WHERE BANDITS RULE

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1031, 23 July 1930, Page 11

WHERE BANDITS RULE

CHICAGO GANGS’ POWER OUTRIDES JUSTICE MURDER OF REPORTER It would seem to be almost impossible effectively to fight the vast military and financial reserves of the Chicago underworld, if the candid comment of the "Chicago Daily News” is an accurate reflex of crime there. In its editorial outspokenness upon the murder by gangsters of the “Tribune” reporter, Alfred Lingle (who was later disclosed as having been in the pay of the underworld), the “News” said a few weeks ago: “Let us assume —in the light of recent crime history in Chicago it Is a most violent assumption—that the murderers of Alfred Lingle will be discovered, arrested, indicted and held for trial without bail. What then?

“Past experience shows precisely what will follow. A huge defence fund will be raised by their fellowgangsters. Every denizen of the underworld and even many reputable business men will be required to contribute to that fund under pain of death. TERRORISED TO SILENCE “Men who in the past refused to contribute money for similar purposes were threatened with assassination and some were brutally slain. Material witnesses will he terroi’ised into silence, spirited away or shot dead. “Perjury will be manufactured in quantities to suit. Attempts, successful or unsuccessful, to pack the jury, to bribe or intimidate jurors, will be made. The most successful or the most unscrupulous criminal lawyers, or both, will represent the defendants and will employ their talents to the uttermost to earn their enormous fees. “Will there be a conviction? Who knows? HUGE GANG REVENUE "Is it not clear to every citizen that the vast illicit profits of the criminal gangs which infest Chicago must be shut off by rigid enforcement of the law before any real progress can be made in cleaning up the present intolerable conditions In this long-suf-fering city? “To solve the most recent gang murder is, of course, important. But it is even more important to prevent the long array of gang murders that inevitably will follow, singly or in groups, unless the murder gangs are deprived of their huge revenues and driven out or locked up for the deadly j vermin that they are.”