The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1933-12-01
MCCLURE RUM RING
seventy-One Members Found Guilty
Sentences Stayed BY Appeal


Sentences Stayed BY Appeal
State Senator John J. Mcclure and
seventy co-defendants were convict
ed Friday, in Philadelphia, on fed
eral charge of participating in the
alleged Delaware county, Pa, liquor
protection" organization. Shortly
afterwards Judge Walsh began SEN
fencing them after denying motions
for a new trial.
The first ten received suspended
sentences of eighteen months each.
o. N. Smith, chief of Delaware coun-
ty detectives, was fined $500 and
placed on three years probation in
addition to getting a suspended SEN
tence.
All were specifically charged with
conspiracy to violate the national
prohibition law.
| Among those convicted were Eu-
gene F. White, chief clerk of the
Pennsylvania House of Representa-
tives; number of Chester's Repub-
lican ward leaders, former constables
and magistrates, and many alleged
liquor law violators.
The trial of II persons charg-
ed with conspiracy to violate the pro-
hibition law was the longest and one
of most turbulent ever held in the
Federal Court in Philadelphia. 1t
consumed As days and 20 nights be-
fore it reached the jurors. They
listened to 141 witnesses, all of them
presented by the government.
The central figure in the trial was
State Senator John ]. Mcclure, pow
erful Republican leader in Delaware
county, which is in the extreme
southeast corner Of Pennsylvania
and adjoins Philadelphia.
Mcclure and 95 other persons
were indicted for conspiracy to vio-
late the Volstead law, but the cases
VI only mcA WCAC 6NOh " eAO
jury.
Fifteen of the men pleaded guilty;
the lone woman pleaded mo de-
fense," and the charges against three
were nolle pressed. Two otf ers are
serving life sentences in a Minnesota
prison; two are fugitives; one sur
rendered after the trial stal ted, one
is dead.
The governments case conducted
by Chef A. Keyes, of Kansas City, a
special assistant U. S. Attorney Cen
eral, was that the defendants con-
spired through we'll defined organ
,zation of ward leaders and other
minor politicians in Chester and sur
rounding communities TO levy tri-
quite on prohibition law violators.
| Bootleggers, still operators, speak
easy operators and smugglers. of Ii
quor from the famous rum low" off
The Atlantic coast were described as
among those paying protection"
Those charged with receiving
money to protect" the violat ors in
cluded Mcclure, Eugene F. White,
chief clerk of the Pennsylvania
House of Representatives ward
leaders, constables and policemen.
One witness estimated that the
tribute levied in one year was $780,
900. The government charged the
| ring" operated more than IL years.
The trial was turbulent because of
the many clashes between defense
lawyers of whom there wera seven
teen, and Judge George A. Welsh.
During the trial one witness testi-
fed he had forgotten" certain
things he told the government in
preparing the case. He was indict-
ed for perjury and sentenced to a
year and day after he admitted he
had been paid $50 to forget" A
defendant who is alleged to have
paid him the money to keep his
name out of the testimony was in
dicted for bribery.
1t was charged that lists of all
speakeasies and stills We're Kept on
hand and those which failed to pay
for protection" were knocked off"
that is, raided.
| Mcclure, who is 81, inherited his
leadership of Delaware county from
his father. He was elected to the
Pennsylvania State Senate ia 1928
and reelected in 1882 for a second
term of four years.