Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1916-1918, 1916-11-17

F.; New York, Nov. IA. These are lean
days in gangland. Never have so many
of the leading lights of New York's
underworld found themselves unwilling
guests of the state. Owen Madden,
boss of the famous gang known by his
name, and one of the most powerful
! criminal leaders of the town, is doing
twenty years. Ten or more of the
Jungle gang are behind the bars and
leading members of the Hudson Dust
!; ers, the Corcoran Roost gang, the Bob
Walker gang, the Williamsburg Saw
ages, the Golden Eagles, the Pansy
gang, the Slaughter House gang, the
Sucker Bills, the Rats and the Pearl
Buttons are in Jail, mostly for long
bits
i Many of these gangs are indeed
little more than braye memories now.
And for most of the gangsters who re-
main at large, times are exceedingly
hard. Carrying gun in New York is
| getting to be so hazardous, that it
! hardly pays. The old time dance hall
rackets are becoming painfully tame
! and ordinary. not to mention the fact
that they are no longer SO profitable.
Dope selling is beset by new and dis
tressing difficulties.
So gangland is passing through a
| crisis in it's career. Many of the gang
/ sters are finding their New York head
quarters so untenable that they are
moving to nearby places on the Jersey
coast. to the great distress of small
town police chiefs. But pickings are
slim outside of the big town. The
most humiliating thing Of all has hap.
pened. Many a once self respecting
gangster has had to go to work for a
living. The police have positive knowl-
edge Of number of such unusual
cases and they are helping these men
all they can, for a gangster holding
down job is better than one behind
! the bars
This unusual state of stress in one
of New York's Oldest professional
circles is due to a special campaign
against the gangs. which has been in
augurated by the present police ad-
ministration under Commissioner Ar
! thur Woods. The campaign consists.
in the first place, of an effort to elm
mate the political element from the
gangland problem. This is delicate
matter and delicate subject to dis
cuss. Suffice il to say that the gang
ster is a professional repeater: he con-
siders it a poor election day that he
does not vote dozen times. He is
also bully at the polls and makes a
profession of staging those little raids
which afford an opportunity for stuff
ing ballot boxes. And so it happens
that when he is caught, he is not al
ways convicted and when convicted he
sometimes gets surprisingly short
sentence.
Now anyone in touch with gangland
will admit that there is change.
Such knowing one will tell you that
when some gangster is about to get a
short bit the commissioner often
goes to the 'front.'" somebody gets
called down and the short bit becomes
long one. Translate it to suit your.
self. Probably no one is claiming that
all the politics have been taken out of
gangland, but there is reason to be-
lieve that the gang leader is finding
his political Affiliations are not the
crutch to his injured fortunes which
they once were.
The second element in the campaign
two well organized squads. totaliny
devote all of their time to the problem
of uprooting the criminal organiza-
tons. In this connection. meet Ser
geant Jimmie Finn, leader of the lar
gest gang squad and chief field officer
| of the campaign. Sergeant Finn is a
! slender blonde youth, neatly dressed
and softly spoken. He is thirty-four
years old and looks nearly ten years
| less. BY his own statement he was
born on the east side and knew all the
gangs and gangsters before he joined
! the force twelve years ago. And ac-
| cording to common report, both with
in and without the department, his
! middle name is battle
Sergeant Finn probably knows more
! about the strange ways and personali-
ties of New York gangland than any
other man In New York Also he OBJ
serves that publicity makes gangsters.
| If these newspaper fellows didn't write
| so much about the gunner, he thinks
| there wouldn't be so many gunner to
write about. So don't let this account
tempt you to a life OF crime
III spite vi ali ihe iront page space
that has been devoted TO the more
j spectacular gang crimes, the place OF
these unique organizations in New
York society has probably never been
clearly set forth in print. For place
in the social organization they un-
doubtedly have. They exist in re-
Spouse to demand the roots Of their
being ramify throughout the complicat-
ed strata of the city's life and that is
what makes them so hard to combat.
The political activities of the New
York gansster have been set forth
above. He is also the Hessian in the
battle between capital and labor. Boil,
sides use him and use him regularly.
| The gang, leader is criminal with a