CHICAGO GANGSTERS

Hokitika Guardian, 16 June 1930, Page 2

CHICAGO GANGSTERS

DIVIDING THE: CITY

“ftoarfaeo” Capone mid George (“Crazy”) Moran, tlit* rival ( hieago gangsters, have set the Naval ( ouL reaee an example— they have signed a Peace Pact and an Anns Limitation Agreement, writes the American correspondent of a London journal. Representatives of the two leaders met, and agreed that:

It was uneconomic, to go on killing: Chicago was hie enough to lurnish amide dividends for each party. The meeting was nude ‘•businesslike,'’ and not a single gun was drawn, as the city area was sliced up into “spheres of inHuenec.”

Despite the agreement, however, peace does not appear yet to reign supreme in Chicago, an unidentified man, presumably a rum-runner, having been found, dead in his ear, riddled with machine-gun bullets.

As “bootlegging” is one of the biggest businesses in C’iiieaij), it was agreed that it should be conducted in an orderly fashion, and that the previous cut-throat and machine-gun competition .should he abandoned. Capone’s organisation, under the terms of the agreement, will have the WCsit; side of Chicago and part of the Loop, or business districts. Moran’s organisation will coniine its activities to the north side, where seven of the gangtser’s men met sudden death some months ago. To reduce the cost -of operation, smaller arsenals and a reduction of armaments were agreed upon. Each side reserved to itself the right io keep on hand merely sufficient guns and ammunition for self-protection.

Leaders of legitimate- business in Chi ago received the news of Lhe truce with some misgivings, because it will mean that*the gangsters will kill themselves off less rapidly. Colonel Randolph. president of the Association of Commerce, and leader of (the new Vigilance Committee, saw some advantage, however, in tiie fact that the new alliance might make the lawbreakers a simpler object of attack. Smaller “bootleg” rings outside the new combine, he thought, might help the work of extermination.

.MAKING CRIME PAY

Alphonse Capone, known as “Searface,?’, the “emperor” of the underwork! of Chicago has proved that crime can be made to pay—at least for a time.'

In ]£2-6 his “outfit” was taking a gross income of 70,000,000 dollars a year ha 1 f of it as blackmail to the gangs to ensure citizens or visitors from being “bumped”.off. During sonic years his own income —partly derived from bootlegging—inis averaged a million dollars a year; he lias patronised the arts and subscribed liberally to charity; and he has usually contrived to display himself in New York when a particularly bad case of “hold-up” was being enacted in Chicago. Last year he was arrested by the Philadelphia police for “toting a rod” (carrying a pistol), and sentenced to a year's imprisonment, but it was whispered that he had arranged the wnole business to provide himself with a sanctuary from his enemies. When he came out lie went to Miami, where lie has a house on an island, more like a fortress than a Home.

GARAGE “MASSACRE.”

His gang is believed to have been responsible for the ‘ -massacre in a garasre” which took place in C'lreago last year. Details of this murder were recently published. Five members of an opposing gang, with two friends, were induced to enter a garage. An hour or so later “a truckman entering the gafage found seven men lying in a 40ft pool of blood ; .they were riddled from head to foot with machine-gun bullets.”

One man was alive when found, but died shortly afterwards without disclosing the names of his murderers. “With six of his pals dead—one of them bis brother—lie could not squeal. ‘Which gang was it. Frank?’ asked the sergeant of police. Frank’s head shook a negative. f J here was a silent few minutes, then: It’s getting dark. Sorg. So long.’ and Frank was dead.”