# FBI memorandum on the Buchalter and Shapiro fugitive investigation (July 5, 1939)

Canonical: https://mobfiles.org/items/fbi-vault-lepke-p02-developments-memo-1939-07-05/

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.

Pages 42 to 47 of Part 02 of the Vault's Buchalter file are a Bureau memorandum with sections headed "Developments of Investigation" and "Prosecutive Action." The date "July 5, 1939" is read from the OCR of the heading; the page images were not checked, and the OCR of the heading is noisy.

As read from the OCR, the memorandum records that on November 12, 1936 Buchalter and Shapiro were each sentenced to two years and fined $10,000 for violating the federal antitrust laws in the Protective Fur Dressers Corporation case; that Buchalter's conviction was reversed on appeal and Shapiro's affirmed; that Buchalter was still under indictment in the Fur Dressers Factor Corporation case and failed to appear in the Southern District of New York on July 6, 1937, forfeiting $3,000 bail; and that Shapiro surrendered on April 14, 1938. It also mentions a state extortion indictment against the two men.

It lists the rewards: $5,000 from the New York City Board of Estimate (August 20, 1937), $2,500 from the Attorney General (November 8, 1937, expired November 1, 1938), and a confidential offer of up to $5,000 circulated to field offices on March 31, 1939. Page 44 gives a description and an alias list; pages 46 and 47 list family members and income-tax figures, which are not repeated here. A sentence calling Buchalter a contact of the Barker-Karpis gang is the Bureau's belief, not a finding.

## Sources

- FBI Records: The Vault: https://vault.fbi.gov/Louis%20%28Lepke%29%20Buchalter/Louis%20%28Lepke%29%20Buchalter%20Part%2002/view