AMERICA'S “PUBLIC ENEMIES"

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 20077, 6 April 1935, Page 12

AMERICA'S “PUBLIC ENEMIES"

FIERCER FIGHT AGAINST CRIMINALS AUTHOR’S DEFENCE OF POLICE METHODS “One in every forty-two people in the United States have a police record.” This startling statement forms the basis of an amazing book published last month by Little, Brown and Company of Boston bearing the title “Ten Thousand Public Enemies.” The author of the book is Courtney Ryley Cooper who delves into the crime situation in America and then proceeds to reveal some extraordinary facts relating to the crime wave now sweeping many states in the great Republic. Something About the Author The writer of this unusual book that tells such a story of organised crime did not like school, so he ran away and became a clown in a travelling circus. As a press-agent for the Sells-Floto Circus and Buffalo Bill (Colonel W. F. Cody) he gathered the material firsthand for 500 stories of circus people and jungle animal life. More than fiifty magazines have published his stories about the “high country” of the Rocky Mountains. He has written “Weary River” and “Wild Cargo” for Hollywood, and done assignment-work for “The Saturday Evening Post” on the northern frontier. Born in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1886, Mr Cooper has been special writer on the Kansas City “Star,” the New York “World” and the Denver “Post.” covering about 200 murder cases. During the World War he was a Second Lieutenant in the Marine Corps. Police officials and Federal agents consider him one of the best-informed men in the United States on crime problems. “Like Gentlemen” Within the pages of “Ten Thousand Public Enemies” the author sets out to prove to Americans that “that nicelooking couple who live in the next apartment, the pleasant strangers who have taken up farming down the road, the well-dressed visitors on the golf-course—they may be criminals, wanted by ‘Uncle Sam.’ “You can’t tell by looking at their clothes, or listening for a gutter accent,” says Mr Cooper. * Modem criminals prefer quiet rural hideouts; they dress and behave like gentlemen; and one in every forty-two people in the United States has a police record. The Roots of Crime But, though criminals—particularly the 10,000 public enemies who are the cream of the crook-crop, the men (and women) whose arrest has to be made by armed men—are well “wired in” with the local police, the increasing activity of the Division of Investigation of the Department of Justice is getting at the roots of crime. Courtney Ryley Cooper’s book is a lively paen of praise for J. Edgar Hoover, who, in turn, writes a modest commendatory foreword. Mr Hoover, in ten years, has built up what Mr Cooper believes to be a far more effective outfit, dealing with far tougher criminals, than Scotland Yard. People who talk of the need for an American Scotland Yard are ignorant, says Mr Cooper. “If Scotland Yard came to America in full control of law enforcement, this entire country would run so wild with law breaking that the poor gentlemen from London would jump in the ocean. People in other less crime-ridden countries will looking at the record, question this somewhat boastful claim. This Mr Hoover who is fighting the crime wave is no mere policeman. He never had a day of experience in a regular police department. “He was never a detective; he does not read detective stories. Washington-born, with a high-school education, his first job was that of a clerk in the Library of Congress—a means to an end.” He wanted to take a law course, and he did, with money saved from his thirty-dollar-a-month job. In 1917, he moved to the Department of Justice; in 1924, became Director of its Division of Investigation. To-day that division, as Mr Cooper sees it, deserves a greater reputation than Scotland Yard or the Canadian “Mounties.” It gets its men. If juries were a bit less sentimental, he argues, ( it would get its women, too, and there . would be less crime. { Successful crooks are almost never lone wolves, says Mr Cooper, who has studied D. of J. files. They work in packs. They belong to a sort of crim- ’ inals’ club, with contacts reaching the s most various circles.

The “Gang-Molls” The book tells us that a lone bankrobber could not locate safe “hangouts” in which to “cool off” and could not sell his “hot” bonds. If caught, he could not spot the right lawyers. If shot, he would not know “safe” doctors. If jailed, he would not understand the intricacies of parole. Interweaving Crime So the story of one crime dovetails into the tale of another. Mr Cooper weaves his general reflections on crime in America into an intricate web in which the names of Wilbur Underhill, “Pretty Boy” Floyd, Clyde Barrow, “Shoebox Annie” French, “Baby Face” Nelson, John Dillinger. Verne Miller, and Frank Nash appear and reappear. He tells scores of thrilling stories, goes into detail about the Kansas City massacre, but always, in his narrative, the grim, patient, relentless Department of Justice agents are in the background. Many of them are college graduates; some are chemists, some lawyers. The worst criminals —and most criminals in this country—are native Americans, and most of them are relatively young. They would get nowhere without the aid of their “gangmolls.” some of whom seem like charming, sweet-faced girls but are not!