The Doctor Who Knew Too Much

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 226, 24 September 1938, Page 12 (Supplement)

The Doctor Who Knew Too Much

There is no one who should meet with more stern punishment than the professional man who applies his talents to the needs of the underworld. The doctor who aids the underworld is more than a criminal. He is a traitor to his profession and a menace to his community. I know of no more outstanding example of this form of knavery than Dr. Joseph P. Moran, called "Doc" by scores of America's most dangerous lawbreakers. The files of this bureau present a graphic digest of paradox in the life of this man. The entire range of emotion and drama was to be found in his career. Respectability merged into an existence of most vicious activities. Pride, which once drove him to great ambitions, was submerged in a craven being performing illicit operations without hospital facilities.

Of all his diverse activities, however, the worst was that which aided crime behind a pretence of virtue.

While Doc Moran sold dope, handled bandit money, and acted as the medical advisor for escaped convicts, gangsters anil the riffraff of life, his office invited the patronage of innocent, law-abiding citizens.

In the summer of 1028 there was much gossip in the little city of La Salle, Illinois.

A woman had died following an illegal operation; the town buzzed with the name of the doctor. He was Joseph P. Moran, then 33 years old. A grand jury indicted him on four counts, including one of murder. Many felt sorry for the young doctor; they* blamed his predicament on the fact "that he had been "too good a fellow."

An honour student in Tufts Medical School, Boston, following an equally honourable career as second lieutenant in the aviation section of the Reserve Signal Corps with service in France during the \\ orld %\ar, he had come to Illinois and started a practice. He had made something of a reputation as a surgeon, with one failing—over-fondness for drink.

Introduction

To Gang World

He was sent to Joliet Penitentiarv and was put to work in the prison hos~pital. where the convicts soon knew him to be a "right guy." Finally, a "fish." as new convicts are known, was added to the doctor's list of patients; a member of a ring of diamond thieves, named Ollie Berg. He had been shot during an attempt to escape a sheriff and the wound had affected his heart. According to Berg. Moran saved his life. Oilie Berg was powerful, with connections which ran to the roots of outlaw unions and to one of the politically influential gangs which then controlled l hicago. \\ iien lie got on the street again he said lie would reward this convict doctor for his efforts. Berg kept his word. After a year and four months the doctor was released from Joliet on tieket-of-leave and with iii!»ti net ions from Berg to seek out certain politically powerful leaders in Chicago's gangdom. Moran followed orders. The result was amazing. Soon this doctor of the cell-blocks was apparently on the same plane as any other physician in Illinois. He began a Jekyll-and-Hvde existence. His office was a place' of ordinary practice; under cover, he was attending wounded members of the sran«s. i)oc became the oflieial doctor fi7r one of Chicago's outlaw unions. These were bloody days in Chicago, still in the grip of Prohibition crimes. ~ Some may have wondered whv only dead gangsters were found in tlie gutter and rarely a wounded one. 'boe Miiran's career explains that. When .guns blazed in gangster warfare the dead were left behind and the wounded carried away to some tough hotel or apartment house. Then a tefephone call went in for Doc- Moran. There is no way to ascertain how many such calls this doctor answered. There are no records of the midnight

operations, the probing for buTlets, th© desperate efforts without hospital facilities in which this man participated.

Often the doctor would get roaring drunk in his effort to summon the nerve for one of these visitations.

Then, in the slatternly room of a hideout, with gang members grouped about, still white from the excitement of battle. Doc Moran would work over the bleeding ligure of a man, stretched on a bed or kitchen table.

A tea kettle was often the only instrument of sterilisation for liis instruments. There were no white-rohed assistants, no blazing lights of an operating room, no careful anaestheticians.

If the patient died he was carted away in the depths of night and buried beneath the refuse of a public dump, or he would be thrown, weighted with railroad iron, into Lake Michigan or the Chicago Drainage Canal.

