George Weyerhaeuser Kidnapping - Arrest of Dainard

Arrest of Dainard

On May 6, 1936, employees of two different Los Angeles, California, banks reported that a man had exchanged altered bills at each bank. His license number, obtained by personnel of both banks, was issued to a Bert E. Cole. A surveillance was maintained at the address listed for that license number. On the morning of May 7, 1936, Special Agents assigned to the FBI's San Francisco Field Office were instructed to search that neighborhood. Two Agents found a Ford bearing the reported license number in a parking lot enclosed by a wire fence.

Later, a man entered the car and attempted to start it. When it failed to start, he got out of the car and lifted the hood. Agents approached the man, who was readily identified as being Dainard. He submitted to arrest without resistance, and a .45 caliber Colt automatic pistol was removed from his person.

When questioned, Dainard admitted his participation in the kidnapping. At the time of his arrest, Agents recovered $37,374.47 in ransom money and bills that Dainard admitted he had received in exchange for ransom money. Special Agents also recovered $14,000 in $100 bills that Dainard had buried in Utah. In addition, various dyes and other paraphernalia used to change serial numbers on paper currency were found in the garage of his Los Angeles, California, home.

Dainard was transferred to Tacoma, Washington, where he entered a guilty plea in the United States District Court on May 9, 1936. He was sentenced to serve two concurrent 60-year prison terms for kidnapping and conspiring to kidnap. That same day, he was sent to the federal McNeil Island Penitentiary in Washington. Upon his subsequent transfer to the federal Leavenworth Penitentiary in Kansas, prison authorities determined Dainard to be insane and recommended that he be confined to a hospital.