Evening star., 1952-02-06
Kirkland Raps
PriinceGeorges
Jury 'Se||outs'
Evidence Ignored
In Rucketeer Probes,
District Judge Says
By Howard |. Dutkin

Prince Georges County grand
juries in the past have sold out
Ito racketeers for the sake of OBJ
tanning "a new fire engine for the
community" District Judge James
R. Kirkland declared today.
The jurist's blistering attack
came as he charged the new spe-
cial District crime grand jury
shortly after he had administered
the oath to it.
He prefaced his blast at the
nearby Maryland county by telling
|of practices in Sparsely-settled
rural communities in which. he
said, it was not uncommon for the
courts to point out to jurors places
that might bear investigation.
Puzzled by Practices.
Then he asserted:
This court has often wondered
at the ludicrous practices in
Prince Georges County where aS
soon as a grand jury was empan-
eled, the largest gambling house
south of New York would close
down.
While he didn't mention the
late Jimmy LaFontaine's gambling
establishment on Bladensburg
road by name, he spoke of the
establishment with the high
board fence" and charged the
county juries had ignored visual
evidence in exchange merely "for
getting new fire engine for the
community"
Referring to past Prince
Georges grand juries, Judge Kirk.
land declared:
Sometimes this court wonders
If the dragon seeds of crime were
sewn back in those other days."
to come to fruition here now.
"Shoot Flaming Arrows"
For some strange reason. he de-
clared, "racketeers, like Indian
renegades Of old, shoot their fam
ing arrows across the border from
nearby areas. :. &"
But, he said, present conspiracy
statutes and the broad lottery
statute make possible successful
prosecution of gambling rings
whose headquarters may be out.
side the District.
Turning to the ties between
crime and politics, the judge said
that while he regretted the abb
sence of suffrage in the District.
I'VE may be fortunate we do not
have the unholy alliance Of pol.
itics and crime"
He stressed the narcotics menace
here in telling the jury: There
is no field I can charge you to
investigate more fully than the
use of drugs"
Emphasis Peril to Young.
Emphasizing the peril to the
young in such cases, he said,
something entirely new to this
court-as new as the modern
bobby soxer-is the growth in the
use of marijuana," and he told
how the user progresses from it
to cocaine, heroin and other dam
gerouS drugs.
The menace of influence ped
dlers, gamblers, bootleggers and
racketeers also was hit hard in
the charge.
Lured by the chance at easy
money through the war contracts
confidence men flock
here, post a counselor -at-law sign
and are ready for S per cent busi-
ness, the jurist declared. He
such bucket shops" as .
as great as any in the
field of fraud and warned Of far
reaching consequences in possible
corruption Of Government officials.
Another Field Stressed.
Turning to another field, the
judge declared that half Of the
incidence Of male perversion could
be obliterated by "leveling with
q bulldozer comfort stations in
Lafayette and Franklin Parks"
He said that while the District
always has suffered a certain
amount of prostitution there
never has been any organized
white slavery as such and we've
never. had any Lucky Lucianos
in the District"
John F. Macdonald, Commerce
Department employe, heads the
grand jury of % members.