Was the Merchants Trust Bank a particular target for any special reason?

No. Any of the major banks would have done as well. We chose the Merchants Trust mainly because it wasn’t too far from the lower East Side Highway, which meant that Charles wouldn’t have far to drive before he could get across the bridge into Brooklyn and away on the expressway.

Did it occur to any of you how bulky five million dollars in cash would be?

We worked it out very carefully, Mr. Skinner. Assuming there would be a random selection of bills in denominations from one hundred dollars down to ten dollars, we calculated a total of approximately thirty-five thousand bank notes. They would be used bills-we specified that. We actually went to the bank and cashed a check for two hundred dollars and changed it into one-dollar bills. Then we weighed the two hundred bills on a postal scale. It was almost exactly eight ounces-half a pound. I’m not sure our scale was exactly accurate-it was quite old-but at least it gave us a working figure. Four hundred bills to the pound. That meant the total would weigh about ninety pounds. Not more than one hundred pounds, in any case. Wrapped in banded stacks of five hundred bills each-about two inches thick, each stack-we calculated seventy stacks. You could fit it all into one large suitcase or two ordinary suitcases. Charles was always a big man, powerful in build-he never went to fat. It was no great effort for him to carry two fifty-pound suitcases, one in either hand. We even tried it, with suitcases filled with books from my library shelves.

Extraordinary.

You needn’t be so surprised, Mr. Skinner. We thought of everything. Everything.

Maitland (Cont’d)

There’s a point of confusion you may be able to help us clear up.

I’ll be glad to if I can.

Who suggested that you get the money up?

(Laughter) Everybody did.

No, I mean, who suggested it first?

I don’t really remember, Mr. Skinner. I do know this much. Everybody was suggesting it. I was the one who had already done something about it.

At what time?

Starting at, oh, I’d say about eleven o’clock. Ira Rabinowitz-my security chief-was in the office, and he was on one line talking to the police. I was on the other line to one of the executive vice-presidents, Mr. Prince, asking him to find out what our cash availability situation was. I told him we had to raise the money. I think he’ll confirm that for you, if there’s any question of it. While I was on the interphone with Prince, two police officers came into the office Patrolmen Weinstein and Criscola?

I suppose so. I didn’t get their names, or didn’t remember them. They were in uniform.

Police records show they arrived in your office at ten fifty-seven.

Then that’s when I was talking to Prince.

I see. Then in your own mind you had decided almost instantly that you were going to pay the ransom?

Mr. Skinner, that man was right in front of me in my office. Willard Roberts, Ryterband, whatever his name was. I’d seen his eyes, heard his voice. And I had seen that plane from my window. There wasn’t the slightest doubt in my mind that he meant what he was saying. He had me cold. I was under duress. No man in my position could even think about risking the lives of thousands of innocent people for the sake of an armload of paper money.

But it must have occurred to you that they might have been bluffing. That perhaps the bombs weren’t real-or that perhaps they didn’t intend to use them, regardless.

It crossed my, mind. But it wasn’t a chance I was about to take. Hell, Mr. Skinner, if I’d taken a chance like that I’d have been a pariah for life-whether I’d been right or wrong. No. I had no choice. No choice at all.

It has been suggested that you weren’t committing your own money. That the money belonged to the bank-its depositors and stockholders and the like.

I’m being rather patient about this, I think, Mr. Skinner, but I don’t really think that sort of petty accusation deserves to be dignified by an answer.

Of course. You had both the responsibility and the authority, as chief executive officer of the bank.

Yes.

And, of course, the money was insured.

There seems to be some dispute whether it was insured against this type of crime.

Oh?

I’m sure we’ll iron out those definitions to our satisfaction. There isn’t an insurance company in the world that won’t try to renege if they think they can get away with it. They couldn’t make it stick, of course, but it is the sort of fine print that makes it possible for insurance companies to drag their heels and delay payments. Time is money, of course-the more an insurance company can delay paying, the less it costs them to pay. Aren’t we getting off the track?

Yes, I suppose we are. Let’s return to the decision you had made, to raise the money.

May I offer a comment on that?

Certainly.

I made two decisions, actually. One was to raise the money, if at all possible in the time allowed us. The second decision, of course, was to pay the ransom. The two were separate.

I understand that…

The point is we had some small reason to hope that the authorities would find some method of dealing with the threat. I tried to give them full cooperation, of course. If there was any chance of forestalling the threat, it would make it unnecessary for us to actually pay the ransom. But I had to try to raise the money anyway. You see that.

Of course. Now you spoke with your executive vice-president, Mr. Prince, at a few minutes before eleven. What was the result of that conversation?

Mr. Prince told me he’d get back to me as soon as he’d found out our cash-on-hand situation.

And he did so?

Of course. He called me back and informed me that At what time did he call you back?

Around eleven twenty, I suppose. There were several police officers in the office by then, interrogating Ryterband and tying up my phones a good part of the time.

And what did Mr. Prince say?

He said there wasn’t a chance of getting that much cash together within the time limit from our own resources. We have more than forty branch offices and they’re located throughout the metropolitan area. Given enough time we might have been able to do it, but the deadline made it logistically impossible.

What did you do then?

I immediately called our chief cashier, Mr. Valkenburg, and explained the problem to him. I suggested several possibilities.

Could you give me an example or two?

Well, we could have called all the various banks in the Wall Street area, for example. Made up a consortium, got contributions from a lot of different banks. Or we could call the Federal Reserve. Or we could In the end that’s what Mr. Valkenburg did, isn’t it? Called the Federal Reserve?

Yes. That was his decision. I left it up to him. Emmett Valkenburg has one of the keenest minds in this business. He thinks fast, he’s decisive, he’s a go-getter.

He’s also got a rather sharp sense of humor, I’ve been told.

Have you met him yet?

No. We’ve scheduled an interview for later this week.

You’ll enjoy meeting him. He’ll leaven your proceedings, I can promise you that.

You left the implementation of the decision up to him?

Yes. I’ve found the single secret of administration is to hire the best people you can get and then rely on them. I relied on Emmett Valkenburg to find the fastest method of raising the money. I don’t think my judgment was misplaced.

Eastlake

Your name, please?

David Eastlake.

Your title and position, Mr. Eastlake?

I’m the assistant director of the Federal Reserve Bank for the New York district.

Then you’re the chief operating executive officer of the New York Federal Reserve Bank?