The Case of Roger Touhy

'. . . one way of judging a civilization is by what it does with its convicted criminals'

MILTON MAYER

T LOOKS as ii the Su- Judge Barnes was, according to his —Barnes and the man Barnes sug- I preme Court will have to decide own admission, "born Republican gested, in that order. whether Roger the Terrible Touhy in Pennsylvania at a time when only Barnes has the reputation of being really kidnaped Jake the Barber Fac- Republicans were being born there." the toughest judge on the Federal tor on the night of June 30, 1933. If For twenty-four years he has served bench, single-minded and implaca- the Court says yes, he really did, he on the Federal bench and watched ble, even unmerciful, in his servi- will have to remain in the Democrats go past him up the tude to the law. When the Supreme State Penitentiary until, counting judicial ladder. The New Dealers Court, on a rare occasion, reversed time off for good behavior, he is 134 didn't like him because he held the one of his decisions, he said placidly, years old. If the Court says no, he "Confronted with the same set of really didn't, he will go free after facts again, I would make the same more than twenty-two years in the decision." pokey. That will be a great day for me N 1943 the U.S. District Court in because I covered the case as a I , sitting en bane, dismissed cub reporter in Chicago and I was Touhy's petition for a writ of ha- sure, as only a cub reporter can be, beas corpus on the ground that he that Jake the Barber had kidnaped had not exhausted his remedies in himself. And for twenty-two years I the state courts. But on November have had to listen to people saying, 16, 1948, over the protest of the State "So maybe he didn't kidnap Jake of Illinois—which didn't want the the Barber. What difference does it case reopened—Judge Barnes ruled make as long as they got a that he would hear Roger Touhy's like him locked up? Who cares about case on its merits. For six years he Terrible Touhy?" heard it. Back went the wonderful Nobody. But some people, includ- record into a wonderful past, the ing some lawyers, cared about jus- Chicago of a quarter century ago. tice. Seventeen times a succession of Some of the past, Barnes found, was such lawyers went into the courts for Wide World curiously mislaid, some of it buried justice. Seventeen times—including alive. four times in the Supreme Court— National Recovery Act unconstitu- Ghosts, some of whom wouldn't they heard the words "Petition de- tional (and the Supreme Court sus- walk without a subpoena, walked nied." The petitions were all denied tained him). The Old Dealers didn't into his courtroom and gave him on points of law. Not once, in all like him any better. When it comes ghastly glares when he said "Ob- those seventeen lawsuits, were the to dealing, one of his infrequent jection overruled. The witness will lawyers able to get a court to review statements off the bench reveals his answer the question." In the course the case on its merits—on the ques- attitude: "I don't think the govern- of that six-year hearing he sentenced tion, that is, of whether Terrible ment is any different from any other the head of the the FBI in Chicago to Touhy really kidnaped Jake the litigant." jail for contempt of court because Barber. Barnes came up the hard way, be- he wouldn't produce his records, and ginning as a $7.50-a-week law clerk told him that if his boss, the Attor- Judge Barnes and rising to a profitable partner- ney General of the United States, And then, one day, seven years ago, ship with former Republican Sena- took his place, he'd send him to jail United States of America ex rel. tor Otis F. Glenn of Illinois. In 1931 too. Ancient coppers and still more Roger Touhy came up again, this Glenn asked him for his recommen- ancient convicts were called to the time in the U.S. District Court in dation for a Federal judgeship. stand. Jake the Barber was called. Chicago, and it landed by chance on Barnes suggested the best man he Clara Touhy, still married to Rog- the docket of the Honorable John knew, and Glenn went to President er, was called. Even I was called. P. Barnes. Hoover with two recommendations And the courtroom buzzed when No.

12 THE REPORTER PRODUCED 2004 BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED 8711-E-the "E" is not for Excel- lence, it's for Escapee—was called to the stand. "That's him. That's Ter- rible Touhy." And then on August 9, 1954, the tough little mug who had somehow managed not to go stir-crazy yet, his lips half curled, his hair now gray, watched Judge Barnes ascend the bench in the business suit he wears because he won't wear a robe. He had before him his opinion. |. Edgar Hoover had once said that Touhy's claim of innocence was "too funny to talk about." Judge Barnes's ber Factor could pretend to be kid- state's attorney had to be persuaded, opinion talked about it for 774 type- naped and get the State of Illinois if possible, not to intervene. written pages. When he read the to hang the rap on an innocent The men who ruled the streets words "The Court is of the opin- gangster like Roger the Terrible of Chicago in 1933 were roughnecks ion . . . that the Relator Roger Touhy. Let me tell you how the who had fought their way up on the Touhy should forthwith be dis- whole thing could have happened, streets. Their parents were illiterate charged from custody," Roger the right smack in the middle of the immigrants, they themselves half- Terrible Touhy broke down and twentieth century. But let me begin literate. Take the three central char- bawled. by saying that it didn't happen in acters in the drama called United In between pages 1 and 774 was the twentieth century: It happened Slates of America ex rel. Roger Barnes's finding that Jake the Bar- in Chicago, which in 1933 was pre- Touhy. Touhy himself and Police ber had faked his own kidnaping in historic. Captain Dapper Dan Gilbert got no order to avoid extradition to Eng- Chicago grew faster than any further than grammar school and land for an eight-million-dollar swin- other city in history. When Chicago spoke very bad English. The third, dle there and that Police Captain was growing and you wanted to cross Jake the Barber, had come to Dapper Dan Gilbert, chief investi- the country, you crossed it at Chi- America at ten or eleven and had gator for the state's attorney of Cook cago. If you couldn't make it across, only a hazy recollection of "several County, had framed Roger Touhy you stayed there. The town grew so months" of schooling in Poland. in conspiracy with the Capone gang fast that it never got organized. Of Roger, Dan, and Jake got their ed- with whom the Touhy gang had course it had a mayor and fifty ucations in a place called the Valley. been having difficulties. Further- aldermen and a chief of police, but more, said the court, the