POLICE SLAYERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 285, 2 December 1933, Page 4 (Supplement)

POLICE SLAYERS.

RETRIAL DENIED.

199 YEARS' IMPRISONMENT

CHICAGO'S WAR ON HOODLUMS,

John Bongiorno, 32 years old, convicted slayer of a policeman, was refused a new trial at Chicago by Judge Harry B. Miller in the Criminal Court, and he was sentenced to 199 years in the pentitentiary in accordance with a verdict returned by a jury previously. Bongiorno is one of two men found guilty by the jury of the murder of Constable Harry Redlich.

Judge Miller was also ready to dispose of the new trial motion for Ross King, 09defendant with Bongiorno, but Public Defender Joseph Power did not appear. King's motion was continued for hearing. His punishment was fixed at death by thejury. Total of 279 Sentences, The sentencing of Bongiorno brings to 279 the total of sentences imposed by Criminal court judges since the war on crime was started soon after August 1 to put an end to police killings. Eleven policemen have been killed by gunmen since January 1. Three police killers have been sentenced to death since the war started and two have been sentenced to 199 years in the penitentiary. Attorney W. W. O'Brien argued for a new trial for Bongiorno on the basis that although he was guilty of the robbery just preceding the murder he was under arrest at the time of the killing and could not be held as a participant. Vagrancy Drive to Go On. King and Bongiorno, both paroled convicts, robbed the office of the Thomas W. Compton Advertising Agency, 9, South Kedzie Avenue, on July 8. Policeman Redlich, who was summoned by a girl employee of the agency, caught Bongiorno, but King jumped through a window. While Redlich was questioning Bongiorno, King returned and shot the policeman, in the back. Both men then escaped. "The loss of life is always probable in pobbery," said Prosecutor Charles Dougherty in answering the defence argument. "When men arm themselves with revolvers and start out on ft robbery the law says the act of one is the act of all. Bongiorno is lucky to escape the electric chair."

Policeman Shot in Back. Although Police Commissioner Allman and Chief of Detectives Schoemaker expressed disappointment over the acquittals of Edward (Spike) O'Donnell and James Adducci on vagrancy charges, the drive to prosecute all known hoodlums on these charges will not be slackened, they said. "Though it was a great disappointment to us, we don't intend to allow it to slow up our efforts," Commissioner Allman said. "The score is still in our favour. To the two acquittals we have six- convictions to show." Chief Schoemaker said he will hold a conference with State's Attorney Courtney and ask for instructions as to how to plan air-tight cases against the other hoodlums to be tried. Police Redouble Efforts. "I intend to find out if we can pick tip O'Donnell and Adducci again if we dig up some new testimony," said Schoemaker. "But even if the two escape any more prosecution we are poing to continue with the other cases. We never before had tliejudces co-operating with us as we have now. To us the acquittals mean that we have to redouble our efforts, and this we will do." r .