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Show nAIDINGon i-EORDER WHITE LIGHTS I Series of Killings by Gangsters Started Over i I Robbery of Craps Game, Say Those 'Who lllle I K- T -"I 'I 9 t 1 nls V7" ' "' captured or r von Identified -v . . rTZS:, 77 JJtttj . . 1 f . . i I J I - J Lj -r -J -t the --rime r,f . rer m.'.y l.eer.mc a pro- -r " tfffimetV 'i' I zh SbT""""""-: x:iZ i now m the J3aa Lands; reua m wsr Knchine n s gg fWKKM m v All Probability Is otili ' iSKIS at White Heat, and Many Are the Guesses as to Who Will Be the Next W e ar y Gunmanto'Cross the Border.' HE great cities have evolved fy a new typo oi bandlt- lne most daring and the most I elusive In the long history of I I C crime I His vendetta never falls to V 1 claim Its marked victim smmS Human life la never permitted per-mitted to stand In the way of his loot. He raids a crowded billiard room or eaJoon on the border of the bright lights with the same nonchalance that the old-tjpe bandit would hold up a lonely stage coach 100 miles from human habitation. II laughs at the police and grand juries, and in St Louis they have never caught him. The St. Louis gunmen are the most efficient product of outlawry in any clime or period. In New York and Chicago his fellows have been at work successfully, but the gunmen of Sf Ixjuls today are peerless. A score of dead men In a year are mute, testimonials testi-monials of their effectiveness and a 'score of crowded downtown resorts held up and stripped of valuables Is the proof of then daring. As to laughing at the police the vacant records rec-ords of the law guardians are a silent mockery. No guilty gunman has been arrested, no gunman gun-man has even been Indicted. This bandit war machine seems to be pollce-pn-of How do they do It? The police would like to know. How to check them? The police have no Idea on the subject, to speak of. How far will the gunmen carry this border raiding? Tour guess Is as good as a pollce- I I man s. Campaign to Break Grange. In New York tho police have abandoned hope apparently of hndlnc tbe gunmen slayers and robbers. They are diligently at work, however, how-ever, in & campaign to unuermlne the raiders by breaking up the gangs. By a process of elimination they arrive at the conclusion tnat gangsters are the men who are raiding the border of Broadway there. You cannot convict a man in court by your process of elimination, but you can epot him for police Burvel'Jance. Accordingly, they ha e entered lulo a systematic campaign of disarmament coupled with Incessant crTorts to capture or hu-m'llato hu-m'llato gang leaders and thus destroy their prestige. In a year of this campaigning the New York police think thoy have produced results. In the flrtt r.lne months of 115 there were 172 homicides homi-cides lu Manhattan and the Bronv. In the F&me period of 1016 tho homicides were 137, a decrease of 35. In St. Louis there Is an average of more than t two homicides a week, or more than 104 a year. Nothing haB been accomplished in St. Louts as yet to restrain killing by gang bandits. in three month beginning last August five gangsters were shot down In public places in a single mang feud, and no one Is under arrest. A circuit attorney once exclaimed: "St. Louis 16 a border town." (In the light of the successful gang raids and assassinations In St. Louis recently, there 1b v growing suspicion that the circuit attorney was right. in point of deaths, daring and defiance of the police, the St. Louis bad mon have outstripped tho lames Boys, Mexican bandits and the wildest of tho Wild West raiders of olden days that have furnished our most thrilling literature. Five Slain in Three Months. Five gangsters slain In three months In a single feud wouid do credit to Breathitt County In its palmiest days. But when one considers that these assassinations occurred before midnight In the crowded downtown section sec-tion of a great metropolis, one Ir forced to realize he is facing a new tvpc of banditry in the evolution of that world old game. The gangsters raided Broadway with as much assurance as If that populous thoroughfare thorough-fare were the last barren ridge of the Kockles on tho edge of civilization. They have killed their victims with a fusillade and robbed thirty at a time under the bright glare of the tungstens without capture or pursuit by the police. The police have been powerless. Is It Impossible Im-possible to cope with tho modern methods of bandit warfare? Are the men In our great cities to be forced back seventy yeais in history, and compelled to tote a gun loosely In the holster prepared to be their own policemen? Looking tho known facts of these raiding parties In the face forces the conclusion that the bandits are playing too speedy a game f'r old-fashion police methods to reach. Speed Is tho word Their biggest asset Is the sixty horse-power motor car It gets them to a "job" unobserved. It gets them away from a murder or robbery In S twinkling ami practically defies pursuit on the hot trail. B tho fame movement It prepares for them an excellent alibi In a far distant part