Star Tribune from Minneapolis, Minnesota • Page 64

1 ii fight 0 Americans Mqj Hairbreadth Escapes and Astounding of the Man Who Has Fought the Na i Evil with Firearms, Fists and Braii In This Chapter: The Black Hand Round-Up in Brooklyn and Final Disclosures About the Modern 'I iRj till Curse of Drugs lit? V. yS 1x3 iQ PICTURESQUE CHARACTER Qnt th Rtr. Pfcftfo-irtphf "Clwck" Reiwnf W4i A f) "Rubberpfck-r Until Hia Death He Wat One of the Few Survivor of Lurid Old Time in New York' Lower East Side. J( L'U J' 1 (4 course, as the lowest of the dope sellers an addict peddler. At a prearranged signal we acted.

Four guns flashed out before the Black Handera could make a move. (I had two pistols and my two colleagues one apiece.) The men were taken com- fletely by surprise, knew that in that divided second patrol wagon turned into the blocx a mem ber of the crowd murmured contemptuously: "A fine lot of Black Hand boys you are, to let yourselves get taken by three little cops!" All seven were convicted on a basis of the purchases we had made from them and aP Jid time." When a dozen special policemen raided the room in which we had made the arrests a half hour later, the boxes and Artist's Conception of the Insidious Dope Imp Offering Oblivion to an Unhappy Girl. A- ANOTHER VICTIM Charming Camera Portrait of Annabelle would come the answer whether they would shoot it out with us or surrender. Van Allen, Blue-Blooded Kentucky Girl Who Tried to Drown Marital Unhappineu in Cocaine. She Drew Only Misery and Poverty By JOSEPH i.

"TWO-GUN" MURPHY (Internationally Famout Former V. S. Narcotic Squad Operative) i 1 i I- i IM. Coprrlfht 1929 by Inttmtildnil Fctiun Rerfiel, Orett Brilim BJhll tUltrrtd. crates had been spirited away as I suspected they would be.

It has always seemed strange to me that during raids in "tough" neighborhoods the sympathy of the crowd that gathers around us is with the peddlers we are taking off to jail. They don't seem to realize that we are the best friends the average family in poor circumstances has, for dope, I am sure, far more than liquor or gambling, contributes to squalor and want and misery in the cities. And right here I'd like to say that even in my time conditions have improved in the slum Four Photos TakJ Loft to Rightt sections of the cities It is not as easy now as was five years ago for children and workingirie: to buy narcotics from street peddlers for fift cents and a dollar a "shot." Dope can still bh to confiscate their main supply, which we felt must be hug. At last it was decided to make a raid. Those of us who were assigned to that job expected plenty of fireworks.

We didn't believe for a minute that All of us would (ret out unhurt, hut it had to be done and I felt that curious elation that always came when high adventure was afoot. This was what kept me in the service so long. Three of us who were known as addicts to ihe Black Hand outfit were assigned to the raid If there had been more we probably could not have got into the house without arousing suspicion and they would have hidden or spirited away the drugs before we could lay hands on them Again, we wanted the ringleaders and in the confusion of a raid by eight or ten officers these might get away. We drove to a point within two blocks of the dingy tenement we had visited several times before to buy heroin, opium and morphine. An agent went un to the door and knocked.

He was Admitted and twenty minutes later the second agent went in 1 was last, after a half-hour interval We could not go together because we were not supposed to know each other A stocky and sullen and very swarthy man led me up. two flights of stairs to the room where people went if they wanted to take a "shof'oti the premises. These fellows were pretty open about their illicit trade. 1 suppose they believed the authorities were afraid of them. Wife's Fruitless Attempt To Save Her Husband Upstairs the other two agents had been stalling for time until 1 joined them.

1 knew that if any of the several dark-skinned gangsters had the slightest suspicion of our motives they would open fire first and ask questions later It whs a small and very dirty room, with a crudely drawn poster on one wall showing crossed daggers and the conventional Black Hand insignia. Seven members of the "mob" were In the room. On a decrepit table were two guns and was sure that all the racketeers were armed heavily as well, attracted less notice than the other two who posed as addicts. This was because 1 was small and they were stockier and perhaps because 1 was more proficient in the art of addict mimicry. I whined pipingly that 1 wanted two dozen "muggles" or hasheesh cigarettes which I was purchasing for a friend.

