Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1916-1918, 1916-11-17
Breaking the New York Gangs
The Gunman And His Works.
BY Frederic j. Haskin

~ - 4kuoN1St
! talent for organization and enough
nerve to dominate towards, who can
deliver a certain number Of strong arm
or gunner at call. In addition to
these activities, the gangster is pro
| fessional murderer and will kill at the
behest Of anyone who makes the in
ducement strong enough. These are
the chief services of the gangster to
society On his own account he Is a
white SLAYER" merchant of cocaine
or opium, often a petty usurer and
makes both business and pleasure
of his "rackets" or balls, which are the
most typical phase Of gang life. A
racket is usually given by one gang or
one gang leader. Tickets are sold to
small shop keepers and other per
sons who are afraid to refuse to buy
them. Also, the members Of other
friendly gangs come as tribute to
the leader: and the members of hos
tile gangs attend on errands of ven
geance. At the rackets, gangland con-
grerates fights its duels, follows Its
loves and incidentally adds few dol
lars to it's income.
Such is gangland's way Of living.
Contrary to popular opinion, most OF
it's members are not thieves in the
usual sense, unless they are unable to
get enough money by these easier,
safer and as it were, more conventions
al methods. Most of the gangs, to be
sure, include some pickpockets and
when needy, gang leader will stick
up gambling hall, dive, or other
place of doubtful repute, the proprie-
tor Of which dare not squeal. But the
gangster prefers his regular profess
sional ways of making living.
Sergeant Finn estimates that there
are four thousand gangsters in and
about New York. mostly "about" not
lin" At the present time it is prob
able that over a thousand OF these are
in confinement, large number Of 9TH
ers are rusticating in nearby states
| and quite few are working for liv-
ing. The rest are the subject of in.
cessant attentions from the gang
squad.
Since the gangster is primarily a
professional thug and murderer, the
methods of campaigning against him
are primarily two. In the first place.
every effort Is made TO take his weap.
ons away from him and Jail him for
carrying them In the second place,
every resource of police and detective
method and ingenuity is brought to
bear O.. the solution of murder cases.
Not few of New York's ''unsolved
murder mysteries" are we'll planned
gangster killings. To make murder a
more hazardous business is one of the
surest ways Of breaking the gangs.
| The regular work Of the gang squad
consists in visiting the dance halls,
saloons and restaurants where gang
land gathers, and in searching the in
mates one and all, for weapons The
revolver is. Of course, the gangster's
| chief reliance, and most of his killings
are porpetrated with it. He is gener.
ally poor shot and tries to get within
five or six feet of his victim and shoot
him in the back Usually he turns his
In word, his method is that of a
dub and coward But he has sure.
animal cunning in planning his as
sault. Always there are half dozen
; or more who shoot. SO that it is diff
cult to prove which one did the k IL
! ing, who was the aggressor. or any
thing else about the fracas. After the
shooting, which takes place very
quickly, the gangster nearly always
throws away his gun and the hat he is
wearing, puts on another that has been
concealed about his person, makes a
short run through alleys or over
housetops and reappears as q respect
able citizen.
1t would seem an easy matter TO dis
arm gangland by continual search. and
undoubtedly great progress has been
made in this way. The increased mum.
Der of pen knife cuttings on the police
blotters show that gangster is losing
his weapons But again his cunnins
comes to the fore. A leader nearly al
ways has a subordinate to carry his
| gun, so that the man who is most want.
ed is hard to get. Often the subordin.
ate is a woman and when it comes to
concealing things about her person a
woman has well known advantages
For example, when Tavalachi, the Itai
ian gangster went to a racket for the
express purpose of killing rival. he
took with him girl named Dolan. who
was very pretty and deliberately dress
ed The detectives had word that
there was to be killing at this racket
They stood at the door and searched
every gangster as he went in. Not Z
gun was found They did not search
the women, but they noted that Mary
Dolan carried large mum.
Now there are two stairways leading
up to the hall When Tavalachi and
his girl had passed in detective ran
up the opposite stairway and down the
J intn hn mi
girl was just handing him large re
volver out of her muff. Tavalachi got
two years and nine months.
Such is the routine business of get
ting the gunman's gun. Catching him
at work is another matter and how il
is done will be set forth in the next
article.