The Washington times., 1938-11-08
LESSON
By Charles McGuirk,

T TELL you right off the
L. sleeve it amt gonna do you
no good to bring me down here
from the pen to testify before
the grand jury. Not even if
you knock ten years off my
stretch. I'm a five-to-ten loser
on a racket rap.
GOT a clean record for two
4 years. Maybe, I'll only do the
five. Maybe I'll slice off a couple
more years for good behavior. I
amt sayin' there amt many
things I wouldn't do to knock
them off. But one of them is
Singin'. won't sing.
All right. Sure I'm guilty. A
jury said so, didn't it? And sure.
I was tied in with the commission
racket. The jury believed that,
too, because it all came out in the
trial. And sure I knew Marty
Sharles. I was his trusted audi
tor I kept his books.
I handled the dough that passed
through him and the mob. Didn't
you know that? Well, get tran
script of the testimony in my trial.
You'll find it all down in black
and white.
What's that? You can't promise
me anything, if I tell you all I
know about Marty Crux? Well,
amt that Just too bad! I'm to
sing and then I don't get nothin'
for singin'. Better call the wagon.
I'm ready to go back. No, I won't
answer your questions! What do
YOU think am, a rat?
MURDER RAP FOR MARTY
You're wastin' your time. You
can get my record from readin
the testimony in the trial. K. o.
Shoot. But, wait a minute.
What's the rap against Marty
Crux? Income tax evasion? Put
tin the slug on somebody? What
did he do? mean, what is he sup
posed to have done?
Oh, murder. Just murder?
Why, I thought it'd be something
serious. Why, Marty commits
murders just like the States At
torney smokes cigars. One after
each meal and eight at night.
Didn't you know that?
Martyrs Public Enemy No. / and
all big public enemies have to do
four murders day just to keep up
their standin'. But get this, Mr..
States Attorney. I never saw
Marty CruX commit any murders.
I never heard of him committin'
any murders. And never heard
of him plannin' any murders. So
what's the use of askin' me?
How many guys did Marty mur-
der this time? Only one! Why,
that amt a crime. It's misde-
meanor For the six years I was
tied in with him, he beat one mur-
der rap a year. In 1885, there
was three. He beat them all. He
had an iron-clad alibi for each of
them.
Who was the guy this time? Oh,
you won't tell me. So you won't
talk, Ell. Well, then, why the hell
should I talk? Sure, I'll answer
the routine questions. Let me
have them.
AUNT AGGIE'S "ACTING"
My names Eddie Flack. I'm %.
Single. I was born on the South
Side. Twenty-eighth and Prairie.
When the neighhorhood was re-
spectacle. My old man had a
good business when we were kids.
We? Oh, my brother and me,
my kid brother, Danny.
Well, the old man had a good
neighborhood grocery business un-
til the chain stores froze him out.
Then my mother died and he lost
his CUTS. He started drnikin' and
he died, too, when was Is and
Danny II.
Who took care of us then? Well,
my Aunt Aggie was supposed to.
Aunt Aggie called herself an &C
tress but what she was was bur
lique artist: She did a strip tease
until she got a tire around her
belt line and then she stepped back
down into the chorus. She got
the tire from booze. Aggie liked
to hist them. About the time
she got us, booze got her.
Well, me and Danny were
couple of lonesome kids, I guess,
and nobody took much care of us
so we had to take care of each