frame-up they were just for receiving distin- RIGINALLY the Valley was a row was made with the knowledge of guished visitors or arresting undis- O of shacks at the bottom of the the then state's attorney, Honest tinguished bums caught sleeping B. & O. embankment, just outside Tom Courtney. under bridges or begging bread in Chicago's central business district. the streets. It spread until it occupied the whole A FTER twenty-one years and twen- Now don't misunderstand me. If of the "near" southwest side of the -^*- ty-one days in prison, Roger you behaved yourself in Chicago, city. Its political headquarters was Touhy was free. He remained free you lived like people anywhere else. the Democratic Club at Madison for forty-nine hours. Then he was If your name wasn't or and Paulina, where Dapper Dan back again, on an order obtained by Greasy Thumb Guzik, you could live Gilbert, teamster boss, policeman, the State of Illinois from the U.S. peaceably and die in your bed and be and ultimately police captain, could Court of Appeals. buried in Cicero and never be both- always be reached. Hoyne and Last July—almost a year after ered. But the state of nature—in Madison—a saloon four-corners—was Touhy went back to prison—the which every man has to protect him- where the young teen-agers, in- Court of Appeals reversed Judge self as best he can—prevailed in cer- cluding Dan and Roger's big broth- Barnes's decision on a jurisdictional tain trades. Spirituous liquors, for er Tommy, hung out. But the Val- technicality that had nothing to do instance. Everybody except Con- ley's Supreme High Command was with guilt or innocence. Now the gressman Volstead wanted to drink, Paddy the Bear—I don't remember case has gone to the U.S. Supreme and there was a sort of civil-dis- his last name, and maybe he had Court—for the fifth time. The out- obedience movement on—Gandhi none—and its GHQ was the back come involves a labyrinth of law with an elbow bent. Even in the room of Paddy the Bear's saloon at and is anyone's guess. But John P. state of nature there's a law of sup- 14th and Halstead, a few blocks Barnes has the habit of being sus- ply and demand. Since supplying from the ghetto where Jake Factor tained in Washington. was illegal—and this went for gam- lived when he came from Poland bling, women, and dope as well as as a kid. Jungle in the Valley for booze and beer—the law could The specialty of Paddy the Bear Let me tell you—because I was there intervene. The mayor and the chief (he weighed three hundred pounds —how a swindler like Jake the Bar- of police and the sheriff and the and couldn't get through the front

November 17, 1955 13 PRODUCED 2004 BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED door of his own saloon) was a A Policeman's Lot pers proceeded to hang it on process for making ink disappear R. Touhy after he was grabbed for from police blotters. He was, in a Back in the 1890's in the Valley, the Factor kidnaping. And I mean word, a "clout," that is, a cover for Policeman James Touhy, an immi- the papers. Chicago—the Chicago criminals, and his saloon was their grant from County Sligo, was an up- I'm talking about—was built by the nest. Tommy Touhy, Roger's big right man and an honest copper papers. The gang wars meant circu- brother, was hatched there. Paddy at seventy dollars a month. Roger lation. The were "over the the Bear was killed by Shrimp Quin- was the youngest of six boys, with a fence," outside the law; they weren't lan in 1920, and the Shrimp was sister older and a sister younger. going to sue a paper or plug a re- killed by Paddy's son, Paddy the Policeman Touhy, a hard Christian porter. You could hang absolutely Cub, in 1926. man, beat his kids until the neigh- anything on them you wanted to. bors intervened. Mother Touhy, a When I went down to the peniten- N THE 1920's—long after Tommy soft Christian woman, herded her tiary a few weeks ago to see Roger, I Touhy was hatched—the Valley's children to Mass. Roger was her we had a long talk, in the course of most eminent sons were Frankie baby boy, and he was ten when which he suddenly turned plaintive Lake, Terry Druggan, and Samuel his mother was burned up in her and said, "Who do you suppose in- Nails Morton. Frankie and Terry kitchen in 1908. Policeman Touhy vented that 'Terrible Touhy'? No- were partners, and, after they hit it retired from the force on pension to body ever called me that in my life. rich in rotgut, they took to playing move his motherless brood to the What makes them do that to a fel- golf. Federal Judge James H. Wil- country and save them from the low?" kerson tossed them into the Cook Valley. But the five older boys County jail for a year on a prohibi- wouldn't go. They left home. The Barber and His Friends tion charge. One day a reporter on Roger, growing up with his fath- There was one monicker in Chicago the old Chicago Journal called up er and sisters, was valedictorian of that was old when Scarface Al was the jail and asked for Mr. Druggan, his grammar-school class—none of new, and that was Jake the Barber. just for the ducks of it. "Mr. Drug- them ever went to high school—and John or Jack he called himself, but gan is out," said the operator. So at thirteen he went to work. it was as Jake the Barber that he the reporter asked for Mr. Lake. Being a Touhy—just being one- was known long before 1923, when "Mr. Lake is out, too. They'll be was Roger's undoing. Of his five he was indicted in Chicago for sell- back for dinner, they're only play- older brothers, four were bad. Two ing low-tide real estate in . ing golf." of the four died in the beer wars. And Jake the Barber he remained Valley boys who play golf are Jimmy, the eldest, died in prison. through his wonderful career—or at traitors to their class. But Nails The fourth bad brother was Tom- least until November 8, 1933. Morton was worse. Nails was an my, who went in and out of the I was in St. Paul that day cover- enemy of the people—of the people, penitentiary so often that there was ing the trial of Roger Touhy et al. that is, in the back room of Paddy talk of installing a revolving door. for another kidnaping, that of Wil- the Bear's saloon. He came back Oddly enough, he's still around, liv- liam Hamm, Jr., a brewer. Selec- from the First World War with a ing in in the loving care of a tion of the jury had just begun medal for bravery under fire and decent daughter. His swan song was when there was a flash that Touhy went on firing until he was well a twenty-three-year stretch (with et al. had been indicted in Chicago established in the hard-beverage time off for good behavior) for sort- for the kidnaping of Factor. Filing business. Then he moved away from ing the mail with a gun in the Min- my story to Chicago that night, I the Valley and on to the Gold Coast, neapolis station of the referred to