The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-03-30
AGENTS UNABLE
TO AID WAR ON
NEW YORK VICE
U. S. Cooperation Claimed
but Laws Limit Scope
of Activities.
BY SIDNEY B. WHIPPLE
United Press staff Correspondent
lCnnvrirht iQ3S- by Initial Pressl

Copyright. 1895. BY United Press
NEW YORK, March 30.-The
crime prosecuting department OF
the City of New York, going through
the motions of a periodical cleanup
of vice, announced it had obtained
the cooperation of the Federal
Bureau of Investigation" but Fed
eral detectives intimated today they
didn't know anything about it.
The Bureau of investigation OF
the Department of Justice is always
ready to cooperate, but its field is
limited to criminal activities of an
interstate Characterization OF
the Mann Act, the narcotic acts
the Harrison automobile theft) law
national banking laws, and similar
Federal statutes.
Such crime as is involved in
gambling, prostitution (unless wom-
en- are brought across a state line)
and "policy"-the numbers game for
which New workers. give up $780,
100000 a year in tribute-are en-
tirely outside the ken of the Federal
men, and become local problems.
Policy Racket FlOurishes
The numbers" game, otherwise
known as policy" swept out of the
Harlem colored belt several years
ago, to supercede horse racing as
a means of losing money.
The game is controlled by close
criminal corporation still centering
in Harlem. The tops" control
thousands of gents who receive bets
throughout the city ranging from l
cent to 81 or more.
The players bet that the three
numbers they write down on a slip
of paper will appear in the follow
ing days newspapers as the last
three digits of the "mutuels" of
three specified races at a we'll
known track.
The odds against hitting upon
the correct figures are approx
mately 1000 to l. The policy kings
pay 600 to if the player wins. But
from the players winnings-if any
the agent deducts 10 per cent as
his commission. Thus lucky player
who has bet l cent and won, re-
ceives $40.
Small Stakes Held Menace
The game has a universal ap-
peal because of the small stakes, and
it is considered a social threat be-
cause school children, playing their
pennies each day, become inspired
with the gambling fever. Slot
machine gambling devices were re-
Gently thrown out of all New York
shops and cheap restaurants for the
same reason.
Investigation of the numbers
racket, the vice exposures, and the
threat of Jail impresarios of crime
who have hitherto been immune
have led to the usual crop of sor-
did murders and attempted muir
ders.
John j. (Spider) Murtha, gun
man, thug, and homicide artist who
sold his protective services" 20 any
group or individual, was rubbed out
by unidentified gangsters early in
the investigation. Jules Martin, a
taxicab manufacturer who rose
from the ranks of strike organizers
to close companionship with Dutch
Schultz, whom the police regard as
king of the racketeerS, was slain
slashed to death, on March 3.
Talking" Still Unhealthy"
The police frustrated, a week
later, a supposed plot to take Schultz
and his lawyer, J. Richard Davis
for their last ride near Troy, N. Y
Various young women who knew toe
much have been threatened.
Two of them, perhaps possessing
dangerous knowledge, were so badly
beaten in sinister Manhattan gar
age, once a "beer drop" for Schultz
that one of them died and the other
escaped death only by miracle. Po-
lice have found neither their as
Sailants nor the motive for the
crime.
But affairs like that are minor
incidents in the New York under
world. They serve as casual warn
ings to the vice army's rank and file
that the overlords will tolerate no
-