The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1931-08-06
LEGS PICTURED
AS NICE, POLITE
BEER MERCHANT.
Cronies' Memories Have to
Be Prodded in Racket
Chiefs Trial.

NEW YORK. Aug. Ga polite
Deer merchant who persuaded
Greene county roadhouse men to
change their brand of lager merely
by asking them If they wouldn't
ike to handle Diamonds beer
such is Jack Oegs) Diamond as
pictured by the first six witnesses
at his trial on bootlegging charges.
The Characterization, guided by
attorneys for the federal govern
ment, was not made without diff
Guilty. Diamond. slight and chalky-
faced, but nattily dressed in gray,
sat at the counsel table and his
stare appeared to make witnesses
Midget uneasily and suffer lapses Of
memory.
One witness had to have his mem
DRY refreshed by transcript of his
story before the grand jury.
Another time Judge Richard J.
Hopkins, Kansas dry, who has ex-
pressed forcibly his belief that pro-
hibition can be enforced where Of
f1cials want TO enforce it, had to
remind a witness he had taken an
oath to tell nothing but the truth"
Bother Nervous on Stand
incidentally the witnesses admit
ted under defense questioning that
they still sell beer in Greene county.
But Diamonds beer" was no longer
available after the accident" at
Aratoga inn when Diamond was
shot for the third time within a
year.
Angelo Benedetto, pudgy bottling
plant owner, was most nervous
under Diamonds steady gaze, but
finally related that Diamond, Paul
Quatterocchi, his lieutenant, also
on trial, and three others ap-
preached him last August, saying
they intended to enter the beer
business and wanted to take in
O local man."
He testified that during the three
weeks he bottled beer instead of
the customary soda water he had
paid a couple of thousand" for
beer and kept "a couple of hun
dred" profit for himself of the
money Paul gave him to pay the
livingston beer man"
When he quit bottling beer, Paul
Quattrocchi took over his custom
ers, Benedetto said.
Judge Prods Memory
Frederick Becker, once Benedict
to's truck driver, discovered one day
he was delivering beer, not soda
water
Where did you get the beer?" he
was asked.
Il do not know" he said. I met
loaded trucks along the roads and
transferred the beer to my truck"
Sometimes, he said, he stored beer
at the old county farm in Cairo.
Asked how many times he did this
he hesitated. then mumbled,
FTwice."
Judge Hopkins turned to him.
You took an oath as a witness
to tell the truth, the whole truth,
and nothing but the truth, so help
you God. Now answer the ques-
tion," the judge directed.
We'll, 1 dropped beer there no
less than fifteen or twenty times"
he answered, gaining courage.
Missed a Couple
He was directed to name the
places he delivered beer.
''I'll start north and come south"
he said, and then reeled off about
twenty places he stopped regularly.
you must have supplied about
every boarding house in Greene
county"
"Oh, I missed a couple"
The constant reference to beer did
not seem to cheer the jurors par
ticularly, with the courtroom Their
mometer at 80. Judge Hopkins al
lowed them to remove their coats,
but after the sessions ordered them
locked up for the night, as usual.
Diamond and Quattrocchi are at
liberty on bail.