitals, rooming houses and other places where the broken-jawefugitive might try to hide. A radio alert was spread, describing the stolen car. He popped up five days later in Minneapolis when he robbed another supermarket at gun point. The Studebaker in which he fled still bore Louisiana license plates, and alerts were sent to neighboring states while we once more searched hospitals and clinics for a man with a broken jaw. But there was no report of the fugitive or the car. The Studebaker was picked up at the site of a dam project in River-dalN. D., the first week in August, and another search was started from this focal point. The broken jaw presumably put a damper on Bents flamboyant disposition. It must certainly have pained him considerably. In any cane, while we were searching for him through the Midwest, he had holed up on June 15 in Granite Falls, Wash., as Coal F. Redmond, a general handyman and former boxer. The second trade explained his broken jaw, which Bent claimed was the result of a recent match. For the next two months he worked quietly on a berry farm and, when the season ended, he found employment as a hod carrier. With the exception of his short tenure as a Kansas City fishmonger, this was the only period since his release from the penitentiary in December, 1948, when he engaged in honest work. d e, trail The twisting, Coal Redmond committed no crimes during this period, and on Saturday, October 14, he bade good-b- y to the small community and headed east. His jaw was now healed, and he was eager to be on the prowl again. He stopped off in Wenatchee to trade in his car on a 1940 Mercury and then drove across the country. He checked into a New York hotel on West 101st Street about 4 a.m. October 26, and the name he put on the register was the still blameless one of "Coal F. Redmond. He stayed in New York until November 3. On November 8, a supermarket in Cincinnati was cross-count- ry robbed of $1,500, and the gunman was seen to enter a 1940 Mercury sedan with State of Washington plates. A description of the car was immediately flashed through southwest Ohio and northern Kentucky, and within minutes it was spotted by police in Covington, Ky., who gave chase. Bent raced back across the Ohio River where Cincinnati police took up the pursuit. He abandoned the Mercury, entered a private home and at gun point demanded the keys to a 1940 Oldsmobile in the driveway. With this he managed to escape the area undetected. In combing through the abandoned Mercury, police found identification papers in the name of Coal F. Redmond with sales slips, cleaning stubs and receipts indicating that Redmond had recently been in New York City. The next day a local complaint was filed charging him with robbing the supermarket and, a few' minutes later, a Federal warrant was issued for his arrest under the Fugitive Felon Act. FBI agents immediately converged on the New York hotel where he had stayed, while others concentrated on his former haunt in Granite Falls. The urgency of the search was emphasized by the teletype which went out from the Cincinnati field office to New York and Seattle. Due to apparent dangerousness of this criminal, the message read, you are requested to handle all leads at once. Now the FBI was searching for what still appeared to be three different men Joseph Franklin Bent, Jr., of Kansas City, Hap Rayborn of northeastern Wyoming, and Coal F. Redmond of Granite Falls, Wash. We had no means of knowing yet that the three were one and the same. More money and stolen cars No one had reported seeing Bent since June when he held up the Minneapolis supermarket and escaped in the Louisiana Studebaker, and we heard no iftore of Hap Rayborn. But now we were on Bents trail again. On November 24 a gunman robbed a grocery store in Corpus Christi, Texas, of $1,800 and witnesses picked Bents photo from the police album. On January 3, he went to Milwaukee where he held up another supermarket, escaping in a 1949 Ford stolen from the stores parking lot. The car was later found abandoned in Beloit, Wis. Because of this new flurry of activity on Bents part and the elusiveness of this slippery hoodlum, we decided to place him on the list of the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives. The date was January 9, 1951. Now his photograph began appearing in newspapers and magazines from coast to coast. Radio and television stations called upon the public to furnish leads. Tips began coming in immediately but none of them led to Bent. On January 24 Bent was back in Corpus Christi, raiding another grocery store for $1,358. Then he dropped out of sight until June when he returned to Milwaukee and another supermarket, only to vanish again. He popped up August 17 in Des Moines where a supermarket was robbed of $3,198. As agents in every FBI field division across the United States continued checking all possible leads to Bents whereabouts, the laboratory at FBI headquarters was busy analyzing and comparing the handwriting samples and descriptions of the three criminals, Bent, Rayborn and Redmond. The posContinued on page 28 sibility see any of these men, phone your nearest FBI office! 1. Frederick J. Tenuto, aliasThe Angel convicted murderer, broke jail three times 2. Jamas Eddie Diggs, alias Smitty , wanted for murder of wife and two children 3. David Daniel Keegan, wantedfor murder while committing armed robbery in Iowa 4. Eugene Francis Newman, charged with armed robbery, may have fled to Canada 5. Donald L Payne, notorious sex offender, wanted for prosecution on charge of rape 6. Merle Lyle Gall, a narcotics addict and convicted burglar, wanted for jailbreak 7 8 7. James George Economou, a convicted robber, wanted for unlawful flight 8. John B. Everhart, convicted murderer, wanted for jailbreak, may pose as preacher 9 10 9. Kenneth Eugene Cindle, alias "Screwdriver , wanted for armed robbery 10. Thomas Viola, gangland killer, escaped last September from Ohio State Penitentiary 7 |