Target Manhattan

And how long did you anticipate it would take to get the money to Maitland’s office?

Well, it had to be counted, didn’t it? Not note by note, but stack by stack at least. And it had to be packed into some sort of carry-containers. And we had to arrange for a guard on it in transit, and we had to whistle up an armored truck. Figuring on traffic and time-in-motion and all the rest of it, I called Maitland and told him he couldn’t expect to get delivery in less than an hour and a half.

In other words the earliest you could promise it would be a quarter to four?

I told him we’d make every effort to do it faster than that, but it didn’t look humanly possible to shave very much time off that estimate.

You were aware that the deadline for delivery was three o’clock?

Yes. I was. But there was nothing I could do about it.

Grofeld (Cont’d)

We’re deeply grateful to you for your typescript, Captain. You’ve done an amazing job of reconstructing the backgrounds of the two men.

Well, the department gave me time off to compile the dossiers on them, Mr. Ski

It’s a remarkable job of detective work, nonetheless. And while I’m no judge of writing styles, I must say it’s far more readable than most of the official documents one sees.

Well, thanks. I’m a part-time fiction writer, of course. I guess some of it’s too flowery. It probably needs editing.

Not by me. In any case I wonder if you’d let me ask you some questions about your own participation in the case.

Fire away.

You arrived in Mr. Maitland’s office at what time?

Somewhere around twelve forty-five in the afternoon.

Mr. Azzard of the FBI was there?

He’d arrived a bit ahead of me. Of course, I’d been monitoring the situation from my office for more than an hour by that time, but I decided I’d better get over there personally in case there was something I could contribute. I guess it was partly vanity and partly impatience-I just couldn’t stand being on the periphery any longer. The truth of the matter is, as far as police department business was concerned, Sergeant O’Brien had the situation as well in hand as anybody could. He’s an excellent officer. I’ve submitted him for a citation.

He certainly seems to deserve some recognition, I agree. Now, it wasn’t until about two twenty that you received definite word that the money would be delivered, but not until forty-five minutes after Ryterband’s deadline?

That’s right. We got a call from someone at the Federal Reserve. That call came at two seventeen. They said it would be at least ninety minutes before we had the money.

But you’d suspected as much earlier, hadn’t you? I mean almost everybody seems to have felt it would be impossible to get the money up so quickly.

Yes. Matter of fact I remember we were very surprised up there when they told us they could have it to us by three forty-five. We’d never expected it could be done that early.

What I’m getting at, Captain, is that someone must have gone to Charles Ryterband and said to him that it wasn’t possible to raise the money in time.

We were all trying to convince him of that.

At what time, and by whom, was this matter first brought to Ryterband’s attention?

I don’t know. By the time I got there he’d already been told that.

In other words Ryterband had been informed of the probable delay, and he’d been informed at some time prior to your arrival at twelve forty-five.

Actually I expect that must have been one of Maitland’s first statements to Ryterband.

Yes, Mr. Maitland says it was. I’m simply trying to pin down the fact that Ryterband was not only informed of it, but was actually aware of it. The point being that a lot of people were talking at him incessantly and there’s some doubt as to how much of it actually penetrated his consciousness. He must have been highly confused by all the activity.

He was flustered, yes. But he was in control of himself. He was aware of the fact that we didn’t expect to be able to deliver the money on time.

Fine. That’s what I wanted to establish. Now, how did he react to that information?

I’d call it stubborn disbelief. He refused to accept it. From what he said, I gathered he was utterly convinced that men with money could do anything. If they couldn’t raise the money in time, it meant they didn’t want to. That was how he felt about it.

And you tried to convince him otherwise?

We all did. We took turns at him. Hell, we had to convince him. We weren’t trying to put anything over on him. We were telling him the truth. We had to make him see that.

And did you?

Not for quite a while, no. Finally we started to penetrate, I think. He began to waver. He got on the radio and told Craycroft the situation down there.

How did Craycroft respond?

At first it was the same as Ryterband’s initial reaction. All he said was “Negative.” I remember Mr. Rabinowitz, the bank’s security officer, throwing his hands violently into the air at that moment and wheeling away from us in despair. I think that gesture had an impact on Ryterband-he saw it, he saw that Rabinowitz was honestly distraught. I think that’s what convinced Ryterband that we were telling him the truth about the time factor.

And what did Ryterband do then?

He got back on the radio and talked some more. You could tell by his voice that he was honestly desperate-that, in a fu

Did that seem to change Craycroft’s attitude at all?

No. Not a bit. You’ve had this information from the other witnesses, haven’t you?

I’d like your recollection of it, Captain.

There was a discussion between Craycroft and Ryterband about the fuel situation. Of course, none of us had any hint about their getaway plan then. You know about that now, don’t you, from Mrs. Ryterband?

Yes. Go on.

Well, they were arguing. Ryterband said they could afford to shave an hour off the fuel margin. He said something about, “If they pay the ransom, you can ditch the bombs over open water. It’ll extend the range by reducing the weight of the plane.”

But Craycroft wouldn’t buy that?

No. He kept saying, “Negative.” Nothing would budge him. It was damned depressing. Because it made it crystal clear to us that we were dealing with a crazy man. He’d made his plan and he was too damned rigid to deviate from it, even if it meant the difference between success and failure. We were convinced he didn’t really care whether the money was paid or not. We were convinced he’d just as soon drop the damn bombs.

Harris (Cont’d)

Now at about one forty-five, as I reconstruct it from the other testimony, you and Sergeant O’Brien were over by the window watching the airplane pass overhead. You’d already run through the taped film of the plane that you’d taken from the helicopter. Is that substantially correct?

It might have been closer to one fifty, one fifty-five.

And at that point you were speculating about Craycroft’s intentions. Whether he meant to bomb the city regardless of what was done on the ground.

Well, yes. I mean, suppose we did come up with the ransom on time? It didn’t look likely even then, but suppose it did work out. His partner collects the money at three and he’s long gone by five ten. What’s to prevent this screwball from dropping the bombs anyway? I mean, we didn’t know for sure what he’d do, but the way things were going, it was obvious we couldn’t count on his sanity.

Of course, this was after he had refused repeated requests by his own brother-in-law to postpone the deadline.

That’s right.

Please forgive my repetitiousness, Mr. Harris. It’s just that we’d like this record to be as accurate as possible.

I work the same way as a reporter, Mr. Ski