Evening star., 1951-07-20

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racket.
Gambling" said Betting Com
mission" James j. Carroll, an un-
This is the third Of series Of 20 articles
condensed from the book, Crime in
America" by Senotor Kefouyer.
willing and television-shy witness
in the final days of our Senate
Crime Committee hearings, lis a
biological necessity for certain
types the quality that gives
substance to their day dreams"
No varieties of this biological
necessity" were overlooked by the
mobs - slot machines. punch
boards, cards, dice, roulette, wa
gers on sporting events and the
numbers racket. But the big
killing came when they success
fully penetrated illegal bookmak-
ing on horse races. Thereby. a vast
and corrupting new industry
the gang-dominated wire. service
was born.
The colossus of the racing news
industry today is an organization
known as Continental Press Serv-
ice, virtual monopoly.
From Arthur B. Mickey Nc
Bride, of Clevland, Ohio. and his
bald. seemingly disingenuous
brother -in-law, Tom Kelly, of
Chicago, both of whom were un-
happy witnesses, we obtained a
remarkable biography of Con-
tinental press.
Mcbride insists he started Con-
tinental on modest $40, 900 bank
roll purely out of sentiment and
good will to provide a job for his
brother-in-law. Kelly.
Elaborate Precautions.
The new wire service set up
elaborate precautions. Instead of
selling news" direct to bookies,
Continental set up regional dis
tributors" to whom it sold its
service. Continental would gather
the racing news through an elab-
crate nationwide system and would
telegraph this information to its
distributors. Mcbride himself ad-
mitted that Continental got the
news out of the race tracks "by
either going in and paying con-
cession price, or taking it out
otherwise" The otherwise" in
cluded use of spies with high-pow-
cred telescopes and "wig-wag"
men.
The distributors, in turn, passed
the news for a price to thousands
of illegal bookies all over the
country. Continental was not sup
posed to know anything about
that. "I," Mcbride irrelevantly
remarked, never have been in a
bookmaking joint in Is years"
Finally Mickey YEARLY acknowl-
edged the obvious fact that Ger
tainly" Continental's news "even-
tually got to bookmakers.
We isolated instances where
parties, supposedly operating as
Independent distributors, actually
kept only small salaries or per-
centages and remitted thousands
of dollars-the bulk of their prof
its-to Continental.
From Mickey Mcbride. who ap-
peared at the Cleveland hearings
in a suit of "race-track plaid, )"
hand-painted suspenders and a
very sincere bow tie, we elected
the tortuous story of how Cont
nentaIs ownership shifted back
and forth between the McBrideS
and the Ragen family. Mickey
himself never wanted to run Con-
tinental, so in the beginning he
went to an old colleague, the late
James M. Ragen, ST., and asked
him if he would take over. In
1912 Mcbride said he sold out to
Ragen's son, James M. Ragen, jr.
The following year Ragen, sr. took
over and put pressure on Mickey
to return to the business.
Investment for Son, 10.
Mickey compromised by buy
ing one-third of Continental back
for $50,000 as an investment for
his son, Eddie, then 19 years old.
Ragen's difficulties with the
Capone syndicate actually went
back a number Of years. but in
1946 he ran head-on into trouble
The Chicago-Capone mob had
been eyeing Continental Press:
If they could seize control it not
only would provide them with a
Golconda of profits but would be
a source of jobs for literally
thousands Of hoodlums.
The mob's initial approach was
in the form of a conciliatory but
thoroughly dishonest proposition
advanced by three leading syn
dicate members, Jake (Greasy
Thumb) Guzik, Tony (The En-
forcer Accardo and Murray (The
CameD Humphreys. The mot
sweetly insisted that all il
wanted to do was to cut itseli
in and help build up the business
AS Ragen saw the picture
however, once the mob hao
moved in and had gained sufficient
experience to dispense with his
"know-how," he would be found
some morning dead in an alley.
AS part of the incredible seen
ario, according to Ragen, the Ca
pone interests used Dan Serritel.
la as their emissary. Serritells
had served in the Illinois legis.
lature as a Senator for IL years
during part of which period hi
also was engaged in the busines.
of publishing a scratch sheet. HI