The Wilmington morning star., 1940-09-25

ions expressed in this article
are those of the author and
may not always harmonic
with its position.-The Editor.
CHICAGO, Sept. 24.-If you have
been reading my series of little
mash notes to the gorillas in the
American Federation Of LAbor you
may have noticed symptoms of
b~ashfulness in my characterization
Of George Browne, the president of
the stage hands union or racket.
MI. Browne has no criminal record
that I have been able to find, so
in calling him a gangster or rack
eteer / have had to rely on a lib
eral Interpretation of the terms.
But / felt sure that a man of his
low associations must have left a
tuft of his pelt in the police rec
ords somewhere along the line and
I was right.
The files of the Evangelical Dea-
coness hospital show that at 4
o'clock in the morning of Jan. n,
1925, George E. Browne, business
agent of the Theatrical Protective
Union, was brought in for treat
ment of a gunshot wound, by an
unidentified man who Immediately
high-tailed out of there. The bullet
had struck in the left hip. DR..
Schamschow, the inferno, iodined
the wound and the patient paid IS
and was taken to the BrideweIl or
prison hospital, refusing to give
any information regarding the
shooting.
Gangster Tradition
The next days papers said the
patient told the police, "IIl take
care of this myself; don't disturb
yourself about it." An old accident
report at the detective bureau also
says the patient refused to say
where or how the shooting oc.
Cured. That was in the gangster
tradition.
The surgeon who operated iden-
titles him as our hoodlum friend,
George Browne, president of the
International Alliance of Theatre
cal Stage Employees and Moving
Picture Operators and member of
the executive council Of the Ameri-
can Federation of Labor.
W. now skip out to the moldy
roomlng house on the North Side
and interview a strange and pathet-
ic creature named Herbert Green,
who is lying on an iron bed listen
ing to an old-fashioned, banjo-type
radio as we knock on the door. He
opens the door cautiously, explain
ing that he was afraid someone
was coming to get him. Then he
dredges his false teeth out of a
glass and sits on the bed to tell
his story.
There is a dent in Mr.. Green's
skull the size of a chickadee's nest.
inflicted, so he says, by Brownies
boss in the union racket, Mr.. Willie
Bioff, who has just finished, very
belatedly, a six-month sentence Tor
shaking down prostitutes. MIR.
Green says he was a candidate for
a minor office in the move pro-
]ectionists' racket back in Deem
Der, 1888, and that Bioff, wishing
to eliminate this rivalry, conked
him with a blackjack. Green came
to five days later in the county
hospital and. judging from the look
OF the wound, the person who took
the divot was bent on execution,
not admonition.
Green is a brother : in : law of
George Browne and says he was
the n who delivered Browne to
the hospital that night in 1925.
Il was working in the Cha
theater.' says Herbert Green,
and this Brooks, he run a saloon
on 47th near Ashland, he called up
and says come on over and get
Browne as he was playing with
that gun of his and waving it
around like he always done when
he would get drunk. So I got there
and he was sinking and waving
that gun SO as we was going out a
guy near the door shot him in the
buttocks. f. was a little guy. l
don't remember his name. I did
hear it but I don't remember it.
Anyway he got shot about four
weeks after. He got killed about
four weeks after he shot George"
In February, 1888, Tommy Ma
10y, n of the greediest wolves
that ever fanged the union move
ment, was removed from com
mand Of the movie union racket in
Chicago by gun-fire. Mr.. Browne
bore his pail and from that funeral
OF a beloved brother in the sacred
bond went speedily on to the inter.
national presidency of one of the
most d~isgraceful unions in the A.
F. of l.. After Maloy's d a
Browne and Bioff really went to
town.
The police are still baffled nv
both shootings, but they battle cas-,
lily. Indeed there is no evidence in
the official files that they ever
made any investigation of the dam.
age to Mr.. Brownies buttocks. I
Seven Men Enlist Here