The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-08-29
KING IF GUNMEN VICTIM IF RIVAL IN DARING ATTACK
Kid Dropper Caught Helpless And Fatally Shot After Ad-
 Ventur0uS Career
By wEsTBROoK PEGLER
Special Dispatch to The Aee-Hernld

Special Dispatch to The Age-Hernld)
 NEW YORK, August 2S.-In the war between the punks and mockies which has terrified the lower East side for years. with it's sudden out bursts of indiscriminate gun play, a commanding general known as Kid Dropper was caught helpless, without his gun and in the custody of the po- lice, and blown to the Bellevue morgue with a bullet through the back of his head.
 As Kid Dropper died Tuesday, the trembles became epidemic along First and Second avenues, around Christie and Grand streets, where many non combatant residents of the battle zone have gone down before the wretched craftsmanship of the armies, and al other lettering places which have been salient points in the battle line.
 Police swarmed into the district in uniform and in plain clothes, but their presence was none too reassuring. The police have been thick on the East Side since Dropper and his gang were arrested last Thursday, but that didn't prevent the killing of AleXan- der Schnite Monday night.
 The dropping of the Dropper was so theatrical, however, and the effect of his removal so jarring to the gang morale, that the police for the first time in years have a chance to wiring confessions from unnerVed partici- pants in the war. They caught Louis Cohen, a runty, sallow gunman, just as he pumped the last shot out of his pistol into the taxicab where the Dropper was sitting with Jesse Josephs. a city detective Josephs was/ taking the Dropper from one hearing on a homicide charge to an- other hearing in another court, on 8 charge of carrying a pistol.
 Thrilling Blow Orr. .
 The killing of the Dropper, whose right name was Nathan Kaplan, was the most startling blow-off in the un- derwOrld of New York city since gun men shot Herman Rosenthal, the gambler, at the door of the Hotel Metropole, near Broadway, to silence the squeal he intended to make the next day to District Attorney Whit man. It probably will not lead to any such expose as did the confession of Bald Jack Rose in that case, but the two shootingS may be associated for kaplan was an apprentice ganSSter under Leftie Louie in those days and was not deterred from the pursuit of the profession of arms, even when his famous mentor went through the lit tie green door at Sing Sing to the electric chair.
 The Dropper and IA of his men were arrested quietly but firmly last Thursday evening as they met in an office on Broadway in the heart of the Tenderloin to discuss some work which they were about to undertake in connection with an impending strike of musicians. The nature of the work was not learned precisely, but it is assumed that 1t was right in the Dropper's usual line, for six pistols were taken, four of them from a desk drawer.
 The Dropper and his men had been suspected of similar work in connec- tion with a strike of wet wash laun- dry workers. Alexander Schnite, killed Monday night, was a laundry worker and he was only one of sev- eral in that craft killed in the course of the industrial conflict.
 Enough Crime For All.
 All Is were charged with carrying pistols or with homicide in connection with various killings extending a long time back. There were enough mur- ders chargeable to the Dropper's gang, in fact, to honor each of the prisoners with a separate capital crime of his own.
 The Dropper had done "political work at various times in a long career and even though Police Cap tain Cornelius w. Willemse, com manding the detectives of the lower
 
 to dispose of Kaplan, 1t was general ly predicted that the kid would be sprung out of jail as soon as the hearings were held. Accordingly, when arraigned on a homicide charge in the Essex Market court Monday. the Dropper was relieved of that ac- cusation. There remained a charge of carrying pistol, but as the Dropper left the courtroom, freed of homicide, he was as gay as a red ribbon. Pistol toting was minor charge to him who had beaten it time and again in the past.
 Captain Willemse had heard that the mockies, enemies of the punks. were determined to take" the Drop per in court, if possible Police therefore began to filter into the regions of Second avenue and Second street some time before the hour of the Dropper's appearance in court and by the time the hearing was called that section of the lower East Side was the most strictly policed ter ritory in New York city.
 Guarded In Court.
 As Kaplan and six of his followers closely Guarded. Maliffs and detec- tives famed highpockets and arm pits for pistols as the spectators trickled in, one by one. The thing seemed to have been done success fully. Nothing had happened.
 The Dropper was led out of the courtroom by Detective Josephs, closely followed by Willemse A vel low taxi stood at the curb and they made for it together. Josephs had the Dropper by one arm. The watch ing police outside the building had either picked up or chased away all apparent gangsters.
 A ha trio ct eli h walk a woman-Kaplan's wife Marie rushed up to the Dropper, threw her arms around his shoulder and kissed