Tnev 8et me down, of nougnt in tnis manner in our cities, put tne trai fic is smaller They raised their hands, slowly at first, and with cat-like running, then "All the way up!" as we commanded One of our trio tapped the fnckets of the Black Handera while two of us ept them covered. An assortment of knives and pistols came forth and were piled the floor. Then a shrill feminine voice broke in upon the temporary A woman with a pale olive skin and tear-stained cheeks rushed into the room shrieking hysterically. We were careful to keep our gaze fixed on the gangsters, because interruptions like this are an old method of turning the tables for cornered gunmen. The young woman threw herself down on one of the packing cases in the room and began to weep loudly.

She declared that we couldn take her husband away. We just couldn't be so cruel when she was ill and needed him. We must leave her Giuseppe behind. Meanwhile a crowd began to collect in the hallway outside the door. We kept one eye on the spectators, who were as desperate looking a 'crew as our prisoners.

I shouted to them to keep back, to no avail. They only grumbled and uttered threats in Italian. We knew that the situation was precarious, it might get completely out of hand at any moment. If any move was made by our prisoners we were prepared to shoot; and with courage instilled by their sympathizers they might try something and precipitate bloodshed. We didn't want to pump lead into anyone except to save our own lives Now was the time to get them out.

told (hem to file out with hands raised. They hesitated, peered down the barrels of our revolvers and decided to comply We cleared a passage through the onlookers in the hall and got our men down the steps. But 1 hatetj to leave that room with its cases of assorted dope, if we could only have summoned aid at that point one of the biggest drug hauls in the history of the squad would have resulted The weeping woman made quite a scene as we marched her husband off to stand trial for wholesale dope dealing Downstairs a crowd of several hundred people had collected All of the outsiders seemed to in sympathy with out prisoners. Since then lave often wondered why seven supposedly bloodthirsty Black Hand members allowed them selves to he placed under arrest by three officers Qne of my fellow agents on th' raid who spoke Italian told me afterward that as the If it is true that the czars of the dope work the really important smugglers, go untouched the law because they are wealthy and influentia 4 PERILOUS MOMENT WITH SEVEN DANGEROUS MEN THE system in the squad is to get ai much evidence as possible on a peddler before the raid on his stock and the effort to put him behind the bars. Several agents try to gain his confidence and make him believe they are addicts they try to make "buys" from him so that he can be prosecuted for sale as well as possession.

The procedure is much like that in the Prohibition Unit, except that it is, as a rule, far more difficult to buy dope unless you are known to the vendor. The sniffing, the unsteady nerves, the abject demeanor and all the other characteristics that are associated with addiction form the best password into the peddler's shop. I have used a number of disguises in my life, but imitating an addict without makeup other than facial contortions has been my best bet always getting evidence. The Federal raid on a gang of notorious Italian Black Hand extortionists, dope peddlers, assassins and everything else despicable, in which I took part a few years ago in Brooklyn, N. illustrates the way in which the Narcotic Squad does its work under difficulties.

This was a particularly tough case.1 We knew that members of the 'gang were engaged regularly in drug smuggling and that they were supplying a big section of the traffic with the stuff New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. We knew their headquarters near the Brooklyn waterfront and we knew the ringleaders. However, headquarters hesitated to send a raiding party just as an army officer would hesitate to send a squad of men to certain death in time of war. We knew that this gang would go down fighting rather than yield to arrest and for some time narcotic chiefs wondered whether some other way might not be found to jaij them without a frontal attack on the gang's headquarters. Our men had made a dozen "buys" and we 'had plenty of evidence, but what we wanted was it is also true that small-time peddlers are find ing it more and more difficult to evade arres mis is not an mat can he honed for from en forcement, but it is a step in the right direction At least casual and unenslaved dope tasters don find it so easy any more to pick up a "deck" cocaine or heroin.

So recently as five years ago the Chinatow sections oi New York and San rrancisco weri nearly as had as they were painted in the luri accounts of the fiction eers. Now the only Oii ental dens that one can see in these citie3 ur less he 'has unusual "inside" connections -ar the sort that are pointed out on dollar-round trip rubberneck tours. I need not hop! mat these are far from the real article I remember "fhuck" Connors, pne of.th most famous Bowery characters New York htJ ever known. In his time Chuck did about evunl wing, and some of his ra lines wouldn't hav borne close inspection from the authorities How ever, in his later years he discovered a profit abl i..