the new indictment con- where the Valley heard that he was Railroad. That happened in Janu- cerning Jake the Barber and to its drinking whiskey with seltzer water ary, 1933, six months before the Fac- prejudicial effect on the Hamm in it. Worse than that, he was wear- tor kidnaping, and on that occasion jurors. But the reference came out ing fancy tight pants and riding Tommy showed up in the papers as in my paper the next day as "John horses—not anywhere in particular, Terrible Tommy Touhy. The mon- Factor, wealthy speculator," and it just around in the park. icker "Terrible Tommy" belonged came out in all the other Chicago Nails invented the one-man one- originally to an old and close asso- papers the same way. I went on fil- way ride when his horse threw him ciate of Tommy's, Terrible Tommy ing it as Jake the Barber but it kept in Lincoln Park one day and killed O'Connor, who had an appointment coming out John etc. him. The view of this melancholy to be hanged in the Cook County After the jury acquitted Touhy event in the Valley was that that is jail one morning in 1919, as I recall. et al. in the Hamm case—Alvin Kar- what happens to swells in fancy He didn't keep the appointment, and pis was caught three years later and pants, and Nails's competitors closed during the subsequent manhunt his confessed—I returned to Chicago to out his business (and some of his bodv was shipped to his family for cover the Factor case, and I asked business associates) for him. But one burial in a sealed casket. It wasn't the telegraph editor what the idea of his associates, Louie Two-Gun Al- until after the funeral that the bill was of the "wealthy speculator" gag. terie, lived long enough to go to of lading for the casket turned up "Oh," he said, "Mr. McCarthy Lincoln Park the next day, rent the with Tommy's own fingerprints on it. wants to see you." Mr. McCarthy, same horse, ride him to the same The "Terrible" having passed from the managing editor, had never spot, and kill him. T. O'Connor to T. Touhy, the pa- wanted to see me before and I per-

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spired in the December heat as I ringleader of the great Broad Street union. It was a strong-arm racket crossed the green carpet to Mr. Mc- Press stock fraud. At least three and and had been a strong-arm racket Carthy's desk. I still remember that a half million of the eight million since it left the AFL'S International green carpet. "Nice work in St. dollars the Factor ring got away with Brotherhood of Teamsters in 1908. Paul," said Mr. McCarthy, "but this came back to America with Jake the One by one and killing by killing, matter of Jake the Barber. State's Barber in 1930. It was traced the teamsters' locals fell into the Attorney Courtney was up here and through New York and Chicago hands of the outlaws and inlaws who he's asked the papers to use the banks. Originally a fugitive on the controlled the owners' association, expression 'Jonn Factor, wealthy extradition warrant, he surrendered the Chicago Truckers and Transpor- speculator,' so as not to prejudice to the U.S. Marshal in 1931. His tation Exchange. Nobody really prospective jurors in the Touhy lawyers were the highest-priced law- cared what happened to the orphan trial." "But," says I, "Jake's not a specu- lator, he's a swindler." "Well," said the managing editor, "swindlers speculate, too." I was go- ing to resign then and there. But I didn't. I'd just got a raise, to $32.50 a week.

AKE THE BARBER, alias Spencer, J Walker, Wise, Guest, etc., had, as I say, a wonderful career. In re- leasing Roger Touhy from the peni- tentiary, Judge Barnes made some observations on the credibility of the witnesses who, during that six- year hearing from 1948 to 1954, had yers in America—among them former unions—nobody, that is, except the been before him. Of Jake the Bar- Senators Glenn of Illinois and Jim working stiffs, the teamsters. When ber, the complaining witness in the Reed of plus former Secre- the stiffs tried to get into their own conviction of Roger Touhy twenty- tary of War Newton D. Baker. halls to vote they found the halls one years earlier, the court said: On May 29, 1933, the U.S. Su- filled, and if they insisted on getting " has an extraordi- preme Court ordered his extradition in they found themselves in a ditch. narily agile mind—certainly the most set for argument. The rest of the So Jake the Barber, who did not agile mind of anyone the court has members of the Factor ring had been want to go to England, had a friend observed in connection with the taken back to England and convict- in Captain Dapper Dan Gilbert, who case. He has had very little formal ed. Jake's goose was apparently was a Friend of Labor at a time education, but he has nevertheless cooked—unless something happened when Labor was being transferred, had an exceeding broad and thor- to stay the proceeding. Now if Jake in a friendly way, to the Capones. ough education. He has learned all the Barber were a kidnap victim, But Roger Touhy was an obstruc- that a boy and man can learn as and therefore a material witness in tionist. a bootblack, washroom attendant, a capital case, the extradition war- newsboy, barber, high-pressure stock rant might be stayed. The Siege salesman, Florida land salesman, He had a motive, and he had a Late in 1930 one Marcus Studdy bucket-shop operator, and confi- friend. His friend was an old Val- Looney came to see Roger and of- dence man—except to be honest.... ley boy himself, Captain Dapper ferred him a set of unions if Rog- [His] appearance and demeanor on Dan Gilbert, chief investigator for er would cast his lot with the Ca- the stand . . . and the testimony of the state's attorney's office. Dan had pones. Roger said no, he was doing all witnesses who dealt with him all gone to work as a wagon boy at all right in the beer business. He indicate that Factor was eminently eleven, and in 1913, after a cam- had the northwest part of Cook well qualified by character, in- paign in which his opponent was County, where the police would di- genuity, mental resourcefulness and shot on Christmas night, was elect- rect traffic by day and drive Roger's experience to devise and perpetrate ed secretary-treasurer of the Baggage trucks by night. He was making |50,- a kidnaping hoax. Furthermore, he and Parcel Delivery Drivers Union's 000 a year or so, and the hundred had money which he was willing to Local 725. Dan served on the govern- free barrels he provided for every spend. Finally, he had a motive. He ing council of the Chicago Teamsters Republican and Democratic picnic was in real trouble. He faced a long Union until 1917, and then he went was a drop in the vat. There were prison sentence when he went back on the police force and rose like a no guns and no killings and Roger to England. . . ." meteor. But he never, as they say, didn't want any part of the Capones. For two years—prior to his sup- Lost Touch with Labor. But the Capones wanted part posed kidnaping in 1933—Factor had The Chicago Teamsters Union— of Roger. Roger heard that Bill been fighting extradition to Eng- twenty-three locals with twenty-one Rooney, a Valley boy who had shot land, where he was wanced as the thousand members—was not a labor his way into the "legitimate" owner-

