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| Pierman McCoy, inmate at Leavenworth Prison 1927 for the Dyer Act |
The Dyer Act (1919)
“To
cope with this problem,” Arch Mandel wrote in 1924, “police departments have
been obliged to detail special squads and to establish special bureaus for
recovering stolen automobiles…this has added to the cost of operating police
departments.”[1] Consequently, the increase in mobility was
matched by a growth of government. The cost of police work in cities with
populations over 30,000 rose steadily from approximately $38,000,000 in 1903 to
$184,500,000 in 1927. The cost of police work in state governments also rose
from approximately $98,000,000 in 1915 to $117,000,000 in 1927.[2] To
combat auto theft, state governments created license, registration, title, and
statistical bureaus and urged the federal government to become involved. E.
Austin Baughman, Commissioner of Motor Vehicles of Maryland, cited 1919 as “the
climax of an epidemic of car stealing” with 922 cars stolen, 709 recovered, and
213 missing.[3]
Baughman urged the country to adopt a Title Law; indeed, by 1919 the states of Michigan,
Indiana, Virginia, Delaware, Missouri, North Carolina, Florida, Pennsylvania,
and Maryland had such laws on the books. The title law assured all motor
vehicles could be identified and located through the name and address of the
owner on record. In 1920, Massachusetts
developed a similar program under the used-car department of the Department of
Public Works.[4]
States that did not pass title laws were a nation-wide liability and became
alleged “dumping grounds” by neighboring states.[5]
Given the losses incurred by insurance
companies and the
interstate nature of automobile theft, federal intervention was forthcoming.
The automobile nullified state boundaries and contributed to the
nationalization of crime fighting. Arch Mandel wrote in 1924 that: “State lines
have been eliminated by the automobile [and the] detection of criminals is
becoming more and more a nation-wide task.”[6] In 1919, Congress passed the National Motor
Vehicle Theft Act, which received the appellation of its sponsor, Senator
Leonidus Dyer. In a speech promoting his bill to the Congress, Dyer asserted
that "It is getting so now that it is difficult for the owners of cheaper
cars to obtain theft insurance due to the great loss that insurance companies
have sustained. During the past year,
automobile theft insurance on this class of cars has increased 100
percent."[7]
Yet
if we are to believe one source, it was not Dyer but the insurance industry
that should be credited with this important piece of federal legislation. [8] In essence, it was the motor vehicle that
greatly extended federal crime fighting power across state lines. In 1918, Chicago insurance investigator E.L.
Rickards visited Michael Doyle of the American Automobile Insurance Company,
and it was Doyle's connection with Dyer that resulted in a law that was a
response to the problem of the interstate transportation of stolen vehicles. Dyer Act enforcement
became the responsibility of the United States Attorney General and the Bureau of
Investigation, although it took several years and some
prodding on the part of insurance interests before federal authorities became
actively engaged in enforcement.[9] Details remained over jurisdiction and
venue. One question that quickly
surfaced centered on where would an automobile thief be prosecuted: namely, at
the point where the car was stolen or at the point of apprehension? NATB
officials went to Washington and met for two days with Bureau of Investigation
Director William J. Burns, Bureau of Investigation Assistant Director J. Edgar
Hoover, and Assistant Attorney General Jess Smith. As a
result of the conference, it was decided that prosecution would take place at
the place where the thief was caught. Furthermore, the
Dyer Act promulgated that thieves receive fines of $5,000 and 10 years in
prison, or both. The American Automobile Association and the insurance industry
lobbied Congress to pass the Dyer Act, which proved to be key to federal
policing in all kinds of crime, especially bootlegging
and bank robberies during the 1920s and early
years of the Great Depression.[10]
Controversy
followed the Dyer Act from its beginning to the post-WWII era. One main point of contention in the courts
and coming from many an accused auto thief centered on the phrase "knowing
to be stolen" written in sections 3 and 4 of the law.[11] Yet,
did the word "stolen" in the statute also apply to embezzlement and
common law larceny? Local, state, and
federal courts, and the Department of Justice, would be asked to interpret the
intent of Congress in numerous cases involving both joy riders and organized
rings. While the phrase "knowing
the same to be stolen" was sufficient to include the act of joy riding,
post-WWII legislators, concerned over juvenile delinquency and the rise of
white, middle class crime among youth, would discuss the narrowing of the Act
to restrict the offense to more serious crimes. Indeed, there are hundreds of
boxes of correspondence at the National Archives in which the documents reflect
the ambiguity of the law and the subtle nuances involving everyday people.[12] Cases
involving misunderstandings concerning the use of a car, the purchase of
vehicles not known to be stolen, and harsh justice directed towards juveniles
were frequent and painfully recounted in letters to the Attorney General, J.
