Show THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE iWiua fctruliltH SUNDAY MORXIXC JULY 27 KUO As Told to BRUCE CATTON How gambling and not booze gives the gang leaders By PAT ROCHE Chief Investigator for State’s Attorney Cook County Illinois their biggest profits iHICAGO and how gambling rings must be broken before whose gang wars have made her notorious all over the earth is being cleaned UP- - I This is the answer 1 always make when people ask me if the city can set its house in order Chicago is being cleaned up The situation here is 1000 per cent better than it was 16 months ago It wall continue to improve and eventually the gangs will be completely driven to cover 1 he backbone of their strength has already been broken I say this in spite of the fact that certain notorious gang leaders are still at hlierty in spite of the fact that gang shootings and bombings still find their way into the papers in spite of the fact that many people e seem to think that nothing short of a vigilance committee will ever solve things in Chicago 1 he answer to it all is fairly simple In John O Swanson Chicago and Cook County have a state’s attorney whose honesty and integrity re unquestioned That's all there is to it Give any large city a state's attorney who is strictly honest and who really wants to sec cannot things cleaned up and the clean-ulong be delayed — no matter how many influential men are lined up on the side of the gangs are disbursed are revealed here by a fearless official who is sincerely trying to wipe out hoodlum heaven - city-wid- up enormous sums for the gangs I set out last summer to put these three tracks out of business T hey were operating under an injunction restraining law officers from interfering with them I raided them anyhow At one track I seized three machine guns — a track run by the disorder And by the same token the reverse is true if the state’s attorney is crooked or if he has political and personal entanglements which prevent whole duty his him from doing his Capone gang The tracks closed down for a week while the lawyers got busy The lawyers announced they were going to put me in jail for violating the inI raided them junction and the tracks — again and the lawyers ran around in circles again and while they were I made a third senes of raids running Well we all went into court and a master in chancery was apThe pointed to hold hearings judge issued a new injunction and le let the injunction stand until the Supreme Court could decide on lie whole business There we were finally upheld and the tracks closed Vice conditions in Chicago were almighty bad when we came into office here In the suburbs to the south and west especially they city will have a sorry mess on its hands Let me explain just what I mean when 1 that Chicago right now is being cleaned up We have broken up organized gambling in Cook County AMBLING is what fills the war chests of the gangs It is infinitely more lucrative than the liquor racket It is the greatest money maker the gangs have Take it away and their revenues are too small e to enable them to carry on their organizations in the way they used to When I say that gambling is more profitable to a gang than making and distributing booze many readers may doubt ‘my statement 1 he booze racket does bring in millions — no question about that But it doesn’t compare with G now uniter senlenu to Ralph Capone the penitential y for failing to pa) fed eral taxes on the immense income were three of them in Cook County running wide open all summer long rolling rpHLRE p city-wid- gambling A big gambling house in Chicago will take in on a single night No speakeasy in the world— no chain of speakeasies —can compare with that I know wealthy men in Chicago who have dropped as much as $25000 in a single night T he intake of a string of big gambling houses It which cater to such men is simply incredible means a perfect flood of money for the gang that operates it money that enables the gang to hire gunmen by the score money that enables them to bribe policemen and politicians and make their position secure $100000 -- received which he hint that if a grand he doesn’t act the from whole organized business jury will crime go befort ' There’s nothing a politician hates more than an indictThe state’s 'attorney always has that threat He can scare crooked cops into being honest A police force tliat’i with graft will turn relatively straight over night if they discover that the state's attorney means business There’s one point in connection with this war on ilia Chicago gangs that the average man doesn't understand A1 Capone came back to Chicago not long ago after a stay in a Philadelphia prison Now A1 Capone is known all over the country as a gangler All kinds of violent crimes are laid at his door But when he returned to Chicago nobody arrested him I he police didn't want him and the state’s attorney didn't want him Ana that's what most eople can't understand They nsk: "How is it if this man Capone is all you say he is that he never gels arrrsted? Has he got everybody bribed or is everybody asleep?" It’s a natural question too But neither answer is correct It's one thing to know who the gangsters are and what they have done and it's another thing to prove it on them in open court At this minute the state s attorney and the police chief know practically all of the leading gangsters in Chicago hut they haven't got the evidence that would enable them to ment honey-combe- d convict them in court IE UT there is this about gambling: large gambling house will not even try The risk is to operate without protection too great The class of men who furnish the big money for such institutions will not go to them unless they are assured that there is no rhanre of their being molested They won’t come in unless they know that everything is taken Care of I hat is why stamping out gambling is a comparatively eacy matter The state’s attorney doesn’t really need to do anything He doesn’t need to stir out of his office as far as closing up the big gambling joints is concerned The men back of these gambling joints will come to hun They’ll come to him before he takes office — before he’s elected even if the political signs are easy to read They’ll come to him to find out if he’s going to be “a good e whole thing isn't as as you may think T lie average newsparr reader sees in sim-d- has been a ride by the Capone and he figures all we have to do is go get Capone and take him down to Johet But it doesn’t work Ins A paper taken gang that for that way You can’t get witnesses to testify TTiere’s