The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-09-18
Keepers Give Dope
to Island Prisoners"
Says Mark Shahian
U. S. Attorney Medalie
Gives Interview on
Daily's Expose
BY JOHN L. SPIvAK.
Author OF Georgia Niger"

hGeALOA VI NNNOA ANA5SNA
A federal investigation into the
open sale Of cope on Welfare l-l&no
lcomed today as result Of tie Daily
Workers expose of the brutal murder
of James Matthews, the North Caro-
lima Negro, battered to death by q
prison keeper.
George z. Medalie, United States
attorney, yesterday asked the Daily
Worker to arrange for him to inter-
view Mark Shahian, eyewitness to
the Matthews murder. An appoint
ment for the federal prosecutor to
question Shahian will be made today
as soon as Assistant District At
torney Saul Price has finished ques-
tioning the witness this morning.
Medalie's request came after Clar-
ence A. Hathaway, editor of the Daily
Worker called the attention of the
federal authorities to Shahian's state
ment in the affidavit that They
(Welfare Island prisoners were the
'house-gang' prisoners who we're al
most ell dope fiends and got on the
gang because they bought dope from
the keepers"
1.-THE Daily WORKER Hathaway
wrote, believes that you would be
interested in knowing of the dope
ring on Welfare Island and is call
ing your attention to this Mr.. Sha-
hian is available for questioning by
you or the Federal Narcotic Bureau
whenever you so inform u.s.
Medalie Immediately replied: 81
shall be pleased to have you send Mr..
Mark Shahian to this office SO that
his statement can be taken and the
matter looked into further. viii you
please advise me when he can be
available?"
Hathaway said that he would tele-
phone Medalie today and arrange an
appointment for Shahian to tell his
story to Medalie.
Medalie once before met with Tam
many opposition when he started an
investigation into the open selling OF
dope on Welfare Island following a
fatal riot two years ago.. Prisoners
themselves, knowing that they would
still be in prison after the investiga-
ton was over, were afraid to talk.
Joseph Fishman, Deputy Commits
sioner of Correction, shortly after
that riot and his own efforts to in
vestigate dope smuggling on the
Island, frankly admitted that "pris-
oners are afraid to talk for fear of
what will happen to them if they
'squeal.'"
The open sale OF dope in New
York's scandalous school for Crime"
has long been known both to city
officials and the press. Dope selling
has been the major cause of riots
bloodshed and crime on the Island
but every effort to get to the roots
of it has been baked by prisoners
who feared to talk and guards who
don't know muffin"
When a Daily Worker reporter
visited Warden Henry o. Schleth on
Correction Hospital, there were two
bottles partly filled with narcotics on
his desk.
These were stolen from the medi-
cal department" the warden ex-
planned. ut was a relief to learn
that they we're stolen instead OF
struggled in maybe by one Of my own
guards. Some guards, you know, are
crooked"
When the federal investigation
loomed Assistant District Attorney
Saul Price prepared to resume queS-
tioning Shahian about the Matthews
murder and then go to the Island
to study official records he had for
gotten to examine before, during his
alleged investigation. Prices men,
DRY, as shown in an interview he
gave Daily Worker reporter, is
quite hazy ON important aspects OF
the investigation. Yesterday a Daily
Worker reporter checked on another
one of his statements and found him
inaccurate again.
During the interview, Price was
obviously trying to keep the name Of
Doctor Isidor Firschein of Coney
Island Hospital, from becoming pub
lie. DR.. Firschein is the physician
who first ordered Matthews trans
ferred to Correction Hospital, after
the guard had battered him into UNI
consciousness. At first Price said he
didn't know the name of the doctor;
later, after repeated questioning, he
recollected it and said that some
body had gotten in touch with him.
When the Daily Worker reporter
asked DR.. Firschein who had gotter
in touch with him the physician said
"Mr. Price called me. do not re.
member the date, but it was the
day of the NRA parade"
DR.. Firschein apparently does moi
want to be involved in what prom
ises to be nasty scandal, but why
the district attorney should so pa
tently try to hide the physicians
name remains one of the minor mys-
teries of his thorough investigation.
Yet Mr.. Price still feels hurt be-
cause the Daily Worker calls his in
vestigation a farce.
(ED. NOTE:-Through an error
the name of John L. Spivak, special
Daily Worker reporter, covering the
Welfare Island expose, was left off
the story on Saturday,
Striking Plumbers
at FIear r. COhnn'S