Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-05-19
Maj. Pratt ReneWs Pleas for
vagranCy Law With
teeth" in 1t.
POLICE INF0RMER NEAR
DEATH FROM BULLETS
Jack Cunningham Refuses to Give
Names of Men Who Fired
on Him.

JACK Cunningham, who bears
reputation as police informer. lay
near death at Emergency Hospital to-
day, the latest victim of a smalI-time
racketeer's gun, as Mai Henry G. Pratt,
superintendent of police, declared the
department is doing everything legally
possible" to cope with the crime situa-
ton
Maj. Pratt at the same time renewed
his plea for vagrancy law with teeth
as means OF Kidding Washington of its
unlawful element. He believes the re-.
cent series Of hold-ups, shootings and
murders could have been precluded.
certainly to large degree, If the po-
lice mad some potent weapon to deal
with bootleggers, gamblers and other
undesirables before they commit an
overt act'
A stringent vagrancy law such as he
advocated upon taking Office several
years ago, he thinks, would be effective.
cunningham, who is so years old,
was returning home from the first pre-
cinct police station early TODAY when a
murderous fire was leveled at him from
passing motorist, bullet cutting the
spinal cord. At the police station he
mad been talking to Precinct Detective
J. A. Mostyn of the vice squad.
Questioned by police, Cunningham
insisted he did not know who shot him.
I'm too sick to talk he repeated in
response to the questions of the detec-
yves, VINO Tear ne may die before they
can get his story. Il don't know who
did it,
Five Bullets Fired.
Cunningham was shot at the back
steps of his apartment, near I and
Fourteenth streets, by one of five bullets
nred at short range from a roadster
which passed slowly through the alley,
between H and I, Fourteenth and FIJI
tenth streets.
Cunningham had started up the steel
steps outside the building when the
roadster passed. From the course of
the bullet, which entered at the pit of
the abdomen and shattered against the
backbone, he must have wheeled to face
the automobile just as the shots were
fred.
Although the automobile was little
more than an arms length away, the
injured man denied he could see the
occupant or that any one addressed
him as he was mounting the steps.
In the second-door apartment just
above, the victims wife, Mrs. Helen
Cunningham, heard the shots and q
moment later her husbands cry for
assistance. When she ran downstairs,
several persons had gathered about
Cunningham, where he lay on the
landing.
Police were holding five men for
questioning today, although they adj
mitted none of them was a likely sus-
pect Three were arrested when they
appeared at the hospital to inquire
about Cunninghans condition, and the
other two later.
Cunningham went to the precinct
about midnight and left 20 minutes
later to go home. Police were working
on the theory that a personal enemy"
of Cunningham's saw him walking home
and traiIed him to the alley.
No evidence has been developed to
link the attack with the fatal shooting
Sunday night of Talley Day. although
police admitted that angle will be in
vestigated
The first trio arrested identified them
selves as George w. Mattingly, 81, of
the 500 block CT Sixth street; Joseph
Harvey, "a, of Great Falls, Va, and Hy-
man Novoselsky, of the $500 block of B
street southeast.
All Deny knowledge.
The fourth man, who gave his name
as Arthur Thomas Sheehan, %, CT the
800 block of Eleventh street, was picked
up near the scene of the shooting. Po-
lice also arrested Shockey Yudelevit 81.
of the 1900 block of Allison street, after
one Of the suspects had remarked he
might know something"
All were booked for investigation at
No. precinct station, where they denied
knowledge of the shooting.
Sheehan, Novcselsky and several 9TH
ers in the vicinity heard shots and ran
to the scene.
Edwin H. Connick. employed at sub
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