SEVEN CHICAGO MURDERS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 591, 18 February 1929, Page 9

SEVEN CHICAGO MURDERS

CHARGE AGAINST POLICE COLD-BLOODED CRIME CHICAGO, Saturday. The Associated Press is informed by the assistant Prohibition administrator, Mr. Silloway, that it is his belief that it was members of the police force who killed the seven employees of a cartage company yesterday. Air. Silloway said he felt that the act arose from the failure of the police to obtain the requisite bribes which they had been exacting from various factions which were engaged in beerrunning. He said: "The police probably have adopted a new method of murder in retaliation. The fact that a police squad car with a gong on the side was seen by several witnesses, together with the fact that those in the garage recognised two of the murderers, who were in police uniform, and admitted them without question, substantiates my theory that they were policemen.”

The "Chicago Daily News” says its reporters have found out that the killing of the seven men was the result of a gigantic war, involving thousands of pounds, between Canadian distilleries, which kept Tepresentatives in Chicago and other American cities.

The “News” adds that the execution squad that lined the men against the garage wall consisted of imported members of a "purple” gang from Detroit.

The police commissioner, Mr. William Russell, made a remarkable appeal this evening to the citizens of Chicago. He said: "Forgo your liquor in the interests of saving your city. We may not find the gang who carried out Thursday’s massacre, but help us to prevent future outbreaks.

"The cause of this curse on Chicago is liquor, and the rich rewards that, flow to violators of the law. If people will only cease drinking liquor the traffic will cease to pay, and the hoodlums will stop killing each other over their liquor rights.”