of town, nnd enables them to dispose ot guns, loot and members of the partj at different differ-ent places, to further confuse the police. From what has happened In St. Louis, It seems easier and safer to kIM a man and rob a score In the bright lights than to cover a ptage coach on a desert road in the West. Police Are Helpless. The bandit has discarded his bony bronch" for a '17 model, six-cylinder touring car For example of how helpless the police are when the gunman mark a man for death, take tho recent case of Arthur Flneburg. Fineburg, a quick gunman, knew as well as tho next man how to take care of himself In a gun scrap. But he became one of the five victims of the gang foud that is under way still In all likelihood. He was the pal of Harry Roman!, who was the first to be elaln. Romanl was killed last August In the lid club known as the Ftfth Tre-cinct Tre-cinct Democratic Club, on Twelfth Street, two blocks from Polico Headquarters. Flneburg wag In tho club when his pal was killed Rnd the coroner wanted him badly as a Witness. But Arthur declined to appear at tho Inquest or anywhere else that the gang might spot him. Ho knew his doom was sealed tf his foes found him. On a crowded street, in a barroom or at tho door of the coroner s office, they would surely pick him off. ' Red'' Kane shot and killed "Yellow Kid " Mohrle a few years ago at the door of the Circuit Courtroom In which Mohrle was on trial for his llfo If Kane did It today, he probably would escape In an auto. Fineburg circulated in a new neighborhood south of the railroad tracks. Ho drank his beer in dramshops off tho beaten course tin-gang tin-gang was accustomed to following. Even then the careful Arthur was taking chances, a he soon discovered. About 8 o'clock one evening, as Flneburg stood at tho bar of a saloon at 1421 Chouteau evenue, a machine stopped In front of the place. Flneburg heard the motor stop with misgivings mis-givings He knew the goii- would come In car when th.-y dll come, and ho was suspicions of all cars that stopped within gunshot of himself. him-self. He took three steps In tho direction of the rear door, when one of tho four men who entered at the front shouted, "There he Is now " Instantly there was a volley from four automatic auto-matic revolvers in the hands of the newcomers Ylth four bullets in his neck, Flneburg Wheeled about and received the second volley facing his slayers. As he sank to the Moor dead, tho four Kunmen, without a word, stepped outside and d'sappcared in the distance In a covered motor car before the three spectators In tho aloon had time to fully realize what had happened hap-pened One of tho witnesses testified It was less than sixty seconds from the time ho heard the first volley until the bandit car was chug-King chug-King away from the locality. Police Quickly on Scene. In a few minutes more a policeman ai rived, attracted by tho shots. The slayers never were traced beyond the door of tho barroom, but It Is a safe surmise that before tho patrolman had notified headquarters of the murder, they were resting from their labors over the beers In a distant resort and IncldcntlQlly establishing an alibi. Tho came Is so safe tho way the pangs piny it today that at two of the recent slaylnffs women wore taken along In tho murder car. When Edward (Baldy) Schoenborn wa called t to account by the gang a woman of the tenderloin tender-loin assisted In the preliminaries and enjoved no doubt the spectacle of his sudden demise Schoenborn was tending bar that night In a saloon at Thirteenth and Chestnut streets, a Mock from the circuit attorncys office and about three blocks from Polico Headquarters Schoenborn knew that ho was next man to be murdered In the gong war. He told his wife so Baldy figured that ho would stick it out and meet the g:-.ng with a Run In his hiind when they came for him. Behind the bar. With two guns under cover, was a point of vantage Baldy felt that way, and so did tho gang Whan they came they entered the cabaret room at the roar of the bar, where they were not visible to Baldy. A woman was with them, and she began an argument with one of tho party, which led to noisy words and an all-round fight Baldy was ihrowr off guard by the fake light and stepped to the door of tho cabaret room, Intending to lnterefere As Schoenborn's big form loomed In the doorway door-way tho turmoil In the other room ceased abruptly. ab-ruptly. At ihe same instant a man lined at close range and Baldy fell dead. It was only n ruse to draw Schoenborn away from his arsenal behind the bar. The woman and her three men companions stepped outside to a waiting touring car and sped away at reasonably high speed. That is all tho police know or ever will know in nil likelihood. Tho killing of Fineburg and Schoenborn wero not oialnary saloon killings There is very reason to believe that they were coolly planned and deliberately executed by tho sumo gangsters gang-sters who are responsible for three other similar assassinations in a spoce of three months The slayer got away "clean," as they say in police parlance. Their Identity nevor will be known unicsD through tho perfidy of a fellow-gang3tor or a gang woman. The point Is this. It always has been easy to kill a man, but when a man can be shot down In a public place with little or no chanco that 1. Arthur Fineburg, shot to death by gangsters in Chouteau avenue saloon December 20. 