GANGLAND KINGS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21266, 21 February 1931, Page 19

GANGLAND KINGS.

AL CAPONE’S RIVALS. . ■ J■■ ■ „ \ UNEXAMPLED PROBLEM. One by one the rival kings of gangland have been mowed down by professional assassins, but A 1 Capone, “ the biggest shot of all,” remains the crime Czar of Chicago, writes Percy Bullen in the Daily Telegraph. The tale of Chicago, as told in recent narratives, is more lurid than the rest in its details, more devastating in its revelations of the sinister ' connections between the underworld and the police, local political leaders and the courts, but it is the same in substance in scores qf big American cities, including New York. , ‘ • ... In each case the rise of crime in the United States to the status of a business almost as well organised as the motor car industry, with ramifications extending to all parts of the country, dates from the time when Prohibition became law. Here, as elsewhere, crime has always existed, but by comparison with , recent years it was more spasmodic than' chronic, more of a retail business with comparatively small profits than wholesale with enormous annual .revenues estimated at many millions of pounds. , Of all the rackets the .> liquor and beer running is by far the most valuable to the gangster. Its rewards are worth all the others combined. Bootlegging in Chicago and, elsewhere has supplied the cash with which its , practitioners and beneficiaries have corrupted the police, and, by means of local leaders posing as “ politicians men who farm the votes of the ignorant for delivery to their favourite at the polls—-have sucufed almost complete immunity before the Magisterial Courts. POLISHED BANDIT.. • In America the city judges are elected, and I quote the words of Mr Ray Hansen, the veteran Chicago prosecutor, now a member of President Hoover’s Crime Commission, in proof of the statement, never seriously disputed, that the .stark alliance between gangland and politics is a s&»ry of “the prostitution of the ballot box.” ’ The three live leaders of Chicago gangland until quite recently were A 1 Capone Joe Aiello, and George (‘. Bugs ) Moran. Last month Joe Aiello was found with 67 bullets" in his crumpled body. With his death and . reported retirement of Moran, whose power was broken when his seven chief followers were riddled, A 1 Capone’s reign was for a brief period unchallenged, v The Czar of the underworld, the “ self-made ” man who was born in Brooklyn 32 years ago, was making profits which his biographer estimates at nearly £6,000,000— not dollars, btu pounds, per annum, ninetentbs ’of which went for “protection.” , Capone has his personal .bodyguard, his .private : his bookkeepers, and auditor,'and an immense body of paid underlings, and considers himself just a good business man. He has a town house, a country house, and an estate in Florida. He is described by those who know him well:’ as a keenminded fellow, who dresses like a fashion plate, observes social rules,' ahd looks more like a banker than an outlaw,! Within a week, of Joe Aiello’s body had been carried, to the grave in a silver casket, costiiig £I2OO, signs accumulated that Capone’s»reign woiild not go unchallenged. A monopoly in crime apparently is much the sariie as a monopoly in any other form of business—it provides the basis of competition; To date several “big shots” are named as rivals for sovereignty in the Kingdom of Rackets, and Capone, always threatened by death, moves about., constantly, leaving no address. He is reported one day as flying in his private plane to his luxurious villa at Palm Beach, and another time he reaches Bermuda in his private yacht. It is‘ probably true that he lives usually on the outskirts of Chicago, where he can always be in close contact' with his numerous lieutenants. Through them he ’distributes his instructions and largesse, and collects his revenues, quite untroubled by police, who say they can prove nothing against him but vagrancy. The present position of gangdom in Chicago and a dozen .other American cities is percisely the same to-day as yesterday. “ Big Shots,”-as the leaders are called, may come and'go, but while the “rackets” last the profits remain, and while the profits are on the present colossal scale the successors to the hierarchy of crime will always . be on hand. The rackets will'last apparently just as long as prohibition provides, the sinews of war for the racketeers. Last year,' according to the prohibition commissioner, the organised and murderous American bootleg industry had an income of £6,000,000, and the estimated cost of prohibition “ enforcement ’.’ added to a loss or revenue to the Government, was £187,000.000. Less than a third of the income of the bootleggers! But “ booze ” is but one of more than 200 rackets now in operation in the United. States from liquor to - midget golf courses. The money collected by hundreds of gangs is available for brib-. ing the police, “ fixing of cases which come to court, corrupting elections, and tainting the Judiciary. In Chicago alone nearly 5000 murders have occurred, a record unexampled in the history of civilised countries, and figures prove that, judged by the ratio of murders, there are 12 American cities worse than the metropolis of the middle west. ...... . Organised crime is responsible for the establishment in. Chicago of “the Secret Six,” an organisation of citizens pledged to “ clean up.” Nobody doubts their good will, but few only have confidence in their promises of reform. In Chicago,as elsewhere, unemployment is a serious problem, and from the unemployed come new recruits to the array of bandits. New York and other cities are also working to solve an unexampled problem by establishing committees of investigation; ■ ; V l . ' ' ' V • Other ways to stop the ganglords be--sides attacking the problem at its source' are urged, but they receive scant notice. One is to pass a law to disfranchise, the ignorant and illiterate voter. In the Chicago slums a gang leader can but either directly or through ibis intermediaries the votes of an entire district. These are given to the candidates favoured by the purchasers.