FBI Vault: Louis (Lepke) Buchalter, Part 02

Second part of the FBI's Buchalter file, 1937 to 1939: a New York report on his background and finances, 1939 report pages, the Bureau memorandum of July 5, 1939 on the fugitive hunt, and a Los Angeles report on a search made in August 1939.

Date: 1937/1939
Kind: case-file
Source: FBI Records: The Vault
Retrieved: 2026-10-12
Rights: A record of the Federal Bureau of Investigation released under FOIA. A work of the United States government, public domain under 17 U.S.C. § 105. No page image is stored here; the scans are at the Vault URL.

The Vault titles this part “Louis (Lepke) Buchalter Part 02.” It has 50 scanned pages, read through the viewer’s OCR. Cover sheets carry Bureau serials 60-1501-980, -2774, -3222X and -3275.

As read from the OCR, pages 3 to 21 are a New York field report on Buchalter’s background, associates and finances; pages 23 to 40 are New York report pages dated in 1939; pages 42 to 47 are the Bureau memorandum of July 5, 1939, filed here as its own page; and pages 49 and 50 are a Los Angeles office report (field file 60-122) on a search for the fugitive made from August 1 to 3, 1939.

The reports list relatives, addresses and income figures. This archive does not repeat them. The OCR is noisy and the page images were not checked one by one.

itemFBI memorandum on the Buchalter and Shapiro fugitive investigation (July 5, 1939)A Bureau memorandum of July 5, 1939, in Part 02 of the Buchalter file, setting out the 1936 sentences in the fur dressers case, Buchalter's failure to appear on July 6, 1937, and the rewards offered for him from 1937 to 1939.itemFBI Vault: Louis (Lepke) Buchalter, Part 01First of four parts of the FBI's Buchalter file: a New York field report of August 1935 on the fur dressers antitrust case, a 1937 letter from the United States Attorney, the November 1937 report that names Shapiro and Buchalter as fugitives, and 1955 and 1956 Bureau summaries.

itemFBI Vault: Louis (Lepke) Buchalter, Part 03Third part of the FBI's Buchalter file: the Bureau's narrative "The Furdress Case" ending with his surrender on August 24, 1939, Los Angeles report pages from 1939, a 1956 memorandum, a 1966 Portland memorandum, and pasted newspaper clippings. Page 16 is stored here.