Evening star., 1953-10-18
Behind the Rucewuy Scandal
Union Officials Killing Leads
!. To Crisis in Dewey's Career

unions at the track"
I'VE would have hired any,
body, even if he was Satan, him
self, to Straighten out our labor
problems" confessed Atwood C.
Wolf, vice president and execu-
tive secretary of the track.
Another link to Yonkers came
with the voluntary surrender of
William Howell, 35. He also was
an ex-convict and a former
mutuels clerk at Yonkers Race
way. He was indicted for the
Lewis murder. although he
denied any part in it.
The State Harness Racing
Commission began hearings be-
hind closed doors to determine
how the two ex-convicts, Lynch
and Howell, happened to be on
the raceway's $6-million-a-year
payroll.
Accepted Lewis Men.
Raceway officials swore they
never knowingly and willfully"
hired men with criminal records.
But they said they had to ac-
cept men supplied by Mr.. Lewis
under terms of their contract
with Local 32-E.
Thirty-f1ve Yonkers employees
eventually we're fired because of
criminal pastS.
Taking note of the harness
commissions secret hearings,
Rudolph HALEY, Liberal Party
candidate for Mayor of New
York, accused the commission of
trying to "shield bigwig politi-
clans" with stock holdings in
Yonkers Raceway. Open up the
hearings, Mr.. HALEY demanded,
or he would name names.
Gov. Dewey ordered the hear
ings opened to press and public.
Meanwhile, Newsday, big,
bustling Long Island tabloid
daily newspaper with a circula-
ton of nearly 100000, for three
years had been doggedly noSing
into the affairs of Roosevelt
Raceway in Nassau County.
AS New York City newspapers
joined the hue and cry Nassau
Grand Jury on September 20
opened an investigation into a
purported $4,000 a year shake
down of 1900 Roosevelt Race
way employees. Subpoenaed was
William C. Dekoning, head of
AFL Construction Unions on
Long Island and labor Car of
Nassau County.
Paid 100000 To Costello.
Roosevelt was the track that
once paid racketeer Frank Cos
tello 100000 to keep bookies off
it's premises. Costello told the
Kefauver Senate Crime Com
mittee in 1861 that all he did to
earn the money was spread the
word around that bookies had
better make themselves scarce
at Roosevelt. They did.
BY now the newspapers
thought they detected familiar
presence behind the scenes.
What of joey Fay, the AFL labor
extortionist doing 712 to is years
in Sing Sing. only a few miles up
the Hudson River from New
York? Did Fay's once potent
labor and political influence
reach beyond the prison walls?
On October 2, the State De-
partment of Correction finally
was forced to release a list Of
more than 80 persons who visited
Fay at Sing Sing.
Among the visitors was Mr..
Wicks, the G.. o. P. Senate ma
jority leader who had been sworn
in the day before as acting Lieu
tenant Governor of the State OF
| New York. He succeeded the re-
signed 1t. Gov. Frank Moore and
thus became first in line of Sue
cession to Mr.. Dewey.
Also on the list was William F.
Bleakley, one-time G. o. P. cam
didate for Governor, former
State Supreme Court Justice and
a Republican power in West
chester County. He also was gen.
eral counsel of the Yonkers Trot-
ting Association, Inc, which op-
Grated at the raceWay.
Another Fay visitor was Will
liam F. Condor a Republican
State Senator from Westchester.
So was George Morton Levy,
operator of Roosevelt Raceway,
and Dekoning, the Long Island
labor boss of Roosevelt employees.
Fay, 81, had been international
vice president of the AFL Union
of Operating Engineers-the men
who operate derricks, steam
shovels and other heavy con-
struction machinery.
He was a political power in
New York and New Jersey before
he went to prison in 1948. He
was convicted in a $368,OOO
shakedown of contractors on the
$500 million Delaware Aqueduct
water supply project for New
York.
Said Mr.. Wicks of the impris-
oned Fay:
at is public knowledge that
he is still a power in labor
circles"
Mr.. Wicks admitted four or
five trips to Sing Sing to get Fay
to keep labor peace in his Kings