The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1931-01-01
It's Cinch to Rid Chicago of
Gang Rule Says Fiery Judge
CruSading Jurist, in Race
for Mayor, Won Fame by
Spectacular Drive Against
HoodIumS.
BD NEA Seruice

BY NEA serrice
CHICAGO, Jan. Judge John
H. Lyle, the studious-l looking but
fiery municipal court Judge, who has
announced his candidacy for mayor
of Chicago on a cleanup platform,
has two separate and distinct repu-
tations here in his home city.
There are those who insist that
he is an cratic notoriety seeker
who has put on a spectacular, but
ineffective, drive against Chicago's
hoodlunS in order to increase his
own fame.
But there are a great many
others-many thousands Of them
who accept him as sincere and
intelligent crusader who is willing
to depart from established procedure
and cut through any amount of red
tape in order to take control OF
things in Chicago out of the hands
of the underworld and restore it
to the decent citizens.
During the last few months, Judge
Lyle says, he has received thousands
of letters from people in this latter
class, asking him to run for mayor.
Agreed to Make Race
He has agreed to make the race
for the Republican nomination; and
the indications now are that he
will De one of the leading figures in
one of the most sensational mayor
atty campaigns Chicago has had in
many a day.
The job of cleaning up Chicago is
not as difficult as it is supposed to
be, Judge Lyle thinks. Not long
ago he expressed himself as fol-
lows:
"If the present chief of police
would say, Drive the gunner out
of Chicago! and if the mayor
would say it-and mean it-they'd
be gone in sixty days. Could a few
Skulkers stand up against 5000
armed policemen"
Effective or not, Judge Lyle's per-
sonally conducted campaign against
the hoodlums has been sensational.
It also has brought some genuine
annoyance to some of the under
worlds big shots.
Dug ZIP Old Statute
It was Judge Lyle who dug up
the vagrancy law procedure, under
which gangsters are brought into
court and accused of vagrancy be-
cause they have no visible means of
support-the average gangster, nat
urally, supporting himself by means
which have a very low visibility.
It was Judge Lyle who issued
warrants for the arrest of Chicago's
t orious twenty-six public
enemies" including Al Capone him
self. Whenever one of these men is
brought before him, Judge Lyle sets
high bail
He also ordered the arrest of some
forty-eight assorted gangsters,
bonbers, robbers and nusclers. One
Of his best known achievements was
the sending Of Fur" Sammons, a
notorious gang leader, to prison for
thirty years. Many of the other
hoodluns he brought into court also
have gone to jail.
Issued Warrant for Capone
Judge Lyle once revealed that
vagrancy was not the only count
against Capone. He issued the
vagrancy warrant, he explained, in
the hope that Capone could be ar
rested on it and brought into court;
but he hoped that once Capone was
taken, evidence could be found on
which to indict and try him for
murder. To date, however, Capone
has not been caught.
Honesty in public Office is Judge
Lyle's chief formula for a cleanup
in Chicago.
The laWlesSneSS which these I'M
derWorld rats have created exists
here only because in the past it has
been tolerated." he says. But what
1 can do about it will be done.
When a gangster is brought be-
fore me, must see him as a human
and regard whatever rights he has
not forfeited already; but at the
same time I see the honest, hard
working people as a whole, whose
lives are endangered and whose
minds are Mortified by these con-
tinual bloody rides that have no
returning.
Laws Too Numerous
eve have too many laws. There
are 1927 of them on the statute
books. The trouble lies not in the
laws, but in the enforcement ma
chinery. I would say that 80 per
cent of the public officials are
honest.
"The machinery of the civil and
criminal fighting forces is ample.
Tt needs only the proper adjust
ments and the right hand at the
controls. Judges, in many cases,
are a weak point-they are too
thorough in searching for a legal
loophole through which hardened
criminal may escape.
L would lay q good deal of the
blame for nonenforcement of the
laws at the door of the judges. They
have allowed the habeas corpus
writ. which was designed as a means
of recourse to the poor political pris-
oners Of years ago, to become mis-
used"