Evening star., 1933-10-01
Rate by Mail-Payable in Advance.
|, Stafes and Canada
Progress Against Organized Crime.

Yesterday at Oklahoma City and at
Edwardsville, ILL.,, verdicts were rendered
by juries in kidnapping cases. In the
former case six men and woman were
convicted and in the latter five men
and a woman were found guilty Life
imprisonment may be the penalty al
Dotted to those convicted in Oklahoma,
under the new Federal law. The jury
at Edwardsville gave life sentences to
three of the defendants, including the
woman, and sentences to imprisonment
for from twenty to five years for the
others. The sentences Of the Oklahoma
defendants will be pronounced by the
court later
These two cases have attracted ma
canal attention, both because OF the
circumstances of the kidnapings and
the public interest in the working Of
new laws applying to that deSpicable
crime. In the Oklahoma case there was
q special interest because one of the
defendants, Harvey Bailey, was known
TO be leader of large gang of criminals
operating over a wide field in the Mid
die West, to whom many crimes have
been attributed.
There Is now awaiting extradition to
Oklahoma for trial or completely in the
Urschel KIDNAPPING another desperate,
captured after the trial just concluded
had begun. His connection with the
crime has been established. If tried
and convicted, as he doubtless will be,
be too will be subject to a sentence OF
life Imprisonment. He is also subject to
other charges for crimes the penalty
for which is death.
The outcome of these cases is an en-
couragement to the country. 1t demon
strates that organized crime, success
fully practiced for so long without re-
suit Of discovery and prosecution, can
be checked. It proves that the agents
of the law, police prosecutors, courts
and juries, cannot be intimidated and
thwarted by threats and corruption. 1t
shows that there can be effective CO.
operation between State and Federal
authorities to the end of taking, trying
and Furnishing the bandits who have
for a long period been levying heavy
tribute and taking many lives.
These trials are but the beginning
Of a process of pursuit and prosecution
which it Is to be hoped will be un-
falteringly and successfully carried on
to demonstrate that the law governs In
this country. An epidemic Of KIDNAPPING
has ragged in the United States for half
q decade. Only feeble efforts were
exerted to check it, until the stealing
of the Lindbergh baby for ransom
aroused the country to hot indignation
ever the outrage upon civilization which
that tragedy constituted. Though there
was no success in the pursuit OF the
wretches who committed that abomin-
able crime it led to the strengthening
of the laws in practically all the States
and to the enactment Of a Federal law
to cover cases Of an interstate char
acter. And it led also to the arousal
of a stern public determination to grap-
pie directly and remorselessly with this
evil. Now the results are coming. There
will be more cases, more trials and more
punishments, but they will surely grow
less if the present spirit prevails on the
mart of law enforcement officials OF all
grades and in all jurisdictions to re-
move this blot from the record OF the