November 17, 1955 15 PRODUCED 2004 BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED ;hip of the Sheet Metal Workers the Factor affair. That choice had its "Well, his tie was in place . . . Union (and the part ownership of a basis in the peculiar affinity between and he was wearing a light linen suit, lew others), was going to be shot by the so-called Capone syndicate and which was clean. His sleeves were the Capones; his offense was having the [state's attorney's] office during wrinkled. His pants were somewhat some money in his union treasuries the early '30's, and Touhy's position wrinkled. His shoes were quite clean, that the Capones wanted. Roger told on the opposite side of the wide- no marks of dirt on them; no marks Rooney, and Rooney, sure enough, spread movement of the syndicate of dirt on his hands. He also had was shot, fatally. While Roger was into numerous labor organizations a white handkerchief, which was wondering whether he might be shot at the time. [The Capone] syndicate very clean—wrinkled, but no marks fatally, the remaining "legitimate" could not operate without the ap- of dirt on it. His nails and hands teamster leaders moved out to Park proval of the [state's attorney's] of- were perfectly clean, cleaner than Ridge, a suburb that Roger more or fice, which at that time was [State's mine, and I have just cleaned them. less owned, convoyed by a flock of Attorney] Courtney and [Chief In- . . . The cuffs of his shirt were bodyguards provided by Roger's vestigator] Gilbert. They did con- pressed and clean. His collar was brother Tommy. tinue to operate and thrive without straight, in place and—well, that is Roger, whom the besieged bosses interference from Courtney or Gil- about all." trusted, served as treasurer of the bert. The relationship between the Nearly sixteen years later, in 1949, siege, and when the boys came for State's Attorney's office, under Court- Bernard Gerard, since promoted to their money they came to Roger's ney and Gilbert, and the Capone lieutenant (and since then promoted basement, which was fixed up, in syndicate, was such that during the to chief of police of River Forest), tes- case of a rumpus, as a rumpus room. entire period that Courtney was in tified before Judge Barnes that when The treasury that Roger disbursed office [twelve years beginning in De- he left the stand in the Touhy trial consisted of $75,000 contributed by cember, 1932], no syndicate man was he was seized by two state's attor- Dan Tobin, president of the Inter- ever convicted of a major crime in ney's policemen, taken to Captain national Brotherhood of Teamsters, Cook County." Gilbert's office, cursed by Gilbert and $50,000 kicked in by the union and Factor, accused of being in bosses who were besieged. The Night Nothing Happened Touhy's pay, and later tried before Tobin sent his international vice- There we were, then, in Chicago, the Civil Service Board at the de- president, Paddy Berrell, an ex-con, the night that Jake the Barber Fac- mand of State's Attorney Courtney. up to Park Ridge along with the tor either was or wasn't kidnaped. He was acquitted. money, and when Paddy got care- That was June 30, 1933, around mid- Jake said he could not identify his less and went for a ride with one of night, as Jake was leaving a Ca- kidnapers, and the Touhys were left his bodyguards, he and the body- pone roadhouse in the northwest strictly alone for a while. Roger went guard were both machine-gunned. suburbs after an evening of gam- fishing in with two gun- One by one the Capones were pick- bling. The next day Captain Dan men named Wee Willie Sharkey and ing off the beleaguered bosses, and announced that the Touhy gang had Gloomy Gus Schaefer and an old the bosses got scared. Then Roger done the job—an announcement all labor skate named Eddie Father was invited down to Capone head- the more wonderful in that no law- Tom McFadden. Wee Willie, who quarters for a talk, and he got scared. enforcement official, high or low, with Glooomy Gus was guarding Finally the bosses surrendered to the paid a call on the Touhys in the days Father Tom, got the Indians drunk Capones and turned back what was that followed. The faint odor of fish on the Flambeau reservation and left of the money—$40,000. It cost that was detectable even then was had them doing war dances. Roger Tobin's organization another $350,- not dissipated by the insistence of fished by himself a few days and 000 and several years to clean up the the British consul in Chicago and then called the trip off. On their way Chicago unions. the attorney for the British Crown home their car skidded into a tele- that the kidnaping was a hoax de- phone pole in the village of Elkhorn. o CAPTAIN DAN, the friend of Jake signed to prevent the missing Fac- They were flagged down and fined, S the Barber and the Friend of tor's extradition. and while they were settling up the Labor, was not a friend of Roger On July 12 the wealthy speculator hick cop looked in the car and found Touhy. "To put it mildly," wrote was picked up on the streets of La it filled with small-bore cannon. The Judge Barnes, "Roger Touhy was Grange, a very respectable suburb, by travelers were arrested and held five not an acceptable person to Cap- a very respectable policeman named weeks in Milwaukee without being tain Gilbert. Relations between Bernard Gerard. Jake was bleary, indicted for anything. They were them had been unfriendly, dating bearded, and bloodshot of eye. He shown to Factor by both the police back to an altercation in the Cragin said he had just been released after and the FBI, but Factor could not Police District in Chicago in 1923, twelve days of "unmerciful torture" identify them. One day during the when Gilbert wanted $5 a barrel in a filthy and bug-ridden basement. five weeks two gentlemen in plain for every barrel of beer delivered He had, he said, paid $70,000 ran- clothes entered Roger's cell, knocked in the district, even though it was som. Policeman Gerard testified his teeth in, ruptured him, and frac- near beer. . . . some six months later for the de- tured a vertebra. Finally, the prison- "[But] the old Gilbert-Touhy en- fense in the trial of Touhy and de- ers were indicted for the afore-men- mity was not the vital element in scribed Factor's appearance to the tioned kidnaping of William Hamm, the choice of Touhy as scapegoat in court and jury this way: Jr., the brewer.

