The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1913-06-10
MILLIONS OF DOLLARS ARE LEV
led BY THEM IN BLACKMAII'
EVERY YEAR.
THOUSANDS LIVE BY CRIME


Levied Tribute of S3,50O,OOO. 9th
er Horses Stolen.
There was a time when the love
of the sensational in crime or DARN:
turned to the West. The develop
.ment of that mighty empire, from th'
DAYS of the Indian fighter down tt
the latest land boom or mine strike
or oil,boom, was attended by the dra
matte and the tragic. The laWles'
camp, the equally lawless range, the
cattle rustlers, the cowboy, the bao
man and the tenderfoot blend in
pictures that live in history and ro-
nance. 1t was a region where the
strong man and the adventurer pre-
coded the homesteader and the con-
ventions of law and order; and that
there were crimes, many Of theD1'
and deeds of daring, violence and L.
Justice was inevitable.
But today if you wish to run up
against crime in it's most sensational
form you must turn to New YORK.
There are probably as many hold-ups
in New York in a decade as there
have been in the West in a genera
ton. The murder of a gambler by
dictation of a corrupt police officer
is not the most sensational of the
great crimes which have REDEEMED
New York during the past 20 years.
Gunmen carried by automobiles fight
duels in its streets. Business houses
are raided and robbed in the light OF
day and their protesting guardians
left weltering in their blood. Bombs
are exploded in tenements and halls
and the moles of the underground
would compete with the river pirates
of the night in the game of blocdshed
and murder. Abductions, kidnap-
ing, Matchmaking have become as IA
miliar to newspaper readers as re-
ports of the tariff or the disclosures
affecting the police department.
Horse Prisoners.
One of the most peculiar species OF
crime in the great metropolis is that
carried out by the Horse Prisoners
Association, the end of whose rascal
ity it is hoped has been reached this
week in the arrest of two of its, mem
bers. The members of this unholy
society poisons horses for a living.
They levy blackmail upon the owners
of liveries and if the money demand
ed is not paid they poison the horses
and sometimes explode bomb under
the stable Murder, if it occurs, and
it has occurred, is a negligible Incl
dent in their operations. They are
after the great god of America
the dollar-and nothing is allowed to
interfere.
A summary of their crimes is suf-
ficient to startle During the past
year they have poisoned $500
horses, whose owners would not pay
blackmail, thereby inficting finan-
cial loss upon the owners of 1866
600 They levied during the same
period $3.5O0,OOO in blackmail, fore
ing it from horse owners who pre-
ferred to pay lest their horses might
be poisoned or their barns blown up.
This association pays a bonus of $40
for every horse poisoned and in addi-
ton maintains corps of we'll train
ed horse thieves, with established
fences" who make a business OF
stealing horses, changing their ap-
pearance and selling them in New
Jersey, Connecticut or other states
sometimes even in the metropolis.
Horse Owners Organize.
The members of the gang arrested
this week are Abraham Fischbein
and Wolf Brandt. The former de-
manded of Abraham Platt the sum
of $500 under a threat that unless it
was paid his horses would be pois-
oned. Plat refused to pay and when
- of his horses were poisoned he
took his troubles to the police. The
arrest first of Fischbein and later of
Brandt followed and the police now
believe that they are nearing the
cleanup of the gang. During the
past year so members of the Horse
Prisoners Association were arrested
and % of these were either convicted
or fed while out on bail.
Aiding the police in fighting this
gang of rascals has been the Horse
Owners Protective Association. The
association agreed to pay all of its
members for every horse lost through
poisoning, the purpose being to give
the owners sufficient backbone to ig-
more threats and force charges
against the extortioners. The latter
held a meeting and determined to
bankrupt the owners association at
the start by wholesale poisoning, and
for time they kept the owners busy
paying out money for dead horse
flesh.
Stop at No Crime.
So bold did the band become thai
they organized owners into classes
and levied assessments upon them
They ascertained the number of thu
horses owned by each occupation
ice cream manufacturers, milk ped
=