“DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES”

Hawera Star, Volume LIII, 19 October 1933, Page 7

“DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES”

DISPOSAL OF WITNESSES. CHICAGO GANGSTER METHODS. VANCOUVER. Oct. 11. John (“Boss”) McLaughlin, a , prominent Chicago political leaclei, was named before the Federal judge ■Mr Wilkerson, as having handled 1237,000 dollars (£47.400 at par) of loot taken in the Chicago mail robbery ; last December. 1 Astounding re\ T elations folloAved the imresti gabion into the death of Edgar Lebensberger, avlio died of a- bullet AA-ound recently in his handsome North Side apartment. Twenty-seven . sus- , poets are. detained in several cities as the result of an underworld -story that ; a gang has been acting as cleanngi house for hank and post office bandits -throughout the country. > The police are uncertain whether Lebensberger ivas slain ,by gang associates or committed '.suicide, hut they are sure that they have, traced his ! death directly to an indictment just filed against him concerning the Chicago robbery. 1 The police called out fresh reinforce- ! ments to prevent the further murder- : ing of their principal Avitnesses in the notorious mail robbery case. Gus , Winkler, one of the city’s major gangsters, Avas murdered by a shotgun squad aboard a motor truck, his death being A r ery significant, folloAving the . finding of the body of Edgar Lebensberger, another handsome young man ! known for his gang connections, i The police are nonplussed over these ! mysterious shootings. They Avonder if ' some ruthless gang Czar, fearing confessions hv Winkler and Lebensberger, decided to eliminate them and prevent them giving evidence. Winkler Avas an important, member of a gang Avhich collected millions of dollars annually from gamblers’ saloons and night clubs. He “talked his way out” of LeavenAvorth prison several years ago by producing Avith no questions asked 1 580,000 dollars (£116,000) worth of securities obtained in the postal robbery. Since then he has enjoyed freedom and much social eminence.

On the theory that dead men tell, no tales, the police fear further assassinations.