FBI Makes a Funny!

OK, I enjoy a good joke just as much as the next guy; so I have to give the FBI their props--they got me good (in a good way). I picked up my box from the post office. I didn't even rush to get home because while the Denver Mint robbery interests me I'm not obsessed with it. I run some errands, chat on the phone, clean the kitchen, etc...then I open the box. What do I find, but 500 pages on the Cherryvale Bank robbery!!!! The FBI told me they had found 20 pages related to Vivian! I am now doing a mental dance of joy!

The pages are interesting too. Some of it can't be read of course (microfilm images deteriorate over time) but nothing is red lined. I'm not even 100 pages through yet but the information is tantalizing (George M. Chase was probably still living during Cherryvale & Picher). I know it won't answer all of my questions BUT IT'S GREAT!

No Joke!

Evidently, the FBI has located 20 pages on Microfilm about Vivian Chase! Woe, Friday I got two letters telling me no there's nothing. So of course I'm excited even if it's only 20 pages. The files have to be processed which means they will go through a classification review. The information is over 70 years old if I get one blacked out name I'm appealing. I've been through too much to get very little to put up with that BS.

I also have to decide whether I will appeal one of the 'no information' letters I received. Essentially, the letter said that it was FBI HQ policy to limit searches to HQ folders and indices in order to save time. The FBI has essentially refused to search through it's field office information. Now if the letter had said 'there's no information relevant in the field office files' I would give up with out any argument. But of course in order to tell me that they would have to know what the FO records contain. I also need to ask them to tell me if the records have been destroyed. As anal as the FBI is with information I'm sure that they could tell me definitively if those records are lost. What records you ask? Well, Vivian's autopsy file is referenced in the Luer kidnapping file and there are also Kansas City FO reports referenced that would provide information on the FBI's search for her after the Luer kidnapping and a report that might illuminate the Cherryvale Bank Robbery.

I realize that after 80 years (Cherryvale) there's a good chance something happened to the records but just tell me they are no more and I'll be gone.

Well...

Well, I've hit the wall. Friday I received a letter from the FBI basically saying they can't find any other records for Vivian Chase other than the file numbers I was previously given. Those files turned out to be perfectly worthless to me containing no information. I guess it's possible that the information was misfiled and may turn up but it's equally possible that it was stolen or destroyed. I say stolen because it wouldn't be the first time that someone walked out with a file. Of course it would have happened before there was so much security in place to prevent that.

So where do I go from here? I guess I just keep trying to close the gaps on the information I have. You know Vivian was not a major criminal (although as a female she was major) but her associates were incredibly interesting. For now I'm concentrating on Lee Flournoy and Charlie Mays. They are an interesting pair particularly Flournoy. Something tells me if I keep researching their robbery and bootlegging gangs I might just find out what happened to George M. Chase.

Truthfully, I admit to myself, I may never have all the answers to the questions I have about Vivian's life. Vivian was notoriously closed mouthed about herself. Somehow I think the problems with finding information about her have a lot to do with her karma! But you never know...maybe I'll find an answer here and there despite the cosmic interference!

Here we go again...

These mugs are on the inside cover of Run the Cat Roads by L.L. Edge. A book I will not be able to read because I'm too busy studying and procrastinating. (Not that anything that I'm studying is actually sticking too my brain)

I got an email from the FBI again telling me that the files I want are at the NARA and the file numbers I should request. The file numbers are the same file numbers that I requested on my last visit. If you recall I was woefully disappointed.

So, I guess it's back to square one with NARA. I forward the email, explain the tragedy of my last visit, and ask for confirmation that NARA destroyed the files after they were sent over from the FBI. If NARA did destroy the files then they did so with out the FBI's knowledge because my email says that the documents have not been destroyed. Maybe they still exist but they are just lost. So let's all say a collective prayer that what is hidden in the dark comes to light. I know I will. My one consoling thought is that if this proves to be my worst problem this year then I am truly blessed!

