Evening star., 1932-06-17
SLAIN FOR SEEKING
CAPONE'S THRONE
"Barker the Immune" Meets
Gang Death-Frank Nitti
Sought as Killer.
BY the Associated Press.


whose firing squad enforced harmony
in the old Capone liquor syndicate, was
sought today for the machine gun
assassination of George Red Barker,
who aspired to succeed the imprisoned
| "Scarface" Al.
| 1t was Nitti. poice said, who originated
the second floor 'front.' ambush which
erased Hymie Weiss, Joe Aiello and 9TH
er enemies of Capone from the Chicago
| gang wars.
! Barkers killers used the same sys-
! TEN, sending machine gun slugs from
! the second floor of a West Side apart
ment building into Bankers body as he
Strolled toward the Norford Hotel.
! After the killing of Barker police
| found machine gun and an automatic
| rifle in a vacant lot across an alley
| from the hotel The word went out by
radio and telegraph printers to bring
! Nitti in"
Served Term in Prison.
Nitti, one of Capone's earliest body
! guards, was released several months
| ago from LeavenWorth Penitentiary
after serving an 16-month sentence for
income tax fraud. His former chief is
now in the Atlanta Penitentiary for the
same reason.
! Police and underworld speculation
named Joe Fusco, Murray Humphries
and Frankie Rio as Capone'S lieutenants
from whom his successor would be
| chosen to keep the beer business in
| hand.
1t became apparent, however, that
Barker planned to extend his activities
| from the union labor field to the liquor
business. 1t was whispered that Will
| liam White, another labor racketeer.
| and Edeard O'Donnell, powerful
South Slider not allied with Capone.
were planning with Barker to muscle
into the syndicate's affairs
| Barker, one of the % public enc
mics" on the original list of the Chicago
! Crime Commission. was the third TO
| die. Aiello and Jack Zuta were also
killed by gang guns. Ralph and Al
Capone and five others are in peni-
| tentiares. Jack McGurn is appealing
a Mann act conviction to the United
States Supreme Court, three others
are involved in deportation proceedings,
| four are fugitiyes and the remaining
ten walk Chicago's streets more or less
/ freely.
Barker the Immune"
! The gunner pumped 18 rifle and pis-
! tOl bullets into the body of Barker the
! immune" whom-until last night
neither the foes CT gangland nor the
arm Of Cook County law had been able
| to check in the career of crime which
! he began in 1916.
Two men were held today for in
vestigation in the slaying-Larry Evans.
a waiter, and George BickfOrd. hotel
clerk. who helped three others pick the
! gangster's lifeless body off the street
and rush it to Keystone Hospital.
Three physicians said no man could
! have survived the leaden torrent for
more than few seconds. Death. they
| decided. was almost instantaneous.
| Barker had never been convicted in
Cook County through years of per-
sistent harassment by police of a charge
more serious than larceny-though
murders and all forms Of labor war
violence had been laid at his door.
He ''muscled in" on one union after
another till at the height Of his check
cred career he was reputed to have
had an income OF S200,000 year.
Convicted in Michigan.
Michigan brought him his only major
conviction and put him behind the bars
| Of the Marquette State Penitentiary
from 1920 to 1928 from Detroit for as
sault to rob. He escaped in 1922, but
/ was at liberty only six days.
! 1t was on his return to Chicago from
Marquette that the hoodlum began lay
| ing the groundwork for his vast
| racketeering structure.
officials Of the PONTIAC, Ill, Reforma-
| tory considered Barker even too bad"
| to permit him to remain there when
| he was returned for violation of parole.
! He was paroled in 1919 after serving a
| year for his last Cook County convic-
ton. for larceny, the year before.
| Barker" complained Pontiac lis a
bad influence on the younger prisoners. -
and the state transferred him to Joliet
State Prison.
ExtOrtionists Slain.
! A gang of extertionists walked into
a police trap laid in loop gambling
! establishment. yesterday and three Of
! its members We're shot to death with
shotgun and pistol fire. A fourth
/ escaped.
Today the police revealed the three
men killed had been warned Of their
fate by police lieutenant at show-up
| just a week ago.
Some day the police are going to
get tired Of bringing you fellows in here
and they'll send you to the morgue," :"
Lieut. Edward Birmingham told them
The warning was prophetic.
Tipped off" through gangland
sources, extortionists were to call at
the gambling place on North Wells
street yesterday and demand payment
of S25,000 under threat of death. Po-
lice under Pat Roche, chief investi-
gator for the States attorney, lay i'll
waiting.
Four men appeared on schedule.
, Harold Partner, 90; Samuel Katz, 27,
and Frank Rogers, 81, all minor gang
sters and police characters, were moved
down upon opening fire on the officers.
The fourth. who escaped, was not
identified.