Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-08-17
THE POLICE GRAFT
From 0isorderly Houses BEING
Probed, While Awaiting Schepps.


New York. Aug. 165.-Pending the
arrival here Of Sam ,Schepps, the ma
lterial witness .Bhoi1 the grand jury
wishes to- hear before handing down
indictments in the Rasenthal murder
case, the district attorneys office is
Ieenterins It's attention on police graft
from disorderly houses
1t developed, today, that the raid,
last night upon Is of these resorts
was the result ofsa tip furnished by
Jack Rose, the gambler. whose con-
fession resulted in the Indictment of
Police Lieut.. Becker on the. charge Of
instigatfng the Rosenthal murder
Jack Sullivan. one eff the Rosenthal
prisoners, WAS. according to the in
formation given by Rose, collector
of graft from these houses, which
We're 1saof 80 houses declared to be
operated by the Vice Trust
Although the surface result of the
raids was the holding of only four
alleged proprietresses on $1,000 bail
each. Assistant District Attorney
Smith. says he is is possession of evil
dence, tonight, showing Where the
graft collections from the trust"
went. He has traced it, he says, to
police inspectors. The payments
amounted, Mr. Smith said, to about
$500 month, or on the basis of 500
a month for % houses running stead
lily.
Graft is going To the police also
from the other combinations of higher
class" Mr.. Smith said, one controlled
by ar East Side gang leader. whose
name has been mentioned in the Ro.
seminal case. Mr.. Smith also has the
name of Il woman, the wife of one of
the prisoners held for the Rosenthal
murder who. he says, was the collector
of disorderly house graft for Becker.
According to information obtained
by agents of the Society for the Pre-
Vention of Crime, the trust raided.
last night, known as the big Five, >
nest annual profits of $4,000 over its
graft payments and controls about 1900
women. The graft, it was said was
paid directly to police inspectors by the
trust itself and not by the individ-
ual nouses. Each of these houses had
two proprietresseS. or managers. who
We're shifted, every night.
While there was no fear of raids by
the police, it was said, the Trust"
feared the Society for the Prevention
Of Crime and the district Attorney
hffice, and for this reason always kept
several of its houses vacant as Jump
ing" houses in case others We're clos
ed.
coincidents with these revelations, Po-
lice Commissioner Waldo today. reduced
Inspector Cornelius G. Hayes to the rank
of captain and suspended him pending
his ttfial On charges that the inspector
falsely stated that Commissioner Waldo
directed him not TO obtain evidence
against disorderly houses except by or
der of the commissioner and that he
failed to suppress disorderly- houses in
his district. eHf 49,,
Hayes statement declaring that he had
been ordered not to raid disorderly
houses until told to do so by the com
missioner was made, this afternoon, to
the commissioners after a similar state
ment had been published in an evening
newspaper, credited 10 IAN inspector"
Representatives of the district attorney
discovered two more bank accounts of
Becker, today. The amounts totalled
about $4,000, it was learned. making the
aggregate deposits about $4,000
District Attorney Whitman left, today.
for Manchester, VT, TO visit his family.
over Sunday.