Paul Huebl, who was a Chicago police officer and lived at Marina City at the time, remembers Morris H. Swibel, the manager of the rental office, asking him about the burglaries. Huebl encouraged Swibel to file a police report, but Swibel was sure it was “an inside job,” such as friends of the victims stealing from them.

Maintenance employees were not suspected and neither were security officers from Andy Frain Services. But one security officer, Al Washington, according to Huebl, could not hide his involvement in the burglaries.

“Al Washington was kind of a smooth black guy,” says Huebl. “He was friendly enough but he sure...kept an eye on me and the other cops in the building, which is a red flag to me.”

One day, Washington is talking to Swibel in his office. “He’s not interrogating him, but he’s talking to [Washington] about the burglaries...and who might be doing this.”

“All of a sudden,” recalls Huebl, “Al Washington gets sweaty and nervous. And Swibel...it wasn’t lost on him. He said, ‘you’re sweating a little bit, do you have a handkerchief?’ And Washington reached in his pocket, pulled out a handkerchief to wipe his brow, and...the master keys to the building’s apartments came tumbling out onto Swibel’s desk just by accident.”

Huebl says Swibel, who recognized the keys and called police, recounted the story to him the next day. At that time, security officers patrolled the residential floors but if there was a problem, a Chicago police officer was sent up.

Washington, who Huebl says would today be described as “a serial burglar,” was able to get into apartments and take property without disturbing anything else.

Morris Swibel, who Huebl describes as “a shrewd guy,” was “the hero of that story.” “Everybody was ‘mister’ or ‘misses’ or ‘miss.’ Morrie was very formal. He always wore a suit and tie. He had a certain amount of panache. And you could not see Morrie Swibel pass a piece of litter in that building in his suit and tie without stopping to pick it up himself.” Says Huebl, now a private investigator in Los Angeles, “If you’re going to have a super for a building, a guy that’s going to take care of 900 apartments, and take care of the Peyton Place that was Marina City, Swibel was the guy.” (Left) Morris Swibel (right in photo), Vice President of Marina Management Corporation, with actor Gary Lockwood on the roof of the east tower in July 1965.