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ow I was a nice boy and I didn't tradition warrant for Jake the Bar- parish, it was the poorest in town. N like gangsters and kidnapers. ber. Me—oh, I was his 'collector.'" The And I was a law-abiding boy and I Roger Touhy et al. were tried twice Terrible Touhy grinned as he used trusted the United States. But I am for kidnaping Jake the Barber, and the gangster term. "I'd go to fellows frank to say that after the United I covered the business from start to I knew and tell them that I had to States put Walter Bowick on the finish. At the first trial, which began have money for something that had stand in St. Paul, I never fully trust- January 11, 1934, Father Joseph nothing to do with beer, and they'd ed the United States again. Hamm Weber came up from give it to me and I'd give it to himself had told me he could not to testify for the defense. Touhy had Father Weber. I never been very re- identify the defendants, and Harold been visiting Father Weber in In- ligious, you might say, but I know Nathan, the field chief of the FBI, dianapolis the day Hamm had been religion when I see it, and he had who had been sent to St. Paul to released in St. Paul and Father it good." supervise the case, told me off the Weber had visited Touhy in Chi- record that the government's case cago while Factor said he was in the HILE Factor was wherever he was was weak. Then the government hands of his kidnapers. According Wbetween the night of June 30 sprang its witness Bowick, and Bow- to Judge Barnes, Father Weber had and the night of July 12, Father ick identified all the defendants. He told the FBI that "The Touhys are Weber had been at Roger's house had, he said, seen the kidnaping. being railroaded for the Hamm and and telephoned him half a dozen Within twenty-four hours after Bow-" Factor kidnapings; that the govern- times. He had done so at the request ick left the stand, the defense, with ment [of Chicago] is corrupt, the of Factor's private bodyguards, who the aid of a two-bit detective agency, judges are wrong, and the Chicago claimed they wanted Roger to act proved that Bowick had never lived Police Department is dominated by as contact man with Factor's kidnap- where he said he was living and was the Capone syndicate." But some- ers. Roger, who knew that Factor's working in Chicago the day he saw where between the FBI and State's bodyguards were Lieutenant Leo the kidnaping in St. Paul. It is cause Attorney Courtney, Father Weber's Carr of the Chicago Police Depart- for wonder that the U.S. Assistant statement got mislaid. ment, on sick leave, and a Capone Attorney General, Joseph B. Keenan, Father Weber, a parish priest, was hood named Murray the Camel couldn't find a better witness. famous for his social work. "I've seen Humphreys, declined the invitation The government's case collapsed, him take out his handkerchief and and had a temporary falling out and the jury acquitted Touhy et al. wipe a little kid's nose on the street," with Father Weber. When Leo Carr Defendants McFadden and Sharkey, Roger told me a few weeks ago. "He was last heard of, many years later after five weeks of being rolled in tried to help my brother Tommy in California, he was still Factor's the tan, sat stupefied throughout the when Tommy was in trouble about bodyguard and still on sick leave trial. McFadden was placed, volun- a department-store safe in Indianap- from the force. tarily, in the funnyhouse afterward, Roger had other alibi witnesses and Wee Willie, the war dancer, in the first Factor trial, witnesses hanged himself in his cell after the whom Judge Barnes accepted as acquittal. truthful when he heard them Meanwhile the defendants had all twenty years later. But Jake the Bar- been indicted by the State of Illinois ber, whose profession was swindling, for the kidnaping of Factor, and one was, as you may imagine, the perfect day during the Hamm trial the witness in every detail. From the front row of the courtroom was plan of a house some of Touhy's roped off and Jake the Barber was men had rented in the suburb of ushered in, accompanied by an en- Glenview, Factor identified it as the tourage including Captain Dan. one he'd been held in. He was blind- Building a Frame folded all the time, he testified, but after he had been held seven days As soon as the indictment was re- the blindfold was removed "for a turned in the Factor case, State's few minutes" so that he could write Attorney Courtney, a prominent his wife a ransom letter, and it was Democrat, armed with a good argu- then that he got a glimpse of Roger ment against extradition—that Jake olis. That's how I got to know him. Touhy. The defense presented a the Barber was a material witness in It was at the time of the Klan, and medical expert who testified that a a capital case—hopped the rattler for Father Weber was after the Klan, man blindfolded for seven days Washington, to call on an even too. I knew some fellows down there would not be able to recognize faces more prominent Democrat. The who were able to get the Klan's for four or five minutes after sudden even more prominent Democrat con- membership list for Father Weber. exposure to light. ferred with his subordinate, U.S. He never knew how they got it, but Attorney General Homer S. Cum- it broke up the Klan. But his big HE JURY was unable to reach mings, who in his turn talked to pitch was this rehabilitation, like T agreement after the first Touhy Secretary of State Cordell Hull, who they call it, rehabilitation of crimi- trial, and the judge set the retrial thereupon refused to execute the ex- nals. He supported everybody in his for eleven days later. William Scott

November 17, 1955 17 PRODUCED 2004 BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED Stewart, Touhy's lawyer, presented that that was all he had to say. to , where Jake had iden- affidavits from himself and Touhy When I asked State's Attorney Court- tified Ike as the "good man" among asking that he be relieved as counsel. ney about it, he said he knew noth- his kidnapers, and they had all come The judge told Stewart that if he ing about it. back together to give Ike the oppor- wasn't in court to represent Touhy tunity he craved to testify in the in- he'd go to jail for contempt. Twenty Tennessee Ike terest of justice. years later Judge Barnes held that And then—as the state was closing Twenty years later, a deposition the trial court's refusal to let the its case in the second trial—a sur- from Tennessee Ike made in Leav- defendant be represented by counsel prise witness was called to the stand. enworth Penitentiary was read into of his own choosing "deprived Isaac Costner, or Tennessee Ike, said the record of Judge Barnes's court, [Roger Touhy] of a fundamental that he had participated in the kid- along with the deposition of a dozen right going to the essence of a fair naping with Roger Touhy and the people in Knoxville who had seen trial . . . this one error was so