000150 WHO ARE THE? MURDERERS. WHOPAID FOR PLACING T HE BOMB THAT KILLED MO RRIS LANGER? The ring of rack et eers in t he fu r industry exposed Morris Langer Facts about tbe racket that the not ori ous Le pkeh and Gurrab gangsters, bosses, "Socialists" and A. F. of L. officials are carrying' 011 in the fu r industry. By Ben Gold Gene ral Secretary of the N. T. W. I. u. lORIDA ATlANTIC U IVERS ~Y SOCIALIST· lAB R LIBRARY COLLECllON Issued by Ih. GENERAL EXECUTI VE BOARD NEEDLE TRADES WORKERS INDUSTRIAL UNION 131 W . 51 28th Str eer, New York, N . Y. PRICE 2 CENTS v· NGER, AFTER TH OF THE BOMB Who Murdered Morris Langer and Harry Gottfried? Who Paid the Gangsters for Their Attack 01t the Industrial Union? Who Was Planning and Carrying Through the Attacks Upon the Needle Trades Workers? T HE da stardly murder of Morris Langer is still fresh in our memory. On the zznd day of Ma rch, 1933, a bomb placed in Langer's automobile exploded and tore his body 't o pieces. One month later, Ap ril zath, while their hand s were still soaked with Langer's blood, a ga ng of murderers, armed with revolvers and iron pipe s, broke into the office of the Industrial Union where hundreds of men and women were assembled in the early forenoon. They pounced upon these unarmed workers and staged a bloody orgy, which, because of its open brutality, caused considerable comment even in the capitalist press. Fifteen innocent workers were wounded by the gang­ sters. A bullet was fired into the stomach of Harry Gottfried, which resulted in his death. Their attack was carried through in such a beastly manner that a stray bullet hit one of their own gangsters who died instantly. These murderous attacks were not accidental. They were carried through in line with a carefully formulated plan. Who planned these murderous attacks and who paid the price? 3 WelI-I?ressed W om an Visits U riion for a Working Card on Day of Attack A few minutes bef ore the gangsters invaded the Union office, an unu suall y well-dressed woman came up to the second floor of the build ing where the Fur Department is located and asked j ack Schneider, one of the organ­ izers, for a working card for the firm of Fox & W eiss- man. .. The visit of this "wom an is not accidental, but is part of the planned attack. It has never been the practice for any furrier to ask for a working card from the Industrial Union when. they :received jobs. Such pr ocedure is only followed in the "Socialist" Union, the Joint Council, wher e the working-card system has been installed, in order to force the workers to belong to their Union. T he shop of Fox & W eissman, for which the woman asked for a working card, happens to be one of the [eu: shops controlled by the J oint Council and not the I ndus­ trial Union. That this attack was not accidental, but well-planned, is prove n by the fact that the leaders of the Assoc iated F ur Manu facturers together with the leaders of the Ame rican Federation of Labor and the Socialist Pa rty , have been secretly calculating their plans for an attack aga inst the furriers of the Industri al Union. The capi­ talist newspap ers, the Times, the Women's Ui ear, printed news items on the eve of thi s attack in which they stated that the Am erican F ederation of Labor unions, supported by the bosses and the police, are planning to begin a cam­ paign in the fur market in the near future in which they will use "strong methods." Immediately after the well-dressed woman, men tioned above, left the U nion, the gangsters invaded the office and bega n their shooting affray. It is evident that the woman was a messenger or a "pathfinder," as such peo- 4 pie are termed in the .language of thc detectives, It is very important to note that this woman was nev er again seen in the Industrial U nion o r in the fur district. The Industrial U nion has undisputed evidence to provc that thi s woman was in the office o f the ;,Soc ialist" J oint Council immediately a fte r the attack. It is also important to not e that during the month o f April, when the murder was carried through, a certain gentleman by the name of H arry Yunnan was engagcd to " work" in the Council. This gentleman is well known amongst the furriers. Hc is a very fam ous and influenti al person in the underworld circl es. For three years he was the leader of strong-arm squads and the contact man with the underworld for the F urriers U nion und er Kauf­ man's leadership. The same Harry Yurman is even now an " official" appointed by the Joint Council and is rc­ cciving the " measly" sum of One H undrcd Fi fty ($ I 50. ) Dollars per week. He is of the trustworthy contact­ men of the infamous Lepke and Guerrah gang, th e owners of the racketeering business in the fur and other trades. In addition to the abovc enumera ted facts which clearly show the close connections between the murder of Mor­ ris Langer and the murderous attack on th e U nion, as well as the connections between the ga ngsters and the leaders of the Joint Council, the U nion ha s in its pos­ session, concrete facts which remove any doubt that the "Socialist" U nion leaders are a party to the conspiracy against the fur workers. Our Union is ready to turn ove r th ese fact s at any time to a committee of honest workers, which sha ll be ready and competent to make a thorough investigation of the murderou s conspiracies agai nst our Union and its leaders. The furriers will smas h attacks of the bosses. A. F. of L. racketeers, socialist fakers and Lovestoneite renegades. 5 How Does the Lepke and Guerrah Gang . Come to the Fur Trade? Lepke and Guerrah are leaders of a gang of cut­ throats, bootleggers, opium smugglers, murderers and thieves. Lepke and Guerrah are the heirs to the throne of th eir well-known chiefs of the underworld, Little Augie and Curley, after the latter were put out of th e way, or taken for a ride, as is th e customary language of the underworld. The Lepke and Guerrah gang are important pillars in the "Socialist" unions. They helped Sigman to carry through the " reorganization" in 1927. In the Amal­ gamated these two gang leaders were the real pow er behind the throne of the " Socialist" managers, Knock­ out Beckerman, for whom "Comrade" Vladeck wrote a song of praise in the pages of the Forward, declaring himself ready to wash the feet of this great leader. T he Lepke and Guerrah gang is the actual power behind the throne of the rulers of the Pocketbook Makers Union and a number of other unions . With the aid of the under­ world cut-throats, the American Federation of Labor, and "Socialist" leaders are retaining their powers in the unions, and suppress and oppress the workers and "dis­ cipline" the lefts and Communists. These murder bands help the bosses carry through th eir treacherou s settle­ ments and fake strikes. They help to elect the corrupt union officials to the most important positions in the U nions at scandalously high wages at the expense of the workers. These g-angs, to be sure, are not doing th eir work for pure principles, but receive good pay for every job th ey carry through. The price is decided in accordance with the importance of the job. They have even applied a scientific method of price sett lements and have established standard price s for different " jobs," which are classi- 6 fled into various categories,' beginning with wet jobs (me':l ning stabbing, lead pipes and murder). That the Lepke and Guerrah gang has played a very important role in the fur ,trade, especially in the ' recent period, is proven by the following facts. When Genosse Knockout Beckerman parted company with his chief, Mr. Sidney Hillman, in 1931, and organized his own Cutters Union in partnership with Orlofsky, the Lepke and Guerrah gang, which was then under the leadership of Curley, was the backbone of the Beckerman Cutters Union. The gang later sold the new "union" to Hillman for Fifty Thousand Dollars ($50,000). When Beckerman remained without a job and the means of earning alivelihood. the gang showed their ap­ preciation to their former ally and, through their C0l1l1eC­ tion in thefur trade, placed Beckerman as manager of the bosses' association in the fur dressing trade. Here Beck­ erman met all his friends and comrades. Morris Kauf­ man at that time was appointed by the bosses as Presi­ dent of the Furriers International. Sam Cohen, who a few years ago had been Vice-President of the Furriers International, and a member of "Comrade" Beckerman's " Socialist" bra~ch of the Sixth District, was an impor­ tant leader and member of the Fur Dressing Association. These three "Socialist" chiefs, Abe Beckerman, Sam Cohen and Morris Kaufman, together with the Lepke and Guerrah gang and the biggest manufacturers who for a long time looked for ways and means of doing away with their business competitors, used their ingen­ uity and together organized the famous official racket under the name of the Fur Factors Dressing Corpora­ tion.