“CORRUPT” U.S. POLICE

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 July 1934, Page 10

“CORRUPT” U.S. POLICE

INDICTMENT BY DETECTIVE.

“They Took Me for a Ride” (by Gordon Fellowes) is reviewed by the London “Daily Telegraph” as follows: — . . . The exploits of Dillinger, Americas Public Enemy No. 1, have become known the'world-over. Supeificmly the daring of the man captures the attention, but reflection inevitably makes one wonder what can be the condition of a legal system than can be so defied. This book leaves no doubt as to the explanation. If its statements are accepted the police force of America is rdtteii with corruption—“graft,” it is known across the Atlantic. fl he problem of the American police is, admittedly, a difficult one. The cities are mostly cosmopolitan, which means a wide variety of crime and criminal, with the possibility of racial jealousy as motive. They have, too, an enormous area to control —so enormous that the renibter districts offer refuge to the lawless. Although these problems are sufficiently difficult, the solution would not seem to call for more than adequate numerical strength and wise administration. Yet' remains that in a series of amazing crimes the police have failed the public the protection for Wyjrfiih they pay. Why? Why was the Lindbergh child killed? Why was Vivian, Gordon, the “underworld queeflß just before she was to haffHgjven evidence about corruption i& 'Ndw. York City? Why did Dillinger ’ go free when go,ooo people were after him? The answer, according to Mr Gordon Fellowes, is—graft.

BOTH SIDES CORRUPT. The son of a detective, Mr Fellowes took a course of criminology at the University of California and afterwards became an investigator, working for various insurance companies and finally for Associated Industries, an organisation formed to fight racketeering. As an independent agent he saw the workings of both the police and the underworld, between which, if his statements are accepted, there is little difference in dishonour. He recounts the course of events that preceded the death of Andrew Maroney, the Assistant. Circuit Attorney of St. Louis, an official corresponding to the Public Prosecutor in England. Maroney called upon the author to .help in a murder case—not, however, to find the guilty, but to watch the police! They got a statement from a “squealer” which incriminated, among others, police officials. , The informant paid the penalty; he was shot by the police “in self defence.” Mr Fellowes writes: — “Iri the meantime Maroney, as honest and fearless as ever, set out again to clean up the police graft, or at any rate put the skids under the high police official who was in league with the gangsters. “Between us we watched this police official’s hoi|se /for some weeks. . ... We were cautious and we were discreet because we knew

that any day might be our last,” . Soon the day. came that was Maroney’s last, and Mr Fellowes knew that he was next on the list. One evening- he was buying some cigar-

ettes when a shot flew past his head, smashing a glass case. A crowd collected, and he reported the matter to the police—“although I knew there was little hope of redresS in that quarter, where gangsters and police, officers are indistinguishable from each other.” Scon afterwards he was “taken Lor a ride.” He boasts that he is one of the few men who have survived this ordeal. The car “was one of the regular standard automobiles used by the police department, and two of the men sitting in front were police officers.” ■ The occupants of the car wanted the “squealer’s’’ statement, and they used, the third degree for hours while the car ran up and down a lonely road. Mr Fellowes - refused to say where the statement was lodged, and be had given v,p hope when he hit upon an idea which saved his life. He declared that it had been handed over to a. judge, and none of the gangsters could hope to escape the murder charge if they killed him. In the end he was dumped, bruised and bleeding, by the roadside. Mr Fellowes had little peace after this, and eventually he had to fly the country. He is in England now.