scarcely a murder in Chicago in winch the police and prosecutor can’t put their finger on the murderer But how many of the people who yell so much about our failure to arrest these murderers would if they saw a gang murder come in and give their evidence? Mighty few! Look: Tony Lombardo one of A1 Capone’s crowd was shot down in broad daylight at Dearborn and guy” He won t need to hold his hand out le won't need to hunt them up All he nreds to do if he wants to get rich is wait for them to come to him — and agree when they do come that he'll be "rea- Madison I streets in the Heart of the of people saw what happened But did any of them come in to us and volunteer any information? Not a one It’s partly because they're afraid And it’s partly too because they know these fellows have a lot of influence T hey know that the politicians can make things pretty unpleasant for a man who testifies against a gangstrr Influence! V by I’ve had some of the big business men in Chicago come into my office and ask me to let up on certain gangsters And then those same men will wonder why it is the jxilice and state's attorney can’t break up the gangs I here’s another thing You can never get a gangster to testify You can catch one of those men red handed ut he’ll never squawk He doesn’t dare If he keeps lus mouth shut and "takes the rap" lie knows it’s a couple of but if lie years or so in prison and that isn’t so good talks he knows that he isn’t going to live long So lie keeps quiet and takes whatever is corning to him We brought in a man not so long ago whom ve knew to be one of AI Capone's leading gunmonNWe knew that he had been executioner in a number of gang murders here loop sonable” You’ll get an idea of the force of that statement when I tell you that 1 have beep offered as chief investigator for the state's attorney in Chicago $50000 a week to "lay off" the gamblers 1 could make a millionaire out of myself in no time if 1 wanted to shut my eyes to the gamblers’ activities bo could ome of joints were downtown in the Others were loop farther out AH of them however — all State’s Attorney Swanson the big ones that But of course if we did is — had their runChicago’s gangs could never ners downtown in be cleaned up the loop drumming As I say the big gamblers come in T hese runners without waiting to be asked and if the up trade hand out cards on live open law enforcement officials want to be street They'd play the big crooked it’s very simple But it works hotels and solicit business both ways If the state's attorney is on the the mightu fallen! quite openly There wasn't Mlcs the slightest pretense of conknown as M)lcs the MightV a beer square all he has to do is say so All cealment he has to do is tell the gamblers when did a complete flop when a Remember onre more they come to lee him that he intends photographer let go a flash gun in his presence that the nightly “lake" of a to enforce the law fearlessly and imfug joint like that in Audi partially times wll run as high as $100000 and you can see how If he does that and lets them know that he means it it was tint tie Chicago gangs got so rich and powerful the big gambling joints won’t open 1 lie men behind them But the big gambling joints weren’t the only form of Unless the joints are run wide know it would be useless gam! ling we had to watch out for open they don't get the crowds There were the slot ma bines too They sound rather k COUPLE of years ago there were some of the mnt insignificant But there were 2500 of them in Cook County ' when we totUofficc and the weekly sums they poured into elaborate gambling joint imaginable running in C the gang treaures weren't to he sneezed at as openly as so many delicatessen stores The T hey had Mor impoitant of all t! ere were the dog raring track' bigger ones were as fancy as Monte Carlo Several of thce places were doing a land office business roulette wheels card games dice and all the trimmings throu out tl c eavr n Food and drink of the finest quahtv were served free to I fiee were irnmen'-lborne of these joints had as many as 100 all guests ) profitable concession Of coure they weie illegal But that didn’t make t ny difference employes and were furnished m the utmost luxury ! were wide oen We started out to raid these places and we certainly found plenty of business One night in CaluOne night met City we made a sweeping series of raids down on a certain disin another suburb we swooped orderly house operated by the notorious Mike de Pike Heitler Just as we got in somebody bad Mike de Pike on the phone trlling him the state's attorney's men were on the warpath IbILN” I heard Mike say "my protection They won’t come near me” then Mike turned around and saw us He yelled into the phone “Oh my God here they are now I" Then we collared him I went to the phone and called the chief of polite of that suburb and told him to hurry on down and see the sort of joint we'd uncovered in his own bailiwick He came down and watched us as we herded Mike de Pike and his 15 girl employes into the wagons then he accompanied us into Chicago and went to my office where we read him- - a little lecture on law enforce- O K Just ment Mentioning this chief of police reminds me of another way in which the state's attorney can insure a clean town An honest state's attorney can make the police department honest too — and lie can do it without turning his hand over All he has to do is make his position known — and ol course it lie known that he s going to keep his eyes wide open If the state’s attorney is honet and aggiessive the police have to he the same way Because you see the state's attorney can always get action out of the police department by calling up the responsible officer and telling - lt 1 tl V O A ) icoirs I i? Wr did not — I le kept lus e krew mouth shut— and we had to turn him loose done had knew what well he our names own as as we just but we couldn’t prove it on him We can never get the That’s what you’re up against big gangsters where they belong until the erdinary citrvn develops a willingness to give evidence U hat we can do though and what we are doing is break the gangs’ powrr I've said that we’ve ended comWe’ve broken up the mercial gambling in Cook County T here's till booe of course prostitution ring But I think I’m perfectly safe in saying that the bigscst done part of the job has been and is being fhings are infinitely heller than they were a year and a half ago Of course the job isn't done yet It will take time I here'll he gang outhreiks here from limp to time over But I have no hesitation in saying that the worst v |