REIGN OF TERROR

Taranaki Daily News, 2 January 1926, Page 18

REIGN OF TERROR

AMERICAN CRIME WAVE.

MANY DAYLIGHT ROBBERIES.

' POLICE SQUADS ORGANISED.

San Francisco, Nov. 1. 1 With th« approach of winter and the ever-increasing number of eases of extreme violence recorded in parious parts of the United States civic authorities are becoming alarmed at the present carnival of crime with which the country is afflicted and armed police squads have been organised in some of the large centito of population to place the ecores of daylight robbers and daring gunmen behind the prison bars. I't was in New York that the crime wave had reached the worst proportions, although Chicago was running a good second, law gaining the ascendancy for one day in Manhattan in a struggle to crush the latest New York crime wave. While the State’s judicial machinery ground out indictments against members of the notorious “Cowboy gang” of gunmen and police arrested a Connecticut inventor charged with supplying them with pistol silencers, Federal authorities began action to close thirty fashionable supper clubs and restaurants, where flagrant infractions of the VolsHcad Act had been detected recently. The Federal grand jury has heard the explanation of managers and waiters in the thirty alleged cases entered by summons servers in a new padlocking drive, and efforts are in progress to have all of the places closed for six months on the charge of violating the prohibition laws. Old-fashioned saloon bars were found in full blast, and a Bertillion system of identification 'to keep out prohibition agents, was resorted to in these halls of ill-famefi while doors with secret locks ' and sliding panels were discovered and a pipe line to carry liquor from a neighbouring building was found in one of the resorts MONSTER JEWEL THEFT. Meanwhile, after an outbreak of holdups and robberies that totalled 200,000 dollars in one day, the underworld became strangely quiet. I'is only advantage of the day was gained when District Attorney Pccora admitted that the thief who stole 083,000 dollars’ worth of jewelsf rom the wealthy New York millionairess, Mrs. James P. Donahue, was no nearer arrest than ever and 'that 05,000 dollars was paid for the return of the gems. While he was conferring with the police, Eugene Rcising, inventor and head of the- Reising Arms Company of Ifant Hartford, Connecticut, was indict cd 'by the grand jury in New York for selling silencers to the “Cowboy gang,” and was arrested. It was alleged that he supplied the “Cowboy gang,” twelve of whose members had been arres'ted, with at least sixty silencers, which were used when the daring desperadoes were out murdering citizens on the highways. I3y using the silencers the “Cowboy gang’s weapons were not heard l\\ policemen in the vicinity of the holdups. 0110 of “Cowboy gang’’ afiesled was a young woman with bobbed hair, and she is alleged to nave attempted to shoot a policeman who pursued her prior to arresting her. LEGAL SYSTEM WRONG. Many “savants” are endeavouring to trace the cause of the recrudescence of America’s crime wave, and many reasons have been advanced, but in the opinion. of Professor A. M. Catheart, Stanford University law professor and nationally known exponent of legal reforms. crime waves in America are not brought about by the World War, 'the moving pictures, the prohibition law or the motor car. They are due principally to the cumbersome legal system ex isting in the United States and tht misuse of the prison parole systems Professor Cathcart blames the sensational spirit of the country more Cnewspapers than to the cinema. • “The backwash of the World War, the present situation in regard to the enforcement of the Volstead Act, are but contributing factors,” he declared. “The real cause of crime in this country is our legal system. Our prison probation and parole systems are misused Un I our laws are ineffective, unwieldy and so complicated that evasion Ls only a matter of time.” He added that the increase of criminal tendencies among the younger generation was due. chiefly to the breaking down of home influence. Outside attractions lured the youth of the nation before he was fully matured and capable of intelligent judgment, he said. Newspapers were severely criticised for exploiting crime through 'their sensational accounts. “COLLEGE BOY” BANDITS. A few days after the ‘’Cowboy gang” had been apprehended, another type of desperate criminal appeared on the streets of New York when a gang, described as resembling ‘'college boys,” became prominent in a series of startling jewellery robberies. In one instance jewellery valued at from 160,000 to 200,000 dollars was taken by bandits of this college type from 'the agent of a Maiden Lane firm on Upper Broadway in New York. The robbery occurred while a jeweller had left the gems in the care of the chauffeur. The “college boys” surruudcd the motor car and hold up the chauffeur. It was the third successful jewel robbery in New. York city within ten hours. Previously five -bandits, including one in a policeman’s uniform, had obtained 10,01)0 dollars in Brooklyn, and a Harlem firm had been robbed of 50,000

