Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-08-29
new K|LL|NGST|RS
GOTHAM GANG WAR
Body Near Scene of Recent
Sayings; Police Storm
Gunmen'S Lair.
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
NEW YORK, August 29.-After q
single day Of calm, police were faced
with another gangster killing today
when policeman stumbled over the
body Of a man Identified as Leon
ardo de Mico 80, Of Brooklyn.
A single bullet hole through the left
eye had taken his life, an ambulance
short distance from the club room
where three men were found stabbed
and dubbed to death a week ago.
About the same time IS detectives
and several squads Of heavily armed
police surrounded an apartment house
on Bushwick avenue in Brooklyn and
captured seven men, five pistols and
q quantity of ammunition. The seven
surrendered without shooting after the
police had smashed down a metal ar
mored door leading into the apart
msnt.
Garry Drawn Pistols.
A group of 90 prisoners was in the
lineup today, the fifth day of the po-
lice campaign against crime Two men
were found with pistols.
Under new rules instituted by Com
missioner Edward p. Mulrooney. several
hundred policemen, detailed to Satur-
day afternoon payroll duties. accom-
panied paymasters with their pistols in
hand instead of in holsters.
Commissioner MuIrooney said he
would not stand for another Staying
like that Of Patrolnian Webb last week,
which was followed by the deaths of
five other persons and wounding of IL
others. Patrolman Webb had escorted
$4,000 pay roll.
The police regulations making It
mandatory for each policeman to be an
expert marksman must be enforced
rigidly by precinct commanders, the
commissioner warned his captains.
Two hundred high police officers re-
ceived orders at a secret conference
yesterday that they must wage a far
more intensive war on crime. The
meeting. presided over by Commissioner
Mulrooney. was the first of its kind he
has ever called
1t followed closely after "Lupo the
Wolf" once chieftain of the Mana and
most dreaded gang leader of New York.
was taken out of a police lineup and
charged with murder
Among the other prisoners paraded
across the stage at police headquarters
4
the gangSter. Frankie Uale, who was
slain in Brooklyn three years ago after
reported split with Alphonse (Scar-
face AID Capone.
Commissioner Mulrooney told his
aides he was dissatisfied with some of
their ways and warned them to mend
them In hurry. All commanding Of
f1cers' days OF were cancelled until
further notice
The crimes charged against the "a
men In this mornings police lineup
ranged from vagrancy to safe-blowing
and murder, but the outstanding char
acter was Ignazio Lupo
In spite OF his plea he had abandoned
the criminal practices which brought
him the police appellation that fastest
man with knife or a gun that ever
came from Sicily" he was accused of
numbering business acquaintance for
challenging his monopoly in the grape
trade In Brooklyn.
The career of the Wolf" dates back
to 1899, when he was sentenced to 81
years in an italian prison for Staying
friend. He escaped and came to
America to become associated with a
gang that eventually was charged with
so murders.
Has Long Record.
Lupo himself was arrested so many
times police lost track of the total. The
charges included kidnapping, extortion,
counterfeiting and murder.
Discovery of vast counterfeiting en-
terprise caused him to be sent to At
lanta Penitentiary and landed As other
members Of his gang behind bars. The
United States Secret Service broke up
with those arrests what they called the
greatest counterfeiting ring in the
world. But the gang did not die The
secret service men accused Lupo OF di-
recting their activities from the Fed
eral prison
The gangsters. who had escaped con-
yiction introduced the automobile in
underworld warfare. Three men who
had helped convict the Wolf by teS-
ttfying against him we're murdered
A presidential pardon freed the gang
chieftain after he had served years
of his 30-year sentence and a Depart
ment of Labor ruling prevented his de-
portation
Since then he has just been a suspect
In two killings. but his plea today was
that he was just an honest business
man who never done nobody no harm"