If he lived it was a triumph for Doc Moran; the doctor received fees as high as £1000 for the treatment of a wounded gangster. Likewise, there were operations on gang molls —more civilised affairs in which hospital care was given. Ollie Berg, late in 1933, introduced his friend "Doc" to a bank robber, gangster and kidnapper named Russell Gibson, a minor member of the BarkerKarpis gang.

He and Doc Moran became quite friendly. Through Gibson the doctor met a new coterie of outlaws who specialised in crimes of violence. Then the Doc became listed in our pursuit files. One day in January, 1034, John Dillinger and the true brains of his eaii"John Hamilton, drove speedilv from Florida; they reached Chicago "Height* the next afternoon, where tliev carried out a long-planned bank robbe'rv.

There was resistance. Dillinger was uninjured. His companion, however, was struck by seven bullets.

Desperate, John Dillinger loaded his pal into the. getaway oar and drove madly for Chicago. There he sought John Hamilton's woman and told her what had happened. This done, Dillinger caught a 'plane for Tuscon. Arizona, to "partv" with the rest of his gang. Without John Hamilton s guidance he was soon caucrlit and taken to gaol at Crown Point Indiana. to await trial.

In the meantime, John Hamilton had been hidden temporarily by a desperate

By -- J. Edgar Hoover

gun mol! wline she searched Chic&go for a doctor sufficiently daring to minister to a badly wounded The underworld says that she found her man in Dr. Joseph I'. Moran.

Ihe wounds healed, and John Hamilton was ready and able again to advise the gang when at last Dillinger broke from the Crown Point gaol and began those final forays which set the Federal Bureau of Investigation upon his trail.

Pursuit led to & hideout at * resort called Little Bohemia, in Wisconsin. 1 here was much shooting on the night when special agents were launched upon a raid on Little Bohemia.

That raid marked the beginning of the end for Dillinger and his crew. John Hamilton was seriously injured. A bullet had passed through his liver. Nine days latex various members of Russell Gibeons gang were summoned to & tough restaurant—and in a Chicago suburb. Shortly afterwards, Dillinger and others entered with a tall man—gaunt, grey of features, staggering with pain. It was John Hamilton. His comrades discussed him as though he were a wounded animal.

e've got to get him to a. hideout,' one said. "He's too hot —first thing you know he'll get us all in some kind of & jam."

"But what about his doctor t m "He ain't got no doctor!" "Why didn't somebody send for Doc Moran?"

"We sent for him- And what did be doT Turned us down cold. Wouldn't treat John. Said he was sore at the whole Dilling-er crowd. So what?" John Hamilton answered that question the next night in a bandit's apartment in another suburb. Still on his feet, he strove to fight away the effects of his wound; loss of blood, gangrene. At last he sank from exhaustion—dying half an hour later. John Dillinger did not know that he. too, would soon be dead, partly as the result of the fact that Doc Moran had refused to save a gangster's life. John Hamilton had been & genius at escape. He knew how to secrete himself : and remain secreted. John Dillinger did not. He was a I creature of impulse; he could not stand ! restraint. H« insisted on going to movies | and to cafes. This allowed the Federal Bnrean of Investigation to draw an ever-tighteninsr ring about him. News travels fast in the underworld. The word g<»t around that Doc Moran had let Hamilton die without a hand to aid him. Perhaps this adverse underworld publicity accounted for the doctor's shortage of money some six months later. Ollie Ber.- had Introduced Doc Moran and Russell ('ibson. Doc had aided Gilk=on; now that Moran was broke the gangster proffered his aid in return and suggested a way to quick riches. But Gibson « plans were thwarted and his gang scattered. Captures were made. : but Doc and the main members escaped 1 and went into hilling. j -V year passed. (!unn_r which time fnllv a dozen persons had been arrested, each capture furnishing new avenues of pur- l suit. ' ~ i lie Federal Bureau of Investigation recognises one superior in its work, i on!y one agency which can defeat it. ! that agency is deatii. As long as a hunted man lives. just so long is lie in danger of capture. No one knew this better than tin gang which listened to the drunken self-laudation of Dr. Joseph P. Moran. First one. then another, submitted to his knife, hoping that the result would

be transformed fingers md ftstsw bearing no resemblance to their former contours.

