CRIMINALS AT WAR

Southland Times, Issue 20044, 4 December 1926, Page 12

CRIMINALS AT WAR

“KILLING OFF” EACH OTHER. SENSATIONS IN CHICAGO. USE OF ONE-MAN MACHINE-GUNS. San Francisco, November 3. Chicago, home of gangsters and bandits, fears those disturbers of the peace no more. In fact, they have been raised to such a pitch in popular favour that the newspapers have taken to interviewing them. Instead of killing off police in the execution of their duty, the bandits and gangsters have started killing each other off at a rate that is positively bewildering the officers of the law. Three tragedies have been recorded within as many months, with two, four and six victims respectively. The weapons used in the early cases were ordinary machine guns, mounted on the floor of touring motor-cars. The latest weapon is even an improvement on the Lewis gun for a one-man machine,-gun. Weighing tonly about twice as much as the ordinary British Army service revolver, it can be operated easily with two hands, in much the same position as a child’s catapult is held, with the forward arm controlling the trigger and direction of fire, the latter taking the recoil, and no part of the gun touching the body.

Jt is asserted in many quarters that Chicago could rid itself of its gangsters and bandits in a week if it chose. That there might be some truth in the latter conviction is shown by the passage-at-arms that took place at the inquest on the latest killings between the coroner’s doctor and Captain O’Connor, one of the police chiefs of Chicago. The doctor charged the captain with being “dumb” about the movements of the gangsters and their operations. The captain replied by abusing the doctor, urging him to let in a little fresh air where his brain reposed at present. The king of the underworld and head of the beer runners in Chicago, one Scarface Caponi, is calling for a cessation of hostilities between the gangs. He says he is prepared to sign an armistice. There is enough business for all the gangs in the beer-running trade, he remarks, without killing each other like animals in the street.

“I don’t want to die in the street, punctured with machine-gun fire,” Caponi said. “I have begged these fellows to put away their guns and talk sense to me. They have all got families. I have one. If someone could get the remainder of the north-side together, and anyone else who thinks they are ‘bucking’ (running counter) on this game, and can get them to sit down and listen to me, I will make peace with all of them, and keep it also.” The theory about the latest tragedy when six men were murdered from the windows of a shop as they emerged into the street is that the killers were imported from New York, as the Chicago police was going through one of its “clean-ups,” with which the regular gangs are always familiar. Heinie Weiss and Paddy Murray, described as “north-side booze overlord and gangster,” and “his lieutenant,” were among those that paid the penalty on that occasion. No evidence or clue has been found in regard to either of the three mwrderera.