GRAFT RINGS EXPOSED

Hawera Star, Volume L, 5 March 1931, Page 5

GRAFT RINGS EXPOSED

PITIABLE WOMEN VICTIMS GRAVE CHARGES LEVELLED NEW YORK POLICE: METHODS. (United Press A«»*muwi —By Electric Telegraph Dopy right) NEW YORK, March 3. Investigations into the city’s vice conditions reached a pitiable climax tonight with the suicide by gas ox the sixteen-year-old daughter of a woman known as Vivian Gordon, who herseli was found strangled in Van Gourtland Park a few days ago, after telling the authorities she would appear in the courts and testify against policemen, who, she alleged, “railroaded” her to gaol on false charges of immorality. The girl, who was living with her father and her stepmother, left a note in her diary saying: “I can’t face the world any longer. I am going to end it all.”

The city for weeks has been aroused by the exposure of “graft rings” prey, ing upon completely innocent as well as upon questionable girls and women, of whom a striking number are now attempting to gain freedom from charges allegedly brought by members of the police, aided by “stool pigeons,” who are paid a portion of the money forced from the women by threats of imprisonment. The Gordon murder and its tragic climax are but one instance of the shocking occurrences.