Crime , Inc.
By C. K. ALLEN, K.C.
AMERICAN gangsterism, as we know it in film and fiction —which have scarcely exaggerated its enormities—has latterly taken on new forms, to which attention is called in urgent tones by the Senate, or so-called Kefauver, Committee. In the halcyon days of Prohibition gangs sprang up everywhere and prosecuted their own internecine wars, to which the public was, on the whole, indifferent so Mng as it got its " hooch." Criminal enterprise today, however, is far more elaborately organised and far more dangerous because it aims at monopoly on a national scale. To quote the report of the Kefauver Com- mittee: "Criminal groups today are multi-purpose in character, engaging in any racket where there is money to be made. The modern gang, moreover, does not rely for its primary source of income on frankly predatory forms of crime such as robbery, burglary or larceny," but on " various forms of gambling, the sale and distribution of narcotics, prostitution, various forms of business and labour racketeering, black-Market practices, bootlegging into dry areas, &c." - The report is based on evidence concerning fourteen large cities in the United States. The local gangs, all to a consider- able extent interlocked, are innumerable, but the two most powerful and most ramified appear to be the Costello-Adonis- Lansky group of New York and the Accardo-Guzik-Fischetti group of Chicago, the latter being heirs and successors to the Capone organisation. (The great majority of Big and Little Shots bear exotic names, with picturesque sobriquets such as " Bugsy," " Lucky," " Mushy " and so forth, and we con- stantly meet euphonious collocations like " Binaggio, Gizzo, Lococo, Gargotta, Osadchey and Klein.") The American Moriarty, the Emperor of the Underworld, seems to be Frank Costello, of New York, known affectionately to friends and foes" alike as " Uncle Frank." Here is a picture of him at work: " A busy man conducting his affairs on 'the telephone from 8 to 10 in the morning, talking to people all over the country about business relating primarily to slot-machines and numerous other matters in which the conversation reeks of criminality. . . . A king-maker who received calls from Judge A., but also from Judge S., from L., who was later appointed as a judge, and a large assortment of other political figures. All showed the utmost deference for the ruler." Costello is probably more powerful than Capone at the height of his sanguinary career, and nobody knows the extent of his interests, his influence and his wealth. He is now, with thirty Iwo others, cited for con- tempt for failing 'to appear before the Committee, but whether he will be prosecuted or convicted remains to be seen.
Apart from bribery and corruption: the chief weapon of the gangs is highly organised terrorism, from mere " beating-up " to torture and murder, and this is supplied chiefly by the Mafia. " Here is a nation-wide organisation of outlaws in a sort of oath-bound, blood-cemented brotherhood dedicated to com- plete defiance of the law." The Committee has found it exceed- ingly difficult to probe this confederacy, since to give evidence against it means almost certain death, and-it has " left a trail of murder from Tampa to San Francisco." It is not clear what relation it bears to the Unione Siciliano, which -in Capone's spacious days was the chief reservoir of his " alky-cookers and small-time killers ; but certainly any Sicilian casualties on the beaches of Salerno are more than amply avenged on the. water- fronts of America by the Mafia and the" Unione. There are other assassination gangs which Would seem wildly far-fetched in the pages of Edgar Wallace—notably " Murder, Inc." (now Hollywoodened in a film founded on fact), an organisation covering the entire country for the execution, in the most literal sense, of the strangebut strict code of the underworld. One of its half-dozen bogses was the notorious Albert Anastasia, against whom a cast-iron case of homicide was in the possession of the police. He was never brought to trial, however, because the chief witness for the-prosecution was murdered (almost certainly with the connivance of his police guard) and essential documents disappeared from his file. This seems to happen freqUently in such prosecutions.
The richest harvest being always in forbidden fruit, the largest single source of gangland's revenue is gambling, which is illegal in most parts of the United States, except for pari- mutuel betting at race-tracks. The ramifications of this huge illicit industry are complex in the extreme, and the British reader soon becomes lost in a maze of handbooks, lay-offs, slot-machines, policy wheels, come-back money, punchboards, bolita, numbers racket, pin-ball, crap tables and bird-Cages. Enforcement of anti-gaMbling laws is pour rire almost every- where, because there is little or no public opinion to support it, and there are abundant rake-offs for many different kinds of people. The Committee complains pertinently that apathy in this matter affects the whole attitude of the community to law and order. Light-year symbols would be necessary to quote the figures of turnover and profits. -The whole system depends on racing information by telegraph and telephone. This is mainly in the hands of the Continental Press Service, behind which lies a long and complicated history of gang warfare, corruption and thimble-rigging of every kind.
Mountainous- profits are also derived from- the narcotics traffic. Until 1948 the Federal Narcotics Bureau had been reasonably successfutin checking it, but latterly there has been an uncontrollable influx of Peruvian cocaine and 'Mexican mari- huana. The menace of this latter, especially among the young, has grown to such dimensions that the American public is now thoroughly alarmed. Since the report was published it has been announced that a whole group of leading narcotic " operators " have been' arrested, and other energetic measures are afoot. One cciuld almost condone a few lynchings of the cacodaemons who peddle damnation to school children.
The gangs, of course, cannot work without enormous expendi- ture of " ice," i.e., bribery. It is estimated that in New York alone about 250,000 dollars a week are paid to the police, apart from some million dollars a year for gambling "protection." Besides' the police, pe- recipients include sheriffs, politicians, judges, governors, tax accountants and (it is alleged) at least one former Ambassador of the United States. " Almost un- believable " is the Committee% description of the activities of one individual in California who proudly asserts; " I am the Legislature." Millions of dollars are entrusted to him by the brewers for " operating expenses " ; he keeps no account of either receipts or payments, but his employers seem satisfied that they get full value for their money. Despite frequent Grand Jury enquiries in different parts of the country, the great mass of honest citizens seems, to be quite helpless, though the Com- mittee asserts its " fundamental. faith that the heart of America is basically sound." - Even more insidi6tis than lawlessness is the peaceful penetra- tion of ill-gotten finance into " legitimate business." The report adduces evidence of this in some forty-six industries, and especially in the liquor trade. Perhaps even more sinister are the counter-measures of legitimate big business to criminal big business. It is established that various large business concerns—one of them as famous as any in the world— have employed, or been in league with, notorious gangs in order to suppress (of course by violence) labour " agitation." Years ago 1 met, and was much impressed by,-the head of oneof these -" private police organisations. Feet—nay, trunk and limbs- of clay! It now turns out that he has a long record of dealings with assassins, great and small, and with eery kind of crookery. The report ends with a number of recommendations for better crime-prevention, and it remains to be seen whether they will be .enacted or enforced. If not, the lesson for all countries, as well as for America, is that even a heart which is " basically sound " may get a bad thrombosis if elementary precautions of health are neglected.
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