MURDER MEN OF CHICAGO

Hokitika Guardian, 27 January 1930, Page 7

MURDER MEN OF CHICAGO

GANG LEADERS £SOOO A WEEK WAGE' BILL.

(By EDGAR WALLACE IN “Daily Mail”)

You must not suppose that Chicago is indifferent to the terrible crimes which have disfigured her history, even though the. victims have invariably been bad men who deserved death. This Chicago is the most amazing city in the world, certailn the most virile city in the United States. It is predestined to he the greatest city in the world.

It has a population aproaching four millions; all, with the exception of about 50,000, being law-abiding persons—except in so far as the Prohibition Act is concerned. They are people who want- liquor and get it. They have no illusions; the realise that they themselves are law-breakers and are indirectly responsible for every casualty in the booze war. Like A 1 Capone, they “don’t- want trouble.” Murders and gang war are abhorrent to them. They would prefer some system of supply which does not involve casualties; and when those casualties take the shape of horrible atrocities their fury is aroused. In effect they say:

We want liquor, and we realise that the men who slake our thirst are desperadoes who kill one another for the privilege of supplying us. We demand tnat the law shall punish the murderers, npd that all the forces of law and order shall be efficiently applied to bring every murderer to justice.

COMPETITION. It is not the killing which distresses Chicago, but the fact that the administration of justice is such that palpable murderers escape. At the back of tire average man’s mind is the feeling that if the courts and the police did their duty the booze racketeers would evolve a system of supplying drink which did not call for the employment of gunmen. Murder at present is incidental to -competition. One -gang has a consignment of drink sent through by ship or train, another gang gets to hear that the cargo is due to arrive and whisks it off before the legal owners, who have paid big money, can lay their bands upon their purchase. That has happened again and again and has been followed by extensive gunning.

The gang that has been robbed does not go to the police. Nobody outsido ol the underworld knows that the hijacker has been operating. All that they do know is that A, B. O, and D have been shot up for their, sins. ’•.‘lie Capone and Torrio crowd were always anxious to avoid killings. Their organisation was little snort of marvellous. Under the eyes and nose, and within the knowledge, of. a certain section of the police, they were supplying beer openly to the thousands of speakeasies which exist in every great American citv. Their turnover, in one year was seventy million dollars; the profit of the respectable brewer who financed them was twelve million dollars a year.

Torrio’s wages was £5,000 a week, outside of the actual cost of production. Gunmen guards receive 100 dollars a week—that is the regular salary. One peculiar fact is apparent: women play little or no part in the gangsters’s actual busines life. It is impossible to trace any feminine influence except in two killings. Anselmi and Scalisi, the Gennas hired assassins, were roughly allied to the Capone gang, though I doubt very much whether they were ever under his direct orders. You must understand that even the gangs friendly with one another have no real tie. Joined by interest to the main body, there has always been a section which had on its hands a- private feud and a distinct objective. “ I am inclined to think that the remnants of the Genna confederation were never amenable to the direction either to Torrio or of Capone. “Bugs” Moran, the leader of the O’Banion-Weiss section, carried fon the traditions of his predecessors. He headed a faction which remained openly at war with “them damned Sicialian’s” as O’ Bunion called them, ! and Capone had no illusions as to what would he his fate if ultimately he came ■ into their hands. I Police headquarters was bitterly at war with both sides. “Big Bill’ I Thompson, in his appeal for votes at ‘ his latest election, promised Gangland I that it he were made mayor he would ; get rid of John Stege, chief of the I police, and when lie was elected he | kept his promise. There was, however, j a police commissioner, William Russell, strong enough to override the ' mayoral decision, and John Stege re--1 turned to headquarters to carry on his . work.

“BIG BILL” DISCREDITED. Yet another factor for order was and is the Chicago Press. The “Chicago Tribune” and the '‘Chicago- Daily News” dominate public opinion. These newspapers are absolutely without fear. The threats of gangdom, the machinations of the political machine, leave them unmoved. Bribes, threats, wheedlings, cajoleries have not brought them an inch from their course. Bill Thompson, a ruined man the “Tribune” brought an action against him which absorbed his family fortune— indulges himself in sporadic outbursts against the “lying

Press,” hut the lying Press have smashed him effectively. His own machine is broken. His State Attorney has been replaced by Judge Swanson, who is so popular with gangdom that his house was bombed on L,.e eve of his election. “Big Bill” is still Mayor of Chicago, but he is a discredited and shadowy figure. Even the gangs are no longer interested in his influence, for the world of gunmen are on the defensive and the great “Bugs” Moran has heeded the warning of Tony Lombardo and has no permanent address “where a a guy can find him.”

“In hiding, is he?” said the cynical police chief. “More likely he’s at one or the best hotels in Chicago!” There is reason why Mr Moran should be invisible to callers. The successors to the wild Gennas staged for his benefit the most complete and the most effective warning that any gangster has ever had. Nobody knows what was the immediate reason for the S-: Valentine's Day massacre. Searching through the list of crimes of late 1928 and early 1929, it is difficult to nook up the sequence.

BOOZEDQM MASSACRE. Tony Lombardo and Tony Ferraro, wno were killed at the corner of Madison and Dearborn streets, died for no gang reason. There is in the United States a society called the Unione Siciliano, the head of which was a gangster named Uale. His vice-regent in Chicago was John Torrio, and when that gentleman decided to leave, two candidates were put forward for the position. One was a nominee of the Moran gang, the other was Capone’s nominee, Tony Lombardo. Uale, who had some regard for his own peace of mind, to say nothing of his life, favoured Lombardo, but dared not say so. He tried to make a compromise, his efforts in this direction being considerably curtailed when he was shot to pieces from a car which drew alongside his in the streets of Bioklyn, probably a Moran car.

Tony Lombardo assumed the leadersnip in Chicago. The value in dollars and cents to that leadership, and for what reason those dollars and cents were paid, must be left to the reader’s imagination. That finished Tony, He and his companions were, as I have said before, killed in a crowded street, one of the murderers undoubtedly being Peter Rizzito, who was killed by Lombardo’s friends a month later, A man named Lolardo followed Lombardo both to his high office and to Ins grave. Obviously it is not a healtln job. But none of these things justified the massacre. Half-a-dozen men were killed on both sides for various reasons, but none was a “big shot.”

The massacre therefore had its reason in a purely private act by “Bugs” Moran’s gang which affected the vested interests of boozedom.