Gangsters- And Their Methods

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6802, 4 January 1929, Page 4

Gangsters- And Their Methods

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RAFFIC was heavy at Madison and Dearborn . Streets, one . of the busiest ’ corners in Chicago, but outwardly the night'was peaceful

and harmless. So, at least, it seemed to Tony Lombardo, president of tlie Unione Siciliano and close friend of the famous “Scarface” A 1 Capone. Although he was attended by his double bodyguard, Joseph Ferrara and Joseph Lolordo, whose presence served to remind him of the constant peril in which he walked, Lombardo seemed quite at ease. But the peace was shattered rudely. A trio from an enemy gang stepped up, two in front and one behind. Three automatic pistols spat together. Lombardo and Ferrara fell, -while Lolordo fled. In his dying agony Lombardo drew his own pistol and fired, but his shots went wild, endangering the crowd. He had been marked for death for a year, ever since he had changed gangs, says an article in tlie Philadelphia “Public Ledger,” which opens an account of gunmen’s arsenals in cities where gang war rages, with several incidents of this sort. Returning to the murder of Lombardo, we learn

that the. police found in a house opposite his home two automatic shotguns, rifles, and 37 sticks of dynamite, all meant for the use of his enemies. Then “The Public Ledger”, reminds us of the slaying of Frankie Uale in Brooklyn, and that of Hugh McLoon in Philadelphia, and continues to discuss the weapons used: In the repeated reports of gang warfare, bootlegger, and hijacker feuds, and deaths duo t.o a desire for personal vengeance, the sawed-off shotgun and the automatic pistol are most frequently mentioned as the weapons of the killers.

The sawed-off shot-gun has been in literature for soma years. It has been a favourite instrument of death with many authors, but only ini the past five years has its widespread use by the lawless become a common fact of everyday life. ' ' A sawed-off shotgun is wliat its name implies. The barrel, usually 30 inches or a trifle longer, is cut in half or less. Very often tlie stock ia also cut off to the section which is carved and serrated. The shoulder support becomes a revolver grip, and instead of having to lift the gun to the shoulder for aiming and firing, it can be fired with one hand. - .

At first glance it does not seem like a very effective instrument for any purpose. It appears clumsy and unbalanced, but because of the manner in which the gunmah conceals and uses the weapon, it i 3 almost ideal for “bumping off” the man he is out to get. ; •

Detectives say that the short barrel and the reshaped butt make it possible to conceal the weapon in a leg of the trousers or under a coat, tlyapgh it is rarely found on the person. '« ' Where tho gunman finds it useful is in fjhooting from a moving auto-, mobile. It is deadly at close range. Where fast-moving action would require expert marksmanship with a pistol, the spreading contents of the shotgun cartridge make it almost certain that the man for whom it is intended will receive a deadly serving of the lead.

The gunman usually buys the doublebarrelled shotguns sold everywhere, but especially those on display in the windows of pawnshops and secondhand establishments. For a few dollars he is able to obtain a weapon -capable of terrific human destruction. The cartridge contains about an ounce of lead. There are cartridges which contain tiny lead pellets, but these do not serve the ganster’s purpose as well as the buckshot, ' about the §ize of large peas or “pee-wee” marbles. There are twelve in a cartridge. The length of tho barrel helps to keep tho lead balls together and hinder tho tendency to spread, but when fired from a sawed-off barrel, the buckshot forms a larger pattern. Fired from across the street, the shot will cover an area somewhat under three feet, and* it is hardly possible for the pellets to miss the intended victim.

This explains why the sawed-off shotgun is the gunman’s favourite weapon. Mon riding in a death-dealing car, already having selected the point where the man marked for killing is to be shot, rest the gun on the window of the car as they come opposite and let the barrels go in quick succession; It does not require experience with firearms to bowl a man over at close range with such ammunition. As the buckshot is made of soft lead, it flattens upon impact with the flesh and tears a hole of increasing size in the tissues. Iu the McLoon killing the power of the lead at close ra,nge was sufficient to knock down the victim, and the wide pattern made by tho pellets also found the bodies of hia companions. When stories are given out of machine-guns being used by fighting gangs, it is usually an automatic shotgun or an automatic rifle which has been used, we are told as we redd on: getting up a machine-gum’for gang battle is unnecessarily intricate, and tho gunman takes to bdttle the simplest forms of lethal weapons.

The sound of a machine-gun. is a light and constant patter, but when an automatic rifle or shotgun goes into action the noise has a heavier body. Automatic shotguns are of the single-barrel type with a chamber holding five cartridges. The fresh cartridges are swung into place by a steel spring as the used shot is ejected. The type of machine-gun which has been sold to gangsters, as disclosed in the Philadelphia investigation of the relation between bootlegging and gang warfare, is the gun which can be fired from the shoulder. The Browning and Thompson types are both being sold in considerable quantities. Thompson guns were sold to purchasers at 125 dollars each, according to evidence made public by the District Attorney’s office in Philadelphia. Tho accompanying book of instructions stated: “A rate oE fire of 100 aimed shots a minute can easily be obtained.” Another booklet proclaimed: “Bursts of three to six shots produce most accurate results.” During the war there was a great outcry at the atrocious barbarity of

using dum-dum bullets, a charge made against the Germans. The cartridge filled with buckshot Is literally several dum-dum bullets, because the lead flattens and makes a larger hole iD the flesh the farther it penetrates. The owner of the. Philadelphia arsenal patronised by gunmen had 450 Vickers machine-guns, capable of firing 100 shots a minute, on Marqh 10, 1927, and by the end of this Summer he had sold virtually all of them at 150 dollars each.

Seven of the bullet-proof vests were sold to tbe so-called king of the bootleggers, according to : the District Attorney’s information. The vests were sold for 150 dollars each. For efficiency the underworld uses another very important murder accessory, which is the “silencer,” an attachment which suppresses the noise of the gas explosion by leading the gases resulting from the concussion Into a chamber which eases them more slowly Into the atmosphere. The “silencer” Is attached to the muzzle of the firearm, and makes the sudden onset of death a ghostly visitation.