The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-08-08
POLICE CRAFT hunt is OFF
PRIVATE DETECTIVES FOUND
BROOKLYN VERY, VERY BAD,
But Deputy Commissioner Hanson sized
II All Up ss q scheme for the lindotng
Of O'kecfre and Has Released Ham-
burger Unless He'll work without Pay.

DufXWf NuIttt hte WUrN tNltVuN Fnys
A story was pub ished yesterday in a
Brooklyn paper deta ing the alleged efforts
Of Jacob q. Hambur. or. head Of a private
detective agency. TO run down police graft
ers in Brooklyn under the direction Of Com
missioner Bingham. who is represented as
having held ny the hunt when Hamburger
was about ready 90 go before the Grand
Jury and disclose the information he had
obtained.
According to the story Hamburger was
engaged on July 8 by COMMISSIONS Bing-
ham to investigate tales Of police grating
in Brooklyn and took regular reports to
him. He soon discovered. IL Is alleged.
that dives were hourishing in Hamilton
avenue and other sections Of he borough
and that no less than forty-hve d~isorderly
houses were in operation in a single inspec-
ton district. all under police protection.
Coney Island is said to have been described
by Hamburger az IN a worse condition than
il was under the rule of John Y. McKane.
Hamburger is alleged to have even fur
nished Commissioner Bingham with the
of half a dozen Coney Island police
men who were said to be implicated. While
Hamburger was engaged In the i'm vest gatioii
two lieutenants and two detectives at Brook
lyn Police Headquarters were transferred
over Deputy Commissioner O'Keeffe's head.
the transfers presumably being made
on account Of H~amburger's revelations.
About two weeks ago Hamburger is said 70
rave got a surprise when Commissioner
Bingham called a halt on his Investigations,
restored the two ieutenantsa and two detec-
tives to their old posts and publicly declared
his confidence in Deputy Commissioners
O'keeffe.
Yesterday Hamburger refused TO give any
Information in regard to his investigation.
His reports. he said. were in the hands OF
Commissioner Bingham and he was willing
that they should be made public. Hamburger
said that the reports would not contain any
thing derogatory to Deputy Commissioner
O'Keefe. Hamburger says that while he
was on the graft hunt two detectives were
brought on from New Orleans for the pur-
pose OF having him identified as a crook
who had been convicted OF a crime several
years ago in that city. The detectives said
that he was not the Hamburger they bad in
mind.
Deputy Police Commissions Hanson said
last night that the services Of the Ham,
burger agency were engaged. but were dis
pensed with because both he and Commits
sioner Bingham were convinced that the
kind OF witnesses the agency had secured
and the evidence they could give were not
worth the city's money. Commissioner
Hanson said:
when the charges Of grating in Brook
Ign were being made a IN OF the
citizens of that borough saw Gen. Bing-
ham and limited that he didn't dare have
an investigation. The Commissioner said
he was willing for il to be made. and
furthermore would pay for an investiga-
ton by any n the committee recon-
mended. The citizens spoke OF Ham,
burger and he was engaged.
Hamburger made frequent reports to
me and | spent much time seeing his W it,
nesses and covering the ground he had been
over. Much of the evidence he submitted
concerned Cliff and Powers, the two young
policemen used by Deputy Commissioner
against them. ! found that the persons who
were anxious to testify against them we're
either persons who had been arrested and
convicted by these two policemen for va
rious offences, or were friends of several
politicians or of Capt. Baldwin, formerly
an inspector, who was reduced because he
couldn't get the evidence against a dis
orderly house that Cliff and Powers got.
After going into the Hamburger agency
evidence very carefully with Commissioner
Bingham we both decided that the graft
charges were only part of a general scheme
on the part Of politicians and others in
Brooklyn who couldn't get what they
wanted from First Deputy Commissioner
O'Kecffe to injure him through attack ing
the men around him and TO drive him out
Of business If possible. For that reason
we told the Hamburger agency that we
would consider any evidence IL cared to
submit, but that il was not worth paying
for"
Commissioner Hanson said that Ham
burger was n candidate for the job of Deputy
Commissioner when Mr.. O'Keefe was APP
Bingham recently got authority TO appoint
n fourth deputy.