Evening star., 1932-08-28
Jersey CITY STANDS OUT
AS ENEMY OF RACKETEER
Buffalo Is Another Example of Town
That Makes the Crooks
Life Improbable.
BY DENIS TILDEN LYNCH.

which he Solemnly described as wal
against racketeers, the district attorney
made a speech over the radio and saio
that "racketeering exists in every city
In the country"
Thomas C. T. Grain believed this
So cid nearly everybody else in the
metropolis. And the same illusion was
cherished by residents of other racket
ridden communities. But there are
cities where racketeering has never ex-
listed, and others in which rackets have
been crushed and their operators either
driven out. sent to jail or forced to
earn their living honestly. In the argot
of the underworld these communities
are IN. J. towns" or no justice towns.
The underworld is fond of syncopation
The phrase IN j. towns" is said to
have had its origin in the Summer OF
1927, when the Chicago police set out
10 rio the town of gangsters. All that
stood in their way was the writ of
habeaS corpus, which high-priced law
yerS obtained when their gunner eli
ents were cast into cells on mere Sus-
picion. Knowing that only twice in
our history has the writ been suspend
ed, first in 1868 and again in 1871, and
then by presidential proclamations
made under special acts of Congress
NIlC HO4lIC dlS1 LllC IlCAb OCSO lliAllB. hLIN
they felt they were more justified in
their unheralded course than was
Grant when he proclaimed nine coun-
ties in South Carolina in rebellion.
Two Placed Under Observation.
The police let the public in on their
secret on August 25, when they ar
rested the McErlane brothers, Frank
and Vincent, and had them commit
ted to the Psychopathic Hospital for
observation. Having been duly COM
mitted by a court, it was not likely any
judge would free them before they had
spent the customary 10 days in padded
cells under the eyes of alienists.
Instantly all gangSterS fed town or
else sought sanctuary in their secret
hideouts. All save one, Louis Alterie
alias "Two-Gun Louie" who was lying
on a hospital cot while surgeons were
removing shotgun slugs from his body
and patching old wounds from ma
chine gun bullets. But Louie was re-
sourceful. He summoned two noted
alienlstS, DR.. James Whitney Hall and
DR.. Harold S. Hubert. 1t was singu-
lar bedside examination, as witness
for some poor bird
@. What is envy? A. Being sore be-
cause some other guy has got some
thing you want
@. What is justice? A There amt
none
When the alienists departed Alterie
was safe from being lodged with the
nuts. Other gangsterS followed his eX-
ample and carried certificates of their
sanity in their inside pockets And
gangland praised "Two-Gun Louie;
and gunner repeated his observation
that there was no justice in Chicago;
and being fond of the bizarre, in speech
as well as in deed, it was not long be-
fore the underworld designated all
places where the authorities were not
lured by the jingle Of their gold as NO
justice towns" But Chicago was IN.
j. town" only temporarily.
''TWo-Gun Louie'S" observation on
justice reached Boston nearly three
years before this typical IN. J. town"
heard the first rattle of machine gun,
a weapon introduced into gang warfare
after O'Bannion was slain. This was
on June /, 1880. when Joe Bruno and a
companion were sprayed from the rear
window of sedan as they were leaving
the Liberty Hotel.
Good Police Department.
Boston is backward in other respects
for it was not until early in 1882 that
its police made an arrest on charge
involving racketeering The prisoner
had been trying to form protective"
association among owners of theaters.
He was subsequently discharged. Once
before gang attempted the same thing
in the cleaning and dyeing industry. but
the racketeerS vanished before the police
could act.
In explaining why the Hub has never
been afflicted with these protective"
organizations, which levy taxes on in
dustry and collect them with the aid OF
strong-arm methods, Kenneth B. Back
man, manager of the Boston Better
Business Bureau, said:
We have a good police department
here and the superintendent Of police Is
honest"
Michael H. Crowley has been the su-
pcrintendent of police for many years.
He has withstood changes in admins
tration, although he may be removed on
short notice. But as well talk Of raZlng
Faneuil Hall or the Old North Church
I'VE have only two problems here
which can be called racketS and they
are confined to the Sicilians and Chi
nese," said Crowley. we get COM
plants, but we have never been able tc
get a complainant, either Chinese o.
Sicilian, to see it through.
With the Sicilians it is a game oi
extortion, but it is not practlced by or
ganized bands One of these black
mailers will call on storekeeper ano
say: You're doing a good business
Let us have a bonus And he collects
S25 or $50 every month or so from ht
victims
TT is slightly different among th'
Chinese, for here it is not a question
of extortion. 1t is a case of riva
tongs. We have two here, the Hi
Sings and the On Leongs. Recent.
we had a complaint from a Chimes
that members of another tong tolt
him he must not open his laundr.
in the Back Bay section because on
of their own had a shop nearby. w
stood ready to protect him and t.
proceed against his intimidators, nu
the complaining Chinese refused
prosecute. Nor did he open the laun
dry. although the entire police fore
was at his service.
Few Have Command.
eve had a somewhat similar case il
the Chinese quarter, where a Chlnes
leased a store for S125 a month. IN
lease was for term OF years. But
rival tong would not let him start NJ
business until II months had passed
Here again it was a case of one ton
protecting one of its members fror
what it regarded as unwarranted com
petition Nor would this victim appea
in court"
Boston has its due share Of boot
Logging and the consequent police cor
ruption. But here the venalty OF TN
police has been circumscribed by plao
ing the enforcement in the hands OF
comparative few. In this way III
vast majority of the force is remove
from the chief source OF contamins
ton. Not so long ago suspicion VIZ
directed against some members OF u
liquor squad when its head, Oliver
Garrett, pleaded guilty to a chars
of extortion and was sentenced
Two years imprisonment. He hs
banked $4,000 in about three yea
H. opfk