Box No. 198

Reinhold A. Faust, 74, of No. 2517 North Richmond Street, Chicago, last week told where he was on the night of Nov. 16, 1917. He was at the opera, hearing Galli-Curci sing in Dinorah* in Chicago's Auditorium Theatre. Midway through the first act, Galli-Curci left the dim-lit stage. Reinhold Faust left his seat in Row K, four off the aisle. A woman saw flame, and screamed. Chicago Fireman (now Fire Commissioner) Michael J. Corrigan grabbed a bomb, yanked out its phosphorescent fuse, rushed outside before it could spray buckshot among the 2,200 people present. The perpetrator was not discovered.

The following week Chicago's late Banker James B. Forgan received a note demanding $100,000, on pain of being bombed. Police arrested Reinhold Faust and convicted him of attempted extortion.

"I remember now," Reinhold Faust explained last week. "The rich man question was up at that time. I was fanatic enough to do that thing. I wanted only to scare people. ... I am just a peaceful old man now."

Reinhold Faust was a peaceful old man last week, but for over 21 years he had had no peace. When he was taken to Joliet Penitentiary to serve 14 months for threatening Banker Forgan, he was in a predicament. In Box No. 198 in the vaults of Chicago's National Safety Deposit Co. he had four black powder gaspipe bombs. He solved his problem momentarily by throwing away the safe deposit key.

Then a new problem arose. Unless he paid the safe deposit rent regularly, the company would open the box and find the bombs. Having no key, he could not remove them in secret. The price of safety was $10 box rent annually. So for 21 years he paid blackmail to the devil in cash. Even so his secret was not safe. This winter the safe deposit company decided to move. He could do nothing. So finally Reinhold Faust's box was duly opened. Having heard this story, Municipal Court Judge Matthew D. Hartigan freed Reinhold Faust.

* Not Faust, as romantically reported last week.

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