Evening star., 1962-12-31


a man like Harry L. Donovan
with the tolerance of a maiden
aunt. Perhaps Harry was a
gambler on the side but he was
a local boy, a member OF the
family. so to speak. If there
had to be gambling, it was bet
ter to keep it in the family than
have some of those out = Of
town hoodlums moving in.
The Internal Revenue Serv-
ice took q different view. Its
Fourteenth Of q series Of eondensotionS
from q new book by the StoTs
Pulitzer prize-winnino invest'sotINe
reporter.
-~~----~-~--~>
Intelligence agents in Richmond
were convinced that Donovan,
a bootlegger during Prohibi-
tion, had switched after repeal
to another lucrative field OF
crime-the numbers game.
II Donovan was the man be-
hind the numbers business in
Richmond, he owed the Govern
ment some money. Under Fed
eral tax laws, a gambler has
to pay an annual $50 occupa-
tional tax, file a return on
his profits and pay a monthly
10 per cent excise tax on his
gross.
In 1855, Internal Revenue
had brought Donovan into Fed
eral Court, charging he hadn't
reported his gambling profits
or paid income taxes on them.
Donovan insisted he had quit
gambling in 1852 when he
started his juke box business.
The jury found him guilty but
the Judge set the conviction
aside on a technicality.
Beating the tax rap that had
put so many racketeeers in jail
I enhanced Donovan's stature.
He was regarded as untouch-
able. He boasted that Internal
Revenue could never get him for
falling to pay his gambling
taxes because he never touched
d numbers slip.
Donovan was riding high in
/ the spring of 1859 when he
received a visit from two In
ternal Revenue special agents
in the pine-paneled private Of
flee of his business place on
Main street - the Richmond
Amusement Sales Co.
The agents-Luther Burton
and Douglas Waesche-aSked II
he was aware that the Federal
law required him to pay an
,occupational tax and an excise
tax on his gambling gross.
Donovan. gray-eyed and still
handsome though going to fat,
waved at the pictures Of race
horses lining his office walls.
His racing stable, he said, was
his interest now. Sure, he knew
about the gambling taxes but
-as he had testified in 1855
'-he had given up the numbers
business, that he was wilfully
avoiding q debt to Uncle Sam.
Anonymous Tip
On September 25. 1859. an
anonymous informant gave
Burton and Waesche the name
Of a man who worked for DON
ovan-not in his juke box busi-
ness. This employe. according
to the informant, was Leo Seay.
The agents started watching
his home.
Seay turned out to be a ferret
faced ex-bootlegger addicted to
sunglasses and a slouch hat.
A man of regular habits, he
left his house about the same
time every weekday with a man
who drove a red, black and
white Dodge. Sometimes, they
went off in the Dodge. other
times, they used one Of the two
cars parked behind Seay's home
"a blue and white Mercury or
a blue Plymouth. BY tracing
the registration of the Dodge,
the agents established the iden-
tity Of Seay's companion -
George P. Smethie. jr.
The agents followed the pair
to a dead-end street by a rail-
road track and saw them park
and wait. AS II by clockwork.
one car after another arrived.
Each driver handed over a
brown paper bag to Seay or
Smethie. made a U-turn and
left. In q half-hour the per-
formance was repeated a dozen
times. Then Seay and Smethie
drove away.
The agents cut a hole in a
nearby railroad shed and
started taking pictures. They
we're getting on film the faces
Of the drivers. the color Of their
cars and their license num-
bers.
The faces were those Of the
pickup men. In the paper bags
we're the numbers slips they
had received from the numbers
writer's who recorded the bets
Of the customers and took their
money.
But where did Seay an d
Smethie 60 with the bags?
Some place. there was a count
ing house where the days bets
we're tailed on an adding ma
chine and the winning bets re-
corded.
Expert Dodgers
Though Seay and Smethie
were experts at avoiding sur
veillance - driving so slowly
tnat a following car could easily
be spotted - the agents man.
aged TO trail them from the
dead-end street 10 the main
highway and thence toward
Washington. past the city lin
It's. They saw Seay and Smethit
turn into an undeveloped sub.
division with many interSect.
d. n