A GANGSTER “BEAT UP."

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 252, 21 July 1934, Page 18

A GANGSTER “BEAT UP."

The “Daily Express” • campaign against London’s gangsters has brought under a searchlight many of the methods used to extort money by threats from law-abiding citizens. Valuable in-formation-'has been passed on to Scotland Yard.

, A self-confessed former associate of gangsters gave this account of a recent incident in a West End club: —“A fellow who was mixed up with us offended the boss. One night he was sitting in the club and was spotted. The man who saw him went to the door and tipped off, with tic-tac signals, the gang who were at both ends of the street. One crowd went in and the other stayed on guard at the door. The fellow was beaten up and the gang got away. The funny part about it was that the club was under our ‘protection,’ and when the manager protested to the boss there was a row, and we all got cursed for doing the job in this club.” This informant naively added: "Of course, the gangs get a good rake-off, but they really do protect the clubs and cafes from all sorts of rough houses.”

■ A well-known bookmaker, whose name for obvious reasons was not given, wrote to the “Daily Express” :—"I applaud your action in trying to expose one of the most cruel forms of persistent and specialised blackmail ever practised in a civilised country. . . . Ail my colleagues, without exception, are subject to the machinations of these thugs. The remedy is in the hands of the executives and police, who, in. conjunction, could stamp out this evil. Should your campaign meet with the success it so richly deserves you would have cut out a canker that is eating at the heart-' of racing.”