George Weyerhaeuser Kidnapping - Arrest of Harmon Metz Waley

Arrest of Harmon Metz Waley

Later that day, Harmon Metz Waley was arrested at home. After making several false statements, he confessed that he and William Dainard, whom he had met in the Idaho State Penitentiary, had kidnapped the boy. He added that his wife had no knowledge of the kidnapping until their arrival in Spokane, Washington. She had been at the hideout house and helped them negotiate the ransom.

Approximately $3,700 of the ransom money was found to have been burned in the Waleys' stove. The ashes were sent to the FBI Laboratory in Washington, D.C., where it was determined that a sufficient number of the bills remained to positively identify them.

Waley claimed that he and Dainard planned to split the money evenly, but that Dainard cheated him out of $5,000. After further questioning at the field office, Waley said that he bought a Ford Roadster, which he registered as Herman Von Metz, when he arrived in Salt Lake City. Under a clump of trees or bushes, he had buried $90,790, which Special Agents recovered on June 11, 1935.

Learning that Waley arranged to meet Dainard at the home of Margaret Waley's parents, agents proceeded to that house. Her grandfather advised that a man answering Dainard's description had come to the house asking for the Waleys. The grandfather told him that the Waleys had been there earlier to pick up their suitcase but they returned to Salt Lake City and had been arrested. The man exclaimed, "My God, did they get everything they had?" before returning to his car and driving off.