GANGSTERS IN BRITAIN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 31, 6 February 1937, Page 4 (Supplement)

GANGSTERS IN BRITAIN.

STORY OF ORGANISED VIOLENCE. EXPERIENCES OF EX-SCOTLAND YARD OFFICER—SEQUEL TO DOG TRACK MURDER CHARGE—TERRORISM PERTURBS AUTHORITIES—VICTIM " CUT AND CARVED " BY RIVALS.

Back in Hoxton and Whilochapel in the long ago 1 had considerable experience of the LMiig problem, and suffered at their hands. The. Hoxton gang were perhaps the worst of the lot. They were "captained" by a man known as "Tom the Irishman," a Cockney, who preferred the misleading nickKxcopt in Derby week this gang rarely attended the race meetings. They got their living by blackmail and theft in Hoxton, .Shoredileh and Kethnal Green. Many cases of serious crime and violence were nailed down to this organisation, but, whatever thcTr punishment, they never "came copper," or squealed.

Like the majority of such gangs, the end came with the murder of a rival. A man, 0110 Cokey, ventured into a gaming house on what the Hoxton band considered their "Tom Tiddler's ground" and attempted to blackmail the banker. The owner of the house, being a subscriber to the Hoxton gang, called for their reprisals. The offender promptly made his way to the Kent hopfields. That was of ;io avail. He was tracked, cornered, and ordered to fight it out with knives. They fought in front of a great crowd of hoppers on a Sunday afternoon, and Cokey died. A man named ilahon stood his trial for alleged murder, hut was acquitted.

The Man Who "Asked For It." Tottenham, too, had .1 very dangerous and reckless gang, sn much so that a rival organisation stepping over the border was simply asking for trouble. races 0.10 "year the gang retired to a beer house off the Whiiechapel Road, to divide the proceeds of the clay omthc A stranger entered and poked his nose in. Plainly lie was told that if he didn't not onu J lO i^toocl <i irood chnncc of losiniz his sight. Ho dared them and paid the price. One of the gang, it was alleged, drove the end of an umbrella through the stranger's eye. Mercifully ho fell unconscious, and remained so until death took place four days later in the London Hospital. At the inquest it was discovered that a piece of wood from the ferrule of the umbrella, measuring four and a half inches, had penetrated the brain, where it snapped and remained.

TerkofT was lured into a back «f by a woman paid by the other p'^ wl°an ,10 * >** I went straight from the scene tort London hospital j,.t in time to .4 eurgcons endeavouring to sew the £ on again. r

Not many weeks later the two Wnn were again in confhet in an music hall, run in connection with , public house off the Commercial RrJ in Stepney. A Kussian dancing troupe -m,,. among the. attractions, and the ?£ prictor was warned that the Be==,r bians might interfere. ™" Instead of telling the police, however he engaged the Odessians to provide Mi,' with protection. The Bessarabians arrived in f ortt and pushed their way into the huildii,.' They were met by thn Odessian, who gradually drove them hack. A man named Kaufman was attacked and stabbed. M He managed to stagger into tl» street, where, with a knife still j n \:. hand, he fell dead. A young foreign Jew, named c" known as Kid McCoy, who had fou-V many good fight* at the old Wondcrlani in ■\Yhiteehapcl, and was quite a. popular boxer, somehow got mixed up with tbj gang, and was arrested with anothefor the alleged murder of Kaufman.

McCoy protested his innocence, bat wlien asked who was responsible forth crime, declared his rendinesfi to take rtny punishment except "topping (which means hanging) teforc lie would "squeal." "If they arc going to 'top me, , " he w»j alleged to have said, "I will give you the name of tlie murderer; otherwise I keep my mouth shut." Although found not guilty of mtirdpr, McCoy was font to penal servitude for ten year?. Subsequently he went to America and The New Hunting-Grounfls. Now, as then, the gangsters are stilU menace in certain parts of London. I colli,! show you evidence of their existence any night in the low olubs ind drinking dens of Solio; I could point to their influence on the smaller grovhonnd track?. In certain small stadiums they ham endeavoured to establish a control comparable with the beer racket in America when prohibition was in forte. They arc after (lie bookmaker) incessantly, blackmailing, cxtortinthrealcuing. To the gang it. is not blackm.iil, but "legitimate levy" on a body of men irho dare not say no to the nightlv demands upon their satchels. Except for those aetnally engaged in the traffic, how many people, I wonder, are, aware of the importance of those black and white lists of odds on the bookmakers' stands'; That list s the bookmaker's absolute right and authority to Det. He cannot bet without it, nor dare he use anr other. The right to the list is not the only "privilege" for which the bookmaker hs's to sock permission.