funda- other defendants and he wanted to and done business with him on mental as to vitiate the entire pro- confess and atone: every one of the twelve days that ceedings from a constitutional stand- Q. Do you see Roger Touhy in Jake the Barber had been out point." this courtroom? of circulation twenty years be- A. (Pointing). That's him. fore. Tennessee Ike deposed that he HAT had happened —Judge To support Tennessee Ike's story was in Knoxville, all right, and not WBarnes learned twenty years later the state produced Basil the Owl in Chicago at the time of the kid —was that Roger wanted to testify in Banghart, who testified that while he naping and that he did not know his own defense both in the Hamm had not been in on the kidnaping Roger Touhy. According to Cost- and the Factor cases. However, hav- proper, he and one Charles Ice Wag- ner's deposition filed with Judge ing in mind the interests of all the on Connors, whereabouts unknown, Barnes, he faced a thirty-year rap defendants whom he represented, had muscled in on Tennessee Ike's for the Charlotte mail job, and the Stewart considered this inadvisable. attempt to collect $50,000 in supple- Assistant Attorney General of the If he had let Touhy (who had no mentary ransom after Factor was United States, Mr. Joseph B. Keen- criminal record) testify, the other released. an, had promised him a break if he three defendants (who had bad rec- When Basil Banghart stood trial a testified against Touhy. He got the cords) would be jeopardized if they little later on for his own confessed thirty years anyway, and he was very didn't testify. Stewart was a smart part in the alleged kidnaping, his disappointed in Mr. Keenan. criminal lawyer, but, whether he lawyer asked, "What is your occupa- wanted to or not, he represented tion, Mr. Banghart?" "Thief," said " A COMPLETELY spurious witness," what the law calls "adverse interests," Basil. "What was your last place of •i*- said Judge Barnes. But the and the trial judge refused to solve permanent residence?" "601 McDon- jury is the judge of the facts in a his dilemma. ough Boulevard, S.E., , Geor- lawsuit, and if perjured testimony The second trial looked like a gia," said Basil, "but it wasn't per- is presented by the State of Illinois, repeat performance of the first ex- manent." the victim must go to the State of cept for two significant changes. One It wasn't until the next day that Illinois with the evidence and get was that the state did not submit we found out that 601 McDonough a new trial. If, however, the State of the plan of the Glenview house or Boulevard was the street address of Illinois knowingly obtains a convic- ask Factor where he'd been held. the Federal penitentiary from which tion on perjured testimony, then Twenty years later Judge Barnes Basil had filed his way out awhile the victim obviously cannot get a discovered that a dumb but dutiful back. ("Stone walls and iron bars fair trial from the State of Illinois copper had found the real house do not a prison make, just like the and he must go to the United States where Factor had held himself dur- poet says," Basil once told me; and of America with his evidence and ing those twelve days and had he ought to have known; he had left ask for relief from an unjust state. phoned in to Captain Dan to tell four penitentiaries "without," as he "The evidence discloses," wrote him all about it. Captain Dan had put it, "permission.") Judge Barnes, "and the court finds told him to keep away from it. that Factor, the state's attorney's There was a significant change in FTER Tennessee Ike stepped office, and the Department of Jus- the defense, too. The advance list A down from the stand, the re- tice, once the publicity and notoriety of defense witnesses for the second porters scrambled for the door. Who originally set in motion by Factor trial did not include the name of was he? He was a habitual criminal, started to avalanche, worked and Father Weber. All by myself, and with a record as long as your arm acted in concert to convict Touhy without disturbing my city editor, I and halfway back. He had lived on of something, regardless of his guilt telephoned to Father Weber in Indi- the lam, in and around Knoxville, or innocence . . ." anapolis and asked him if it was where he was hiding from the rev- Just in passing, Judge Barnes had true that he was not going to testify. enuers when he and Banghart were an unkind word for the FBI. The He told me to talk to the Bishop of picked up for knocking over a mail court said that "the Department [of Indianapolis. The Bishop said that truck in Charlotte, North Carolina. Justice] did evince an astounding no parish priest could participate Over a weekend between the first disregard for Touhy's rights and in- in public affairs without the consent and second Touhy trials, Captain dulged in practices which, in due of his ecclesiastical superiors and Dan and Jake the Barber had gone regard for the administration of

PRODUCED 2004 BY UNZ.ORG THE REPORTER ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED justice, cannot be condoned." Some as mystified: Megan, just about the questions were raised: Why was most respectable lawyer in Chicago, Touhy held, part of the time by the was president of the Bar Association. FBI, without being charged with any- He asked me what I thought about thing? Why did the FBI continue its the Touhy case, and I told him what activity in the case long after it I subsequently told when I was in knew that the crime, if any, was not the witness chair in Judge Barnes's in its jurisdiction? Why did an FBI courtroom. agent threaten to send an alibi wit- There was no money left when ness for Touhy to prison if he took Roger's younger sister Ethel persuad- the stand? Why did the FBI suppress ed Megan to take the Touhy case. the statements Factor made immedi- Later on Roger got a $15,000 libel set- ately after his release and also those tlement from the movie company that he made when he saw Touhy in cus- made "Gangster Touhy," which, in- tody and could not identify him? cidentally, Roger's older son, Roger, Jr., saw one night as entertainmen The Escape Statute for the G.I.s invading Italy. Late: Well, sir, Roger the Terrible on, the administrator of the United Touhy went to prison for ninety- Clara Touhy retained good fee-tak- States courts put up the paper-work nine years in February, 1934. In ing lawyers and then in 1938 she too costs—another $15,000—out of a fund October, 1942, when all his petitions got discouraged. She took what was provided for indigent appellants. In lor a rehearing had been denied by left and moved away to bring up 1948, Megan died, still fighting the the state courts, he got so discour- her two boys under another name. hopeless case, and Robert B. John- aged that in company with six other It was hard on Roger, but she stone took it. I knew Bob Johnstone discouraged parties (including, of thought she was doing the right in college. He was one of those course, Basil