GRAFT RINGS IN NEW YORK.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 18818, 5 March 1931, Page 9

GRAFT RINGS IN NEW YORK.

False Morality Charges. TRAGIC SEQUELS REVEALED. United Frees Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright (Received March 4, 8.35 p.m.) NEW YORK, March 4. Investigations into the city’s vice conditions reached a pitiable climax to-night with the suicide by gas, of a sixteen-year-old daughter of a woman known as Vivian Gordon, who herself was found strangled In a van in Courtland Park, a few days ago, after telling the authorities she would appear in the courts and testify against a policeman who she alleged "railroaded” her to gaol on false morality charges. The girl, who was living with her father and stepmother, left a note in a diary: “I can’t face the world any longer. I am going to end it all.” The city for weeks has been aroused by the exposure of “graft rings” preying upon completely innocent, as well as questionable girls and women, of whom a striking number are now attempting to gain freedom from charges allegedly brought by members of the police, aided by “stool pigeons,” who are paid a portion of the money forced from the women by threats of imprisonment. The Gordon murder and the tragic climax, are but one instance of these shocking occurrences.