“SECRET SIX” SPY SYSTEM

Evening Star, Issue 20990, 2 January 1932, Page 5

“SECRET SIX” SPY SYSTEM

CLEARING UP CHICAGO'S GANGS [From Otis Own Cosrbspondsnt.J SAN FRANCISCO, November 26. Vice-president,'-Charles Curtis learned about the 1 inner workings of the “ Secret Six,” Chicago’s , famous, yet mysterious; crime-fightingbody, when Curtis and his, sister, Mrs Dolly Gann, paused in Chicago oh their journey from Los Angeles to Washington to hear Colonel Robert Isham Randolph tell how, the “ Secret Six ” ferret out criminals and send them to prison. “ There is ho Sherlock Holmes in our organisation,” said the colonel, who is president of the Association of Commerce, and the only known member of the “ Secret Six,” which is made up of Wealthy Chicagoans. “ We employ no supermen,” he continued. “We gather bits or ihformation here, there, and everywhere. Our spies work their way into the enemy camps. We buy information from enemy traitors, informers, stool pigeons, and we pay for it ‘ on; the line,’ in the language of the hoodlum. For instance, we offered TjOOOdol for information leading ’to the arrest-of Frank Nitti, under indictment in’ an income tax case. Wo found him within a week, and now ho is in prison. Similar examples are legion. The spy business is a nasty business and a ? darigerous business, and . none of us likes it, hut there' are times when the only - effective way to fight firo is .with ; fire, and we are fighting a fire that has been licking at the very vitals of our structure of government.” Colonel Randolph assured the Vicepresident and other members of his party that he believed the “ Secret Six ” might soon disband, thanks to a newly efficient police department in Chicago under the administration of Mayor .Anton J. Cernak, who ousted “ Big Bill ’’ Thompson.from the mayoralty last April. ,