United States v. Papworth, Cr. No. 9775.

• Decision Date: 11 November 1957
• Docket Number: Cr. No. 9775.
• Citation: 156 F. Supp. 842
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America v. James E. PAPWORTH.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Texas

156 F. Supp. 842

UNITED STATES of America v. James E. PAPWORTH.

Cr. No. 9775.

United States District Court N. D. Texas, Fort Worth Division.

November 11, 1957.

Heard L. Floore, U. S. Atty., Fort Worth, Tex., for plaintiff, the United States.

Green, Byron & Wright, Randell C. Riley, Fort Worth, Tex., for defendant, James E. Papworth.

ESTES, District Judge.

The indictment in this case charged the defendant under Section 371, Title 18 United States Code, with a conspiracy to violate Section 2113(a) of Title 18 United States Code, that is to rob Carswell Air Force Base Facility of the Fort Worth National Bank, a banking institution organized and operating under the laws of the United States.

Prior to the trial defendant filed (1) a motion seeking to dismiss the indictment, to suppress evidence and for a bill of particulars, and (2) motion to instruct the government to produce records.^*

Motion To Dismiss Indictment

The basis of the motion to dismiss is that "Carswell Air Force Base Facility is not a bank and is not a banking institution." The defendant contends that under the laws of the State of Texas the Carswell Air Force Base Facility could not be a bank or banking institution because Article 342-903 Vernon's Annotated Civil Statutes of the State of Texas prohibit branch banks. Therefore, the defendant says that the indictment does not allege any cause of action under Section 2113(a) of Title 18 United States Code which states that it is a violation to take by force from a bank or banking institution.

The indictment on its face stated that Carswell Air Force Base Facility of the Fort Worth National Bank was "a bank and banking institution". Moreover, the proof offered on the motion and at the trial sustained the allegation in the indictment. Black's Law Dictionary, Fourth Edition, defines a bank as "an institution * * * empowered to receive deposits of money, to make loans, and to issue its promissory notes * * or to perform any one or more of these functions." Bouvier's Law Dictionary unabridged, defines a bank as "a place for the deposit of money". The Texas Banking Code, in Article 342-701 defines the term "bank" to include "any person, firm or corporation engaged in the business of receiving and paying deposits".

Since Carswell Air Force Base Facility accepts deposits, cashes checks and provides paying and receiving facilities for officers, enlisted personnel and civilian employees of the air force, and for custodians of non-appropriated funds of the air force, it clearly is a bank and banking institution by all of the foregoing definitions.

The provision of the Texas Banking Code prohibiting branch banking, cited above, has no application to the Carswell Air Force Base Facility of the Fort Worth National Bank. Such facility is not, and does not purport to be, a branch bank under 12 U.S.C.A. § 36. It is an arm and agency of the federal government. It was established by the Fort Worth National Bank under its designation as financial agent of the Government in accordance with the provisions of 12 U.S.C.A. § 90, which reads, in part, as follows:

"All national banking associations, designated for that purpose by the Secretary of the Treasury, shall be depositories of public money, under such regulations as may be prescribed by the Secretary; and they may also be employed as financial agents of the Government; and they shall perform all such reasonable duties, as depositaries of public money and financial agents of the government, as may be required of them. * * *"

The letter of January 20, 1948, from the Treasury Department to Mr. H. W. Peterson, Vice President, Fort Worth National Bank, authorized the establishment of the Carswell facility by the Fort Worth National Bank "under its designation as a Depository and Financial Agent of the Government".

As such it is an arm and agency of the Government, just as is a military post exchange. Military banking facilities and post exchanges are instituted and function in much the same way. In Standard Oil of California v. Johnson, 1942, 316 U.S. 481, 62 S.Ct. 1168, 1170, 86 L.Ed. 1611, the Supreme Court held that post exchanges as arms of the Government were "integral parts of the War Department, share in fulfilling the duties entrusted to it, and partake of whatever immunities it may have under the constitution and federal statutes". To contend otherwise would be to contest, after nearly one hundred and fifty years, the right of Congress to establish a national bank, and any effort to control the operations, functions, and duties of a national bank in its capacity as financial agent of the Federal Government is an attempt to overrule McCulloch v. State of Maryland 4 Wheat. 316, 4 L.Ed. 579, and the multitude of decisions resting thereon.