John Langan

So this is John Langan; he was pointed out as Vivian's accomplice when she when on her KC, Mo crime spree. They held up a series of small stores (shoe stores, drug stores, etc) for some small change. Langan was also involved with Clarence Sparger and a couple of robberies that put him on the FBI radar. I had requested the FBI to search to see if they still maintained the files on him. No such luck. Evidently "records responsive to my request were destroyed on 2/1/1990; 3/1/1993; and 3/1/1998. Oh well...all is lost.

The FBI may still have Vivian Chase's file...they have searched through records still in their possession and have found files that were microfilmed that may be relevant. Just one problem the FBI's microfilm readers are broken! A very nice Public Information Officer explained that they would not know if these were the files that I sought for at least another month by which time the microfilm machines would be fixed. I wish I had become interested in Vivian earlier in the 80's or 90's.

Patience is a virtue...Virtue is over-rated

I spoke with 3 representatives of the FBI records only to be told that since I was not an FBI employee I can only recieve information about files in FBI custody through FOIA. I learned that it is actually NARA that decides what files the FBI sends to them are destroyed and which kept. So if Vivian Chase's file was definately destroyed then it's the archives fault. They just can't tell me whether the file was sent to NARA , but I do have a FOIA request outstanding so I'll find out that way. So there is hope.

The photo at left is Clarence Sparger's Alcatraz mug. Sparger is according to one FBI informant responsible for Vivian's death. He shot her because she said something that Sparger did not like. Vivian seems to have had a thing for hot heads. Sparger, Mayes, McDowell and her husband all seemed to enjoy acting before thinking things through. Speaking of her husband, George Chase, I'm having no luck with Missouri Archives in getting his prison record. Archives employees consulted a penitentiary admissions index and that index did not include his name. However, as I pointed out to them George Chase is clearly listed as an inmate in the 1920 Census. I don't think the Census taker made the record up. I gave Missouri a copy of the Census and I'm waiting to hear if they will look any further. I'm having the worst trouble with old lists.

Too Sad....

Well my worst fears came true...when I got the box that should have contained the Vivian Chase file...nothing. The HQ FBI index lists Vivian's file number as 91-866-20 which according to the NARA file listing should be located at RG 65 230/A/15/02 box 60; well box 60 contains information about the Bank of Cairo robbery in 1937. The thieves netted all of $446.50. So was Vivian's file destroyed? Why would they keep a file on such a small time job, but destroy the file on one of a stand up criminal like Vivian? I'm truly blue now because my research is at an impasse. I was hoping that the FBI file might contain information such as the interviews with Dorothy Flournoy and Lyman Ford's wife. Interviews that were referenced in the Luer kidnapping file; I was also hoping that it might contain a more thorough explanation about how she made bail for the Cherryvale robbery and maybe the autopsy photos. Yes, I'm morbid...

Well, I got the information for contacting the person at the FBI who is responsible for transferring eligible files to the archives. I'm just hoping that maybe the old FBI indices aren't reliable for finding the file transferred to the archives. I know it's stupid but I'm hoping that the file wasn't destroyed and somehow some benevolent spirit will lead me to it. Or maybe they can give me a list of the files that were destroyed. You know it would save me a lot of time, trouble, and money.

I need chocolate but I'm out; so I'm gonna have a couple of shots of vodka. Medicinal you know...

Oh S#!#

A years work down the toilet. Evidently, I have been completely and utterly wrong. There's no way that the Vivian Davis who married George M. Chase in 1921 is Vivian G. Davis of Springfield, MO. That Vivian died a year and a month before the wedding!

Time to take another look at the sources or perhaps I could interest one of those mediums, who are always bothering dead people, to visit the graves and find out the truth from the source.

I have learned a valuable lesson. I will never trust someone else's research at face value. I will always do my own or verify as if it were my own. Truthfully, piecing together someone's information from old census records when they have a common name is not easy. It is easy to trip up when you can't find everything at once i.e. birth, marriage, and death data scattered everyplace. I just have to look at this as part of the process and not give up.

Yippee

I am so EXCITED! I get a day off so I am going to the Archives to look at the Luer kidnapping file! I can't wait. I've been wanting to do this forever and now I finally have the chance. It has to be done during a week day because the archives doesn't pull files on the weekend. There are supposed to be 3 boxes so we'll see if I can get anything interesting!