Atlanta Georgian., 1912-07-19
CHAPTER ".
The Slate Colored Cart Has an
Underworld History

The physical instrument which play
ed an important part in the assassina-
tion Of Herman Rosenthal was four
cvlinder Packard automobile, bearing
the license number Abb, n "
It is a slate colored car. capable of
making about so miles an hour
The car was bought about one and
one-balf years ago by Louis Libby, an
old-time member OF the Hesper club,
when that institution on Second avenue
was at its height of notorious crimi-
nality and Rosenthal was its dominant
factor
Libby went into the automobile busi-
ness when the Hesper club was broken
up by the repeated attacks by the po-
lice, and the gambling members were
scattered all over the city.
Libby ran 24-hour business. and to
accomplish this, joined with William
Shapiro. who in various circles is SAID
to have been a partner, manager or
simply a chauffeur.
The car was kept in the garage at
No. 73 South Washington square. 1t
was in this same place that Montani,
the chauffeur and promoter of the $25,-
900 taxicab robbery, kept the machine
that was used in the commission of this
crime
Car Stand Among Criminals.
Libby. with the consent of property
owners. set up permanent stand for
his car on the southwest corner of Sec
ond avenue and Tenth street, opposite
the cafe Boulevard.
In a section of Second avenue not far
south of Libby's stand are resorts fire.
duented in daylight and dark by all the
types of men and women which make
up the underworld, and it was from
among this class that Libby and Sha-
piro obtained many of their patrons.
Frequently at this season the car has
been put into commission by men who
have made winning at some game
pickpockets who have profted by work
on street car lines. depots and crowded
public places, receivers of stolen goods
who have made a profitable disposition
of their wares, women who have robbed
some newly found friend and those
successful in other lines of criminal
work
Figured in Other Escapades.
1t was a slate colored car. said to
have been driven by Shapiro, which
carried Big Jack" Zclig and his as
sociates in the Kid Twist gang into
Chinatown recently when Zelg and his
followers shot up Jack Sirroco's resort
on Chatham square as preliminary
suggestion of the way In which Sir
roco's cohorts would be treated when
they were found
1t was the same car driven either by
Shapiro or Libby, which appeared al
the criminal courts building on the dav
that Zelig appeared in court for ar
raignment after recovering from A pis-
tol shot i'm the neck afflicted by Louis
Torti. 1t was crowded with the follow
ers of Zelig, who noisly declared they
leader.
The police stationed in the neighbor.
hood drove the car away. and the gang
sters cursed the blue coated men.
1t was known in the underworld that
Libby's car was always on the job and
ready to go anywhere at any time. Sc
1t was that on the day that it had beer
decreed that Rosenthal was to die the
men. in seeking safe and reliable get
away turned their eyes toward the
sleek-looking car opposite the Cafe
Boulevard.
Boarded BY Prosperous Sports"
Four well dressed men, who had the
manner of sports with run of luck in
their favor, boarded the car in Second
avenue near Tenth street. accordino 10
the statement made by Libby to Mr..
Whitman, and directed that they BE-
taken uptown to Forty-third street and
Broadway.
Libby claims he never saw the men.
and Shapiro alleges the men were all
strangers to him. The car, according
to the order of the man who acted as
the spokesman for the band, proceeded
uptown slowly and reached a place on
Broadway. near Forty third street,
shortly before o'clock, when the order
was given to the chauffeur to stop.
Some of the men alighted