WAR ON GANGSTERS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 November 1939, Page 7

WAR ON GANGSTERS

ACTIVITIES IN NEW YORK. ’ HUNT FOR RACKETEER. So fierce has become New York's war on gangsters that Thornes E. Dewey, New York’s young militant District Attorney, recently cut short his holiday to intensify the hunt for Louis (“Lepke") Buchalter, America's No. 1 racketeer. Buchalter has been missing for two years. Fearful of arrest, he conducted from his hiding place a war of extermination against former members of the once powerful racket run by Buchalter and Jacob ("Gurrah”) Shapiro—a syndicate which specialised in extorting money from employers and employees in labour disputes. They also specialised, it is alleged, in narcotic selling, blackmail and murder. Buchalter is charged by Attorney Dewey with directing the assassination of at least live men and also causing the death of Irving Penn, a modernPickwick. who was regarded as a man without an enemy. Penn was apparently mistaken for Phillip Orlovsky, a former “Lepke""Gurrah" associate. Penn and Orlovsky lived in tlie same apartment house, but were unknown to each other. To assist Attorney Dewey in his effort to capture Buchalter and "blow the underworld wide open." New York's City Council! will increase the city's £lOOO reward for the capture of Buchalter. dead or alive, to £5OOO. "Gurrah" surrendered late last year to serve a two-year sentence for income tax evasion. It. is believed he did so to avoid being murdered by his own partner. Buchalter. who is described by Federal G-men as "the smartest and most dangerous criminal in the United States." When "Lcyjfe" disappeared he forfeited £2OOO bail which he had posted under indictment returned in connection with bakery and garment trade! rackets. A new indictment "with enough counts to send him away for 500 years” is being prepared against Buchalter. Attorney Dewey stated. Three of "Lepke’s” lieutenants are under indictment for the murder of William Snyder, leader of a bakery van union. In connection with this trial a trail of five assassinations has followed; in addition, several gangsters formerly associated with "Lekpe" and "Gurrah” have disappeared. The investigation of the "Lepke”"Gurrah” mob has been going on for four years and more than 5000 people have been questioned.