Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-11-28

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Place Bets on Proceedings.
They are strange facts about strange
people. Thus, q group OF gamblers,
men who times without number have
matched their cards for thousands
against the cards of McManus and
Rothstein, were waiting in Criminal
Courts Building the other day to tes-
tify They were going to tell what they
about the events leading up to the muir
der of their friend. And they whiled
away the tedious time of waiting by
placing bets-by laying odds McManus
would not be convicted, that court
would adjourn a few minutes after
pm. rather than few minutes before,
that the witness then on the stand
wouldn't testify more than 80 minutes.
The case which brought these incor-
rigibles into the spotlight had its gene
sis more than q year ago. Arnold
Rothstein, Broadway's biggest gambler,
q man accused by Federal authorities
Of being q within-the-law hacker Of
drug ring operations and by the State
authorities of being a bit too close to
the easy money getters" Of New York,
was found mortally wounded In the
service, entrance of the Park Central
Hotel, q new establishment that was
STRIVING W aIbLaCt LIE CdIIlaBe IduS.
RothStein had been shot in the abb
domen Two days later he died In
Polytechnic Hospital without, so far as
the public knows, telling who shot him.
McNanus, q man well over 8 feet,
with foot ball tackler's shoulders and
q face so invariably anniable that 1t
gets on your nerves, had taken an as
Sumed name and a room in the Park
Central three days before the shooting.
In that room, the prosecution contends,
RothStein was shot because he had
WEIGHED on $4,000 in I o US that
he had passed out at a stud poker and
high-card game six weeks earlier in the
apartment Of one Of the nonentities
who had been admitted to the fringe
Of the big-time gamblers crowd
Investigation Was BungIed.
This Rothstein had plenty Of pull
with the police" Among his friends
we're many politicians. Perhaps, as the
result of these facts, the investigation
into his murder was handled with
bungling amateurishneSs, and there was
angry criticism OF the city Administra-
ton. The police, said the critics, did
not dare find the murderer; he might
talk and involve men in high place.
Item No. in the police bungling con-
Germs LYMAN (Gillie) Biller, a lesser
light among the gambling comrades
who walked into McManus' room with
In an hour OF the shooting, was ques-
toned by detectives there and allowed
to walk out q free man. Since then
he has been indicted for the murder
along with McManuS and those tr-
redeemable criminals, John Doe and
Richard Roe, and police have expended
thousands OF dollars and months Of
time searching for him. But they have
not found Mr.. Biller.
There were several indictments Of
that sort. Rothstein's secret files vert
left unguarded; police were i1termin'
ably slow about obtaining information
that was common talk on Broadway
day followed day without bit Of prog.
ress being made. Finally, three week.
after the killing, McManus surrendered
| himself.
Now, after a year, he's on trial. Con-
| fident Of acquittal, he and his lawyer
James D. c. Murray, have been striving
all during that year to get the case u
| court. The State seemed TO be In NJ
hurry about the trial until, during thu