Verne Sankey had a job as a railroad engineer in Canada before he became a bootlegger and then a kidnapper. Born in Pottawatamie County, Iowa, Sankey lived in South Dakota. Later he maintained a hideout near Mitchell, SD where he kept one of his captives away from the law. Sankey was caught in Chicago by a combined effort of local law enforcement and the G-Men of Melvin Purvis and J. Edgar Hoover. When he was arrested he had duped a 23-year-old woman to clean his Kenmore Avenue apartment and stay with him. Helen Mattern had quit her job and grasped what Sankey had offered her because it looked promising.