Evening star., 1927-11-20
By JOHN X. WINKLER.


kaplan, alleged to be the
wealthiest and most omnipo
L tent OF all the -christeneo
bootleg kings. was drawing t.
a close. Corridor odds were thres
TO one for conviction. Tom Woods
the government prosecutor, sat re-
laXed in his chair. a smile wreathing
his lips, while eminent and expensive
defense counsel sought vainly to chis
el chink In his case through which
the sneering. gum-chewing defendants
could wriggle to safety.
In his uptown fiat that evening
second slab of pie with third cup Of
coffee. elevated his shoeless feet and
prepared to tune in on the Fappines>
Boys. The telephone rang. Grunt'
ing. he, picked up the receiver. A
voice. gruff as sandpaper. scraped his
ear drum:
Say, can yuh meet me on the
corner Of Broadway and Ninety.sixth
right away? Want to put yuh on to
some'in pretty good. How about It?
"Who are you. my friend? AMI
what do you want?' demanded tne
juror. suspiciously. rs 1t about the
case?"
yep. it's about that case" the
voice was lowered into bass hiss.
"If yuhre cute an smart. / can do
sonlein handsome for yuh."
John q drew himself up at his
end of the wire and puffed indignant
ly:
We'll, If that don't beat all Harry!
My boy. you're barking up the wrong
tree. / am on that jury to do my
duty. You just come around hers
and I'll have you clapped in JAIL
Why, you blankety, biank, olank'
blank k-blank-"
The flow of expletives did not ceas.
until the aroused. red-faced juryman
realized the man at the other end had
huns up. Mumbling to himself, Citi-
zen Y returned to his easy chair
and pulled the radio plug.
Huh" he scoffed. that guys prob
ably one of them free-lance specula.
tors. II he could rope me in for
hundred or two he'd 60 to that crew,
tell em it cost a thousand and grab
the difference. Huh! When little
John makes a deal he makes 1t with
headquarters. And this time. guess
he's done pretty well by himself"
Forty-eight hours later, after
weary, all.night session, the jury re.
ported a hopeless deadlock in the case
of the Government against kaplar1.
Foreman Jones told the most per-
sistent of the inQuiring reporters tnat
John X-and a shifty-eyed man had
voted for acquittal from the very first
and had finally won over two or three
other tired, timid talesmen. The
court denounced the verdict from the
bench; Tom Woods shook his head
sadly. The defendant yawned ana
went up to his beautiful suite in a
hotel to open champagne for a Juoi'
liant group of friends.
Only two men knew that Is crisp
81 900 bills had been divided among
the two jurors and a court employe.
The last mentioned got a little the
better of the cut.
AS for the mysterious telephone in.
terlocutor of the canny and cautious
x he was most likely "scalper,"
an independent speculator in jurymen.
Scalpers swim in shoals about every
big city courthouse in the land. They
scrape acquaintance with defendants,
jurymen, court clerks and attendants,
and turn to advantage any informa.
tion they manage to pick UP. They
are the middlemen in embracery. II
they can weaken" a juror-that is,
get him to respond to a bribe offer
they promptly sell him to the de-
tense at as high a price as they can
exact.
EMBRACERY is legally described
II as the act of trying to influence
n court or jury by promises or threats.
In mos. States. for some curious rea-
son. it carries merely misdemeanor
penalties. It is one Of the most dim.
cult crimes to prove. The evil has
become more widespread since the ad-
vent of prohibition.
Periodically some outraged Federal
Judge orders a corps of marshals and
Department of Justice operatives to
institute dispossess proceedings in the
old Post Office Building against loiter-
ers and hangers.on. Since the calen-
dars have become crowded with pro-
hibition cases the Federal Court cor
ffdors are 5ammed with men who have
no business there.
An anecdote that has become classic