GREAT CRIMINAL GANG.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20076, 13 October 1928, Page 2 (Supplement)

GREAT CRIMINAL GANG.

"PROFIT" OF £10,000,000.

HUGE " INSURANCE " FUND. AN ARSENAL OF WEAPONS. DISCLOSURES AT PHILADELPHIA. Philadelphia,' " tho ' city of brotherly love," is said to be usurping the reputation for organised crime which Chicago hitherto has been credited with. Growing indiflofenco to'public opinion regarding criminals—who aro advised by expert lawyers, fortified with an elaborate bookkeeping system to record and control graft, and protected by some of the highest officials—has resulted in a grand jury investigation and a report which would be incredible if it were not official, in its revelation of crime as a business.

Tho report reveals tho amazing fact the number of liquor dens in Philadelphia is 10,000. These " speak-casies" aro mostly known to the police, and aro said to be permitted under a recognised system of bribes or fines.

Gangsters, armed to tho teeth, havo indulged in assault, robbery, and murder, and a shop has been discovered where machine-guns, bullet-proof vests, and silencors for revolvers were sold, and no questions askod. Tho proprietor, now in tho hands of tho police, says he thought they were bought to protect tho banks. Ihis man has sold as many as 450 machine-guns, end can givo no information as to where they havo gone. The highly organised criminal ring not only bought an arsenal of weapons, but is believed to havo set aside, in banks, £2,000,000 as insurance against "a rainy day" for the loading members. The money has been placed in leading banks under fictitious names. Members of the gang lived in magnificent, if vulgar, style. It is estimated that thoir profits in tho last six years amount to £10,000,000. Such a vast scheme was only possible with the connivance of tho police. Books havo been found recording regular payments by one of tho firms in tho bootlegging ring to the police, year in. year out, at 50 to 500 dollars a month. Ono ominous entry reads: "10,000 dollars (£2000) to head cop." Police graft for permitting lorries of liquor to pass through tho streets and "speak-easies" to remain open is estimated to total at least £200,000 a year. Policemen havo offered largo sums to bo transferred to units where graft is plentiful.

Tho recent inquiry has been forced by the outspoken comments of Judgo Edwin Lewis. He says it has been common knowledgo for two years that one of the chief city streets is the haunt of bootleggers, yet in four years he has had only one bootlegger before him. A constant procession of witnesses have passed before tho grand jury. One mildlooking little man has been in and out 20 times. Ho is known to the sporting fraternity as "Booboo" Hoff, and "the newsboy beer baron." Ho is regarded as head of the criminal gang. Officials think that some of the methods of organisation and control are beyond him and arc scoking tho hidden genius behind the ring. When ho is found it is believed that wholesale arrests of police officials will take place in one coup.