GANGSTERS IN LONDON.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 255, 25 September 1935, Page 14

GANGSTERS IN LONDON.

AMERICAN METHODS. Reports of a state of gangdom in Britain in many ways emulating the evils of Chicago and other American cities, have attracted public: attention, recently. Every year in London, it is stated, £1,000,000 is paid in blackmail by bookmakers, small traders, and street vendors. Tlie money is paid in sums ranging from 5s to £2O, for ’protection,” to gangs of professional bullies, whose weapons are the razor, the bottle, and the knife. In London there are reported to be five main gangs operating in various districts, with headquarters as tar apart as Bloomsbury, Bermondsey, and Brixton. Each gang specialises m its own particular racket. By far the most lucrative prey are said to be bookmakers, whose business renders them especially open to attacks of organised gangs of toughs. As Home Secretary, the late Sir William Joyn-Son-Hicks ('afterwards Viscount Brentford) did much to clear racecourses of but with the advent of greyhound racing the gangs received a new lease of life. Every greyhound racing track has its gang, which makes itself ■ responsible for the protection .of its clients on that trank. An ordinary member of a gang makes between £5 and £7 a week, and the head from £2O upwards, according to the size of the track. The gang loader will approach a bookmaker on a track, and suggest that lie should pay a certain amount, according to the size of his business, for protection from attacks of thieves and ruffians. If tlie bookmaker proves obstinate, he will find his stand “accidentally” knocked over. He will find himself involved in scuffles, in which he will not prove the victor. He may also find an inexplicable dwindling away of his clients. So accustomed to this terrorism have bookmakers become that many of them will speak favourably of men ■who are filching their profits. To be protected by one gang is the least of many evils, they argue. Ingenious methods of collecting the dues are employed. The most popular is the sponge and slate trick. The gangster passes the bookmakers’ stands with a bucket and sponge. The sponge is loaned to the bookmaker to v.;ipe his slate in preparation for the next race. After the operation he drops the sponge back into the bucket with the sum demanded. In other cases the bookmaker is forced to buy from the gangster a list of the dogs running. It may cost him anything from 5s to £5.

Apart from racing gangsters there ers and street traders. Most gangs on the same racket against shopkeepers and stree traders. Most gangs operate in street markets. The leader approaches each. stall owner and suggests that for a small payment—2s 6d and upwards—he will protect him and his property against possible assaults. Tlie Sunday Dispatch, which has investigated this evil in London, declares that, like most other evils, gangster rule could be broken in a few months if the people concerned would have the courage to combine . and fight it, but people, it declares, have become apathetic, and this attitude makes the task of the police ’ almost impossible. The victim is always too frightened to complain.