the Owl Banghart) he thing, and I think Roger thought so bright-eyed boys bent on a noble worked his way over the wall of the too. The last lawyer she went to was profession. He wasn't going to get Illinois State Penitentiary and into the venerable Thomas Marshall, rich—and he didn't. He's had one- a handy automobile. Eighty days who had prosecuted Governor Len big client for seven straight years later the truants were all either Small and Senator William Lori- now: Roger Touhy, indigent. killed or captured. Roger was cap- mer. tured, and that, you would think, Marshall took the case over the Where Are They Now? was curtains for Roger. vehement protest of his gentlemen's- Arguing against Judge Barnes in the The Illinois law provided no pen- club associates in the Chicago Bar Court of Appeals, the State of Illi alty for prison breaking when Roger Association. He got a batch of affi- nois finally admitted last summer broke prison, but it provided, under davits from state's witnesses who ad- that maybe the testimony that con- a statute which Judge Barnes called mitted they had perjured them- victed Roger was all perjured, bu. "medieval cruelty" and unconstitu- selves. But the state courts refused it argued that State's Attorney Court- tional besides, that a prisoner who to hear the case on its merits, and ney and Captain Dan hadn't known aided and abetted the escape of an- that was that. about it; therefore there was no other should receive the other's sen- There was another eminent lawyer "Federal question" and Roger tence in addition to his own. This in Chicago, Thomas McConnell, should go on addressing his appeal, statute, Judge Barnes held, violated who had represented investors in to the State of Illinois. the Fourteenth Amendment to the England in the case against Factor. Captain Dan rose in the world, too, Constitution of the United States, McConnell, a big corporation law- before he fell. In 1950 he was run- which requires equal protection of yer, was a member of the Chicago ning for Sheriff of Cook County the laws. Literary Club, one of those sociable when the Kefauver Crime Commit- Roger Touhy was doing ninety- little affairs where somebody reads tee came to town and talked to him nine years, and Fjddie Darlak, who a paper once a month. In 1945, Mc- in secret session. A Chicago Sun- escaped with him, was doing 199 Connell read a paper on Factor and Times reporter walked into the years; when they were recaptured, afterward had a discussion with printing plant that was printing the Touhy was convicted of aiding and Charles P. Megan, another club Senate committee's records, asked for abetting and was given Darlak's 199- member, in which he disclosed that a copy, and got it—just like that. The year sentence in addition to his own; Factor had admitted to him that he records disclosed that Captain Dan, Darlak, who had aided and abetted could not identify Touhy. Megan with an annual salary of $9,000, Touhy and given him a gun, was subsequently used this information had paid taxes on an income of not even indicted. Who cared what in an action for Touhy, and McCon- $45,000 in 1949. The Chicago Crime they did to Roger the Terrible nell accused him of abusing privi- Commission had protested his re- Touhy? leges of the club. But he testified on appointment by each of Courtney's Touhy's behalf when the case came successors, always in vain. It wasn't ROGER went to prison before Judge Barnes. until he was beaten for sheriff in there was something like When Megan called me one night 1950 that the "world's richest police- $50,000 in the family. For five years late in 1945, I was flattered as well man" left town.

November 17, 1955 19 PRODUCED 2004 BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED Jake the Barber didn't do badly and that he kept very bad company held that Touhy had exhausted his either. After the Touhy conviction, and that he broke a lot of laws. But remedies in Illinois because the Illi- the extradition warrant to England all that doesn't add up to kidnaping, nois Supreme Court had sustained was allowed to lapse at the sugges- or to 298 years in prison (ninety- the Constitutionality of the escape tion, it is said, of a very prominent nine with time off for good be- statute in another case. On this person. In 1940, Jake applied to the havior) . point, which the lawyers call a Federal Alcohol Commission for a Like Jake the Barber and Captain "nice" one and the laymen go to permit to run a distillery, and guess Dan, Roger was a Valley boy. Seen sleep on, the proceeding may go who appeared as his character wit- from the Valley, he might have been round and round a while longer. ness? Captain Dan. Well, the Com- worse, much worse. He had never mission wasn't impressed, and it done anything illegal until he was N REVERSING Barnes last summer, denied the permit on the ground twenty-three, and then he found that I the Court of Appeals dodged the that "John Factor is an individual his garage business, which was a suc- question of the fraudulent kidnap- who cannot be believed under oath." cess, would be even more successful ing entirely, saying: "If either of Two years later he was convicted in if he used it for beer. He married a the judgments of conviction under a Federal court of the fraudulent decent girl when they were both which Touhy is presently serving sale of other people's whiskey ware- Western Union operators, and his is valid, there is no need to test the house receipts and sent to Leaven- kids were decent and don't even validity of the other." The escape worth for ten years. He's living in drink, and there they all were, conviction is valid — i.e., binding Beverly Hills now, in a $75,000 twenty years afterward, Clara and upon the Federal courts in the ab- hovel, and the government is breath- the children, to claim him for their sence of a Constitutional challenge ing down his neck in the matter of husband and fatherin Judge Barnes's by Touhy in the Illinois Supreme $479,093.27 income taxes for the courtroom. Court. years 1935-1939. The Court of Appeals did go out The Law's Delays When Judge Barnes released Rog- of its way to add, as an appropriate er in 1954, Jake was interviewed in The U.S. Court of Appeals reversed comment on the "so-called" escape Beverly Hills: Judge Barnes's decision last summer statute, that "it shocks the con- "I took my life and the lives of on the ground that Touhy had not science when one considers that un- my family and friends into my own exhausted his remedies under the Il- der the terms of this Act, one escap- hands when I testified in court about ing prisoner can be sentenced to 199 my kidnaping. Does that sound like years while another of the same it was a frame-up? group may be sentenced to a year "I was told by friends the odds or two." In the meantime Roger the against my ever going on the wit- Terrible Touhy stands condemned to ness stand were 100 to 1 and that I serve a sentence of 199 years for es- might fear the worst. Yet Judge