FARCICAL TRIAL
GANGSTERS CONGRATULATE JURY. COMIC OPERA PROCEEDINGS. Chicago, September 16. Gangsters congratulated the jury for bringing in a verdict of not guilty in a charge of vagrancy against the liquor baron and colourful underworld leader, Spike O’Donnell, who has been in the spotlight since Capone was interned. The proceedings were like comic opera. One gangster in the character of a witness, when asked his address, said he changed it frequently, and did not know his present address till he looked up his book. O’Donnell, on the stand, kept the court alive with witty sallies at the expense of the prosecutor. When asked the involved question of whether his reputation on the date of the warrant was that of gun carrier, he responded, “Come again. Shove that thing around a little plainer, Mr Prosecutor.”
A retired policewoman said that she had known O’Donnell since his birth and he bore an unblemished reputation. The judge was forced to clear the court, when the spectators cheered O’Donnell and his gangster friends.
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Southland Times, Issue 22131, 27 September 1933, Page 6
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169FARCICAL TRIAL Southland Times, Issue 22131, 27 September 1933, Page 6
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