The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1911-07-03
SEVEN LOCKED UP FOR RIOT
BERGEN GANG SET OFT TO
BREAK Up GERMAN PICNTC.

Three Policemen Marked by Fists ri
knife-N omen and children Hur
Picnic Committee Fought On the
Invaders In q Lively Pitched Battle
When some Of the toughest member
Of the Bergen Gang in Tho Bronx decided
yesterday afternoon to break up tho
German picnic Of the members of the
Pinochle Students Club in Servings Park
in Pugsley avenue. Westchester. they sue.
ceeded in achieving all Of the following
results: More than a dozen women and
children hurt by flying bottles and stems
three policemen marked by fists and knit,
| wounds; n riot call that brought the re
serves and seven members Of the gang
lodged in cells on charges of rioting as
a felony. The picnic, though disturbed
was not destroyed.
The club il composed of quiet. fur
loving Germans who like to take lttl,
outings on the Sound with fshpoles or il
the .ieadows of Westchester with games
and songs About 800 of them were
drinking their beer and yodling their
choruscs near the end OF the afternoon
when dozen of the gangsters shouldered
''~' WY h''o 'ii' PAIN
that they were going to put the Dutch
on the bum"
Whenever some one objected to being
jostled he got clout on the jaw and a
leering invitation to step in if he was
looking for troible. The entertainment
committee and the games committee and
all the other committees united to put the
rowdies of the grounds
The roughs laid hands on beer glasses.
bottles and bungstarters and laid open
the nearest heads. Women and children
ran to the little hotel and restaurant on
the grounds and took refuge behind
locked doors. The Germans tried to rush
the gangsters out of the place and there
was pitched battle.
Policeman Stephen Ryan waded in and
laid hands on Benjamin Sager, who seemed
to be the ringleader of the gang. In
stantly every other tough quit fighting
and crowded around the lone policeman.
Drop that S,iy or we get you right, :"
one OF the gang threatened. and he let
a glass fly at Ryan. The missile knocked
of the policeman's helmet and at the same
moment hand reached out of the crowd
and dealt him blow that laid his scalp
open.
Ryan managed TO whistle for aid Po-
liceman John Travis heard and ran up
The roughs blocked him and would not
let him get in to where Ryan and Sagei
were wrestling on the grass Then Travis
pulled his pistol and fired three shots
in the air.
John May. another policeman. heard
the shots from a distance and ran down
to the park Somebody telephoned from
the hotel to the station. When the third
policeman got into the fight the rowdies
began to give way. They ducked for the
open fields outside Of the picnic grounds
with the three policemen after them
The policemen managed to round up seven
Of the gang just as the reserves came up
in patrol wagon and ran in pistols in
hand
The gangsters trooped meekly to the
wagon and we're taken to the station,
where charges Of rioting were entered
against them. The station blotter showed
these names:
John Devlin. Henry Ferony. John
MoGovern, Joseph Murray BENJAMIN
Sager, Peter Sa2er and John Stockdale
An ambulance surgeon from Fordham
had to sew up wound in Policeman
Traviss thumb which had nearly cut il
of. Ryan and Nav both had several
scalp wounds that needed attention. and
BENJAMIN Sager also had to have his
head stitched.