Part III: Clue of the Killer’s CALLING CARD

See Parts I and II of this Real Detective article below

In spite of these disappointments, Fritz had been keeping the promise to himself and Sergeant Overberg that he would overlook no lead in the crime no matter where it took him. Although other duties encroached on his time, the officer was ever ready to plunge back into the murder mystery at the drop of a clue.

Thus it was on April 25, 1944, that Fritz, Flower and Hein rushed to Colorado Springs, where a prisoner, seized in a $3,700 diamond robbery, had confessed he once killed a policeman and left his gun behind.

The man, who looked discouragingly unlike the Norwood bandit, was later found hopelessly insane.

Often, when alone at his desk, Chief of Police Fritz would open a drawer, remove the .45 caliber automatic and the three leaden pellets and study them. He wondered, with a shake of his head, whether an opportunity ever would come when he might tie them up to a callous killer.

THE year 1945 arrived, and on January 18, Detective Kenneth Vassie received a visitor at police headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky.

It was a friend who during war-times held down the position of auxiliary policeman. He had a problem which seemed to demand professional attention, and Vassie was an offcer to whom he could talk freely.

"It's about a fellow who's threatened my life," the auxiliary officer said.

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