Investigators from the Kansas City police and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service searched the home of James and LeAnn Lewis on Dec. 4, 1981, in Kansas City, Missouri. The couple also operated a tax business there.
Photographs of the raid obtained by the Tribune show a cluttered home strewn with papers and crammed with books.
“It was almost like the kind of place where a pack rat would live,” said former U.S. Postal Inspector Richard Shollenberger. “There was so much stuff, you could hardly walk through a room without bumping into something.”
There were phone books stacked 3 to 4 feet high and magazines covering the countertops when the agencies raided the home.
Federal records show investigators found two large loose-leaf binders that included instructions on committing various crimes, including how to disguise one’s handwriting and how to commit travel agency fraud.
According to FBI reports, authorities discovered credit card applications and receipts that contained the same names as the victims of the scam.
The Lewis home also contained photography equipment and backdrops used to make phony driver’s licenses. Investigators found extortion letters addressed to local banks but apparently never sent.
“It was surprising someone could run a business out of a house that had that much of a mess,” Shollenberger said. “Maybe he knew where everything was, but it took us a long time to sort through everything.”
According to FBI reports, authorities found a book on poisons during their search, but investigators were not allowed to take it because it wasn’t covered by the warrant.
The raid was related to an investigation of a credit card scheme that also involved fake mailboxes installed along rural roadways.
Before leaving the Lewis home, investigators gave James Lewis an inventory of the things they had seized. They returned on Dec. 9 with a warrant for his arrest, but the couple had left.
Almost immediately after the search warrant was executed, James and LeAnn Lewis packed up their station wagon and headed north toward Chicago.
