This Day in Norwood History- September 29, 1938-Norwood Couple Arrested In Kidnap-Robbery Case

The arrest last night at their Norwood home of a 19-year-old blonde bride and her 23-year-old husband on suspicion of armed robbery and accessory before the fact, according to police of Station 13. Jamaica Plain, will clear up a long series of safe robberies and gas station holdups through the alleged confession of the husband.

Implicating his wife, as she stood beside him in the line-up at headquarters this morning, the Norwood youth readily admitted that he “was the guy with a gun” in the kidnap-robbery Aug. 29 of Frank G. Twiss, proprietor of a cafe at Berkeley and Tremont sts., whose home is at 550 Center st. Jamaica Plain.

The young bride in turn admitted that she had watched the Twiss home several nights in the five weeks during which “the job was cased” and that she had accompanied her husband in early stages of the actual robbery because she “didn’t want to stay home alone.”

Arrest of the Norwood pair followed admissions allegedly made to the police by Joseph Eppich, arrested in Camden. N. J., some days ago and identified there by Twiss as one of the men who assaulted him, as he garaged his car, robbed him of $53 and threw him out of his own car near Palmer on Aug. 29.

Word was received from Camden. N. J., that Detective Sergt. Herbert D. Dwyer, Boston, left there at noon today, bringing Eppich back to face charges in the Twiss case after Eppich waived extradition. A Camden charge alleging that Eppich had attempted to steal drugs was dropped when Dwyer told authorities the graver charge on which Massachusetts wanted to question the man.

A third man, Alfred F. Guerrini, 25, Mansfield, was named by the Norwood youth as an associate of himself and Eppich in the kidnap-robbery of Twiss. Guerrini, picked up by Rhode Island police in Hope Valley yesterday, was before Judge John W. McIntyre in District Court at Attleboro this morning and was held in $3500 bail on charges of larceny of automobiles and breaking and entering gasoline stations. According to police Guerrini is out on bail from Dedham District Court on breaking and entering charges as is the Norwood youth, allegedly.

“We cased the job for five weeks, trailing Twiss home a number of times because he kept taking different routes,” the Norwood young man told Capt. Thomas S. J. Kavanagh in the lineup this morning. “We waited more than an hour the last night for him to come home to his garage. I stuck the gun in his ribs and Eppich hit him with his fist. We took him for a ride, robbed him and tied him up. then dumped him out at I Palmer. My wife knew about the plans for the job and helped in casing it.”

The Norwood couple talked freely, naming seven other persons police are now seeking to arrest to clear up the innumerable gas station holdups and safe robberies of recent months in southeastern Massachusetts.

Thu, Sep 29, 1938 – 9 · The Boston Globe (Boston, Massachusetts) · Newspapers.com