Sex. Murder. Mystery.
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To further this image as the master detective and daring man of action, Hoover decided he would go after a couple high-profile criminals himself. That was evident during the days and weeks surrounding the Mattson case. Alvin Karpis, the last of the Barker gang, was considered Public Enemy Number One and in April of 1936, Hoover flew to New Orleans on a tip that Karpis was hiding out in an apartment there. Once other FBI agents had the situation in hand, Hoover —always the grandstander —stepped in to make the arrest. The thrill of being in on the capture (and more importantly the headlines and photos that were sure to follow) brought Hoover into the field the following week when he traveled to Toledo, Ohio, to “lead” the capture of Harry Campbell, another Karpis-Barker gang member. Hoover and the FBI had entered a new phase: the celebrity era. Hoover was a national hero. He began to see himself as the guardian of the country’s laws, citizens and morals. History would later rewrite the story of the most powerful man in the history of American government into the story of a power-mongering, cross-dressing demigod, but that would be decades after Charlie Mattson’s memory had faded. Or hadn’t faded.
Harold Nathan —the assistant Director of the FBI, was 56 and nearing retirement when he arrived in Tacoma to set up an ad hoc office for G-men searching for the kidnapper of the doctor’s boy. Nathan had twenty years in the Department of Justice and the FBI. With thick, rimless specs and unblinking eyes, Nathan was a man who reviled modern conveniences, including telephones and airplanes. He believed in the adage, “spare the rod, spoil the child.” He was also a pioneer in modern criminal detection techniques and was part of the FBI team that created the national fingerprint file in the mid-1920s. An unassuming, balding fellow, many mistook him as a clergyman when he first worked the Lindbergh case — his greatest success.
Clarence C. Spears —director of the Northwest Region for the FBI came from the Portland Division to take immediate charge of the investigation. Ten other agents arrived within a day of the boy’s abduction. They set up a temporary field office on Broadway Ave. in downtown Tacoma and funneled evidence to state crime labs, and most critically, the Technical Laboratory in Washington, D.C.
Earl J. Connelly —the case agent for the 1935 Weyerhaeuser kidnapping, was also dispatched back to Tacoma to work the Mattson case.
President Franklin Roosevelt —Assuming the presidency at the depth of the Great Depression, FDR was a tonic for the times as he helped Americans regain their faith in themselves: “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” In 1936 he was re-elected by a heavy margin — just weeks before the Mattson kidnapping.
Eleanor Roosevelt —When her husband was stricken with polio in 1921 she began to work on his behalf, making frequent fact-finding trips during his terms as governor of New York, and later as President. An excellent communicator in her own right, Mrs. Roosevelt held more than 350 press conferences solely for woman reporters. She wrote a daily newspaper column (“My Day”) and dozens of articles for many magazines. Among the topics she covered in her writings was the kidnapping of Tacoma’s Charles Mattson.
THE VICTIM AND HIS FAMILY
Dr. William W. Mattson —a former University of Washington football star and long-time Tacoma physician pleaded a lack of funds for the ransom, though he posed for pictures in his yachting uniform and lived in a sumptuous mansion with a caretaker and full-time maid. After making a single statement following the discovery of his son’s body, Dr. Mattson never spoke publicly about the case.
Hazel Mattson — an attractive brunette, Hazel Fletcher married Bill Mattson at the estate of famed physician, Charles Mayo (Charles Mattson’s namesake, the founder of the Mayo Clinic) in Rochester, Minnesota. She was the mother of Billy, Muriel and Charles. Mrs. Mattson was a quiet woman, given more to organizing garden club meetings behind the scenes than presiding over them. She gave but a single interview about her missing boy — and never spoke about the case after his body was found.
Billy Mattson — Like his father, Billy Mattson became a successful doctor and stayed in Tacoma, eventually moving into the “gentleman’s cottage” on the estate after the property was subdivided. Friends of the eldest Mattson child, who was 16 when his brother was taken while ostensibly under his care, say Billy never got over the guilt that he hadn’t done more to save his brother from the kidnapper. And like his father, mother, and sister, he almost never talked about it.
