NEW YORK, Sept. 21, 1934 (UP) - One of the busiest gasoline filling stations in the city today was the one where the $10 gold certificate in the Lindbergh case was passed.
More than a dozen policemen were kept busy keeping lanes clear for customers who wanted to buy gasoline from Walter Lyle, the manager, whose suspicion prompted him to mark down the license number of the automobile owned by Bruno Richard Hauptmann. Mr. Lyle's notation finally "broke" the Lindbergh case.
It was about 10 a.m. last Saturday that a tall, heavy-set man, wearing a gray felt hat, drove up in a Dodge sedan and asked for five gallons of gasoline.
In payment, he handed Lyle a $10 goldback.
"Are you sure it's legal to accept this?" the manager asked.
"Of course," the customer assured him. "It's perfectly good. I've got hundreds of 'em."
As the patron drove off Mr. Lyle scribbled the license number across the face of the bill.
Later, he and his assistants, John Lyle and Joseph McCarthy, went to the nearby branch of the Corn Exchange Bank Trust Co. Their suspicion that it was one of the Lindbergh ransom bills was confirmed.
Police were notified and the three men were sworn to secrecy. Mr. Lyons and Mr. McCarthy said police told them "if the case breaks" they would get a trip to Europe and "and a slice of the reward money."
