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The primary election excitement had settled down, and West Vir ginia was sailing alone into the summer months. On a Monday morn ing i mid June, em ployee of the State De partment of Motor Vehicles went to work is usual. What they fond in their office set off the biggest, most intensive, manhunt ever seen in West Virginia. During the weekend pro ceeding that June 20, som cne had pounded their way through an air vent into the DMV vault, and made away with more than $350,000. CITY, STATE and federal officers quickly mobilized for an intensive investigation and set iip round-the-clock opera ting. Numiers of people were questioned. Known safecrack ers and other criminals were bounded up, lie detector tests were given, and every rumor and dip was run down. Theories abounded. The gal lery was the work of profes sionals, or it was the work of amateurs. A fone man could or Could not have pulled the job. THEN, one day nearly three weeks later, Mfigers received What looked like just another routine lip, buth ong that would be he roughly whacked. A man at Marmet had been spending more money than the informants though he should have. So on July 8 a team of of ficers paid a visit to a South Charleston apartment to ques tion likeable, blonde Earl Hayes Mathews. When the officers looked in to the trunk of Mathews’ car they were startled to find the entire loot practically intact, still in DMV money bags, MATHEWS, admittedly re lieved that it was all over, readily told police how he had used a sledge hammer to pound his way through the air vent an! into the vault and made several stips carrying the money out. Even he, related, was sur prised at the size of his haul and consequently was afraid to try to spend it. Cautiously Mathews had even returned to the state of fice a few days after the rob bery where he stood in line and purchased a new license for his car—all the while park ed outside with the loot. MATHEWS also admitted to the amazed officers a string of if other lurgeries over a period of sever months. As a result, the grand jury iniicted him on 12 counts of breakigyound entering. Mathews pleaded guilty to the first two, including the state house robbery, and was sen tenced to L10 years in the state penitentiary. The robbery had frther repercussions when the grat jury rapped the Department at Molar Veluelos for what, it termed Joos a handling of public money, days later visiting in Virginia. They returned to Parsons and on the night of Feb. 24 two DPA workers came to the Isner home and took Rose mary away to begin her life with her new adoptive par ents. Almost as an anticlimax, mire tegal efforts were start ed to have the case reopened, but these were slapped down finally by the State Supreme Court in June and the case was closed. Rosemary is now with her new parents whose names were never revealed, WALLY BARRON AND OREL J. SKEEN The “Evidence” Was Based on a Controversial Tape Recording ROSEMARY JOHNSON Chip in a Legal Sea
Newspaper Details
Gazette Mail
Charleston, West Virginia, US
Sun, Jan 01, 1961
Page 34
Full Page
Clipped by
Diana T.
USA 07 Jul 2026
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