Muriel Mattson — a charming and ambitious girl of 14 at the time of the kidnapping, Muriel grew up, went to finishing school, and married Hamilton Lokey, a well-heeled Atlanta politician who made a successful bid for a seat the Georgia legislature. She worked tirelessly as an advocate for education and racial equality. Strangely, her closest friends never knew the story of her brother’s famed kidnapping.
Charles Fletcher Mattson — the 10-year-old victim was a bright, though small, child. Though he had everything any child could have wanted — horses, a private lake, a swimming pool, tree houses, Charles decided he wanted to earn his own keep. He and his best friend started selling magazines door to door two weeks before he disappeared with the kidnapper.
Virginia Chatfield — a slim, blond-haired, high school teenager and friend of the Mattson family. Virginia was visiting the Mattson’s daughter Muriel when the kidnapper burst in. She and Muriel had been out riding horses on “the Tacoma prairie” the afternoon before the crime. The FBI discounted some of Virginia’s recollections about what had happened and what she saw, saying she was an “embellisher.”
THE SUSPECTS
There were literally thousands of potential suspects investigated by the FBI, so many, in fact, those men resembling the kidnapper observed by the Mattson children and Virginia Chatfield, were issued clearance papers by the government after questioning. Thousands were investigated. Here are a few:
Fred Orrin Haynes — questioned by G-men just days after the boy’s remains were found, Haynes was connected to the crime after bloodstained clothing was discovered in a shack not far from where the body had been abandoned. Haynes was also tied to a car stolen the night of the kidnapping, not far from the Mattson home. Haynes had served time in the prisons at Folsom and San Quentin.
Frank Olson — a 32-year-old drifter created a stir when he confessed to the crime on July 12, 1938. After an intensive investigation, it was determined that Olson was merely a publicity seeker and could not have been the killer.
Jakob Muhlenbroich — fluent in four languages, a Nazi sympathizer, and a San Francisco barber, Muhlenbroich was arrested in 1940 for the kidnapping of the three-year-old son of the Count and Countess de Tristan. Muhlenbroich had lived in Tacoma during the year of the Mattson abduction.
“Shorty the Finn” —suspect identified by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in 1955. In fact, no one knows what the man’s name was for certain. Nevertheless, he was the focus of a nationwide manhunt for twenty years — and never found. FBI documents also feature the man and the mystery of his true identity.
Dick and Jack Law — The Law brothers were affiliated with the IWA Union (Dick was president). Dick was later suspected of murdering his wife, Laura, in 1940. Many suggested ties to the Mattson case (the editor of the Aberdeen, Wash. Daily World, wrote a convincing piece about it that is now archived in Olympia. Laura’s murder has never been solved.
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WHY THIS CASE STILL HAUNTS
Set against the 1930s Depression backdrop, in a very real way this story reveals America at a time when optimism about the future and the belief of the invincibility of G-men was necessary to lift the country from greatest economic disaster of the past century. Yet the hopes of the American public were pinned on fantasy… a president who couldn’t walk; an FBI director who purportedly hid his scandalous private life by blackmailing those who could expose him. But under the surface of the fantasy was the reality of the Charles Mattson case. The actions of the media, the bungling of the investigators, and the excruciating pain of a family going through unspeakable loss —be it 2007 or 1937— remains
a collection of universal truths.
