The Washington times., 1933-07-01
RECENT THREAT
IN SPEAKEASY
UNCOVERED
Probe Shows Woman Said She
Was Tired of Protecting
Husbands Killers

NEW YORK, July 0.N.SO.-
In an indiscreet moment in a
Speakeasy or at card table with
Friends" Mrs. Jack Legs" Dia-
mond talked out of turn.
Today they had her body on a
slab at the morgue. fishing out a
SO calibre bullet. pumped into
her back by some underworld
killer who thought she was going
to spill the works" on all she
knew about the murder of her hus-
band.
Most Logical Theory
Confronted with battling
mystery in the Staying of the
titian-haired widow of the no
torious gangster who was target
for many a gun before he was
finally dropped for good in Al
bany 18 months ago, detectives
cast about for the most logical
theory and seized upon this one.
There were some who believed
there might be some more recent
tie-up, branding Mrs. Diamond
as a squealer who had turned
Mrs. Lottie Kriesberger Coll,
widow of Vincent Coll, over to
the police as participant in a
Bronx holdup gang whose depre-
dations led to murder.
But it seemed more likely that
Mrs. Alice Schiller Diamond had
sat on the lid of her husbands
killing long enough. One night
in a speakeaSy not long ago she
confided to her drinking conlpan-
ions that she was tired Of pro-
tecting a lot of mugs"
Thus it was one Of these
"mugs" for whom the police
combed the underworld in the
hope of ferreting out the man
who cornered Alice Diamond in
her gaudily furnished Brooklyn
apartment and shot her down by
the side of a breakfast table
Uttered with coffee cups and
cigarette butts.
Dead Two Days When Found.
She had been dead for more
than two days when they found
her last night-on the floor with
her auburn hair matted in a pool
of blood.
Beyond the pistol bullet, which
crashed through the base of her
skull and embedded itself in
wall, there were no clues. Her
dress was torn down the back
evidence only that the killer had
seized her as she tried to flee and
held her by her clothing as he
pressed the muzzle of his gun
against her head.
Murder vestigators are not
solicitous of private affairs. So
it came out that since Jack
Diamond took the rap in Albany
in December, 1881, his widow
hadn't had an easy time of it.
She had tried selling racing
tips, played in 6 vaudeville show
in Coney Island and raked up
a little capital to start a
tearoom which was to have
opened today.
May Have Used Club
But nothing she did had
brought her much money. She
did have, if the police theory is
correct, some knowledge about
her husbands killing which she
might have used as a club to
obtain funds from one "mugg"
or another who knew more about
1t than she.
But Mrs. Diamond, like many
another of the underworld crowd,
got nothing but lead when she
may have been looking for gold.
Against the sensational police
theories of murder for vengeance
or self f-protection, however, ply
sicians who examiied Mrs. Dia-
mond'S body made known they
were working on the theory she
might have committed suicide.
They based this theory on the
course taken by the bullet and
the absence of powder burns on
the outside of her head. The
weapon was nowhere 20 be found,
however, and all concerned ad-
mitted the suicide theory was far
A1S I1S1