Show Walter WalterI I Winchell BROADWAY BROADW AY GOSSIP Behind the Scenes With the Dept of or Justice Toward the end of at prohibition this country b became came reacquainted with crime The eggs and prowlers were back at work Throughout the booze hustling era they were all bootleggers bootleg gers enjoying ing a rich living and I safety from the law law law-by by paying oil off and and because nobody wanted pro They were shunted into inta unpopular crime when it appeared that there were more people peddling peddling ped ped- dUng and hauling gin than there were drinking it So back they went to where they came from from sa from ing lag snatching extortion slugging burglary burglar murder etc The country got scared and started to yell for the police Not the local bluecoat because scandals in in various I I cities had shown the coppers corrupt and as easy to reach as your hat Some of the cops were on the payoff others were frightened out of keeping keeping keep keep- ing the law because some politicians could blow them out of their jobs So the public bawled for a federal force torce something to compare with L England's Scotland Yard or or the nationale of France with France with enforcement enforcement en en- officers beyond bribery and obligated to no fixers America of ot course course had such a force but its power was foolishly limited This national constabulary the division of Investigation of the department of justice bothered only I with violation of federal law and couldn't help smudge e local n nui i- i Yet it was they who made racketeering a peril perU instead of at a cinch cinch- began by stowing Capone in inthe the he clink and gave him the company of oC some of his murderous playmates The booze barons could make a local government play dead but the feds eds were tough and unreasonable when income tax dodging gave ave them thema a chance to move in on these out out- laws I And when the Lindbergh law was cn enacted as an outgrowth of the most shocking crime of our times the D D. D of at J. J men had real authority togo to togo togo go out and bear down on offenders What they have accomplished with this this' new power is of course coure a matter matter mat mat- ter of oC glorious record record- and both Scot land Yard and the of at France would be very busy bwy trying to top it It ought to be mentioned Incidentally incidentally tall tally that Scotland Yards Yard's force- force last figures number figures number men The investigating personnel of the division divi sion slon of at investigation the G men is overworked o sl sleuths The capture of Bru Bruno o Hauptmann and the erasing of DIllinger Floyd and imd Nelson Nelon and their associate public public public pub pub- lic enemies are recent enough to be familiar to everybody But a glance through the record of the past 18 in months discloses what a splendid record the division has made spending spend ing th the lives of some of its us crack men mento mento to make it The Urschel kidnapers rs' rs roundup Is Js Isone Isone one of the chief triumphs That Job joi dispatched 14 H persons to the jute mills milb and shoe shops of the federal hoosegows among them Machine Gun Kelly Harvey Bailey and Al AI Albert bert Bates three of at the most danger dangerous ous eg s ever to shoot a man in Iii the back All this was accomplished by tiresome and painstaking work and the men in the division laboratories are as deserving of credit a as the lads who shot it out with the killers J J. Edgar Hoover director of at the division is high in his praise of ot these unspectacular workers 1 He e needs his Mel Francis X Fays Pays Cowleys Cowleys Cow Cow- leys and Baums but they in turn lean on the men who wear out their eyes ejes studying fingerprints and other cl clues es The records of at the division are swell reading rending for anybody any any- body who writ writes a a. a column called Things I Ne Never Knew Til Now I I didn't know that the tat system of measurements is Js fallible Take the record of The West Brothers two sepia convicts both named though not nol related William West Their physical mea meas measurements were almost identical One Oneat of at the chummily known as asWill asWill asWill Will was brought into Leavenworth After looking him over the prison officials charged him with past crimes He denied the charges 3 so t tt they hey showed him his record picture pic t ture ure and all Will WUl West continued his denials It was only after he was f fingerprinted that his story was be be- l Fingerprints we know arc are never doubled and the William West whose misdeeds the new prisoner was accused of aI was already roosting i in n the same prison His prints positively t ively identified ed him Then there were the merry Kelly t twins wins wms of Bridgeport Conn These boys both industrious burglars were indistinguishable It was considered considered con con- s a big laugh in their town to have lave ave a witness positively identify o one ne and then turn around to look at atthe atthe t the he leering twin The division fingerprinted linger finger p printed the Kellys and they were b both oth put awa away where they could get v very ery few laughs at the law Two other twins the De Autre- Autre monts of Siskiyou Ore are sweat sweat- i ing ng away life Ufe terms thanks to the b busy fingerprint experts These brothers killed three of the crew In a arain arain atrain t rain train stickup and fled fInd l d to Steubenville Ohio Cosmetics and hair dye made t hem them as dissimilar in appearance as tb Smedley y Butler and Clifton Webb b but ut their paws gave them away There are four men deeply thankful thank- thank ul ful f for the fingerprinting system These four Whitey WaHter Charles C C. C Clinton Floyd Jarrett and Alfred Oliver were jugged and iden Idea t as four lour men who had killed t two wo men in the holdup of a bank in ta Lamar Cola Cob in 1928 It looked like a n closed case with execution for nfl all four f our ft But the division toilers continued t to o run down a thumbprint found on t he the window of the getaway car A Arear y year rear after the arrest of the four fp f lightened frightened people named above the p print rint was matched by one taken by police pollee in m Stockton Cat Cal from one J Jake ake Fleagle Jake was run down downs a as s were his brother Ralph Howard I L. L Royston and George J Abshier Ralph confessed th the holdup and murders mur mur- ders He Royston and Abshier are art s still till in cells cells and and Jake Fleagle went t to o h hell hell coming coming in second on th the draw ll |