The Washington times., 1930-12-03
GANGSTER GIRL
How a Red-Haired Beauty
Overturned a Great City
CHAPTER 20
"B. BIS deadI"

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through the mysterious under
world wireless grapevine ether
lied the whispering message
that Silk Freeman was washed
up-he had toppled into Hell
itself head first--before that
he had always landed on his
feet.
The news went sizzling
through the town, and 1t caused
q furry in Wall Street and up
and down the luminous lane
called Broadway. Silks busi-
nesses and Silks racketS and
Silks manipulationS had been
various and devious. The big
shots in the underworld made
themselves scarce and the big
shots in the business world,
many Of them, found reasons
for long deferred vacations.
Silk alive, most every one
was safe-notwithstanding the
evidence. Silk would never
bleat. But Silk dead-that was
another matter. Especially with
such a personality as Silk, with
so many enemies he had
wrecked and so many allies he
had made. Alive, little was
known Of Silks private life
and Silks private vices and
Silks private whims - little
known Of his loves, his hatredS
and his methods. When his
book of life was closed it be-
came public reading.
FIees From Scene
w Martyrs restaurant, one Of
Silks pet hangouts, went dark,
and the putative owner fled
to Chicago. When 1t was found
he owed the Big Boy $4,000,
the executors Of the estate
foreclosed on his fashionable
uptown apartment building and
a huge sign was Haunted there,
to the CONSERVATION of the
tenant SnobS, shrieking that
the property was seized by the
Freeman estate and would be
auctioned off. The gat had
bowed to the hammer
At the apex of the excite
ment the chief of detectives,
a superannuated veteran. re-
signed, ostensibly because Of i'll
health, but for some deeper
and dirtier reason. He had been
friendly with the Big Boy in
days gone by. About two days
gone by.
The lights of a revue on
Broadway flickered out, and
then it WIS learned that the
devil, Silk, had been The angel
to the show. The legitimate
builders in Brooklyn, who had
lost in the past month millions
Of dollars worth of property
when their unfinished apart
ment houses were put to the
torch, breathed more freely be-
cause the attempt to muscle in
on their business had died
when Silk had died.
Creditors frantically framed
how they would salvage from
the wreckage the money due
them, and debtors chiseled out
how they could cheat out Of
paying. Every man for himself
now.
And Polack Annie - don't
worry!
The flatfoots were dragging
her out every day-now to the
D. AS office, now to the Vic
tory Hotel, now to Freeman's
Park Avenue apartment. They
had showed her face to face
with old Pete. He had recog-
nized her even without her
wicked, fiery hair. But she had
floated him off his flat feet
with her flaming eyes and
when the assistant to the man
who sends the chumps to stir
had faced him and yelled: "Do
you know this woman?"-ha
had swallowed his antiquated
Adams apple and answered:
Never seen 'er in me life!"
Raking the Ashes
Annie wasn't feeling so hot.
In the wagon. on the way to the
station on the day Silks obit
had been written on the loaded
typewriter, she had swallowed
the sickening remainder of the
hair dye. And she knew that
without another application her
treSSeS would soon burn again.
Which must be extremely em.
barraSSing. But Annie hadn't
dyed her wits.
The cops kept on raking the
ashes. Silk Freeman had been
brawled up with Tall Tom
Gillespie. Everybody knew that.
They had a few of the River
Rats still in clink from that
Cherry Street shindy Sure,
Gillespie admitted that Freeman
had tried to Strong-arm in on
his business, and that he had
arranged with Cyclone Tim Nc
CloSky and other independent"
teamsterS to carry on. That was
all he knew about it. He was a
very, very busy and respectable
citizen, and his word went
that was that. And that was all.
Tommy didn't confide in his
dad any more. He had a fair
idea Of who that reticent
brunette might be. He tried to
see her, even after he had con-
vinced himself that he should
duck the mess, and the Depart
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