Evening star., 1923-09-02
BURLY POLICE PUT ,
ON TRAIL OF GANGS
"Don't Talk to EN-; Hit EN-"
Is Old Order Revived
in New York.
Special Dispatch to The Star.
BY JASON CONRAD.

bf JASON CONRAD
NEW YORK, September l.-Kid
Dropper's body lies a mouldering in
the grave, but his gang goes march,
ing on.
Despite the fact that it has III.
most drastic law in the United
States concerning the carrying of
deadly weapons. New York has no.
been able 10 wipe out the little bands
Of guerillas that have held the mer-
chants and peaceable citizens of her
East Side in terror.
Kid Dropper was their leader for
fourteen years. He attained respect
when he and Johnny Spanish. one OF
the most notorious gangsters the city
ever had. met on the streets one day
dozen shots were fired. The Drop
per walked away and left Johnny
spanish writhing in his blood.
When he recovered, Spanish diplo-
matically made Dropper his CHIEF
alde' and Kid Dropper succeeded t.
MS scepter Short time later wher
rival gangster put a buIle;
through the brain Of Johnny Spanish
Dropper checked out" this week
A member of u rival gang walked up
ioshind him as he sat in q taxicab
a gun to his brain. His funeral was
east side
The death of Kid Dropper has not
that and they are taking drastic,
measures to prevent another accumu-
lation of such power as Kid Dropper
nag nag. HIS gang extorted money and
never contemplated This was a petty
form of their blackmail. Terror
ICED merchants bought them rather
than TO suffer the consequences.
Turn to Cnwritten Law.
: The police have turned to the un-
written law of F1orrie Sullivan, one
eighth district, to curb the gangsters.
When Sullivan succeeded to the lead
ership of the district he found It
overrun with cadet" and gangsters
with no visible means. Of support be
yond the terror they inspired. Suili
van, q protege and relative of the
Big Tim, after whom the weapon law
was named. called his cohorts to-
gether and outlined his system.
Don't talk to 'em." he said. ''Hit
EN-"
In two weeks his district was
cleaned.
Police Commissioner Enright has
selected twenty big cops who love n
fight IS well as Sullivan did. To them.
he has practically repeated Florrie's
instructions.
1t is not as easy now to pick the East
Side gangster out of crowd as it was
when Whitley the Rat declared thirty
years ago that man might not need
two white shirts, but he certainly
needed two guns. They are a carefully
corseted crowd as rule and are known
in the stores on the East Side and on
broadway as most fastidious dresserS
From pale blue silk underwear to the
conservative worsted of his coat, there
is nothing beyond the bulge of the
gangster's shoulder holster to diff
ferentiate him from the well dressed
business man.
Far different were some of their
predecessors. Johnny Spanish wore
black from shirt to hat and shoes.
Whitley the Rat. and Kid Twist. who
boasted he could do his stretch in Sing
Sing standing on his head, IL need be,
rather than turn up his pals. bore
marks of a gangster, the tough of
the old Bowery.
Eastman Most Notorious.
Monk Eastman was perhaps the
most notorious gunman New York
ever had. He rose by virtue of his
quick hand and trigger finger TO a
he had 1000 men who had swor1,
allegiance to him. He went TO war
in 1917, was cited for bravery and
gave up the gangster life when he
returned He was walking along
14th street one day in 1919 when an
old enemy took him off from
darkened stairway.
Eastman was cruel, but perhaps
the city's most brutal gangster was
Jack SeliG. His haunts were the
East Side and Coney Island. He
went down to the island one day
to bump off rival gangster, but he
was carried home in an undertakers
basket His rival had seen him first.
New York comedies that the gang
ster is more afraid of a blackjack or
a nightstick in the hands of a burly
cop than he is of pistol shot from,
stairway or a fleeing taxicab, but
1t doubts that Commissioner En-
rights method will have any more
lasting effect than Florrie Suilivan's
The latter cleaned up his district. but
the gangsters moved to new places
and carried on"