Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1951-12-14

ASo" an 10 SoSSSlllSo Wy Az
disavows any link with ill-doing;
his contributions to charity are gen.
erous. However, the Senate crime
committee gathered evidence which
plainly proved that he still is deep
in the gambling combine.
This mold which Kleinman and
others in Cleveland fit so tidily-
the picture of gangsters shifting,
when prohibition ended, from il
licit liquor to illicit gambling-was
one we found everywhere. Yet,
crime-Wise, Cleveland is a city of
dazzling Inconsistencies, sort of
Middletown of crime.
First off, the area has been plum
dered for years by as vicious and
powerful a congregation of GRIM
inals as the committee spotlighted
anywhere. But. ironically, the city
is cheering sample OF what good
local and state governments can
attain when they really lash out at
the underworld.
city's public safety director, AL
vim j. Sutton Jr., listed for us the
main members of the Cleveland
gambling syndicate - Klenman,
Thomas jefferson McGinty. Samuel
(Gameboy) Miller, Louis Rothkopf.
Moe Dalitz, and Samuel Tucker
The Big Three in prohibition whls-
ky, he said, had been Klenman. Dal-
itz and Rothkopf.
Rothkopf is a marked-down model
of Kleinman and. like him, served
time for income tax fraud. The two
hid out from the committee for
months.
Finally unprecedented, they made
great display Of refusing to test
ify. They would not look at our
counsel when being interrogated
or, finally. even voice the stock Il
refuse-to-answer" refrain. kleinman
sat mute when we confronted him
with a printed card from the Bever-
ly Hills Country Club, one of the
Kleinman-Rothk enterprises The
card read:
"Open Sunday, April l. Beverly
Hills Country Club, Southgate, Ky,
Route 81 This card admits bearer
to gaming room This card has been
mailed to only privileged custom
ers. Keep it. and do not pass on.
If you do not wish to use it. de-
stroy it,"
Moe DalitZ, who never has been
convicted of a crime, is a prosper
GUS laundryman and, with other ex.
bootlcggers, owns substantial
share of the Detroit Steel Co. On
the side, he also is a partner in
gaming casinos with Kleinman and
others, his accountant told US.
After repeal. Cleveland was
glutted with gambling. But honest
officials-among them Gov. Frank
Lausche and Mayors Harold Bur-
ton and Thomas A. Burke-cracked
down. Gradually, the wide-open
gambling clubs were driven out
The syndic tie already had
mapped its strategy; it simply
moved into the counties outside
of Cleveland where local police
were more plant. To make up for
the inconvenience of locations. the
gamblers arranged transportation
for out-of-town and out-of-state Gus
toners, hauling them to the clubs
How did they operate? Tommy
McGinty, stocky, triple-chinned
man who looks like the movie yer.
sion of an old-time bartender. la
conically told us that when he ran
his Pettibone Club in Geauga coun-
ty he made regular contributions.
solicited by the county clerk, to help
the county buy fire engines, trac-
tors, or whatever the clerk said was
needed.
He also described how he opcr-
ated an illegal race track in the
county without molcstation: he ran
under what he called "the contribu.
tons system" which he said he
thought was illegal" He gave
per cent to the county. "They took
it as a tax" he explained
When Governor Lausche moved
into the state capitol, he found four
particularly fragrant gambling ca
sinos, all dominated by the Cleve.
land gang, running full-blast in
rural counties.
Local sheriffs ignored his orders
to shut them, so the governor
plastered the joints with violations
of such workaday laws as fire,
liquor control. unemployment COM
pensation, building and workmen's
compensation The casinos closed.
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