The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-05-30

THE Chicago Tribune which made such a free
L use of gangsters in attempting to drive out
its Hearst rival boiled over with indignation
when its star police reporter, Alfred cJake"0
G. Lingle, a close friend of Al Capone was
killed on June 9, 1880. The bullet that killed
LingIe also ripped open the close connection
between the Chicago newspapers, the gangsters,
the police department and the leading capital
lists as well as the Chicago Tribunes close con-
tact with "Scarface" AL Capone.
When Cermak was elected to replace Thomp-
son as mayor, the Chicago Tribune gave him
its full support.
Lingle's murder was sensational. He was on
his way to the races walking in the crowded
central subway leading to the Illinois Central
Railroad A gunman stepped up beside him.
pumped him full of lead and then ran off.
The Tribune raised sanctimonous howl of
protest against the gangsters and gangsterisn
in general for killing its upright reporter.
While many of the facts about Lingle's life
never came to light, enough did to show that
Lingle was the go-between for Al Capone and
the police department. The main reason he was
hired by the Chicago Tribune was because OF
his alliance with the strike-breaking Pinkerton
Detective Agency and the Burns Detective
Agency, and later because of his close ties with
nearly every leading gunman in Chicago, and
particularly with Al Capone himself. AS mark
of friendship Capone presented Lingle with
diamond belt buckle.
Jake" Lingle was so intimate with Chief of
Police Russell that Russell said, ~ looked on
Lingle like my own son." But their relation
ship was much thicker than just that While
Iingle got S65 week from the Chicago Trib-
une his bank account showed deposits of over
100000 made in less than one year, before he
was murdered Linge was the official graft
collector for the police department on booze
delivered in Chicago's main business district,
the loop Payment of S. barrel was made to
Lingle and Lingle turned it over to Russell
end the other heads of the police department
Price of Police Promotions.
The Tribune reporter had been Chief Russell's
pal for twenty years 1t was through Lingle
that payment was made by policemen for pro-
motions. Regular price scales were worked out.
If cop wanted to become police sergeant,
he paid $500; if he desired captainship he
Daid Lngle $1,000. Precisely how much the
police officials got and what share went to
Lngle and what the Tribune got out of it,
never was made public The workers can draw
their own conclusions. So close was Lingle's
connection with the Chicago police department
that he was known as the unofficial Chief
OF Police Of Chicago"
NOb COuteuI Will TcdplLS tllOuSduuS LII SIdlU
through the police department, Chief Of Police
Russell and Lingle had a joint stock market
account that at one time amounted to over
100000.
Why Lngle was murdered will never be known,
as the traces of Lingle's murderers lead right
into the offices of the biggest capitalists in
the City of Chicago 1t is known, for instance,
that the suspected murderer, a man by the
name of Forsyth or Fawcett, was working in
the office of City Corporation Council Samuel
Ettleson. at the snaAc time, Ettleson is the
political mwyer for insult the Millionaire public
utilities niagnate in Chicago
Linge, too, was not only the collector of
graft, but he was the pay-off man for the vari-
Gus police captains. In his accounts for ex-
ample there was check of $500 payable to
Captain Daniel Gilbert, in charge of the Central
Police Station in Chicago. 1t can be taken for
granted that many other damaging items of
Lingle's accounts never reached the light of
day. The fate of such documents as Lngles
accounts book, the Rothstein private papers the
zuta poinson box. and other rare gangster docu-