New Britain herald., 1926-06-17

\ tSCE upon tune - and not so long
 ago at that when the Central Office men in New York went forth gun ming for gangsters, they trekked along Well-knoTn trails: the narrow, warped streets off the Bowery, the Gas House District, the notorious Five Points and the hectic territory between 9th and 10th avenues known as Helps Kitchen, where the infamous Gophers hung out.
 Even such high fiers in the under world as Johnny Spanish, Ike the Blood, Kid Twist and Cyclone Louie never ventured above 42d street. When in search of entertainment they patronized such establishments as the Ajax Club, Paddy the Pigs, the Bucket of Blood and Jimmy Kely's de luxe beer garden, the New Brighton.
 Occasionally the purple -and-fne- linen contingent from uptown would venture to take a peep into those notorious dives, but they were as safe as in their own well-guarded homes. Pro- fessional "bouncers" and swarms of plain-clothes detectives discouraged any rough stuff during the invasion of the elite. What went on among themselves was their own concern, and fifty victims Of knife thrusts, gunshots, bricks and blackjacks was pretty fair weekly average, according to the records of Bellevue Hospital.
 Those picturesque places are now as abandoned as salted mines after an in- vasion of investing sucker lists. The grafters, professional gunmen, racket promoters, safe-crackers. loft workers and pickpockets are no longer content with such scabrous hangouts; nowadays they are cutting 8 wide swath in the smartest night clubs and cabarets along Broadway Park and Madison avenues. in the exotic black-and-tan resorts of liar lem and the "private clubs" of the Bronx and Brooklyn, according to John E. Me Geehan, the militant District Attorney of the Bronx.
 Recently McGeehan startled New York when he declared that many of the most popular night clubs and cabarets were being paid for and maintained by the greatest thieves in the city. He de- scribed. their migration from the slums to the swagger purleus of the smart sets, and said that in making his rounds of these -the-theatre resorts he had recognized their proprietors as men he himself had on more than one occasion sent "up the river"
 "T TOOK mighty good care not to men
 Il ton the names of the clubs which were being run by ex-convicts," Mir. Nc Geehan told the writer q wasn't afraid of libel. These mems records are on file at police headquarters and Sing Sing, Dannemora and other penitentiaries. What I was afraid of was giving pub hcity to the places. Instead of being warned away from criminal owned clubs, knew that it was quite possible many thril-seekers might get wind of these camoufaged dives, and the shady proprietorship would be an added at traction.
 "Barnum used to say that there was sucker born every minute and two to take him. It strikes me that there is s whole flock of suckers these days for every come-on man.
 "The old games have been passed up, and the old-time line of safe-crackers, second-story men and confidence workers are now going in for big dough. They are cleaning out lofts, holding up trucks on a big scale and working the black mailing rackets for all they are worth.
 And big crooks no longer foregather in the back rooms of saloons and under world dens when they lay out their plans for a coup, or when they meet the fences who are to dispose of their loot-they 'patronize' frst-class hotels in the day. time and entertain their buyers in the smart night clubs. I am speaking from the book when l say this--it isn't matter of conjecture-and can produce evidence to prove what l say.
 "The other night I happened to go down to Harlem to investigate a case and dropped into the Alexander avenue station house on the way. There I saw detective whom knew to be 8