CHICAGO UNDERWORLD.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5321, 3 September 1928, Page 4

CHICAGO UNDERWORLD.

CLLANING-l'P CAMPAIGN. FIGHT AGAINST GANGDOM. Crooks and murderers, in and out of politics (writes a correspqmleiit from ChicagOi), are lighting with their back to the wall. Sprightly, though venerable, Frank J. Loesch, predidenjt of the Crime Commission and chief prosecutor before, the special grand jury empanelled to investigate election bombings, kidnAPPings, sluggings, and murders, has taken up the cudgels in behalf of clean citizenship iff Chicago. Fearlessly, despite his 76 years, .he has .taken up the fight against gangdom. Gangsters and tliugs ahd their hirelings are now dealing with'something they have not had tix meet since the days when C ! ha,rles) S. Deneen; was Cook County’s unrelenting prosecuting attorney—the law, organised and backed by an effective opinion. Because of tile untiring efforts of Mr Loesch the. law demonstrated in no uncertain terms that it is not goiing to be terrorised. On the' contrary, the law itself lias been doing some terrorising, and Mr Loesch, whoso avowed purpose is to “lift Chicago out of the mire” promises further, doses of terrcjrism for lawbreakers. LOESCH PRESSES OFFENSIVE. DeSpite evidence of the desperate state of the criminal ring, whose leaders are being snared o,ne' b.v one, Mr .Loses,ch, whose removal, either by violence or. otherwise;, is the dearest wish of the city’s evildoers', presses his, offensive fearlessly. “People have asked me if I ain not afraid f° r myself,” he told; & grojup o>f business and civic leaders; men know what ,aji ayalanphe they will bring down upon themselves if 1 they attack me. And they are cowards at he.art.” Ba,eking him is the Association of Commerce, which is undertaking to raise £30,000 required to carry to effective results the special Grand Jury inquiry into primary Election crimes,. The public subscription to this fund, made necessary because five members of the County Board of Commissioners, said to be henchmen, of Robert E. Crowe? Stated Attorney, and Homer K. Galpin, voted ag.aiu.6ist its appropriatiojn, is, nearing the £20,000 mark. Mqre than £14,000 now lias, be,en deputed for. the use of Mr Loesch ahdi his staff off assistant prosecutors, who have so far been working without remuneration. Matching this, fund to finance the fight for. good government is one-, sftid to be of equa.l amount, be,ing collected in vice circles to be used in the defence o.f those tried as a result of the special Grand Jury indictments. Conclusive proof that a heavy levy is being made to this, end was had this week when twenty negro proprietors of gambling and disorderly houses ill the First, Second, and Third Wards were informed that they would have’ to increase their protection payments to administration or police colectorsi from £6O to £BO to £lOO and £l2O. UNDERWORLD'STRIKES BACK. The deliverer o.f the order stated that the moftey was to be used to combat the work of the special Grand Jury. “No t w, boys,” they were told, “you will have to lay it on the line.” The indictment by the special Grand Jury this wqek of fifteen alleged perpetrators of election oif violence 'has convinced the underworld that the better element of Society is awake and that the roused citi-zeu-ry is bent o.n a, thorough housecleaning. The underwqrld, according to Mr Lqsch, begap to sth-ilre back almost immediately fallowing, the capture of Johnny Armondo, a.’ political worker in thej forces of Morris Eller, bass of tlie Bloody Twentieth Ward. Armqfido was formerly charged with the murder on, primary day, April 10, of Octavius C. Granady, a negro lawyer, and 'an bppon'ent of Eller for Ward Com mitteeman. The slugging on Wedneqady of Samuel Epstein,, an attorney assisting Mr L’oesch in the election fraud cases, in an effort to take from Epsein papers his assailants, thought contained a list of indictments, and Subsequent attempts' to intimidate or murder. James Huff, one of the witnesses of ihe Granady slaying, revealed'the desperate fight", the vice ring is making to silence its foes It is not qnly the fear .of long prison tqrms that has, cast terror into the' heart of the underworld. There is the evei growing anxiety thoughout the Eller Ward and that'controlled by Homer K. Galpin, kingpin of the Thaanpcon-Crowe-Galpin triumvirate lest failure to liberate on bail, all those in-dieted by the Loesch inquisitorial body may eventually lead to “squawking” whidh would involve hig.fier-ups.

Thq bonds, ranging a-' high as £20,000, demanded by the prosecutors are proving the stumbling blocks to their freedom. MILLION TO FREE PRISONERS. Indications showing that this uneasiness is well grounded came with the report that an Eller, he.njchman had started t'o weaken, and had given information which will lead to the imuplication of those in the higher councils of the underworld. Walter S. Stansbury, of Mr Loesch’s s aff, has denied that a, copfcjSsiOjn has been obtained, but he has not den,led that he has received information considered of great value in getting to, those higher than oardl'nary ward heelers. There was a rumour recently that those now behind the bays ami htoSe who may be arrested as; te' result o,f further indictment'; by the special Grand Jury may soo.n, ire liberated. It is reported that approximately £200.000 in real estate has been offered by property-owner./ o,f the ghetto district south-west of the Loop, in which .the Eller clan reigns supreme. This property, it is said, will be used to fur.nis.ih the £15,000 and £20,000 bonds demanded as bail by kidnappers a.nd murderous assaults.