New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1922-08-05
Hayward Threatens to
Search Battery Quarters
and Blue Boy Unless 65
Missing Cases Are Found
Demand Made i'm
Note to Enright
Vanished Whisky Lions
Share of Cargo Seized
on Launch After Chase

rants are expected to, be issued this
morning for the ransacking of Pier A..
police station of the Marine Division,
and the police boat Blue Boy. The
quest is by United States District At
torney Hayward, who seeks sixty-five
Of 100 cases of choice liquors, taken
by the police, it is charged, when they
seized the motor boat B. N. j. early
yesterday.
The sixty-five cases disappeared dur
ing or after the seizure, and late yes
terday they were made the subject of
a curt note from Mr.. Hayward to
Police Commissioner Enright. The
clash grew out of one of the most
spectacular harbor police raids in
months.
The raid was accomplished only after
the police in the Blue Boy had fired
volley after volley from small arms,
while pursuing the launch through a
dense fog which hung over the harbor.
The Blue Boy picked up the launch on
radio information broadcast from the
police launch Manhattan, stationed at
the Narrows.
Demands Whisky's Return
The note from Mr.. Hayward to Com
missioner Enright follows:
Pursuant to conversation had over
the telephone this afternoon between
my assistant, Mr.. Falk (Assistant
United States District Attorney Her
man l.. Falk) and Inspector Murphy,
wish to advise that at 1880 a. m.
August 4, 1922, the police boat Blue
Boy intercepted the motor boat B. N.
j. At the time of the interception by
the police boat the B. N. J. carried
100 cases of Scotch whisky, but when
the motor boat was turned over to the
customs authorities it had or board
but thirty-five cases of whisky. Ac-
count made by the customs authorities
showed shortage of sixty-five cases.
< I'VE paust have the siXty-fve cases
turned over to US Immediately andI
trust you will make thorough in
vestigation and find out where those
cases are.
81 swoui.l be glad to have a confer
Fence at my Office, between my assistant,
Mr.. Falk, and your Office as soon as
possible"
'If the missing whisky is rot forth
coming" said Mr.. Falk later, 81 will
apply for a search warrant TO search
the police boat and the police station
at the Battery in an effort to locate it"
Three Men Arrested
The launch B. N. j., while not as
large or as fast as some craft which
have fallen into the hands of the gov
ernment, is one of the most valuable
prizes taken independently by the po-
lice department. Its name may go
down in court history as the cause Of
the first open clash between govern
ment enforcement forces and the
police.
The launch had three men on board,
all Of whom were arrested by Police
Lieutenant James Bannon, in command
of the Blue Boy. The suspects are:
James Hilko, of 40 Lincoln Street,
Newark, N. j., who admitted he
was skipper of the launch; Harry
Wilson, of 81 Seidler Street, Jersey
City, and Ernest Meyer, of 314 Vir-
ginia Avenue, Jersey City.
These men were first arraigned be-
fore Magistrate Levine in Tombs Court
on police charge of possessing liquor
illegally. The magistrate held only
dence. thirty-five cases of liquor, had
been turned over to customs authori
ties on their demand and the case fol-
lowed the evidence into the Federal
courts.
No Reply to Charges
The suspects were then arraigned
before United States Commissioner
Hitchcock, with an additional suspect
in the person of Charles Bursind, Of
Jersey City, charged with being the
owner of a schooner, the Minnie Wal
lace, which later figured, by suspicion,
in the case.
Mr.. Falk said he had learned the
whisky was lightered from the British
schooner Minnie Wallace off the Jersey
coast, where the schooner had anchored
after coming up, liquor laden, from
Nassau, Bahama.
No reply to the charges of the Fed
eral authorities was to be had last
night at Police Headquarters.