caping from a penitentiary in which Barnes condemns me in his de- he was unjustly confined for ninety- cision. I shouldn't have been con- nine years in the first place. demned . . . "It wasn't so much Touhy and his WENTY YEARS is a long, long time. gang that was on trial at that time. T The old clippings under "Fac- It was kidnaping in this country. If tor, John (Jake the Barber)" and those men had gotten away with that "Touhy, Roger (Gangster)" in the crime God knows what they would reference room of my old paper fall have gone on to. apart when you unfold them now, "That's why I risked my life to and so do I. But Roger, when I saw go to court and testify. Maybe fate him in prison a while ago, was full singled me out to rid the streets of of beans. Chicago of that mob." "I been reading a lot of law books," he told me, "and I got hold OGER the Terrible Touhy has of a book by this Voltaire and I R spent twenty-two years in prison read it seven times. That boy's hard for something he didn't do. He did linois statutes. In 1943 he had filed to beat." plenty, but there is no evidence in a petition for a writ of habeas cor- You know, a fellow doesn't get a or out of court that he ever com- pus in the U.S. District Court on chance to read more than one or mitted a capital crime—or that he the ground that he shouldn't have two really good books in twenty-two wouldn't, of course. Judge Barnes been incarcerated in the first place; years, no matter where he's doing observed, in his written opinion, but he had neglected to attack the his time. I got to read one recently that Roger was a family man and Constitutionality of the escape stat- by a man named Arnold J. Toyn- had never been convicted for a fel- ute itself. This, said the Court of bee.. This Toynbee says that one ony or placed on the Chicago Crime Appeals last summer, he must do way of judging a civilization is by Commission's lists of public enemies. before he could seek relief from a what it does with its convicted It's true that he wasn't legitimate Federal court. In 1954 Judge Barnes criminals.

20 THE REPORTER PRODUCED 2004 BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED On September 29 the six-year-old AT HOME & ABROAD Republic of Indonesia held its first general election, the final results of which, converging from island jun- gles, may not be in for months. At present President Soekarno's Nation- Indonesia: Lovely Dreams alist Party, which has collaborated with the Communists, is in the lead, while the Communist Party itself is And Harsh Realities running at almost twenty per cent of the vote. Some western observers see only gloom in this, while others echo statements ol Indonesians that PETER SCHMID the unexpected strength of the Com- munists is shocking their country- JAKARTA steals away from a party at his men into seeing the need of closing HE INDONESIAN film "Curfew," bride's house and kills the ex-com- ranks against them. But while Indo- T which won three prizes at the mander. It is late at night and a nesia's political future hangs in movie festival here last May, im strict curfew is in force. As he tries balance, certain realities are ines- pressed western viewers. They were to make his way back, the bullets of capable. amazed to find that a picture made a street patrol complete his fate. Take the most pressing problem in the young world of free Indo- of all, the price of rice, Indonesia's Post-Liberation Hangover nesia should breathe the same lost- staple. Under the Dutch, an un- generation defeatism they had known It would be a mistake to overrate skilled Javanese laborer could buy in Europe. this depressing document as a por- ten pounds of rice with his daily Iskander, the hero of the picture, trait of realities in Indonesia today. wage. Today he earns nine times as has served his country well as a guer- But neither is "Curfew" just a movie much, but at the same time the price rilla in its recent war for independ- plot manufactured by a few western- of rice has risen so high that he can't ence from the Dutch. The good buy a third as much as before. Hun- cause won, he plans to return to his ger is not a slogan but a daily real- bride and civilian life. But he finds ity. Today the Indonesian rupiah is the streets of Bandung full of young the weakest currency on the interna- men like himself whose faces show tional money market, worth only a the hopelessness ol those who can- quarter of its official value. How has not find their way back. He meets a this come about in a country which former comrade-in-arms who has is one of the world's richest in raw now become a pimp and gambler. materials? Only through the connections of his One cause is a lack of economic future father-in-law can Iskander initiative. Free Indonesia produces himself get a job. But the ex-guer- only a fraction of what it could if rilla cannot stand the petty officious- foreign entrepreneurs had not lost ness of all the little bureaucrats. He interest in it because of the insatia- gets into a fight the first day on his ble wage demands, the declining new job. Was this the kind of exist- ence he had gone to war for? man-hour output, and the unpun- ished thieveries of its largely Com- Iskander once tommy-gunned a munist-led workers. From north whole family, and he cannot forget Sumatra to Java the traveler sees their screams. He had orders, of plantations thai are being swallowed course. His commander had said by the jungle. They have been aban- they were traitors. Iskander had had ized intellectuals. In many respects doned as eithei uneconomic or un- uneasy doubts, but one can't disobey it mirrors the prevailing state of In- safe because of bandits, and the na- orders just because of doubts. He donesian public opinion. For not tive squatters working them cannot visits his old commander, now a only the intellectuals but the mass save them. Nevertheless, Indonesia's black-market operator, who is still of Indonesians as well are suffering two main export items, oil and rub- mouthing beautiful patriotic phrases. from post-liberation hangover. They ber, have far exceeded their prewar So this type of man has become the had dreamed of something different. figures, and experts agree that in heir of the glorious fight for inde- Kick out the foreign exploiters, they spite of all difficulties the economic pendence! Moreover, Iskander dis- were told, and you yourselves will base of the country is sound. covers that his ex-commander stole prosper. Elect leaders from your own the property of the family that died ranks, and you will be free. Since Using the Presses by Iskander's own hands. From this winning their freedom in 1949, they The root of the trouble lies in a moment on the young man drifts to- have patiently waited for the prom- fantastic budget deficit that last ward catastrophe. In his despair he ised paradise. It has not come. year ran to $400 million (at the

November 17, 1955 21 PRODUCED 2004 BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED