A GANG FIGHT.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 37, 13 February 1926, Page 23

A GANG FIGHT.

PISTOL BATTLE IN CABARET. THREE CRIMINALS SLAIN. A furious pistol battle in which three men were killed, ended a- Christmas Night Dance in a Brooklyn cabaret known as the Adonis Club. One dead man, who was found with (bis head split open and whose body was riddled with bullets, has been identified as "Peg Deg" Lonergan, a well-known gunman and leader of the notorious "White Hand" gang, which for years has terrorised •the neighbourhood. The two others killed were identified as his followers. Festivities were in full swing in the clubrooms when ahout midnight a party of eight or ten couples entered and de--manded steins of beer. Someone in the crowd recognised the newcomers as enemies, and in a, moment revolvers were cracking, and a general battle started, In which knives, axes, bottles and chairs were used as weapons. By the time the police arrived the club was deserted, its patrons having fled through the rear of the premises, leaving behind them hats, coats, and many articles. According to the police, the fight was *he .result of a feud between rival gangssters, precipitated by the murder of one of their number, who was found shot dead in the gutter outside tbe Adonis Out.