CRIME IN AMERICA.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 276, 20 November 1926, Page 16

CRIME IN AMERICA.

A RECORD FORTNIGHT. CHICAGO'S GANG BATTLE. MURDERS IN BROAD DAYLIGHT. (From Our Special Correspondent.) BAN FRANCISCO, October 18. The first fortnight in October will go down into American history as one of the blackest in the criminal annals of the country, and Chicago was again in the limelight in the throwback of America's crime wave, when gang warfare broke out anew and when machineguns again played a prominent part in the daring depredations of foreign murderers who infest the Windy City and diffuse terrorism all over the city. Chicago's deadliest gang battle, a war to extermination, opened between two opulent bands of "booze racketeers" for control of the city liquor traffic. The death-spewing machine-gun was the sinister weapon employed by gangsters who mowed down five men in the shadow of Chicago's great Catholic Cathedral of the Holy Name, in North State Street, late one afternoon. The victims of the newest and most deadly of gangland's own method of eliminating its enemies were Earl ("Hymie") Weiss, notorious gangster and gunman, overlord of a powerful, city-wide combine of liquor runners, and Paddy Murray, a lieutenant. The wounded were William W. O'Brien, former Assistant State's Attorney, prominent criminal and counsel for "Big Joe" Saltis, ally of Weiss, now on trial for murder; Ben Jacobs, an investigator for O'Brien, and Sam Peller, henchman and bodyguard of Weiss. The men hit by bullets were either standing in front of Schofield's florist shop, 738 North State Street, the same place in which the late Dean O'Banion was killed, or were getting in or out of an automobile in front of the place. Smoke of Battle. The shooting was done from a second - storey window of the building at 740 North State Street, while, according' to some witnesses, the occupants of a north-bound motor cai also fired at Weiss, Murray, O'Brien, Peller and Jacobs. Immediately after the smoke of battle had cleared away Deputy Chief of Detectives John Stege, raided the upstairs office of Schofield, the florist, who was O'Banion's partner, and in the safe lie found a list of State's witnesses who were to appear at the murder trial of Joo Saltis, the Southside gang boss. Although the usual silence of gangland prevailed after the murderous shooting, the police, versed in the lore of the underworld, saw the attack as the climax of a long guerilla warfare between two cliques of gunmen and beer runners. They believed the shooting was the direct result of the failure of a recent ''peace parley" between henchmen of "Scarface Al" Capone. kingpin of Cicero vicelands, and Weiss. The meeting broke up. according to information in the hands of the authorities, when Weiss demanded that Capone offer for assassination the two men who had tried to kill his partner, Vincent ("Schemer") Drucci, on Michigan Avenue, several weeks previously. The demand was rejected and the machine-gun wnr was on. Unfolds Story. In a meagrely furnished room containing only a bed, dresser and three chairs, Al ("Scarface") Capone, who is reputed to have made millions in the beer ring, told his version of gangland feuds to a Chicago newspaper reporter. Capone, whose name has been mentioned in connection with the latest outbreak of gang vengeance, and with others of the past, denounced what he termed the "butchery," and told of repeated attempts at peace, declaring that "there's enough business for all of us, without killing each other like animals in the streets. The others don't see it," said the "King of Cicero," who is but 27 years old. "I've got a boy," he told the reporters, showing a photograph of a seven-year-old child. "I love the kid more than anything In the world, and next to him I love his mother and then my own mother and my sisters and brothers. I don't want to die. Especially I don't want to die in the streets, punctured by machinegun fire. That's the reason I've asked for peace. I've begged those fellows to put away their pistols and talk sense to mc." Capoife, who went to Chicago seven years ago from Brooklyn, said that gang shootings started when gunmen who had embarked into the illegal beer business at the request of his partners, broke away after they had made a little money set up for themselves and then started acts of aggression. While this warfare was in progress in Chicago, on the Pacific Coast, at San Francisco, an extraordinary series of murders was being perpetrated. Two desperadoes, seizing an automobile in which they were riding, wantonly murdered their taxi-driver and one of the criminals, dressed in the taxi man's uniform, drove the automobile through a wide section of the city. In the course of their travels they robbed and murdered four other men. They raided gasoline stations and restaurants, beat up pedestrians, and when followed by a shotgun party of police, abandoned their motor car. They secreted one of their victims under a bridge, where he was found dead by a policeman shortly after. The city was in an uproar in a few minutes and messages were broadcast over the radio ordering all policemen to duty at headquarters. The city was scoured by armed patrolmen in automobiles and within twelve hours over 300 characters with police records were rounded up, but the actual murderers escaped. It was the most murderous affray witnessed in the Californian metropolis since the days of the notorious Vigilantes. Gaol Mutiny. In Media in the State of Pennsylvania almost at the same time, another outbreak of the criminal element was being staged, and released from their cells in the Delaware County gaol by seven trusties, nearly 200 prisoners, men and women, drove out the guards, wrecked the interior of the gaol and attempted to set it afire. They were subdued by special deputy sheriffs, recruited from citizens of the town, 'and police after a desperate fight in which blackjacks, shotguns and lead pipe were brought into action. Sis of the mutinous prisoners were shot, one in the head and the others in the legs and thighs, with bird shot. None was killed. An hour after the mutiny began, all of the prisoners had been forced back into their cells, but the prison was damaged so badly by the maddened inmates that few of the cell doors could be closed. Twenty-five guards, armed with shotguns, patrolled the corridors or I stood sentry over the broken portata.