The independence of an agency of the Federal Government, functioning within the scope of its authority, is illustrated by State of Ohio v. Thomas, 1899, 173 U.S. 276, 19 S.Ct. 453, 455, 43 L.Ed. 699, in which it is stated:

"* * * we think a state legislature has no constitutional power to interfere with such management as is provided by congress."

In James Stewart & Co. v. Sadrakula, 1940, 309 U.S. 94, 60 S.Ct. 431, 436, 84 L.Ed. 596, the Court in effect made the same decision in saying:

"The authority of state laws or their administration may not interfere with the carrying out of a national purpose. Where enforcement of state law would handicap efforts to carry out the plans of the United States, the state enactment must, of course, give way."

The operation of military banking facilities is clearly the carrying out of a national purpose, an area in which the authority of state laws or their administration may not interfere. Even if it were to be conceded, which it is not, that the operation of these facilities constituted a technical violation of state law, the enforcement of such law would handicap efforts to carry out the plans of the United States, and the state enactment must give way.

It being evident that the Carswell Air Force Base Facility of the Fort Worth National Bank was a bank or banking institution within the meaning of Sec. 371, Title 18 U.S.C. defendant's motion to dismiss was denied.

Motion To Suppress Evidence

The portion of the motion relating to suppression of evidence reads: "Defendant respectfully moves the court to instruct the United States District Attorney and any officers who expect to use any statements made by the defendant, any evidence gained through any information from the defendant, or any evidence gained as a result of conversations with defendant during the time defendant was illegally detained before being arraigned at the United States Commissioner's hearing, not to use same * * * that such evidence, if any, obtained by the law enforcement officers investigating the case to be the fruit of the illegal detention above referred to in this motion". The "illegal detention" was alleged to be for a period of approximately 44 hours between arrest on April 29, 1957 "around 6 o'clock p. m." until May 1 at 2 o'clock p. m., when taken before the United States Commissioner under Rule 5(a) Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, 18 U.S.C.

Papworth was taken before a United States Commissioner within a very short time after the City of Fort Worth police officers turned him over to federal officers on May 1. Papworth was arrested¹ by and held in the custody of Fort Worth city police for investigation of a suspected robbery of valuable oil paintings in the office of a Fort Worth multimillionaire, and suspicion of forgery as well as conspiracy to rob the Carswell bank facility, all of which were violations of state law, for which the City police officers had reason and authority acting in their capacity of agents of the City of Fort Worth and the State of Texas to arrest the defendant and take him into state custody. Papworth remained in city and state custody from the moment of his arrest until shortly before taken before the United States Commissioner.

While FBI agents first received and transmitted to city and state officers information concerning defendant's planned bank robbery and freely cooperated with those officers, the detention of defendant Papworth by state officers was not at the instance of federal officers.² The type of cooperation between state and federal officers existing in this case is proper in a government such as ours where we, the people of the United States, conduct our affairs under a federal system which places primary responsibility for police protection of the too rapidly diminishing law-abiding portion of our population upon the members of the federation—the states.

The aim of the motion to suppress is to exclude statements made by defendant Papworth to: (1) Fort Worth newspaper reporters at 7 a. m. on May 1, and to (2) the reporter for television station WBAP—TV recorded at 9 a. m. on May 1, and presented to the television audience on the "Texas News" program, in which Papworth admitted that he had a part in a plan to rob Carswell Air Force Base Facility; and particularly the re-run of Papworth's telecast in the presence of the jury. At the hearing on the motion, prior to trial, it was shown that on the afternoon of April 30 Papworth had made voluntary oral confession of his guilt to police and FBI officers, which when committed to writing he did not sign. However, on the trial no confession or admission of guilt by Papworth to any law enforcement officer was offered in evidence.

Defendant made no claim or proof that his confession to officers or his admissions and incriminating statements broadcast to the public were made by reason of force, threats, compulsion, coercion, inducement or other improper means, defendant contending only that such admissions and incriminating statements were inadmissible because made during his "illegal detention" between 37 and 39 hours respectively after his arrest and between 7 and 5 hours respectively before his...