dollars. Commenting on the new outbreak of lawlessness in New York and vicinity, former Governor Whitman declared that the city had become the crime centre of the world, with more murders in the last year Than in ffie whole of England, and with a record of a steady increase In the Fast eight years. He charged the District A'Ltorney’s office with laxity and an outstanding disgrace. While ex-Governor Whitman was making this declaration a new epidemic of crime made itself evident with two daring robberies in Manhattan, where two gunmen shot with fatal effect the proprietor of a Lower East Side restaurant in which there were 18 patrons, including five women. The boldest robbery by the Brooklyn band was the hold-up of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Goldman and their chauffeur. After they had crowded the Goldman automobile to the curb, the five robbers took 5000 dollars in jewellery and 250 dollars in cash from their victims. The loot included personal jewellery worn by Mrs. Goldman. ARMED WITH PISTOLS Within a short time after this robbery police all over Brooklyn were searching for the band as a result of several other hold-ups in rapid succession. The East Side restaurant owner, Michael Gurney, was shot by two men who entered the place, supposedly as patrons. The shooting occurred in the kitchen, after which the gunmen escaped by keeping the patrons at bay with their pistols. Burglars blew open the 1 safe of a Lexington Avenue jewellery store on the previous night and stole Liberty bonds, cash and jewellery totalling 50.000 dollars. A band of “yeggs” held citizens of North Lewisburg at bay early one morning, blew the safe of the Bank of North Lewisburg and escaped with approximately 3500 dollars in cash. Telephone wires were cut by the bandits, so as to prevent the police being notified quickly. Citizens, hearing the blast 'that wrecked the safe, attempted to reach the -bank building, but were ordered back by bandit guards stationed at all corners leading to the bank. Not to be outdone for a leading place in the criminal wave Chicago was making a bold effort to forge into premier position, for six heavily-armed men robbed the West Pullman works of the International Harvester Company of a 45,000-doliar payroll and escaped in a rain of bullets. The robbers surprised a score of employees in the offices, including F. 11. Harrison, superintendent, just after an express messenger had taken the money from the company’s downtown offices. Each possible exit was blocked by 'the hold-up men, who put the pay-roll into a canvas bag and smashed a window through which they escaped to their car. As the last man wont through the window, an author on the second floor seized a rifle and fired, bu't without effect. Rewards totalling 3000 dollars were offered by the company for arrest and conviction of the miscreants, but as in most other cases, the bandite were soon lost in obscurity. In San Francisco just as a wealthy shopkeeper was closing his store on the Saturday night a young bandit entered the premises, and on the proprietor refusing to deliver to the robber all his day’s takings, the visitor shot the shopkeeper in cold blood and escaped during the panic that reigned near the store. Ihe shopkeeper, who had previously I fought an attempted robbery, left a widow and three small children. CIITCAGO’S CRIME BILL. Charles R. Holden, president of the Chicago Crime ommission, in a statement relative to the present crime wave in America, said Chicago could afford to give each of its estimated 30,000 crooks an annuity of 20,000 dollars and still be somewhat ahead of 'the game. The city’s annual' crime bill was far in excess of 600,000,000 dollars, Mr. Holden declared in a speech. His estimate included the cost of gaols and courts, he said. An amusing feature developed in a robbery in Newark, in New Jersey, when Carlo D. Francese, the owner of a restaurant, while serving a customer was robbed of 100 dollars in cash, and a watch valued at 45 dollars was taken from the guest by three armed men, who suddenly swooped down into 'the restaurant. The robbers displayed their marksmansl'ip by shooting a leg from a piano as they left. A trail which went westward through Fond Du Lac in Wisconsin, is expected to lead to the robbers who took 150,000 dollars in stamps from the post office of that city. The gang, three or four men, went to the Sheybogan post office at midnight, and they bound and blindfolded John Long, the night watchman. For two hours he sat tied to a chair as the flame of a torch cut through two vault doors. A charge of nitro-glycer-ine opened the inner compartment. The stamps, in packets large enough to fill several suit.cases, were packed in several bags. Three men in a large Sialan motor car held up a big truck of the National Transportation Company, of Bridgeport, Connecticut, on the Boston Post Road, early in the morning and, after carrying the driver and guard to White Plains, escaped with tobacco and e cigarettes valued at between 15,600 and 20,000 dollars.