Haldon Baker Fink murder investigation June 15, 1939 News-Messenger

              G-Man O'Hara Keeps Information Secret
As Reporters Seek To Unravel Mystery
By DICK BEHB
When the Federal Bureau of Investigation takes charge of a case
the first thing it does is squelch
publicity, working on the assumption that silence is indeed golden
when it leaves any possible suspects in doubt as to just how
much is known.
Not that the F. B. I., fast becoming the greatest agency at
crime solution in the world, does
not appreciate the part that the
press often plays in aiding them,
or the fact that reporters are always willing to cooperate. It is
just one of the hard and fast policies not to talk for publication until the facts are known for certain—unless it suits their ends to
release "erroneous" information to
accomplish a desired end.
Information Scarce
And so it has become with the
first kidnap-slaying in the history
of Sandusky county. Since J. R.
O'Hara of the Cleveland office of
the F. B. I., has taken charge of
the investigation of the snatching
of 10-weeks-old Haldon Baker
Fink, and his subsequent slaying
by drowning, official information
has become exceedingly difficult
to obtain. Invited here by Sheriff
H. L. Myers and Marshal Albert
Lee  of Clyde,  G-man  O'Hara has
taken over completely.
Interest in the brutal case hit
the fever pitch Wednesday afternoon after the finding of the infant in Green Creek, a short distance from U. S. Highway 20, apparently tossed in the small and
sluggish stream from an automobile, possibly while the latter was
still in motion.   .
Return to  Clyde
With the finding of the body,
clad only in night garments and
with the one pink bootee and blue
blanket still missing, the investigation again turned to the infant's Clyde home and its grief-
stricken occupants.
Mr. O'Hara, Sheriff Myers and
Marshall Lee spent the major portion of Wednesday afternoon at
the Clyde residence, ostensibly
questioning the dead child's mother, his grandmother and grandfather, in an effort to shed more
light on what now stands at not
only kidnaping, but murder.
What transpired in the kitchen
of the modest but attractive Maple
street home is known only to the
officials and the members of the
family. While the conferences
were going on, reporters and cameramen from all the leading newspapers in this section of Ohio, as
well  as from  three  leading wire
services, cooled their he«s on the
front    porch,    waiting    for    the
"break"   that   all   anticipated   but
didn't really expect to come.
No Arrest Made
Kidnapings and slayings are not
solved without the arrest of suspects, and no one had been taken,
into custody. Arrests were not imminent, either, on the word of Mr,
O'Hara and Sheriff Myers.
But while reporters were barred
from official conferences, they
found a willing source of information in the person of Edwin,
Baker, 19-year-old uncle of the
slain infant and younger brother
of its mother.
For more than three hourg
young Baker answered the questions put to him by six, eight and
at times, 10 reporters. Always answering to the best of his ability,
he was willing to shed any light
possible upon the crime, but the
results only left newspapermen, always keen to solve a case before
the officials and on the alert to
uncover a possible suspect, mora
confused than ever.
Deserting a possible motive for
the time being, the reporters were
chiefly concerned with uncovering
a possible suspect, setting the approximate  time   of  the  snatching
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