The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1915-05-24

New York, May 23.-Some time be-
fore he was elected governor, Charles
S. Whitman had before him confess
sions from twenty or more important
gangsters which duplicated practi-
cally the revelations brought to the
surface through the confessions of
Benjamin Fem. known among the
gangsters as "Dopey Benny"
The confessions submitted to Mr..
Whitman when he was district at
torney were being assembled and
studied under his direction when the
murder of Herman Rosenthal occur
red. Mr.. Whitman then changed the
whole base of his investigation. CEN
tering it upon the Rosenthal case in
stead of the use of Gangsters in labor
wars.
Much of the material Mr.. Whitman
CLEANED from the confessions was used
in forcing confessions from the gang
sters involved in the Rosenthal muir
der, and the rest of the material is
now to be used in developing corrobo-
rative evidence of the charges brought
against twenty-three labor leaders
and eleven gangsters involved by Fem
in his confession.
200 Indictments Expected.
The confessions previously obtained
were resubmtted to District Attorney
Perkins last week, and it was learned
that from their contents the district
attorney expects to swell to over 200
the total number of indictments oD-
tanned before the grand jury is per-
mitted to discontinue it's inquiry into
gangster operations in labor wars dur
ing the past five years.
The evidence CLEANED from the confess
sions submitted before Fein was brought
into the police dragnet extended far
beyond the needle trades with which
Fem dealt mostly in acting as a strong
arm man and boss of gangsters during
labor troubles. The confessions involve
the police in a manner as directly as the
testimony in the Rosenthal murder in
volved the police.
According to many of the gangsters
who confessed. a policeman who left the
force for that special purpose handled
the money as go-between for the gang
sters. They were told. when sent out
to beat up people, that they must always
look to see that the former policeman
was around, and that if he was TO be
seen it meant that the coast was clear
and that no policeman would respond to
the victims cries for help. no matter how
brutally the thugs might handle him.
Called Police in Vain.
One after another the Gangsters told of
beating men into insensibility in crowd
ed streets while bystanders cried in vain
for the police to come. District Attor-
ney Perkins said Saturday he knew the
name of the former policeman who acted
AS a go-between to prevent police inter-
ference and that his case was being in
vestiGated. The policeman was one of two
brothers, the other of whom is still or
the force. Both were assigned to ar
East Side station in the zone where
strikes were frequent in the needle and
garment trades.
While the list of indictments growing
out of the gangster confessions may eX-
coed zoo. Assistant District Attorney
breckenridge who has special charge of
the matter. repeated yesterday his as
sertion that he did not expect more than
a very few employers to be involved in
the indictments. Nearly all of them, he
said, would involve labor.
In the strike in the furrier trade in
1872 a group of eight Gangsters worked
together under the control of a special
picket committee of the strikers. Five
which are now being examined by the
district attorney.
ct was a manager of prizefghts when
they picked me up" said William Rie-
ger one of the ganSsters who confessed.
land Abe Salkin hired me to do gangster
work in a furrter strike. Kid Ranch, a
prizefghter who had already hired out
for the job. introduced me to Salkin.
Salkin came to my room In Stuyvesant
Place, slept there a night or two, and
then whispered things to Kid Ranch
about me-that I would do. All Kid
Ranch and Salkin. who was a genuine
furrier and chairman Of the picket COM
mittee. told me was to go do what the
rest were doing-the rest of the picket
committee.
Police Were Fixed
II went to "a Fourth street, where 1
saw Salkin. and he took me into
room a secret room In Astoria
Hall that had a guard on the door, so
nobody could come in but the pickets.
That was the room That the pickets got
their instructions in at that time. MY
instructions were to go around to the
Cassell- Cohen shop in Wooster street, |
and I went there and hung around |
Some OF the picket committee came |
around and looked us over. We saw !
some guards hired by the shop bosses. |
ana our orders were not To bt the J