Criminal cases often preoccupy people because of their bizarre and gruesome details. A few haunt because of their disturbing resolution, still others, for their lack of it. Significantly, the Mattson case is intriguing and haunting for those reasons. But there is more at play here. Among the aspects the author finds particularly interesting are the parallels between the Mattson case and the one involving JonBenet Ramsey. Both children were from prominent, wealthy families. They lived lives of privilege —a world of extravagant parties, private schools, and summertime teas. Both started as kidnapping cases with ransom demands that confounded experts of the day. Why the sum of $28,000 for Mattson’s life was asked just as fervently as the strange amount requested by JonBenet’s kidnappers decades later. Newspapers, radio and newsreel crews played an important role in the ‘30s as their counterparts would at the turn of the last century. In fact, newspapers were such a ubiquitous force in the Mattson case and around the family’s home that many felt their presence was a factor in the tragic outcome. Dr. Mattson pleaded with reporters to back off so the police and FBI could do their jobs. Pundits weighed in on the radio each day with their suspicions about who might have done the crime. One newspaper published a facsimile of the ransom letter (though it wasn’t disclosed that the image was a phony); another paper printed a letter to the kidnappers written by a classmate pleading for Charlie’s safe return. Rumor was published as fact. And what sounds like a late-20th Century scheme, at the height of the interest in the case, a newsreel company sought to install a camera inside the Mattson home to record the family’s reunion with their beloved Charles.
Further, the evidence at the Mattson residence —as had been the case with the Ramsey home —had been compromised by family members, rendering useless what G-men collected. And, perhaps the aspect that makes both cases kindred in nature, the fact remains that neither case has been officially solved. Speculation abounds. What will the world say about JonBenet Ramsey in seven decades?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
New York Times bestselling author Gregg Olsen has been a journalist for more than twenty years. His nonfiction books have been noted for their comprehensive research and the author’s ability to create a detailed narrative that offers readers fascinating insights into the lives of people caught in extraordinary circumstances. Olsen’s books include The Deep Dark, If Loving You is Wrong, The Confessions of an American Black Widow, Starvation Heights: The True Story of an American Doctor and the Murder of an English Heiress, Mockingbird: A Mother, a Child, a Tragedy, Bitter Almonds: The True Story of Mothers, Daughters and the Seattle Cyanide Murders, Abandoned Prayers: The True Story of Murder, Obsession and Little Boy Blue,and his most recent true crime book, A Twisted Faith.
He is also the author of thriller fiction, including the New York Times bestseller, Closer Than Blood.
The author is the recipient of numerous writing, editing and photojournalism awards, including citations of excellence from the Society of Professional Journalists (Sigma Delta Chi), the International Association of Business Communicators, Washington Press Association, Society of Technical Communication and the Public Relations Society of America.
Olsen’s skill at unearthing long-forgotten documents, securing difficult interviews, and sifting through volumes of official and personal records to bring together the elements to create stirring nonfiction narrative, has elevated each of his titles in the nonfiction crime genre.
Olsen has been a guest on dozens of national and local television and radio shows, including educational programs for the History Channel, Learning Channel, and Discovery Channel. He also appeared on National Public Radio (Saturday Morning with Scott Simon), Dateline NBC, Good Morning America, Today, CBS Early Show, MSNBC’s Special Edition, Entertainment Tonight, CBS 48 Hours, Court TV, The Leeza Gibbons Show, Sally Jessy Raphael, Inside Edition, Extra, Access Hollywood, KABC Los Angeles, Philadelphia After Dark, It’s Your Call with Lynn Doyle, Evening Magazine, Northwest Afternoon, AM Northwest, MSNBC’s Headliners and Legends with Matt Lauer , A&E’s Biography, E! True Hollywood Story, CNN’s 360 Anderson Cooper, Fox Big Story with Rita Cosby.
In addition to television appearances, Olsen has been featured in People, Redbook, USA Today, Salon magazine, Seattle Times, Los Angeles Times and the New York Post.
ALSO BY
GREGG OLSEN
(Nonfiction)
1. Abandoned Prayers
2. Bitter Almonds
3. Mockingbird
4. Cruel Deception
5. Starvation Heights
6. The Confessions of an American Black Widow
7. Bitch on Wheels
8. If Loving You is Wrong
9. The Deep Dark
10. A Twisted Faith
(Fiction)
1. A Cold Dark Place
2. A Wicked Snow
3. Victim Six
4. The Bone Box
5. Heart of Ice
6. Closer Than Blood
7. Envy
8. Betrayal
9. The Fear Collector