Edgar Hoover, and President Roosevelt. On local and state levels, the wording of
legislation was often rephrased so as to constitute a new offense, namely
"the operation of a car without consent of the owner."[13]
Whatever the motives and legal wrangling, consequently between 1922 and 1933,
auto thefts were the most prominent federal prosecution of interstate commerce.[14]
In
1926, Henry Chamberlin reported a considerable increase in legislative activity
in various states in the face of the ever-increasing incidence of car
theft. This increase in legislative
activity at the state level reflected the beginnings of a modification in the
general perception as to the identity of the car thief. Up to this time, fairly general agreement was
to be found among experts and the public. He was perceived as a professional
criminal who worked largely in gangs -- a predator who would be deterred by the
threat of severe punishment. By the late
1920s, however, some correctional administrators and legislators began to
question the single image of the car thief. In a few states this questioning
became reflected in legislation which recognized the difference between an auto
theft by an offender bent on financial gain, as opposed to that by a youngster
bent on pleasure.
[1]
Arch Mandel, “The Automobile and the Police,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science,
Vol. 116 (Nov. 1924), 193.
[2]
Bennet Mead, “Police Statistics.” pp. 91- 93.
[3]
E. Austin Baughman “Protective Measures for the Automobile and Its Owner,” Annals of the American Academy of Political
and Social Science, 116(Nov., 1924), 197.
[4]
“Checking Automobile Thefts As Massachusetts Does It,” Literary Digest, (October 9, 1920), 84.
[5]
James E. Bulger, “Automobile Thefts.” Journal
of Criminal Justice and Criminology, 23 (Jan.- Feb., 1933), 808.
[6]Mandel,
“The Automobile and the Police,”p.193.
[8]
NATB, p.24-5.
William R. Outerbridge,
Joseph D. Lohman, Albert Wahl, and Robert M. Carter. Supplemental Report. The Dyer Act Violators: A Typology of Federal Car Thieves.
Typescript, School of Criminology, University of California, January, 1967, p.
ii.
[10]Ernest
M. Smith, ”Services of the American
Automobile Association,” Annals of the American Academy of Political
and Social Science, 116 (Nov.1924), 273.
[11] Clipping, "U.S. Agents Prepare to Hunt
Auto Thieves," 1919, Vertical File "Theft Prevention," National
Historical Automobile Collection, Detroit Public Library. "Federal Courts
Divided over Meaning of the Dyer Act," Columbia
Law Review, 57 (January, 1957), 130-2. Congressional
Record, 58 (1919), 5470-8.
[12]
Record Group 60, General Records of the Department of Justice, Formerly
Classified Subject Correspondence, 1910-1945. Class 26, Dyer Act. For example, see Mrs. T.E. Young to Director,
April 4, 1933, Box 1870, File No. 26, Folder 3; A.J. Roberts to Homer S.
Cummings, October 8, 1934, File No. 26, Folder No. 4; Morris Rockway to
President of the United States, January 9, 1937, File No. 26, Folder No. 5;
Antoinette Aleanor Paveligo to President Roosevelt, July 18, 1940, Box 1871, HM
1991.
[13]
Leonard D. Savitz,
“Automobile Theft,” The Journal of
Criminal Law, Criminology, and Police Science, 50 (July-August, 1959), pp.
132-143. See also United States Senate,
84th Congress, 1st session, Committee on the Judiciary,
Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency: Report 61 (Washington: GPO, 1955).
[14]Edward
Rubin “A Statistical Study of Federal
Criminal Prosecutions” Law and
Contemporary Problems, Vol. 1 Extending Federal Powers over Crime (Oct.,
1934), p. 501.
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