The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1929-01-29
LAW HAMMER
POUNDS ON TO
CLEAN CHICAGO
Hopes of Citizens to Free
City of Gang Grip
Grows.
BY EARL ]. JOHNSON
limited Press staff CORRESPONDENT

CHICAGO, Jan. 29.-Law-abiding
Chicagoans followed hopefully to-
day the progress Of the most prom
Using cleanup campaign the former
capital of crime" has known in
eight years.
Results obtained by Judge John
A. Swanson, since he took Office as
states attorney the first of Deem
Der, include an impressive list of
victories for the law enforcement
machine with which Swanson has
surrounded himself.
Although he is nearly so, Swan
son campaigned and won what per-
haps is the biggest crime-f1gnting
job in the country.
AS the ranking elective officer in
Cook county he controls not only
the county Office holders but the
city police department as well, in
a community that has become no.
toriouS the world over as haven
of outlaws.
Closed to Vice and Gambling
Today, approximately two months
after Swanson became states at
torney, Chicago virtually is aclosed
city with respect to vice and gam
bling, the two main detectives of
the reform drive.
Many stories are being related in
the underworld and at police head
quarters about the far-reaching eff
fects Of Swanson's campaign.
One of the most significant con-
Germs the case of one of Scarface
Al Caponi'S chief lieutenants.
At 1880 one night last week this
lord of vice opened a house of ques-
tionable purpose in Twenty third
street.
One hour later the place had been
raided, all the fixtures thrown into
the street and eight women placed
in jail
The, two policemen who had been
hired by the owner to protect" the
house were put in uniform and sent
out to patrol a beat on the other
side of town.
Reorganization of the police de-
partment under Commissioner Will
liam Russell, with the suspension
or transfer of hundreds of police
men, sent dozens of swivel chair
warriors out into the rank and file
of the f1atfoots.
| noot TOSaS AffarHapf
Deputy Detective Chief John
Stege's pet police dog lost its at
tendant when Russell ordered the
policeman, whom Siege had as
signed to that duty, to don uni
form and join a raiding party,
The series of raids that have been
conducted here over the last two
week ENDS have resulted in the ar
rest of nearly 5000 persons, many
of them known hoodlums and gun
men, in the first roundup of cases
obtaining confessions that autornat-
ically will lead to prison sentences.
A queer development of the
wholesale raids was that in at least
four incidents the raiding policemen
came upon robbers and holdup men
in the act o. plying their trade.
Clean OFT Gang Nest
Through sn alliance between
county and federal authorities Chi
cago Heights completely has been
cleaned out, more than 400 OF its
residents, Including some policemen,
having been arrested two weeks ago
in an all-night raid in that Subur-
ban retreat of peer runners. That
come nearer breaking the back of
Chicago's major beer syndicate than
anything that had happened since
| prohibition.
An indication that the drive. is
likely to continue is seen in the
atcion of the city council in author
ling the employment Of $50 more
policemen now and an additional
! 500 before July /.