But Doc ?Toran"s hands were shaky •when in touch surroundings. His instrument; clocked in home-made sterilisers. With the demand for delicacy before him. the danger of infection, the knowledge that he was working upon Federal fugitives instead of the politically protected evaders he had once aided, eah fidence seemed to leave him.

Whirkv Tailed to steady Mi mm; his befuddled brain no longer m clearly the means and manner by ■Ist'll to build new personalities Hrroagh pisstic surgery.

The fingers sbahed

alter fingerprints broogbt agoMßf

pain; it was necessary to wibte lis half-crazy victims with morphino, Tke operations led only to cOsappointacsi. ■

Slowly, day by day, the stubborn, tell-tale lines of identification relentlessly returned, to form almost exaetiy the same patterns which they had shown before his operations. Nor was the plastic surgerv more succes?fuL

At this point, all-the gratitude wMeh the gang had known for Doe Koran turned to hatred ajia, worse than katsed, to stark fear.

From here and there in the waterworld came tips that the Special Agents were drawing closer, closer. ... Tie outlaws were in the predicament tfan surrounded bv creeping fire.

All this time. Doc Mora* draak sad blustered and abjured his comrade# to operations. He had been an haacnr student, destined to be one of America'! great surgeons.

Long Journey

On Small Lake

Thus they sat one day a little mm than two years ago in & drinking 1 piece in a city on Lake Erie. Doe Moran was a bit drunker than usual and far more talkative.

Russell Gibson watched him with Borrowed eyes. They had been thnwgh much together, this pair. But even he rebelled -when Doc Moran roe® *»- steadily from his cliair and became argum entire with a stranger. Hastily the gang hustled Mm back into their corner. They sought t© change the subject; Doe Moran tip willing, provided thev allowed him to choose th» topic, that of operations. He singled out a member of the gang. '"He ought to let me fix his fingers," he boasted. "Needn't "worry about a«y G-men then, if I'd fix his fimzers." "We'll forget that finger-fixing stuff," a canrr member answered. "It's ®o good." " l) L >c Moran. honour student, war I aviator, reeled from his chair. | "Know what's the matter with too?" I he shouted. "You're yellow—that's the ] trouble with you. You're yellow —- yeilow—yellow— Russell Gibson closed in swiftly. "None of that. Doc!" "-And who are you crowding lliiiik Fin afraid of you? Think ]"m afraid of any of This mob? Yon can't hurt me!" : lli<s features were livid, his hands «nti stretched. "Hear that? I've cot this i gang in t:ie hollow of mv hand —right there!"' Russell Cibson winked quickly to the other mejnln'rs. He eased the still-pro-testing Doc back into his chair. i liere. Doc."'" he laughed, " talk that way about V'-ur old pa's. We're all for you—creat sniy. Just a little tisht, that's all." He patted the reeling Do? Moran on ; the back. "Y\ !iat yon need is a nice motor ni\at v;<Io to coo] vj'.i off. cive | vt»tj COTHO i nir." ! "Attah-.y/* cri.'.l the imllirlod Doc He wont <»ut cf t]io .« with '_M l'l -» ];]< . i h«">';MerS. Iho tlinun c»f a i!i«>t»r "'••'•at euirine, n:ovincr farther and vet f.i rl-r ..-jt "into Lake Krie—and - " i; 1 t is th- record the i-Vd-r.il Bun-ac h-.wiza-n-n was able to g vt ~£ ]i r . J.... T iTp. M >ran. ' ,;!t they hoard a whUr.er in the underworld to lbo cif- : f .r." h'"s body would iii'\er ri-e to tire - ;""V". It had been weighted with h".v. r «V'onVs —while he was alive. You «ee. a gun would have made a u.ost embarrassing noise.