2. Sam MintZ, shot in his room at 2845 Gamble street four times the day before he was to appear as defendant in trial for $1100 theft, believed to have involved some of his gang associates. Mintz died without revealing the names of his slayers. 3. Edward Schoenborn, killed while tending car in saloon at Thirteenth and Chestnut streets, when he attempted to interfere in "fake fight." 4. Harry Dunn, killed in Typo Press Club. Slayers escaped in automobile. theorum your community becomes a border town anil your life Is no safer than If you were on tho fringe of civilization. If a gangster can bo killed with security In his own saloon, how much easier would It bo to kill an unsophisticated cltlzin In his own home for purposes of robbery? Tne high-power motor car has opened the way for a criminal class to rob and kill with B sense of security How far will they ro? In New York. In Chicago and in St Iouls tho crooks have tried out this new war machine with gieat Biicces In many fields. America is vapidly developing an army within its borders that may loot and kill to a greater extent than would bo posslblo by Invaders. T hess raiders cannot bo arrested except in rare liwtancia, and they never arc prosecuted. How can the police stop them? The militia has llnod the Mexican border for many months to prevent raids by Mexican ban-jit ban-jit Statistics Indicate thoro are more robberies rob-beries "hd more killing In a week at the hands of "unmen In tho Interior than Mexicans havo committed in any year on American 8011. The New York polico, after vainly striving to capture gunmen alter tho commission of particular par-ticular crimen, havo at last decided tho only way to combat them Is to break up the gangs and humiliate tho leaders. They do this by listing the gangsters by card Index and making it a business to constantly disarm, harass and annoy the ringleaders. Thoy look upon theso ganKs as schools of crime and assume that by destroying the schools they will doter the criminally crim-inally Inclined youth from becoming a gunman. gun-man. Tho gang leader Is the force that holds It together to-gether nnd protects it. He Is usually a criminal crim-inal of more than ordinary courage and per-sonallty. per-sonallty. He rises to his position by might and hold his placo against numerous rivals by tho same means. His followers must depend upon him to protect them In case they are arrested ar-rested or annoyed by tho police Tho arrost of a leader therefore should bo a body blow at tho existence of a gang, according to the Now York police. The gang leader of today cannot bo easily apprehended ap-prehended In the commission of a crime, It has bon Oemonstrnted. Tho polico of New York, however, mako It their business to destroy his prestige with his pang- It shows them first of all that he has no 1 pull" with the police, nnd In the course of time ho comes to be regarded re-garded as a very ordinary chap. Leader Is Humiliated. This was the fate of a young gang leader named Henretty, who w recognized as the 4 head of the Golden Eagles." a gang devoted to the accumulation of that type of gold coin. The police arrested him on minor charges two and three times a month and held him without ball for the twenty hours allowed by law. Finally Henretty gave a big blowout at a daneo hall. and when the festivities were in full swing the nollct entered. They proceeded to drag Hen- rotty out In a very undignified manner in the presence of his assembled followers. He be- came a laughing stock and a memory to the ll Golden Eagles as a result, The police keep a curd Index of tho Hen-rettya Hen-rettya and their followers. They try to know what these men are doing and where they or i at all limes. Then thoy Interfere and harass as much as they can and make gang llfo a bur-den, bur-den, especially for the leader Wherever a gang of gunmen has been Jailed or driven off, mortality statistics always have shown an immediate slump In homicides Crlro-inologists Crlro-inologists are of the opinion that If all the gangs in An. erica were dispersed tho L'nitod States no lenger would continue to load the great na-tlons na-tlons of the world In the number of murdera con mlttod In proportion to population. Only In Hungary and Italy docs assassination prevail to anything like tho extent of lta piao-tlce piao-tlce in tho United states. In the decado 1001 to mo thero were 11.603 homicides recorded in tho United Statos. an average of 4.85 murders in each 100.000 of pop- JM Illation. In tho same period tho homicides in the Gorman Empire, were 267, an averajfo rate Of less than 1 in 100,000. In England and Wales, 2991, nn average of less than 1 In 100.000, and an average of less thnn-1 In lOO.Ono was record. ed In rapan and in tho Province of Ontario. Cane da. I |
